Booking.com filthy holiday flat

frugal6

Hi we are looking for some info and help on where to go, we booked and paid for accommodation through Booking.com and all the reviews were good. But when we turned up the flat was far from good, kitchen was filthy,rotten food in the cupboards work surfaces, floors and utensils were filthy and it smelled, also the bathroom walls were black with mould, toilet set was broken and again the room was also filthy. So we called Booking.com and was told that they would try and call the owner but to no avail at this time we took pictures and told booking.com that we could not stay there as in our opinion the flat was not fit to take our family in and that we would find different accommodation. During the next week we continued to call booking.com and was given an email address to send pictures of the accommodation,this we did 3 times but they said that they never received them so when we got back home we called trading standards but they are having no joy contacting them either, so called Tesco credit card and was told that we would be unable to make a claim through charge back and they said it would be unlikely to get a claim through section 75 as it did not meet the criteria! Would anyone what to do ?

Ben8282

Send the pictures to booking com again

frugal6

Have done it again tonight but don’t think they are getting them or are ignoring them

Ben8282

frugal6 wrote: »

Have done it again tonight but don’t think they are getting them or are ignoring them

Why would they be ignorinmg them?

frugal6

Don’t know when I call them they say they didn’t receive them , I was online while speaking to them and sent pictures to them with the email that gave and they said that the pictures hadn’t arrived, I even sent them via my work email but just the same

jonesMUFCforever

Print them and send them by post by signed for post?

eskbanker

Try uploading pictures to one of the free image hosting sites and send them links instead, rather than email attachments that may be trapped/discarded during the journey, e.g. if they're collectively larger than maximum inbound email size....

https://www.booking.com/content/how_we_work.en-gb.html (and their Ts & Cs) would suggest that they're unlikely to get directly involved in a dispute about quality of accommodation and are more likely to direct you to the property owner/provider:

Through the "www.booking.com" website, Booking.com provides an online booking service through which all accommodation providers, such as hoteliers, and other providers can offer their products and booking services, and that the website users can use to make a reservation.

Booking.com B.V. itself does not provide the services offered on the "www.booking.com" website and therefore does not sell the accommodation.

When you make a booking via the "www.booking.com" website, you are committed in a direct contractual relationship to the provider with whom you made a reservation. Booking.com communicates your booking details to the relevant provider(s) and sends you a confirmation email in the name and on behalf of the provider.

Our booking service is free for the user.

Booking.com doesn't charge the guest for any booking or cancellation fees nor any other fees related to their reservation, and no payment is made by Booking.com. The payment is directly charged by the provider.

Section 75 is unlikely to apply because booking.com acts as an intermediary between customer and actual property providers (etc), so the debtor-creditor-supplier chain is broken.

Sea_Shell

Or insert the pictures into a Word document and send that as an attachment to the email.

jimbo26

Ben8282 wrote: »

Why would they be ignorinmg them?

Because the contract is between the customer and the person letting the property. TBH honest Booking.com can't be bothered with the hassle which is why they stipulate the contract is not with them. They just want to cream off the fee without the hassle of getting involved in disputes.

Mutton_Geoff

Sea_Shell wrote: »

Or insert the pictures into a Word document and send that as an attachment to the email.

I suggest you don't do that. Word converts images to bitmap (bmp) and grossly inflates the size of the total document.


Use a free image editor to reduce the size of the photos to 1280x960 or similar size. Most cameras and phones now take very high definition photos which are not required to convey your message. You could also adjust the camera settings to reduce the image size (in pixels) to shrink the file size. Many email carriers will reject file sizes above 5mb or so.


Final option, send your images one by one rather than in one email.


I have a similar situation several years ago when renting a property in Florida via HomeAway. Nobody would take responsibility so I persuaded my bank to return the second (50% balance) payment I had made via Paypal.


The owner and Paypal got very upset but were powerless to do anything and although Paypal threatened court action, I let them know I would see them there with photos and they never continued with action.

18cc

Yes you won't get any money back through section 75 as you paid booking.com not the accommidation owner

This is one of the problems with going through intermediaries such as booking.com

Your best bet is to continue persevering with booking.com unless you want to start taking Court action in a country where the accommodation was situated