consumer help needed – Booking.com cannot honour a booking I made months ago

I’ve just been informed by booking.com a booking I made for a hotel in Ibiza cannot be honoured. I’m a bit annoyed as we booked this back in Feb , we are due to fly out on Thursday evening and they just told us yesterday.

To be fair they have tried to find us an alternative accommodation. But the trouble is either the hotel is of a lower standard to what we booked or its a few km away from where we wanted to stay.

They are not willing to accept any responsibility in the matter saying they have done nothing wrong and say they are already going out of their way to sort out alternative accommodation. They are also not willing to throw anything extra in to help sweeten the deal.

So apart from buying an old set of Marz Z1 and hoofing them in the slats with the forks. Is there anything more I can do?

Does this fall within SOGA? The alternative hotel is not equal to what we booked so they have broken the contract? Am I within my rights to ask them to refund money for the airplane tickets which we did not book through them?

The same Booking.com who’s website had a brainwave and pulled through the wrong price on my booking until I hit pay so my £40/night hotel went to £220 and they tried to wash their hands of it. Good luck, I won in the end but it took a long time.

Am I within my rights to ask them to refund money for the airplane tickets which we did not book through them?

IANAL but I’d be surprised if you could. Especially as you have refused alternative accomodation.

Your contract is with the accommodation provider, isn’t it? Rather than Booking.com. They are a platform, not a travel agent.

That doesn’t sound right. You still place the order with, and pay, booking.com do you not?

Is there accommodation available but at a higher price point? Could maybe ask them to book that and you just pay the difference? (I appreciate you shouldn’t have to pay extra for something that isn’t your fault, but at this juncture I’d be taking that over potentially being out of pocket on a larger scale.)

What’s your travel insurance over?

Pay with a credit card? Protection there too potentially.

you have refused alternative accomodation.

He’s refused substandard accommodation and inconvenient accommodation. Not seeing a problem with that; they’ve not offered an appropriate alternative. “Sorry, we’ve lost your car, but never mind, here’s an orange instead.”

“Sorry, we’ve lost your car, but never mind, here’s an orange instead.”

Except it’s more ‘We can’t get you that Golf, but would you be happy with a Polo’?

OP – are they going to refund the difference between your accommodation and the cost of the lesser one?

“Sorry, we’ve lost your car, but never mind, here’s an orange instead.”

Con pear the mark, eh?

That doesn’t sound right. You still place the order with, and pay, booking.com do you not?

No, its direct with the accommodation provider.

By making a reservation through Booking.com, you enter into a direct (legally binding) contractual relationship with the accommodation provider at which you book. From the point at which you make your reservation, we act solely as an intermediary between you and the accommodation, transmitting the details of your reservation to the relevant accommodation provider and sending you a confirmation email for and on behalf of the accommodation provider.

Travel insurance? Or credit cards? Doesn’t fix the going on holiday issue but you may have comeback there.

Re a refund for the difference; if they are just the intermediary and your deal is with the hotel then assume you’d get a full refund from there and getting another (through booking.com if you wish) would be at that new hotel’s rate. Although, booking with 3 days to go may or may not get you a good deal.

Watchdog would love to hear about it, I’ll bet.

Spoken to Trading Standards?

Sorry to hear this has happened to you OP.

Have they given any explanation of what’s gone on which means your original accommodation is unavailable? As others have said your contract is with the accommodation provider, not Booking.com, probably.

I hate to say it, but this is one of those situations where the value of a good travel agent and an ATOL-bonded package becomes apparent. You’ll have saved money going direct, of course, but that’s not a lot of help now.

Are there any alternatives which you know of, which would be acceptable to you? Sometimes in these situations it can help to propose a solution to the agent and see if they can make it happen.

Yep read their terms and conditions and seems like they wash their hands of any responsibility. So I’m lucky they are offering any alternative.

Booking.com said they will pay any difference in cost for the new accommodation up to a limit. But as it’s so late in the day even lower quality places are more expensive than our original booking.

I’ve agreed on a compromise, they have eventually given us a comparable hotel that is 1.5km away from our original place. Which didn’t sound too bad to me. I tried to haggle and get an all inclusive deal but they wouldn’t budge that far. I didn’t want the negotiations to go on much longer as there are very very few places left and didn’t want to get stuck with no room at all. So agreed with what they were offering.

Still not happy that they don’t take any responsibility for anything booked through their site. I’ll try speaking to watchdog or other consumer advice groups on my return as their T&Cs don’t seem fair to me.

Thanks for the advise everyone. There are a few avenues for me look at but will do this on my return.

They claimed the hotel let them down and cancelled the booking last minute.

Bad review on Tripadviser for hotel? Might lose them a few bookings if people learn than their booking can be cancelled with no good reason given.

There are a few stories online with people booking through booking.com and turning upto hotels to find there is no booking.

I wouldn’t be surprised if booking.com didn’t send the booking info to the hotel until a few days ago. Only to find the room was already booked.

Going to try and contact the hotel tomorrow to see if they can give me any more information.

I wouldn’t be surprised if booking.com didn’t send the booking info to the hotel until a few days ago. Only to find the room was already booked.

When did you recieve your confirmation email from the hotel?

Every time I’ve booked through booking.com I have recieved an email from the accommodation itself confirming the booking. Never had a problem myself.

Before pulling out the pitchforks it could be that either it is an admin error on the hotels part or the last room occupant has decided to go on a bender and scrawl their name on the room walls with, well something messy that will take more than a couple of days to sort out. End of the day your beef is with the hotel, section 75 is your friend.

Link

I agree – this is the fault of the hotel, not booking.com.

, to give a bit of balance here, booking.com also book premier inns. I’ve heard customers ring the inn direct for confirmation of the booking but the inn have no record of it. I.e., they never received the booking from the intermediary. This happened at a London one which is near Wembley so gets a lot of concert bookings and apparently this happens a lot.

Still not happy that they don’t take any responsibility for anything booked through their site. I’ll try speaking to watchdog or other consumer advice groups on my return as their T&Cs don’t seem fair to me.

ERM, you have read scotroutes post?

From reviews it seems a fairly standard complaint that booking.com don’t actually book the room then claim it’s the hotels fault or your fault for not checking direct with the hotel .
Given that the sole service that they offer you is to make the booking it is worth checking with the hotel to see if they did if they did not they could be in breach of contract which in holiday cases could be significant compensation.
The moral of the story appears to be don’t gamble your holiday on a Netherlands based website that only offers to be your social secretary and accepts no liability for actual delivery of service.

Given that the sole service that they offer you is to make the booking

The main service they offer is a search engine of available hotel rooms with which you then book directly.

Booking.com is just Google for Hotels. Why would you book through them?

I’ve always found it as cheap to book direct and be assured that the hotel will have heard of you when you rock up.

They were actually cheaper than going direct this time.

Lesson learnt hard way. The way you use their website to make a booknig and their conformation email is misleading and makes you think you are booking through them. When in fact clearly stated in their T&Cs they are just an intermediary.

The comparison sites I’ve used in the past for other products would take you to the sellers website to make the order while on booking.com you do it through their website and they send you an confirmation email. Making me think I am buying the product from booking.com

I’m usually quite good with consumer stuff so a little ashamed I managed to get my self in a pickle. In the end the result wasn’t too bad and I’m sure I’ll have a good holiday so trying to think about it too much.

There was this same issue, with booking.com, in the Saturday Times’s travel doctor section a while ago. The solution they offered was basically that they rebooked with a more expensive hotel and booking.com paid most, but not all, of the difference.

squirrelking
When did you recieve your confirmation email from the hotel?

I’ve never had a confirmation from the hotel and I’ve used booking.com at least 20 times. Never had a problem either.

However, having read this, I’m going to start checking direct.

They were actually cheaper than going direct this time.

Not now…

Not sure why everyone is getting all excited, this isn’t anything new and happens all the time.

tbh I usually use the Internet/Google to find what I want then usually ring/email the hotel direct – latterly the deals have been better.

jairaj – Member
There are a few stories online with people booking through booking.com and turning upto hotels to find there is no booking.

I wouldn’t be surprised if booking.com didn’t send the booking info to the hotel until a few days ago. Only to find the room was already booked.

Going to try and contact the hotel tomorrow to see if they can give me any more information.

Not for me to tell anybody how to live their life but if it were me and I had been given alternative accommodation of a similar standard , albeit 1.5 km away I would just move on and get on with my life . What are you hoping to achieve by taking this any further ?