Booking.comReviews 4,267

We booked 5 nights with Whitsunday Rainforest Retreat through Booking.com, and had the worst travel experience ever. Rainforest Retreat became Rainforest Hell.

They had already raided our credit card for the first nights accommodation when their site said that we could pay by cash when we got there and the card details would only be needed as a guarantee that we would turn up which we did. Also the place is nothing like they say on their web site with a driveway more suited to Mountain Goats than cars. Even the tour buses will not drive up there as the drive is so steep and dangerous.

On top of that we were told that we had actually booked share accommodation in a unit with 3 other couples which was completely unsatisfactory. He then charged us for a no show, and raided our account again for the complete 5 nights balance even though we had to find accommodation up to a standard that we required somewhere else.

Their site is rated at 9.4 when in actual fact it should not rate above 2. Do yourself a favour, and book with a reputable site or drive around and book accommodation when you arrive, as there are many places much better and you get to examine what you are paying before letting them anywhere near your credit card.

I booked hotels in San Diego, Las Vegas, Yosemite, San Francisco, Monterey and Los Angeles through Booking.com. The information received once booked, ability to change my plans (which I did for two hotels) and updates prior to arrival were excellent. Will be my choice for the future

Used their site 2x and the 2nd time was the last time. Prices advertised do not match what the hotel charges, reviews are exagerated or written by people used to sleeping on the street. Anyone who rates the two hotels that Booking.com inadvertently sent me to Howard Johnson Hotel Niagara Falls being the 2nd... if rated above a 2, those people have never stayed at a decent hotel before. Can't reach anyone at Booking.com to resolve a situation. They lose my booking showing I made no bookings, list goes on. Booking.com give the Dutch a bad name.

We had booked three nights in a four-star hotel (highly rated on TripAdvisor) in Tangier, Morocco, through Booking.com, almost a month in advance. When we arrived at the hotel, we were told the booking had been cancelled. They claimed it was because the credit card on file was rejected (it was not a prepaid booking) 48 hours prior, and that we had been sent an email giving us 36 hours to update the payment method on file. Later, when we were able to check email, we discovered the only email from booking.com was sent just 6 HOURS before we arrived at the hotel, informing us the booking was cancelled at no charge to us. No mention of a credit card problem.
Anyway - back to being in Tangier without a hotel to stay in (with kids). We called booking.com via the long distance international number (UK). The first agent was helpful - he said another hotel down the beach had availability, and quoted us a reasonable price. He put us on hold, and when he returned he said he had talked to the hotel and they were waiting for us. However, when we got to that other hotel, they had no idea who we were. So we called booking.com again. The second agent, whose English was terrible (picking up a +44 country code phone), said that booking.com couldn't help us on the phone and we could only book through the website. I got mad, because they made this mess. When I asked for a supervisor, she hung up on me. I ended up working something out at the front desk of the hotel - and that hotel turned out to be terrible (Hotel Cesar). See my review on tripadvisor.

I made online reservation through Priceline, com, I had no clue that it is same company, or what is the co-relation with priceline.com, In fact I called the costumer care No. It get connected through booking.com. Whatsoever, they did not hear my complain, I told them that they have made a complete wrong reservation. I requested for 4 Adult, 2 queen size beds, and regular size room, I was driving when I saw the confirmation. I couldn't check. When I appeared at the Hotel, I came to know that they have completely messed up my reservation. I called the priceline.com and/costumer care center no, the booking, com answer and spoke to me in complete rude, high tone that it is the same thing, you made reservation, I can not do anything about it. If you have any proof that proof, please send it to us over the email address, when i replied that You send the completely messed up confirmation, how can i get the email. I requested to get his name and ID no, or staff code, he just said, I can not give it you, and good bye, don't call me again if you don't have proof. Before, I say anything about proof, he hung up the phone on me. He did not let me speak to his supervisor. He just hang up. Very poor support, I would never ever book through Booking.com and will 100% negative reviews on every possible social media.

Booked a two night stay at the Abbey in Wisconsin because the ad said NO DEPOSIT required. When I saw over $238 coming through my bank the next day I promptly cancelled the booking. Thinking the charge would fall off like most do I was charged and still not yet refunded the amount (takes up to a week) yeah right. I not only should be refunded the booking amount but the $144 over draft charges my bank cost me because of this mishap!

Booking.com flooded me with "FREE CANCELATION" emails so I gave them a try. I have booked travel all over the world using these types of sites.

I booked a 3 night stay for September 15-18,2016 on August 1st and canceled it on August 4th. The Booking.com site promised FREE cancelations. I was then charged $291.90 cancelation fee from Erik's Retreat. Their official policy is a 70% charge if canceled 30 days in advance and 100% charge after that time. I didn't read the policy carefully but assumed that I was well within any window by canceling 45 days out. I tried to work this out with them and they not only would not return my call, but I received an email from their attorney. I am a very experienced traveler and have lived over seas - NEVER have I been charge a fee for canceling a hotel room - let alone after canceling in only 3 days and with 45 days notice. Please be careful! Even a seasoned traveler can get cheated! What's even worse is that they gave me the excuse that they are a non-profit and it is a "donation for Autism". I actually donate to that cause so it is really insulting that this is how they conduct their business. Please be very careful with both Booking.com and Erik's Retreat in Edina Minnesota.

A group of Fraudsters in Batumi (Georgia) using Booking.com website for cheating of tourists.
They offering nice looking apartment "Qeti Apartment" in Saiatnova Street 3 witch is not for rent. As soon the peoples booking this Apt. And arriving in Batumi, the fraudster tells them that "Qeti Apt" is not available and offering old dirty apartments in not safe area very fare from the beach for lot of money. I by my self have been in this situation in July this year. I have informed Booking. Com in writing and by phone many times about this situation and provided phone numbers of the witnesses in Batumi. Regardless of this information Booking com. Still offering not existing apartment on his website.The company provides terrible service and does not looking for safety of the clients.
Vlad from Kyiv

You can make a reservation with just one click. With a smartphone or tablet, simply an inadvertent screen soft touch... and you are CHEATED. Even if you cancel it 10 seconds later, you are into the "cancellation policy". In many cases, a full day of stay will be charged to your credit card. If you can communicate with booking (very hard, certainly) it's absolutely useless. They will simply invoke the "cancellation policy". I had their "Genius" category and nothing. They don't mind to lose a good customer for ever. They simply prefer to CHEAT you. It's unbelievable but it's true.

How a company could list on their platform a BB as four stars hotel? Welcome to Booking.com.
We used their platform to book a hotel in Amsterdam (NOT BB Bed and Breakfast), for my surprise the HOTEL is on above of bar, the reception is in bar not lift and the staircase something from last 19th century in fact nowadays is a ladder. The rooms no air- con etc
Obvious, I couldnt even consider staying for free they charged per night 175 Euros, which until our money still either on hands of Booking.com or the operator.
Walking 100meters from the famous 4 stars Booking.com Hotel finally, we find a proper HOTEL NH charging less money 165 Euros, nice hotel, balcony, fridge, air.con, breakfast etc
Do I believe Booking. Com or operator goes to reimburse me? NOT ALL.
Do I let my money goes? NOT AT ALL.

We booked our entire vacation through booking.com. Every hotel/Motel was exactly the cost we were quoted and we never had an issue with mixed up rooms or anything like that. One motel miss represented themselves thru their own web sight and pics. So we cancelled the day of at the motel, hopped on booking.com and booked a same day booking at a named hotel. With in 15 minutes booking.com representative had called us and talked the motel we cancelled at to give us our money back and they actually gave us cash on the spot! The motel was Probably wanting to avoid the visa fees for cancelling but nonetheless we got our money back. The booking.com representative was very helpful in that whole ordeal especially once we mentioned that my family felt unsafe at the motel we cancelled our reservation. We never had an issue with being shunned from any of the free continental breakfast or anything like that from booking thru booking.com. We had a wonderful vacation and absolutely no issues with booking.com and plan on using them for many years to come.

Booked accommodation a week in an advance (to visit my sick mum in hospital).
Turned up to find the hotel had no rooms for us.
Booking.com failed to make sure we were notified. We couldn't answer their two missed calls as were driving. They could have texted - no good sending an email as couldn't access them on the road. Easy to work out this might be the case only hours before the book-in time. (if these calls were anything like the third, received after the hotel rang them after we were turned away, they did not give enough time to answer anyway!)

The first fault may have been with the hotel but booking.com must still be held accountable. Like attracts like, and as stated above they did not do enough to let us know. (Providing more expensive alternatives tens, of miles away is not enough).
The hotel cancelled because they were full, on the day of the stay, when perhaps they should have not taken the booking when initially booked a week before, or better turned away other guests who turned up without booking in advance because they already had our booking.

I thought I reserved a room in Reykavik, IC. When I received an email from booking.com, it said the room was booked with no cancellation. What does "no cancellation" mean? Everything can be cancelled especially if you do not sign. Anyway, I told booking, com to cancel and they said they would have to contact the site, and the site said, no."
This place apparently goes by many names. (How can I enter a contract if I do not know with whom I am dealing?) Whatever, so I told my bank before I left that I disputed the charge, but they had not charged me yet. Today, I noticed six! Charges from this place that I did not know was the place because the charge came from Kopavogur not Reykjavik. Funny since I was staying in Kopavogur. Funny that there were six mini charges over two day with four days in between charges - like they did not want me to notice that they were charging me. Oh, and the charges indicated a website not the name of the establishment - shady. What does booking.com do? Nothing. I cancelled. They are an American company and should have the interests of Americans in mind. A wonderful memory is no marred. I do not know what to do. I contacted my bank. I contracted the Icelandic Consulate because I think it is a shady business. I asked a free legal site if I have grounds for a class action. Oh, this is crazy. I am not rich - I am a school teacher. I should not have to eat over $800.00 for a place at which I did not stay.

In January of this year I had booked a hotel stay in Montreal through Price Line. The trip was supposed to take place in late July of this year. On the computer I was shown a price of $79.00 per night + applicable taxes. Once I approved this I was sent a conformation from Booking.Com and it showed my price per night at $107.19 + applicable taxes per night. As soon as I received this conformation I contacted Booking.Com to see why the rate change. They said this was the rate and that is it. I then asked that they cancel my reservation because they could not honor the rate I was initially shown. I had booked this on my American Express Gold card. About 2 months later I received my American Express bill and it showed the hotel charge for the order that I had cancelled. I then contact American Express to see what happened. They stated that Booking.Com refused the cancellation and that I was stuck paying for that reservation. I proceeded to open a charge dispute with American Express for this charge. After months of running around and making calls I finally received word from American Express that there is nothing they can do and that I am stuck paying for this charge. What is the pointg of having credit card protection if it does not apply to a company like Booking.Com? It is not as if I cancelled this a week before my trip. I sent it out to them about 10 minutes after I received my conformation. I have also contacted booking.Com and they say there is nothing they can do even if the price shown is not what I had accepted. I find this be an entrapment sale in which borderlines on fraud. I am sure that I am not the only one who has had this happen to them from Booking.Com! Where is the customer service? How do you expect to have repeat customers if this is the way you act? And on top of it I am very disappointed with American Express. I can assure this that after this is over I will be cancelling my account with them which I have had for over 20 years. I can assure you that I will never use booking.com or Priceline again. I hope that more people stick up for their rights to stop these companies form taking advantage of us.

Chris Godin
Edmonton