A cautionary tale about Booking(dot)com

Hi Mardee, I’m not able to read the article without supplying my email address (even though unlocked), & I don’t want it going onto marketing lists. Was the situation with a private condo owner type rental within Booking’s options vs. a hotel?

Jean, just create a fake email address. That's what I do. I have one that I use specifically for stuff like this.

That said, here is the problem:

In July 2024, we booked two apartments in Koloa, Hawaii, through Booking.com for a Christmas-week family vacation, paying $12,984 with our Bank of America credit card. Days later we found a better option and quickly canceled. Booking.com sent an email saying we would receive a full refund directly from the property within 14 days. Two years later, we still haven’t gotten it. We tried to call the company our payment had gone to, Dicasi Vacations, but no one ever answered. We also contacted Booking.com, which told us Dicasi had provided documentation that seemed to show it had refunded our money. (Our card was never credited, and we sent Booking.com several months of statements to prove this.) We also disputed the charge with Bank of America, but Dicasi sent it documents telling a contradictory (and false) story that we had actually completed our stay, and the bank declined to reverse the charge. We even had a lawyer write to Booking.com, which is based in the Netherlands, but we never heard back. Can you help? Jeff and Lynn, Portland, Ore.

Short version:

It was a private condo.

It was also a fraud.

The customer booked the place, paid for it, then cancelled months before the free cancellation date.

Both bkg dot com and the credit card company took at face value docs from the host first that they refunded the money and then that they stayed there.

Neither of which were the case.

I think the real lesson is not about that platform or that bank but that for any of them you should do some individual due diligence before you commit to a big expense with a private property.

I think that's a good synopsis, Laurie Beth.

That said, the other takeaway I got from this was that Booking .com did not do very much to help them and pretty much ignored a lot of the documents they sent verifying their own claim. Nothing happened until Seth Kugel from the NYT got involved. And as Seth Kugel said:

One thing readers need to keep in mind when they read Tripped Up is that 99-point-something percent of the time these sorts of transactions go well. ... The real problem, I think, is that customer service protocols are so poor in many companies that when something does go wrong, it can be maddeningly hard to fix.

To me, that is the problem. I get that it wasn't Booking.com's fault originally, but then they refused to listen to the customer and refused to check the evidence. It wasn't until the the couple went to a higher power, so to speak, that they finally got the refund they should have gotten two years before.

There's another interesting piece to this story:

Booking.com lets its partner properties choose between letting Booking.com process payments and processing payments themselves, a practice it tells customers about up front. Vrbo, one of Booking.com’s main competitors for short-term vacation rentals, has a similar policy. Airbnb processes all payments directly, to “give guests greater peace of mind about payment security,” Javier Hernandez, a spokesman, told me in an emailed statement.

If you book with Booking.com, they may or may not have visibility regarding the money transactions that took place. But their failure to pay attention to the clear evidence was unconscionable.

In the end, though, it's a good thing this couple used Booking.com. If they had booked directly with the hotel, they'd probably be out of luck. Even Seth Kugel couldn't have helped.

I'm guessing Booking.com lost $12K on this situation.

Interesting article. Goes to confirm lots of scammers in the travel industry and scamming in travel is probably a growing problem.

Article does not say if couple had to fully pay upfront months in advance. I always feel safer when I choose "pay at check in".

But you also feel safe when using your credit card.

I continue to have good experiences using booking.com but i know that some people on forum have not.

But with all that is going on out there, even the best companies do not always do their best.

I never book properties with few reviews, but they went ahead and prepaid $13,000 to a newly listed property with no reviews.

The lesson here is not to book properties with few or no reviews.

The lesson here is not to book properties with few or no reviews.

Well, that brings up an interesting conundrum.

Since every place started with no reviews how did they get to 'a lot' of reviews?

As someone who reads travel forms and follows travel news for a hobby

Just walk away from booking. Com

Unless of course, you do want your credit card information and stuff all over the Internet (they apparently have absolutely no security)

They also will leave scams up on their website forever because they’re only real motivation is we got paid not the customer is going to get what they’re supposed to get

Just don’t book via Booking.com

The lesson here is not to book properties with few or no reviews.

Well, that brings up an interesting conundrum.

Since every place started with no reviews how did they get to 'a lot'
of reviews?

Maybe the lesson is not to pre-pay $13,000 to book properties with few or no reviews.

$100 for a one night stay? Knock yourself out.

I have used Booking.com for years. I don't store my credit card on the site and never book the cheapest (non- refundable) option. What I appreciate most is not having to pay until a few days prior to arrival or, what I usually have chosen, is pay on check in.
I contact the property (after I have read a bunch of reviews, including on the property's site and Trip Advisor and set the filter for negative/low stars!) via the Booking.com message feature and ask to confirm they have the reservation. Almost all the time I get a prompt response.
Lastly - a small guest house I stayed recently used Booking.com as their "agent". I still paid the owner on arrival but she seemed to appreciate the additional exposure (and many positive reviews).

And here is Mardee AGAIN!!!!
Give it a break mate. Do some gardening, take up bingo, STEP AWAY FROM THE SCREEEN!!!!