Serg K.

I am happy now to be out of Georgia, where the only monopoly - priceline group is availbable. Tired of cheating owners who try yo deceive you, deceive booking.com and cancel booking. Even if you do not agree to cancel cheating owners set status of no show.

Namely booking number *******647 Hotel "Orbi Sea Tower Flat" in city of Batumi The only ID is phone number +995 555 43 43 77 address is Khimshiashvili, 15 block A, 5th floor room 5-08

On 1 June I arrived at apartment, contacted the host by phone, got in and paid money (200 GEL). Host's assistant Hatuna offered to cancel booking and pay her less money (120 GEL). I rejected that offer.
On 2 June I got message of "No show" with questionnaire to fill. I suppose that the host posted this status to not to pay commission to booking.com (*) I immediately contacted support and posted photos from inside apartment, photos are attached to this mail, I've also recorded video when the host herself came on 5th June to take back the keys from apartment.
On 4 June I got an email from your employee Artur stating that case is closed.
But it's not. Until now status of this booking is still "No show".
The latest message I got from booking.com was stating that once status "no show" is set it cannot be revoked.
That's not correct. I remember how several years ago I got in similar situation in Russia when a host set status "no show", but on the next day after status was changed to correct one with help of booking.com support.
But not this time. Support fro country Georgia is not answering my mails.
There is no phone support in small country as Georgia is. You have to make international call to Russia. It required booking.com 14 minutes to even pick up that call!

I've sent booking.com a letter of complain after several cases happened while I'm staying in Georgia(Causasus country). Here it is.

I have made ~15 bookings in Georgia(country) in last 2 months. Twice I was
Offered by property owner to cancel booking in booking.com and pay to
Owner without booking.com as an intermediate. That means no commission
(18%) for booking.com. I did not cancel any booking. But I want to
Notice you that this [offer to cancel] is a custom thing in Georgia.
I've complained to russian-speaking support about the most notoroius case
(booking *******810 in Gigi Apartments). It took your russian-speaking
Support 3 weeks (!) to answer that mail. I am still waiting for 3 weeks at
Least while my review of this apartment will pass through moderation
Process.

Slow answering for email is not the only problem. It's impossible to
Contact russian-speaking support(+7 499 271 87 34) from Georgia. I've
Waited for 15 minutes in roaming just to connection to operator.
Despite the fact that operator Vasile was not ready to help at all.

Last time (booking *******560) I've experienced another trick of
Property owner that seems to be common in Georgia.
I made booking at 5:48 PM. I asked owner by myself by mail
About pre-payment. At 6:20PM(*) property owner Zura answered me by mail that I
Have to send him 1-night price by swift-transfer in 1 hour (**).
I immediately called him back by phone and recorded that call. I
Offered to bring him that amount in cash in 15 minutes as soon as I am
Now nearby.
Zura answered that pre-payment is not needed and I can bring him the whole
Amount in cash at check-in time.
1 minute after call ended he sent the opposite message to mail (I've seen that
Mail hours later, I went for a walk and to restaurant) and at 7:27pm
Zura voluntarily cancelled the booking.

(*) Banks normally closes at 6pm/7pm. Bank transfers may end earlier,
Sometimes transfers after 1pm are proccessed in the next day! I
Couldn't fulfill his requirement to send transfer that day and he knew
It.
(**) It is not possible to deliver money by swift-transfer in 1 hour.
It takes 3 banking days normally to deliver money to his bank account
In Georgia. Even if it means to show him receipt from bank that
Transfer's been made it takes some time (~1 hour) to go to bank, get back to
Home, scan and send him scan of receipt. How is that even possible to
Make that transfer in time he stated?!

I am sure that Zura was agressively attracting customers using promo
And lowering prices below average. But price I was offered by
booking.com (-50% as I have genius-account) was too low for him and
Zura decide to drop my booking in favor of bookings with bigger prices.

Despite it took me 30 minutes to reach your Georgia-dedicated russian support stuff by phone finally I
Was offered compensation of 25 euro for this booking *******560.
Reputation is another thing that can't be covered by compensations.
Your clients in Georgia are in troubles when they are dealing with Zura
From "Apart Hotel in Black Sea Tower" or Tengiz from "Gigi Apartments".

And your clients often have seems to be fake reviews and no truthful
Information about such leased properties. That tricks are also used
To not allow unhappy client who experienced not-working internet
And so on to write review. I can't write review about Zura though he
Definitely cheated.

I should add that booking.com is a monopolist on this small market.