Booking.com free taxi transfer scam

cheshirelabrador

I booked a stay with booking.com. On the search results page it showed a banner saying they offer a free taxi transfer for stays of over £251 to this city. I selected a stay advertised as £253 and it said the free taxi transfer was included. There was then a tick box on the final booking screen for the free taxi transfer which I left ticked. However, there was no mention of it in the confirmation.

I queried this and was told the booking was not eligible. I took screenshots during the booking process and sent these across. I was still told it's not eligible.

According to their computer the minimum spend for the free taxi is 300 Euros. My invoice shows 292 Euros to be charged to my card plus 10 Euros to pay at property (local tourist tax). I argued their system must have taken the tourist tax in the account and offered me the free taxi. Their response was computer says no and she closed the chat.

[Deleted User]

Maybe the exchange rate too.

Do you have a screenshot of the banner?

What do you actually want? How much will the taxi be, to put a number on it?

Sandtree

If you google the promotion you will find no consumer facing pages but a ton of pages for property owners and seems like a lot of them werent happy with the promo either, mainly because the customers are complaining to them rather than booking.com

Do you have a link to the T&Cs of the promo or a screenshot of them? The devil is always in the detail and promotions often have get out clauses like a free cuddly toy but only whilst stocks last.

Seems most likely that the T&Cs was based on a non-GBP minimum spend and you've fallen foul of FX movements.

cheshirelabrador

rigolith said:

Maybe the exchange rate too.

Do you have a screenshot of the banner?

What do you actually want? How much will the taxi be, to put a number on it?

Yes. The banner said stays to this city over £251. The initial contact said if you are eligible a link would be included on the original booking confirmation email but it wasn't. This is what's led me to believe the advertised rate (including the tourist tax) is what prompted the website to say "Free taxi from the airport to this property" under where it says breakfast included and free cancellation until xx/xx.  However, despite having the screenshots to prove it was offered they are refusing to honour it.

cheshirelabrador

Sandtree said:

Seems most likely that the T&Cs was based on a non-GBP minimum spend and you've fallen foul of FX movements.

The short T&Cs were on the payment page and simply said it was included on this booking, that it's valid for up to 6 people from a transfer between the city's airport and the hotel and that it's provided by booking.com and not the hotel. There was a tick box that allowed me to opt in or out of the offer and I left it ticked.

Looking at the booking confirmation page it's showing a total price £1 lower than the pre-booking rate. But that still leaves the total £1 above the minimum.

Izzy33

Just booked accommodation for 4 weeks in Pattaya Thailand.  To my surprise when I clicked the free taxi link the airport that showed up was Utapao.  This is the nearest airport to Pattaya but does not take any scheduled flights from the UK.  All British tourists going to Pattaya would fly into Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, which is a little further away, but still only costs about £24.  The cost of taking a flight to Utapao from BKK would cost much more than a taxi, not to mention the time wasted.  So for some destinations the free taxi offer is indeed a scam.

Westin

Izzy33 said:

Just booked accommodation for 4 weeks in Pattaya Thailand.  To my surprise when I clicked the free taxi link the airport that showed up was Utapao.  This is the nearest airport to Pattaya but does not take any scheduled flights from the UK.  All British tourists going to Pattaya would fly into Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, which is a little further away, but still only costs about £24.  The cost of taking a flight to Utapao from BKK would cost much more than a taxi, not to mention the time wasted.  So for some destinations the free taxi offer is indeed a scam.

Not a 'scam' though. You just didn't read the offer terms/conditions.

Izzy33

No, I did actually read the Booking.com T and Cs.  They specify nearest airport, but there is no mention of arrangements for particular cities or of Utapao.  This airport  is not a long haul hub, and the major airlines do not fly there. It only receives scheduled international flights from Russia, China, Dubai and Malaysia, and not many at that. Most traffic is charter flights.  On the same Booking.com hotel advertisements there is sometimes mention of the availability of airport transfer at extra cost, and if you click on those details the airport is invariably Bangkok Suvarnabhumi. Now the English language Booking.com website is aimed at such areas as the UK, US and Australasia, and nobody from those countries can fly into Utapao in a way that makes any sense.  So I call the promotion a scam. If you disagree then please explain to me how you fly from London to Utapao without incurring a large amount of extra expense, and don’t tell me go via Phuket and buy an extra domestic flight.

Westin

So you made an assumption then. You assumed your arrival airport was covered by this offer rather than the advertised ‘local airport’.  Booking.com are not to know that you were flying xxx Airlines from XYZ overseas airport.  Some checking in advance on your part was necessary.  Sorry for the hard news but I think this is on you. No scam as you report.

Izzy33

No that is incorrect.  Perhaps seeing is believing.




Note journey length of 74km.  Now look at next page




Note journey length.  Now see where you can fly from Utapao

Westin

I think all you can do then is send those screen shots to Booking.com and see what they say about it.