booking.com

kammx4

Hello. Just booked a villa through Booking.com and wished i hadn't. All through the process of booking the price was stated at £2092 with small print of does not include 13% tax and fees of 250$. In big writing price is £2092 all through every detail of every form. Put credit card details in again price is £2092 hit okay and BOOM total price is £ 2572. I asked to cancel the villa but I'm now being told there is a $350 charge. Should i be expected to work out all the charges before completing the deal and should i be quoted a price I'm paying before completing the forms. How can i cancel this booking. Thanks for any replies.

newuser86

Unfortunately so, it does say when booking that it either includes or doesnt include certain fees and taxes and you must be mindful of that. You can email booking.com but doubt you have much to go on as it should say on the booking page when you select the room/villa under the price that it doesnt include certain fees..

leylandsunaddict

Booking.com are only advertising whatever the villa company/manager/owner uploads onto the site. Yes, you are supposed to read all the info pertaining to a property before confirming, incl the cancellation policy. If you want to try to cancel it without paying the cancellation charges you agreed to you need to contact whoever it is booked with.

dirty_magic

I had a similar problem with them. It didn't say anywhere when I booked it that there were additional taxes, I checked thoroughly before choosing the accommodation, and it did say there were taxes on another type of accommodation but not the room I booked. I booked and it said I had to pay extra taxes and city tax on top of that.

They also put on their website confirmation and the booking confirmation direct from the hotel that no money would be taken and we'd pay when we go, but they've taken the money.

To top it all off, they've taken the money in local currency, so I've been hit with bank charges. Had I known, I'd have used a different card. A hotel that should have cost £530 has ended up costing £640. I'm printing off my bank statement, because when I get there they'll probably say it's pay on checkout even though I've paid.

I won't be using them again, at least hotels.com are transparent with their charges.

leylandsunaddict

None of that had anything to do with booking.com. The hotel upload all the information and prices. The hotel charge you, so unless its a hotel in the UK they're obviously going to charge in their own currency. If you've got any problems with the info on booking.com you need to take it up with the hotel.

Booking.com are just a platform for hotels to advertise on. You can't really compare them with hotels.com because they do two different things.

dirty_magic

leylandsunaddict wrote: »

None of that had anything to do with booking.com. The hotel upload all the information and prices. The hotel charge you, so unless its a hotel in the UK they're obviously going to charge in their own currency. If you've got any problems with the info on booking.com you need to take it up with the hotel.

Booking.com are just a platform for hotels to advertise on. You can't really compare them with hotels.com because they do two different things.

I didn't know that when I booked it. Booking.com have to take some responsibility if they're advertising it on their site and you're booking through them. They should have clarified the taxes and they should have made it clear that they were taking the payment in a different currency, because when it's quoted in pounds and it doesn't say anywhere that you're booking direct with the hotel you assume they'll take the payment in pounds. I think the taxes were a glitch because it does say for all of the others, just not the room I booked.

leylandsunaddict

dirty_magic wrote: »

I didn't know that when I booked it. Booking.com have to take some responsibility if they're advertising it on their site and you're booking through them. They should have clarified the taxes and they should have made it clear that they were taking the payment in a different currency, because when it's quoted in pounds and it doesn't say anywhere that you're booking direct with the hotel you assume they'll take the payment in pounds. I think the taxes were a glitch because it does say for all of the others, just not the room I booked.

You're not booking it on their site though. They just pass all the info on to the hotel. They don't put the info on their site so how do they clarify something they have nothing to do with? They don't have anything to do with payments either so what do they take responsibility for?

Often in the policies of the hotel which are listed on every property it will say "The hotel reserves the right to pre-authorise credit cards prior to arrival."

it doesn't say anywhere that you're booking direct with the hotel

It's quite clear in the terms and conditions you read before you agree to them.

mgdavid

kammx4 wrote: »

...... Should i be expected to work out all the charges before completing the deal ........

Er, yes.
100% your responsibility.

EconomicsGirl

It is worth contacting Booking.com. I booked a cottage through them and bill came in at £15 higher than they quoted, e-mailed them and it got refunded. It's worth a try though if its in the small print legally they may not have to refund.

Sicard

The total price should have included all the extras before the actual payment otherwise it smacks of deception. Just saying in the T&C there will be extra charges but not including them in the total before paying is sneaky in my opinion.

shaun_from_Africa

kammx4 wrote: »

Should i be expected to work out all the charges before completing the deal and should i be quoted a price I'm paying before completing the forms.

Should you be expected to work out the charges?
Yes. It's your money that you are spending so surely you want to know exactly how much the booking will be costing you.

If you opening post you stated that:

kammx4 wrote: »

All through the process of booking the price was stated at £2092 with small print of does not include 13% tax and fees of 250$.

It's clear that you were advised that these would be added to the headline price of £2092 so I'm at a loss as to why the you were surprised that the final price was higher than £2092.
Even if you only estimated it roughly by adding 10% tax (£209) and £200 fees you would have had a very close idea of the final cost.