Booking.com cancelled booking issues

BLBLBLB

Long post alreat:

I booked a property through booking.com for Primerva festival in barcelona. The booking was confirmed but on 3/4 occasions, the hotel notified me that the card payment details were incorrect. Each time I would re-input my card details - each time triple checking they were correct, and no error messages would pop up that would lead me to think the card details were incorrect. After the 2nd time of this happening I contacted booking.com directly to highlight my concerns after the hotel itself did not reply to me - I was reassured by booking.com that this was not something to worry about. In hindsight I should have cancelled the booking to look for another accomdation but as booking.com reassured me I kept the booking (why wouldn't I?). 

There would be about three weeks inbetween the card details being accepeted and a new email saying the card details were invalid. On the final time, the hotel emailed me at 3AM saying again that the card details were invalid and that I need to update the details within 6 HOURS to retain the booking. As I work odd hours, I did not see the orginal email until it was too late and they had already cancelled the booking. 

I contacted booking.com to highlight my distress at this and the fact that to now book new accomadation at this short notice is going to drastically increase the costs to a state where I might have to cancel the holiday and try and get refunds where possible. Booking.com contacted the hotel but said that there are now no available rooms at that date which leads me to belive that they cancelled my booking to hike up the prices for someone else. 

They said there was nothing they could as they have no power to re-instate the booking (even though they aggreed it was unacceptable). I asked for equivalnt accomidation but they - unhelpfully - said that "We have tried checking Booking.com the price is quite expensive". 

This to me feels like the hotel has clearly acted in a way to cancel my booking to charge a higher rate to someone else.

So basically, is there anything I can do to re-instate the booking etc?

Thanks for reading

Upsidedownandaround

 No. If they are telling you no rooms are available now then there is nothing you can do to force them in to allowing you to stay there.

sheramber

It was it was the hotel who cancelled, not booking.com.           

Upsidedownandaround

I don’t see how it’s possible to interpret the OP’s post in any other manner than it being the property who cancelled.

In addition Booking.com won’t have control over the properties inventory.

Westin

Perhaps name the hotel. They are likely the guilty party, not booking.com.

sheramber

Upsidedownandaround said:

I don’t see how it’s possible to interpret the OP’s post in any other manner than it being the property who cancelled.

In addition Booking.com won’t have control over the properties inventory.

The title of the thread implicated Booking.com

Upsidedownandaround

sheramber said:

Upsidedownandaround said:

I don’t see how it’s possible to interpret the OP’s post in any other manner than it being the property who cancelled.

In addition Booking.com won’t have control over the properties inventory.

The title of the thread implicated Booking.com

No it doesn’t. 

It just states they have had an issue when making a booking with booking.com and that they may have missed a comma when doing so.

The reading of their post easily clarifies the details for anyone wishing to read it.

lisyloo

Westin said:

Perhaps name the hotel. They are likely the guilty party, not booking.com

i would check travel insurance for cancellation.
when I had a flight cancelled my travel insurance paid the additional costs for changed flights, accommodation, airport parking, airport travel - which were all more expensive.
they didn’t quibble over our choices,

tightauldgit

BLBLBLB said:

Long post alreat:

I booked a property through booking.com for Primerva festival in barcelona. The booking was confirmed but on 3/4 occasions, the hotel notified me that the card payment details were incorrect. Each time I would re-input my card details - each time triple checking they were correct, and no error messages would pop up that would lead me to think the card details were incorrect. After the 2nd time of this happening I contacted booking.com directly to highlight my concerns after the hotel itself did not reply to me - I was reassured by booking.com that this was not something to worry about. In hindsight I should have cancelled the booking to look for another accomdation but as booking.com reassured me I kept the booking (why wouldn't I?). 

There would be about three weeks inbetween the card details being accepeted and a new email saying the card details were invalid. On the final time, the hotel emailed me at 3AM saying again that the card details were invalid and that I need to update the details within 6 HOURS to retain the booking. As I work odd hours, I did not see the orginal email until it was too late and they had already cancelled the booking. 

I contacted booking.com to highlight my distress at this and the fact that to now book new accomadation at this short notice is going to drastically increase the costs to a state where I might have to cancel the holiday and try and get refunds where possible. Booking.com contacted the hotel but said that there are now no available rooms at that date which leads me to belive that they cancelled my booking to hike up the prices for someone else. 

They said there was nothing they could as they have no power to re-instate the booking (even though they aggreed it was unacceptable). I asked for equivalnt accomidation but they - unhelpfully - said that "We have tried checking Booking.com the price is quite expensive". 

This to me feels like the hotel has clearly acted in a way to cancel my booking to charge a higher rate to someone else.

So basically, is there anything I can do to re-instate the booking etc?

Thanks for reading

I had this happen to me with booking.com for a booking in Portugal last year. I don't think it was in any way a scam it was just genuine issues with the hotel not being able to process the card - and that can happen for any number of reasons. If you REALLY want to confirm it then you could check with your CC company if the transaction was attempted.

Luckily in my case I was able to book the same accommodation again after the cancellation at the same price which is why I'm pretty sure it wasn't any kind of scam, just glitches with credit cards and foreign transactions.

It's not really booking.com who are responsible here - if there's no room available then there's no room available. And I wouldn't even blame the hotel as they have no way of knowing anything about the validity of your card other than whether they get the payment or not.