I usually book my accommodations using Booking.com, and everything is ok, except this one time. Before Christmas 2018, I was with my husband on an "Eurotrip", visiting the most beautiful Christmas markets Europe has to offer (11 nights in 11 different cities). I have booked everything with almost 2 months in advance to take advantage of smaller prices. All the trip went very well, until we have reached Vienna, and this is where the fun part begins. Usually we pay our bookings by cash, but there are properties that have different policies, and pre-authorize the credit card before. The property in Vienna - Steiner Residences Vienna Augarten - tried to pre-authorize my credit card about a week before the date of or stay in Vienna (when we were already half way in our trip), but they were unsuccessful because I didn't had any funds left(due to Christmas shopping). We sent them a message explaining the situation and they said is ok, we will pay by cash on our arrival, the only thing that was important was to inform them about our time of arrival. And so we did, we announced them our exact time of arrival, using Google Maps estimations (we traveled by car), and just with 2 hours before we entered Vienna they told us no one will be there at that time to collect our money (16:00) and that we need to pay by card (online) before check in if we want the access codes to the building. We told them that we don't have money on the credit card, and it was the only card available, and asked if we can pay later, or if anyone can come later that day to collect the money, or maybe we can give the money to someone else. They said the it is our fault that we didn't complied to the rules (even if we discussed about thins previously through the message platform provided by booking) and now we can't check in. I must say that in the last 4 years since I used booking, this situation never happened. We panicked a little, we were on the highway, it was already dark, and since the property did not provided any solution we thought the only thing to do was to cancel and try to find another place to stay. The property didn't replied any further after that. Around 18:00 we managed to find another booking, but when we arrived there they told us that the parking was full, and one hour later we managed to find another hotel, also through Booking.com, more expensive that the first one, but we were happy we could find anything. We were not upset about the entire situation, we only wanted to enjoy the rest of the trip, so we forgot about it by the time we came back home. The unpleasant situation happened on 14 January 2019, when my credit card was charged by Steiner Residences Vienna Augarten, for the full amount of the booking. I tried to talk to them asking why they did that and they said they were protected by their cancellation policy. I submitted a complaint to booking customer service, providing the entire conversation between me and the property, and they simply agreed to the same conclusion, that they have a cancellation policy and I have to pay. If it was my fault, I would not have been so filled with frustration, but the property not only put us in a difficult situation by making us find another accommodation on the last minute, but they also charged us for canceling, even if they made it impossible for us to be able to check-in. I am just wandering, who is protecting the customers in this kind of situations since booking.com didn't even bother to read the conversations I have sent them.