I once booked what I thought was a hotel room via Booking.com but when I arrived it was a “serviced apartment” in a residential complex - so an Airbnb basically. But the way it was presented on the platform made it really difficult to tell it wasn’t a hotel.
Only problem was when I arrived there was already someone in it and they weren’t leaving.
At first Booking.com told me it was my problem and they would refund me and I could book somewhere else. But to get the refund I needed to prove that I couldn’t get in (how? They weren’t clear) and then book somewhere else and then send them all the details and they would “consider my request”.
I wasn’t doing that. No chance. And apart from anything else there were no hotel rooms available because there was a big conference going on. The nearest available rooms were about 30 miles away.
In the end - after an hour or so on the phone with an escalating series of people one of them (I think to get rid of me) stupidly said “if we could find ANY hotel room in town we would book it for you like a shot - but there are none”.
“Ah ha!” I said. “There is a hotel room - but it’s a suite in the Hyatt Regency - and it’s £2100 for the night. I bet you won’t book that!”
Amazingly, they did. The suite was larger than my flat.
And a complete waste because I only needed it for that night and was checking out at 6am. Though it did include a bar and restaurant credit worth nearly as much as the original “room” I’d booked.
They are a completely chaotic company. And after that I never used them again.
Yeah, I either go directly to a hotel's website (using Google Maps to find it) or to AirBNB if I'm looking for an apt because of a bad experience with booking.com.
For this one the owner had actually added it to google maps as “Garden View Hotel” or whatever it was called. It was very confusing because I got dropped by a cab and then spent around 20 minutes trying to find the “hotel”. It was only when I double checked the confirmation email that I saw that to “access reception” I needed to “enter 87 on the intercom buzzer”.
Only problem was when I arrived there was already someone in it and they weren’t leaving.
At first Booking.com told me it was my problem and they would refund me and I could book somewhere else. But to get the refund I needed to prove that I couldn’t get in (how? They weren’t clear) and then book somewhere else and then send them all the details and they would “consider my request”.
I wasn’t doing that. No chance. And apart from anything else there were no hotel rooms available because there was a big conference going on. The nearest available rooms were about 30 miles away.
In the end - after an hour or so on the phone with an escalating series of people one of them (I think to get rid of me) stupidly said “if we could find ANY hotel room in town we would book it for you like a shot - but there are none”.
“Ah ha!” I said. “There is a hotel room - but it’s a suite in the Hyatt Regency - and it’s £2100 for the night. I bet you won’t book that!”
Amazingly, they did. The suite was larger than my flat.
And a complete waste because I only needed it for that night and was checking out at 6am. Though it did include a bar and restaurant credit worth nearly as much as the original “room” I’d booked.
They are a completely chaotic company. And after that I never used them again.