Keep your hotel confirmation

Sorry that happened, Carol, but I'm glad it was resolved.

I always keep that stuff. I use Wanderlog, which saves it, but I also always save the email confirmations. I use Gmail, which allows you to label emails, so I assign a label to each trip. Then an email comes in, I immediately label it with the correct trip label. It makes it so much easier to find when I need it.

In fact, I keep my emails like that pretty much forever. :-) You can archive the labels, which I do, but I still keep them. Data space is free/cheap on Google and I like to refer back to that information sometimes.

Yes, storage is cheap,

One of the risks of working in cyber security is that you realize the more stuff you have stored the higher the risk is that someone’s going to access your information

Thank you for sharing your experience! I'm glad you got the resolution you sought, albeit frustrating.
I also print a confirmation copy, besides keeping the email confirmation in a folder just for that trip's various communications, tickets, etc.
When home again, (and after having verified zero balances on emailed receipts prior to leaving the hotels) after a couple weeks I delete that folder and all its contents.
I am sometimes too much of a minimalist, with physical items, too! But I haven't ever had reason to access this kind of stuff again once home.

Wow, I am glad you were able to support your extra nights’ refund with your email history!

I’m “old school” and still bring a 2-sided paper copy of my hotel reservations. The front is the room reservation details, and the back is the proof that I have already paid it through Booking.com. Even when I am staying at 10+ B&B’s, etc. it is worth the weight of those papers. This has helped at times during the trip. Earlier this year when I had to return early for a family emergency, these papers were vital for proof for reimbursement from my travel insurance. When a reservation is cancelled on Booking (whether they refund it or not) all of the history disappears for that one.

Jean, I am able to view my canceled booking.com reservations.

Jean and Carol,
I am also able to view my cancelled Booking.com reservations, even back several years.

I take screenshots of each hotel confirmation and cancellation policy, and keep those on my iPad until we return from the trip. Also I keep the confirmation emails in a “Travel” folder until we return so I can access them easily if needed. But with gmail they are always available with a “sender” search anyway.

Hi, guess I should have explained my comment better! : )

Booking does show my cancelled reservations, but it doesn’t show whether I was refunded or not. For instance, my hotel in Tivoli didn’t refund my money; the hotel in Assisi did refund my money. The Booking list of cancelled reservations shows the same info for both of them when I go into that list. The history of correspondence through Booking isn’t available- another piece where I keep a screenshot of each and store them in my iCloud folder for each city.

As part of our 2015 Germany trip, we showed up at the Hotel we booked in Garmish-Partenkirchen. The front desk clerk was unable to find our reservation and confidently told us we didn't have a booking, had no vacant rooms for the night and we were out of luck.

I had communicated with the hotel previously directly by email and had printed out that email conversation confirming the booking, and included it in our trip folder. Once I showed him the email printout he took perhaps 30 minutes in the back office before coming out to announce that the hotel owner with whom I communicated messed up, and they were booking us into an alternate equivalent place at their cost.

So, while a little bit unnerving at first, it all worked out in the end.

when i book hotels (even if through a 3rd party), i do it on my laptop and print the full screen, including all terms and conditions and save it not only to my google drive folder that i've made for the trip but i make a Calendar appt for the reservation and attach it there too, as a PDF.