AI Customer Support is here....

Or, unless the place you want to book with does not have their own website, direct phone, or direct email, do not use a booking/hotels/airfares/tours.com etc and book directly with the actual merchant. I make the exception as over20 years I have used 4 lodgings that were too small to have their own presence and relied on booking.com, fortunately never a problem.

I remember the thread you are referring to. It wasn't removed because you named the company, but for some of the comments you made.

You might take the time to read another current thread on the use of 3rd party websites, to gain some insight from other experienced travellers. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/third-party-aggregators-never-sometimes-always

I will stick with my 'insights'

I would never book a hotel/inn/B&B using AI or any online aggregator. Use those online sites to find lodging and read reviews. I then book directly with the property. I typically get a less expensive price and the reservation can be more secure. Plus, one can always email the property with any questions or concerns. There is not going to be a situation where there are no people available as you mentioned above.

Well, the nightmare of AI "customer support" is already widespread (and growing) so perhaps your experience with booking dot com should be expected from almost all large corporations that behave the same way. As every corporation in the world seems intent on shedding every possible human employee, expect more of this in the future. That said, personally I have previously had great experiences contacting human support at booking dot com, but it has been a few years, and things do regularly change with our corporate overlords. So I just gave them a try.

As luck would have it I do have a couple of stays booked through booking dot com for an upcoming trip (and I am about to book a dozen other places for another upcoming trip). I went to booking dot com, tried to find a number to call. Not surprisingly, like so many other evil corporations we all are forced to deal with every day, they have worked very, very hard to hide their customer support phone numbers, pushing users to (surprise) FAQs, AI chatbots, and an AI "support" number. They seem to have scrubbed any usable phone numbers from their website.

I also did a web search for potential customer support numbers, and found some. Every one I tried led to the same AI voicebot. That AI voicebot steadfastly refused to let me speak with human, no matter how many times I politely told it that's what I needed. After 30 or 40 iterations and variations including expletives, it eventually hung up on me.

I suspect I am now done with booking dot com. I've been a steady customer literally for decades, but can't abide this level of customer contempt. I'd rather just stay home or sleep on a park bench in the rain.

There is one phone number I did not try:

Help Center
Call us anytime

Speak to Customer Service We’re available to help you at the number
below: Customer service ‭+44 20 3320 2625‬

It's (I believe) a UK number and I don't have a handy and free way to make that call (and wouldn't if I was traveling outside of the UK). I suspect it will dump callers into the same AI-only voicebot. Can someone who has a free/easy way to call UK numbers give that a try and verify it's no better than the old 888 number I found through a search?

If anyone knows of/finds a way to reach a human at booking dot com by phone, please share it. Otherwise, I'll be avoiding them like the plague. For me, a longtime satisfied customer and heavy user of theirs, quite the end of an era.

The enchittification of everything continues.

I remember the thread you are referring to. It wasn't removed because
you named the company, but for some of the comments you made.

I remember that thread too, and concur with CJean's assessment. If that thread was still 'up', readers of this one would see that your experience has not been the same for everyone who uses that site. As well, many who contributed to that prior thread don't rely solely on their info within that booking site. Tech glitches can happen so as back-up, some responders said they took screen shots of their confirmations, others copy/paste to a separate document, etc. I keep all of the emailed confirmations from that booking site AND from the hotels themselves in an email file I can assess from my phone, my husband's phone, my laptop. etc. Any trouble at check-in, it's all right there without having to log into the site. So until they fail me in a big way, I'm still a customer.

Doesn't mean maybe it's still the case but I was able to speak directly with a customer service person at the booking site last November, when a hotel was refusing to give us the specific type of room we'd booked. They did go to bat for me; still didn't get the room but did get a big reduction. They appear to no longer be doing business with that hotel. :O)

And no, I do not work for the company.
PS: I request emailed confirmations from the hotels I book so there's no question of them not having us on record.

I also have had a couple issues with booking dot com. One they resolved with minimal angst the other I gave up on them and the property. I would love to say I no longer book with them. I tend to avoid 3rd party sites, anyway, especially booking dot com, but sometimes there is a place I really need/want to stay at and they only reserve thru booking.

The exception I've made in regards to 3rd party sites is that I will always check Autoeurope and almost always, I book thru them. Their customer service is impeccable. Just recently, there was a post regarding a problem with using booking dot com for a rental car. My response (which I kept to myself) was why would anyone book a car thru booking dot com.

jules, I wouldn't use the site for booking rental cars either.

I would never book a hotel/inn/B&B using AI or any online aggregator.

Given where I travel and what I enjoy its not uncommon for me to end up in hotels that dont have their own booking engine. Usually its booking.com.

I typically get a less expensive price and the reservation can be more secure.

Because you dont use Booking.com so dont get the discounts. They kick in pretty quickly. A few times the same room, same price had more favorable cancelation policy on Booking.com. Some times booking direct has better prices or perks. There is no hard rule.

But, if you dont like Booking.com, except when its them or no one, the savings arent so great that its the end of the word not to use them. Just preference.

I asked one small hotel I really loved and found on B.........com their opinion of the site. They said they were too small to have their own site, but they hoped that once people found them and loved them they would book directly. And their accountant's advice was to list the fees/discounts that they had to provide to the site as part of their advertising budget. It is a business expense after all.

I can confirm that +44 20 3320 2625‬ is a UK (London) landline number- 0203 320 2625, and that it is registered as belonging to booking.com, but I'm not calling it as I don't have a free calling plan.
There is a TA thread which says it connects to a human being- https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g186338-i17-k14452207-o10-Can_someone_confirm_if_Bookings_com_has_had_a_data_breach-London_England.html

I think I'm pretty good at finding accommodations in Germany. I've spent somewhere around 170 days in Europe since 2000, all but about six nights in Germany. I usually find accommodations from the towns own website. I pick them based on the facilities, breakfast included, ensuite bathroom, closeness to transportation, and price. I don't eliminate a place just because it is shown on booking websites, but I don't use them, either. Everywhere I've stayed in Germany has been fine. Germans have such high standards.

I've talked to hosts in Germany about booking websites, and they tell me they are quite expensive, taking 15%, maybe more in popular areas, of the booking's total price as their fee.

Last time I was in Germany, we stayed in a Ferienwohnung (vacation apartment) in a small town on the Main river. The town website listed 15 properties. Five of those were also listed on Booking.com, and those were the five most expensive places on the town website. I've done similar analyses on other places and found similar results.

I can find listed Booking, two places where I've stayed. At one in the Black Forest, I booked directly with the property and got a double room for 2 nights for the same price as Booking showed, but I got a package deal for that price which include Therme (spa) admission for two (worth 55€/day) for two days. Oh, and they also threw in a small bottle of sparkling wine in your room on arrival.

Another time, at a lodge in the Harz, I got a five night package deal for the same price as just five night through Booking, but my package deal included "halb Pension" (American plan); breakfast was included with all plans.

I would never book a hotel/inn/B&B using AI or any online aggregator.

Agree with the above statement 100%. Have never had a problem dealing directly with any hotel, restaurant, or other facility.

Just my experience. But everyone is entitled to do as he or she desires.

Reading through the (many) threads on TA certainly is sobering for anyone who has used booking dot com extensively in the past. TA has its own issues (don't get me started on that), but as a longtime user of booking dot com, everything I've seen recently forces me to conclude that this company treats its customers like something they would rather scrape off the bottom of their shoe, rather than as a valuable and appreciated customer they will help if needed.

In the coming weeks I'm about to do some binge bookings for multiple trips in the next 18 months. A LOT of accoms, including some pretty high-end ones. Stays in Greece, Japan, Egypt, Peru, Indonesia, and elsewhere. I'm looking at some serious money flowing to all these places. But since booking dot com has made it clear they will never, ever allow me to contact a human at their company if I need to, from now on I'll be booking through somewhere-else dot com.

Me, I am done enabling such a clearly anti-consumer, thoroughly evil company (and as someone who has booked through them countless times over the decades, I don't say that lightly). Going forward I may use that platform to help locate and choose a place to stay, but I won't be using them to actually book anywhere. Booking dot yeah? Booking dot No Way. YMMV.

Thanks crcooklb for letting us know this apparent recent development - so frustrating. And thanks to David for running his test on the site.

@David, couldn't agree more!