Booking.com - beware!

andygb

We used Booking.com last year and were very happy, but fast forward to last week and a break in France, and the experience was very different.
We booked a place for 7 nights, and the booking terms said that payment was 25% deposit on arrival and the balance on departure, and that the payment could be made by various cards including Visa.
So we got there at 4.15 pm having left England at 5.00 am, and arrived at the place and were shown around. The owner then asked us how we would be paying, I said Visa, and they said - "NON!", they did not accept card payment, and I would have to pay cash:eek: - 400 Euros in cash:eek:
I said that I would have to think about this, and went away to phone booking.com. The person listened to my side of the story, said that they would phone the owner of the gite and get back to me.
Sure enough booking.com phoned me back and said that the owner's card machine had broken and that we would have to pay cash. I said that we would not pay cash, because of the exchange rate differences and the extra charges which we would incur, and that the gite owner was not abiding by the terms and conditions.
Booking.com said that they would phone the owner back and explain this to them, and then get back to me.
They did not phone me back.
So, we stayed one night, and then decided to stay for the rest because the owner could take a payment through the neighbouring gite's machine and get reimbursed. So we paid 25% of the fee up front, and then worried about paying for the rest as the owner was still insisting on being paid cash.
At the end of the stay, I went with the owner to do a bank transfer (so I thought) at their bank, and was then introduced to a cash machine and asked to withdraw 300 euros - I refused.
The owner and the bank manager then suggested that I could do a further transfer via the other gite's (owned by the son of our gite owner) card machine - which is what I had suggested originally:mad:.
When we got home yesterday I had an email from booking.com, where they said the owner was allowed to ask for a cash payment, despite all the information on their website saying that Visa payments were accepted.
So beware when dealing with booking.com because they will simply wash their hands of any problems if they arise, and I certainly would not use them or recommend them again.
There are many reports sourced via Google where people have been relieved of more money, had deposits wrongfully taken when using hotels/gites booked through booking.com.

andygb

I should also point out that the owner of the gite did not have a card machine - it had not broken down, because it did not exist.

poet123

I am assuming here that you were paying by CC rather than Debit card and that the issue was that to withdraw cash from CC is costly, and that you did not have funds available to withdraw by Debit card which would cost no more than the CC exchange rate for card payments?

andygb

poet123 wrote: »

I am assuming here that you were paying by CC rather than Debit card and that the issue was that to withdraw cash from CC is costly, and that you did not have funds available to withdraw by Debit card which would cost no more than the CC exchange rate for card payments?

On our cardsa at the moment (Nationwide), it is cheaper to use the CC for card transactions (straight purchases - not cash) because we are getting 1.17 exchange rate with no extra charges. The DC is attracting two extra charges on each transaction, and if we drew out cash then the exchange rate is about 1.12 with extra charges.
The owner was clearly doing this as some kind of tax eveasion, because she kept saying that it would be "tres complique" by using her son's card machine.
I felt like telling her that business is very complicated, and that once she signs up with a company, she has to abide by their rules.

poet123

andygb wrote: »

On our cardsa at the moment (Nationwide), it is cheaper to use the CC for card transactions (straight purchases - not cash) because we are getting 1.17 exchange rate with no extra charges. The DC is attracting two extra charges on each transaction, and if we drew out cash then the exchange rate is about 1.12 with extra charges.
The owner was clearly doing this as some kind of tax eveasion, because she kept saying that it would be "tres complique" by using her son's card machine.
I felt like telling her that business is very complicated, and that once she signs up with a company, she has to abide by their rules.

We have the Nationwide CC and Flex DC cards. I can see why you were annoyed but for the sums involved I wouldn't have wasted my holiday time to-ing and fro-ing and on calls to the booking agent. I would just have withdrawn the cash from my current account and paid the very small difference. Did you work out what it would have been overall?

My time, especially my holiday time is worth more to me than that. And I do like a good complain myself when warranted.;)

Tony69

andygb wrote: »

There are many reports sourced via Google where people have been relieved of more money, had deposits wrongfully taken when using hotels/gites booked through booking.com.

There are also many reports where people have not had any problems with booking.com also.

andygb

poet123 wrote: »

We have the Nationwide CC and Flex DC cards. I can see why you were annoyed but for the sums involved I wouldn't have wasted my holiday time to-ing and fro-ing and on calls to the booking agent. I would just have withdrawn the cash from my current account and paid the very small difference. Did you work out what it would have been overall?

My time, especially my holiday time is worth more to me than that. And I do like a good complain myself when warranted.;)


The excgange rate difference would have been around £22 plus the extra charges for drawing out cash in a foreign country, so I suppose around £30 - £35 in total.
Actually would it have been more? Would I have been able to withdraw 400 euros in one hit from a foreign bank?

Doshwaster

poet123 wrote: »

We have the Nationwide CC and Flex DC cards. I can see why you were annoyed but for the sums involved I wouldn't have wasted my holiday time to-ing and fro-ing and on calls to the booking agent. I would just have withdrawn the cash from my current account and paid the very small difference. Did you work out what it would have been overall?

My time, especially my holiday time is worth more to me than that. And I do like a good complain myself when warranted.;)

100% agreed. Yes, the situation was unfortunate but was it really worth the stress, time and cost of resolving the situation when you could have just withdrawn the cash. What would it have cost you - a few pounds at most? The phone calls probably cost more than that.

Sometimes on holiday it's best to go with the flow. It may not be the Money Saving approach, but it is the Stress Saving one. Just relax, order another bottle of wine and forget about it.

Teahfc

I use booking.com a dozen or do time a year, never had an issues( touch wood).
How comes he Exchange rate would vary so much ?
If you knew your CC rate was 1.17 but your DC was only 1.12 how do you find that out ? Surely on you DC you get bank rate plus maybe 1.5 % surcharge ?

budgetflyer

From what I can see, the Nationwide card has a cash fee of 2.5% + APR around 28%· (about 1.2% for a fortnight)

So maybe 3.8% all in or 16 Euro

ferf1223

as far as I know booking.com is only a reservation agent - that's it...the accomodation owners are responsible for the details provided...since you were due to pay the accomodation owner that would support my understanding that you had a reservation only...what would booking.com be able to do in this instance? if the accomodation owner stated in the detail provided to booking.com that they accepted credit cards but didn't? I suppose they could open a case with the owner to update their information if it's incorrectly displayed but that wouldn't have helped you anyway.