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).

I will never again use Booking(dot)com after I booked flights through them earlier this year. (Normally, I'd book directly with the airline, but there was a reason I chose to do it this way. Never again, though.) Even though I entered my name correctly, the booking ended up with part of my name missing. Meanwhile, I had purchased an upgrade through the airline. I realized the error immediately afterward, but the airline wouldn't help me because I'd booked through a "travel agent." Booking "corrected" the error by cancelling my booking and redoing it. (Apparently, according to the airline, this is not how they should have made the correction.) In the process, I lost my upgrade. Booking attempted to assist, but they were unable to get the airline to budge, also. In the end, they were willing to let me lose the money I'd paid for the upgrade. I don't know if their system made the original name error, or if it was the airline, but I strongly suspect it was Booking. Regardless, their method of doing the correction was wrong. (It also separated my booking from my husband's, which had the potential to cause problems, although it didn't.) They did not take responsibility for the error. They were willing to let their customer lose out, instead.

Posters here often advise to book directly, rather than through aggregators, and that's very good advice. I do occasionally book through aggregators, because, sometimes, that's the only option. (A small tour company or venue might not have their own website.) But it will never again be through Booking, for me.

I've never used any booking site. Never. I've also never had a problem booking directly with any hotel or motel. Nor trying to resolve any issue. Never. But, to each his own. Just something to think about.

Tonight the French national news had a segment on how some scammers use booking. All they have to do is supply a listing and sent the verification of ownership papers a week or two later. The listing goes up immediately, nonetheless.

During the week or two, they collect down payments, many for the same dates. Obviously, they ask to be paid off- platform. Then after a week they remove the listing, avoiding booking’s verification process.

Meanwhile, they’ve amassed a lot of money. So many people from all over the world were showing up at some properties that the concierge had to put a sign on the gate that they’d been scammed and to go see the police.

Elizabeth, that's interesting and a bit scary. You would think that Booking would change their process, but it doesn't seem like they do anything at all about these scams. I'm not saying that Booking is responsible for them, but if there are problems that are coming from scammers, you would think the company would tighten up their own security.

I have one booking right now with Booking.com, and unfortunately, that's the only way you can book with this particular hostel in Lerwick. However, I did not pay in advance, and I do not keep my credit card information on their website. But after this booking, I think I'm done with them. I haven't booked with them that much in the past, and I don't think I will do so in the future at all.

BB in Calgary

I use booking to research and book hotel rooms, nothing more.

I have read that booking may have bit off more than they can chew by offering other services besides lodging.

There seems to be problems of all kind with the other services they offer.. Booking needs to stick with offering lodging only.

I like Booking a lot, especially because its reviews are only from guests who have stayed at the property. However, I never book a new listings or even those that only have one or two reviews. And I never pay upfront, I only book properties that offer no money down and a reasonable cancellation policy.

bostonphil7, they certainly dropped the ball when it came to my flight situation. 99% of the time I book directly with the airline, anyhow, but in this case, I had to wait to book our flights until our gorilla trekking permits were secured, and I missed the price I wanted by a day. Booking still had that price, so I took a chance and booked through them. Never again. I'd rather pay more than deal with the hassle I had in this situation.

I have used them without issue for booking accommodation on occasion, but I'm more likely to use them for research and then book directly, anyway.

We have used booking.com for hotels and inns many times. Like Kelly I prefer paying nothing down. I also do not allow my credit card saved. Their free cancellation date is often reasonably close to the check in date. I choose staying in well reviewed lodging. I read the comments carefully and I find the reviews fairly accurate during my stays. So far booking.com has proved to work well for us.

BB

It is said that "you live you learn"

Now you know: book directly with the airline even if it is a lot more.

However a friend and wife booked a package to Mexico City through Expedia. which included air. The trip is over and they are really happy with what they got.

But I continue to hear travelers being unhappy with booking when they book something other than lodging.

It is tempting but I use booking only for lodging.

I’ve used booking.com without any issues (I book large number of reviewed properties and don’t store my cc). However, I always try to book directly with the hotel. I recently booked a hotel in Edinburgh and found the price (even after tax) was less on Booking.com. I contacted the hotel as they advertised price match and they matched it without any fuss.
Recently, I tried to book two hotels in mid-Wales and they asked me to book through Booking.com. That was a first!