Rick A.

I recently booked 5 rooms at a hotel in Manila where I stay EVERY time I go there. I belong to the rewards program for that particular hotel chain, so I don't even know why I was stupid enough to book through booking.com. The 5 rooms were to be used by my wifes family who would be visiting from the neighboring islands. Unfortunately an emergency arose and the family will not be coming. I contacted booking.com and told them of the situation and they told me I had an no-cancellation policy booking. I told them I understood that but the reservation was still 30 days away and we had an unfortunate incident that was out of my control. They contacted the hotel manager and they refused to cancel it without a penalty. The penalty was the full price of the rooms, about $ 4000 US. Are you kidding? If I have to do that, I'll take some homeless people off the streets and put them up for 5 days. Booking.com told me it was out of there hands since it was up to the hotel manager, who, they say, said No. When I tried to approach the hotel manager directly, they told me to contact booking.com. The good old run around. Booking.com receives a commission from the hotel, that's why they don't want you to cancel. The hotel will not let you cancel because they have to pay booking.com no matter what. I will NEVER use either booking.com or this hotel again. The shame is, it's a hotel that I've really grown to love, but I guess making that one time bang on the customer is worth more than one who keeps coming back. Bottom line is, don't use booking.com. Go directly to the hotel site and make sure you read the fine print because even in an emergency, they don't care.