Booking.com is refusing to give me back my money, while their customer service is non-existent. Their local phone number does not work, their international phone number keeps placing me on hold and then cuts the line (and I have already paid A LOT on phone calls), they don't respond to their chat messages, they don't reply to the email address they themselves told me to use. This is what happened, USERS BE WARE:
I make a reservation at Sorrento, the owner cancels, Booking.com promises in writing and on the phone to pay for the price difference of up to 440 euro if I go elsewhere
I make another booking through them for the same night (Vinny's Relais at Vietri, sadly I couldn't find it here to write a review), but right before my stay I get messages that the SAME credit card I have been using can't be used and that the booking will be cancelled. I send them several messages on chat, they don't respond. The owner tells me it's a Booking.com system problem, and that I should pay him directly. I call Booking.com, they tell me they will still refund me the price difference back if I stay there and pay the owner, as long as I send them the invoice later.
We stay at that HORRENDOUS place, pay a lot, pressure the owner to give us the invoice (he sent us a message to not contact him again or he'll sue us for harassment and that he has a photo of my ID card!!), send the INVOICE showing zero balance like Booking.com asked me to, the receipt AND my bank statement to Booking.com, requesting the price difference back.
I send NUMEROUS messages to Booking.com and their ONLY response is 'The owner says the booking has been cancelled and he won't send you the refund'. What owner?! It's BOOKING.COM that had told me they'd pay for the price difference!! They had reassured me of this!! And now they're doing this! I can't believe it, PLEASE don't trust them. If there is an update I will let you know, but so far it's been EXTREMELY disappointing. I have sent them a message on facebook, let's see if that will make a difference...
Please note that I had only made one reservation with them for my recent Italy trip and it's causing me all this trouble; for the rest I had used Hotels.com and Airbnb and they were EXCELLENT. Do NOT choose Booking.com (and certainly do NOT choose Villy's Relais at Vietri, the owner even responds IN WRITING to comments that the breakfast was poor -which so was- with things like 'We expected that; we couldn't help but notice that you are a bit 'chubby')...