“Inconsistent cancellation policy, terrible communication and lack of follow up. Per the website and Japan Air, could cancel my flight reservation within 24 hours which I double checked before booking. Called to cancel the next day within 24 hours and was told this wasn't possible despite providing a link to both websites that state their policies. Spoke directly to Japan Airlines which said Booking.com would have to cancel since they were the vendor. Booking.com said the 24 hour cancellation policy only applies if you book directly with Japan Airlines, which there is no documentation of in their policy. I was told a specific supervisor was assigned to deal with our issue, whom called once on a Saturday at 6:30am from Sweden, which I missed. Racked up $60 in international call fees trying to contact this specific manager back in Sweden who never returned my call. Was told they would call back on a certain date at a certain time. Never happened. Called the customer service line and was again given the same message, that it could only be dealt with by "Rishika". Sent about 4 emails to Booking.com customer service with only automatic replies back. I have used this platform for years but will never use them again. We ended up surrendering and requesting a tax refund back which gave us a 50% refund, but still lost over $800 due to this policy inconsistency. Beware of their claims to cancellation. They do not follow through and will not communicate with you as promised. The amount of stress and money this platform has cost is not worth it.”
“Booking.com has shown ZERO respect for its partners. I’ve been chasing a clearly acknowledged refund for over [X weeks], and all I get is silence and empty promises. They admitted the mistake, then ignored every follow-up. No accountability. No professionalism. As a property owner, I feel completely disregarded.
If you're a host or business partner, think twice before trusting this platform. You're on your own when things go wrong.”
“I canceled my reservation months ago but it was not canceled at the hotel and I was charged. The hotel said I had to go through Booking.com They are unresponsive”
“I wish there is a negative rating like -10. That's my experience with Booking.com. I made a booking through them for a hotel stay, I got the booking confirmation and paid them in advance. I went to the hotel and got denied accommodation because my booking was not on their system. I ended up stranded and Booking.com is refusing to acknowledge the problem and refusing to refund me. They are no longer answering my messages. Beware of Booking.com and better to avoid using their service if you don't want to get scammed.”
“I am still waiting for further contact from booking.com, although promised a 24 hour response to my concern. The concern was that my booking was cancelled although all arrangements were completed and paid for properly. I had spent much time arranging the trip and completing the booking, but was informed that this was to be cancelled. This meant I had to rearrange all my travel.”
“I will never use booking.com again . I tried to have my booking transferred from one Novotel hotel in London to another for same dates and was told no cancellation possible. The hotel blamed booking.com and booking.com blamed the hotel. I spent hours on the phone to both trying to make my case but no flexibility was shown at all. I will always book directly with a hotel in future- no middle man!”
“The host cancelled the accomodation the night before we arrived. Booking.com have a guarantee that they need to provide a matching or better alternative, but as the prices were much higher by this time, they couldn’t honour the accomodation. We ended up finding a downgrade that was £225 more expensive and booking.com agreed they would price match. However I had to pay upfront at the full price on the agreement they will refund the difference after my stay. Now after multiple calls where I’m told it has been raised, they are neither providing refund for my original booking nor refunding the difference on the second booking.”
“Could Booking.com have one of the worst customer service teams ever?
Completely unhelpful on every level, I still can't work out if I was talking to real human or an AI chatbot based on some of the responses — it took them over a month to deal with what should have been a simple cancellation. In the end, my credit card company resolved it in a single day. I won’t be using Booking.com again.”
“We called while booking online. We had no vehicle as we were being picked up the next day to continue our travel. We were walked through the steps to include the airport and flight information and were advised that the closest location to the airport would be booked. It was over 2 hours away. We found a location 5 minutes away that was the same hotel brand and stayed there. Booking.com refused to refund the room to us. This is very concerning that they obtained our funds without providing what was promised. Very poor customer service. I have used them in the past but there are better platforms out there.”
“I have used booking.com for hotels and flights for over twenty years as an independent traveler. Recently I have had problems which they were not interested in resolving.
The first one was for a hire car to be used on a trip to South Africa. The description mentioned a 'free' or no fee for a second driver which was helpful. To cut a long story short this was false, the description stated the cost for a second driver was over two hundred pounds which was not true it was about twenty pounds, confirmed by the car hire company. We let them know on more than one occasion that the description was incorrect but they (Booking.Com) just repeated not their problem despite them advertising it as free.
Secondly and more concerning to us was after a holiday in Nepal we booked a hotel for a few days in Mumbai before returning home as we last visited there in 1996. Unfortunately for us the flight from Nepal to Mumbai was delayed for over 24 hours so we let the hotel in Mumbai know about our delay, fine they said see you when you arrive blah blah. Anyway whilst sat in the departure lounge in the airport for the rescheduled flight we received a cancellation notice for the original hotel so we had to pick a hotel at short notice.
We chose one based on the description and reviews and booked it. The hotel we booked bore more resemblance to an ardvaark than a hotel room. To say the hotel bore no resemblance to the actual reality would be disingenuous to reality it was closer to the aardvark though as it had plenty of creatures with legs in it. We should of checked the room before we paid but that is what tiredness and hunger does for you. We did not stay. We put complains (more than one) to booking.com about (a) the description and (b) the hotel tried to change the electronic version of the booking. It was by far the worst hotel in terms of standard and deceitfulness I have stayed in and having travelled to some very remote places I accept a certain degree of journalistic licence in their description.
The hotel claim they did not write the description and did not put it on booking.com. Despite us speaking to booking. com complaints department on more that one occasion there has been no acknowledgement of the issues raised and now I have absolutely no faith in booking.com. either in terms of dispute resolution or the description of the services they offer. It appears they only want to know when the services they offer work and a complete disinterest when they don't.”
“I requested an invoice for more than a month with charges and tax breakdown, but they have never been able to provide one. Its between booking.com and their partner.
I have no hopes that I'm getting one, but if I do get it, I'll change this review.”
“Title: Charged Despite Free Cancellation – Booking.com & Hotel Both to Blame!
I canceled my reservation before the free cancellation deadline, yet I was still charged. When I contacted the hotel (Hampton Inn, Dade City), they claimed that Booking.com never informed them of the cancellation and that they don’t even allow free cancellations.
However, their Booking.com page clearly states “free cancellation”, so they should have honored it. Both Booking.com and the hotel are responsible for this issue, yet neither is taking accountability. Instead, I’ve been stuck in an endless loop of excuses and delays when trying to get my refund. Terrible experience—beware before booking!
I have attached the free cancellation email they sent me.”
“Slechte service en geen verantwoordelijkheid
Ik had een reservering via Booking.com en wilde mijn datum wijzigen. Zowel het hotel als Booking.com wezen naar elkaar en niemand nam verantwoordelijkheid. Ondanks dat ik bewijs had (met screenshots) dat er op de nieuwe datum nog beschikbaarheid was, werd mijn verzoek geweigerd.
Een dag later was die beschikbaarheid ineens verdwenen van de site van Booking.com. Dit voelt als misleiding en gebrek aan klantvriendelijkheid. Ik ben van het kastje naar de muur gestuurd zonder enige oplossing, terwijl ik al betaald had.
Heel teleurstellend! Ik raad anderen aan goed op te letten bij het boeken hier, vooral als je plannen onverwachts wijzigen. Service zoals deze hoort niet thuis in de hospitality-sector.”
“Booking.com is zeer slecht benaderbaar. Men vraagt om beoordeling van een hotel. Daar doe ik alleen aan mee als ik mensen ergens voor wil waarschuwen, zoals voor een hotel in Sofia dat doodleuk zegt dat ik geen ontbijt heb geboekt, terwijl ik dat op zeker wel gedaan heb. Later van meer mensen hetzelfde gehoord. Booking zette echter alleen het positieve deel van mijn review online, en niet het negatieve. Als ik ze hierover bel, kan ik niemand aan de lijn krijgen zonder dat boekingsnummer, dat ik allang niet meer heb. Mijn advies : maak screenshots van elke boeking, en vooral van het boekingsnummer. Dat is de enige manier om contact te kunnen krijgen met dit bedrijf. Een emailadres of webmail is echter ook bijna niet te vinden.”
“BEWARE BOOKING.COM, My family were left stranded with no accommodation which they had paid for to Booking.com, with no where to go they had to book into emergency accommodation we found ourselves, all booking.com would do is offer £50 compensation, we had to shell out an extra £550 for emergency accommodation due to Booking.com's failure to provide the holiday we had booked.”
“On February 11th, I attempted to book a hotel in Munich through your website.
However, the connection was interrupted during the booking process. Although the reservation was not completed, I was still charged €258.
I contacted my bank, and they confirmed that the payment was processed. However, when I contacted customer service, I was informed that there was no reservation under my name.
I was told that someone would contact me within two days to resolve the issue.
Despite sending the payment confirmation, I have not received any updates.
Today, I tried contacting customer service again. After waiting on hold for 30 minutes, the call was abruptly ended.
I sent over 5 messages in the app - no response or actions.
This level of incompetence and lack of customer service is unacceptable.
I am extremely disappointed with this company, and I will never use this services again!”
“When arriving at cozy cottage 2 bed in Canguu we were met with pure filth and were charged $200 that night for the privilege. The only way we could get a $100 refund from the provider was to take down the honest review, booking.com were on board with this and refused to compensate us directly, this questions their ethics to continue to allow unrealistic reviews to be used and others to experience what we did. I refused the refund and kept the review up. I feel booking.com have dealt with this very underhand with no support or comeback from the guest. It also took them 12 days to respond via email when bringing this to their attention. I then had to call them to discuss. Awful company with no customer support or comeback if you end up in a dirty house with rats and the previous guests excrement still in the toilet.”
“Never Trust Booking.com – They Can Cancel Your Booking Anytime!
I booked a hotel 20 days in advance and made full payment through Booking.com. When I arrived at the hotel with my family, I was shocked to learn at the reception that my booking had been canceled.
The hotel staff informed me that the cancellation came directly from Booking.com. When I contacted Booking.com's customer service, all they could say was, "Sorry, we can't do anything. We will refund your payment."
This left my family and me stranded. It took over five stressful hours of searching to finally find alternative accommodation.
This experience was incredibly disappointing, and I cannot recommend Booking.com after this ordeal. If you're planning a trip, think twice before relying on their platform – your booking might not be as secure as you think!”
