Booking.com price hike after booking

Ozzig

Upsidedownandaround said:

Ozzig said:

I understood how it worked when I booked a two-night stay for us and two young children.

It was the accommodation provider refusing to take responsibility because I booked via booking .com and booking .com refusing to take responsibility because the accommodation provider has a no-refunds policy.

Raised the issues on checking in (via phone as no reception service - checking in was a door code number texted to me at 16:30 on the day of check-in)

The accommodation provider said nothing could be done until the next morning.
The next morning the accommodation provider said nothing could be done that day and they had no other rooms to move us to and suggested escalating to booking .com, booking .comsaid "no refunds" but they could look for other accommodation for us but as it was such short notice we'd be paying top dollar for anything they come up with. I didn't have the money to pay for another accommodation and we had two small children at the seaside who would have been heartbroken if we'd just left to come home.

We basically spent two days cleaning and fixing the bits of the accommodation we used as we needed.

Complained to booking .com when we got home about how the system fell down and they said we can have a £20 voucher off our next booking.
I wanted an apology and some understanding that they need to fix the problem not £20 towards a booking I was never going to make.

I asked to escalate to a manager and was told to hang up and call back and ask again as the agent couldn't because they work from home and the next guy might but probably would be able to either.

I told him to close my account and confirm when my details had been removed from their systems and he said to hang up and call back again. 

Never used them again.

That’s not surprising then.

The fact you booked a poor standard of accommodation is nothing to do with booking.com. I’m not sure what you were expecting them to have done in those circumstances.

If your expectation was that they would provide you with alternative accommodation because you felt the accommodation was poor or you expected them to give you a refund for the accommodation providers failings then with respect I don’t think you do understand how they work.

Unfortunately that is one of the risks of using them though that you give unscrupulous accommodation providers the leverage of blaming booking.com to avoid taking responsibility.

Don't be so bloody patronising, booking .com advertised it on their website as 4* and included the statement 
 "Awarded to home and apartment-like properties by Booking.com. These represent quality ratings based on factors including facilities, size, location and service."

I didn't want a refund I wanted to stay in the quality of accommodation advertised and I wanted an acknowledgement they had an issue with the process and that it would be addressed.

Upsidedownandaround

Ozzig said:

Upsidedownandaround said:

Ozzig said:

I understood how it worked when I booked a two-night stay for us and two young children.

It was the accommodation provider refusing to take responsibility because I booked via booking .com and booking .com refusing to take responsibility because the accommodation provider has a no-refunds policy.

Raised the issues on checking in (via phone as no reception service - checking in was a door code number texted to me at 16:30 on the day of check-in)

The accommodation provider said nothing could be done until the next morning.
The next morning the accommodation provider said nothing could be done that day and they had no other rooms to move us to and suggested escalating to booking .com, booking .comsaid "no refunds" but they could look for other accommodation for us but as it was such short notice we'd be paying top dollar for anything they come up with. I didn't have the money to pay for another accommodation and we had two small children at the seaside who would have been heartbroken if we'd just left to come home.

We basically spent two days cleaning and fixing the bits of the accommodation we used as we needed.

Complained to booking .com when we got home about how the system fell down and they said we can have a £20 voucher off our next booking.
I wanted an apology and some understanding that they need to fix the problem not £20 towards a booking I was never going to make.

I asked to escalate to a manager and was told to hang up and call back and ask again as the agent couldn't because they work from home and the next guy might but probably would be able to either.

I told him to close my account and confirm when my details had been removed from their systems and he said to hang up and call back again. 

Never used them again.

That’s not surprising then.

The fact you booked a poor standard of accommodation is nothing to do with booking.com. I’m not sure what you were expecting them to have done in those circumstances.

If your expectation was that they would provide you with alternative accommodation because you felt the accommodation was poor or you expected them to give you a refund for the accommodation providers failings then with respect I don’t think you do understand how they work.

Unfortunately that is one of the risks of using them though that you give unscrupulous accommodation providers the leverage of blaming booking.com to avoid taking responsibility.

Don't be so bloody patronising, booking .com advertised it on their website as 4* and included the statement 
 "Awarded to home and apartment-like properties by Booking.com. These represent quality ratings based on factors including facilities, size, location and service."

I didn't want a refund I wanted to stay in the quality of accommodation advertised and I wanted an acknowledgement they had an issue with the process and that it would be addressed.

I’m not being patronising. I’m just trying to explain how they and similar direct distribution platforms work so you avoid such issues in future and measure your expectations with who you chose to book with.

The star standard for home and apartment like properties will be a completely meaningless standard created by them based on reviews and information provided by the property. They are not accepting any responsibility or liability for a property failing to meet your expected standards.

If you are expecting a 3rd party to take responsibility for failures by an accommodation provider you have chosen to book with you won’t get it unless you go on a package holiday or use a small letting company which has control over and visits and inspects the properties.

Ozzig

Upsidedownandaround said:

Ozzig said:

Upsidedownandaround said:

Ozzig said:

I understood how it worked when I booked a two-night stay for us and two young children.

It was the accommodation provider refusing to take responsibility because I booked via booking .com and booking .com refusing to take responsibility because the accommodation provider has a no-refunds policy.

Raised the issues on checking in (via phone as no reception service - checking in was a door code number texted to me at 16:30 on the day of check-in)

The accommodation provider said nothing could be done until the next morning.
The next morning the accommodation provider said nothing could be done that day and they had no other rooms to move us to and suggested escalating to booking .com, booking .comsaid "no refunds" but they could look for other accommodation for us but as it was such short notice we'd be paying top dollar for anything they come up with. I didn't have the money to pay for another accommodation and we had two small children at the seaside who would have been heartbroken if we'd just left to come home.

We basically spent two days cleaning and fixing the bits of the accommodation we used as we needed.

Complained to booking .com when we got home about how the system fell down and they said we can have a £20 voucher off our next booking.
I wanted an apology and some understanding that they need to fix the problem not £20 towards a booking I was never going to make.

I asked to escalate to a manager and was told to hang up and call back and ask again as the agent couldn't because they work from home and the next guy might but probably would be able to either.

I told him to close my account and confirm when my details had been removed from their systems and he said to hang up and call back again. 

Never used them again.

That’s not surprising then.

The fact you booked a poor standard of accommodation is nothing to do with booking.com. I’m not sure what you were expecting them to have done in those circumstances.

If your expectation was that they would provide you with alternative accommodation because you felt the accommodation was poor or you expected them to give you a refund for the accommodation providers failings then with respect I don’t think you do understand how they work.

Unfortunately that is one of the risks of using them though that you give unscrupulous accommodation providers the leverage of blaming booking.com to avoid taking responsibility.

Don't be so bloody patronising, booking .com advertised it on their website as 4* and included the statement 
 "Awarded to home and apartment-like properties by Booking.com. These represent quality ratings based on factors including facilities, size, location and service."

I didn't want a refund I wanted to stay in the quality of accommodation advertised and I wanted an acknowledgement they had an issue with the process and that it would be addressed.

I’m not being patronising. I’m just trying to explain how they and similar direct distribution platforms work so you avoid such issues in future and measure your expectations with who you chose to book with.

The star standard for home and apartment like properties will be a completely meaningless standard created by them based on reviews and information provided by the property. They are not accepting any responsibility or liability for a property failing to meet your expected standards.

If you are expecting a 3rd party to take responsibility for failures by an accommodation provider you have chosen to book with you won’t get it unless you go on a package holiday or use a small letting company which has control over and visits and inspects the properties.

I booked a 4* rated accommodation, a rating booking .com awarded to them, based on criteria that were clearly unchecked by booking .com . 

If I booked via Uber a car with 7 seats I expect 7 seats.
If I ordered a 12" pepperoni pizza via Deliveroo I expect a 12" pepperoni pizza.

If a 4-seat cab turns up or I get a bag of chips I know both will rectify the problem and the cab/takeaway will be penalised for not upholding their end of the bargain, thus improving their service. (Or remove them from the platform)

Whereas booking .com showed no interest in resolving the issues beyond telling me they might be able to find alternative accommodation at a premium price on top of what I had already paid.

The same accommodation is still advertised and I just hope the letter I wrote to the director of the accommodation company has at least made it child friendly and regularly cleaned by now. 

If I misread your reply, I apologise for accusing you of being patronising, but I assure you I understand how this type of solution works hence why I booked accommodation booking .com had awarded the rating to rather than the many others without their rating.

I am all for luck of the draw, in days of old I had many good (and some not-so-good) allocations on arrival package holidays. The bad ones I made the best of because I signed up for anything from 0 stars to 4 star and that's what I got.

Upsidedownandaround

Sorry but your examples are nothing like the same thing. You are conflating facts with subjective opinions of a standard created by your own expectations of what a 4 star apartment should be.

Similar examples would be expecting every Deliveroo or Uber you booked that had 4/5 for reviews would be what you would consider to be 4/5.

Even in regulated industries like hotels star categories have wildly varying standards and requirement between different countries and aren’t necessarily an indication of quality but certain facilities and services available.

Even if the examples you gave were good ones the fact of the matter remains your contract was with the accommodation provider if your subjective opinions were that they were not up to standard that’s not booking.com’s responsibility.

You may expect it to and you may want it to be but it isn’t and terms you enter in to make that completely clear. 

If you are expecting online platforms and OTA’s to accept liability and responsibility for customers unhappy with their hotels or apartments for the millions of properties throughout the world they are selling then I’m sorry but your expectations are not at all realistic.

Ozzig

Upsidedownandaround said:

Sorry but your examples are nothing like the same thing. You are conflating facts with subjective opinions of a standard created by your own expectations of what a 4 star apartment should be.

Similar examples would be expecting every Deliveroo or Uber you booked that had 4/5 for reviews would be what you would consider to be 4/5.

Even in regulated industries like hotels star categories have wildly varying standards and requirement between different countries and aren’t necessarily an indication of quality but certain facilities and services available.

Even if the examples you gave were good ones the fact of the matter remains your contract was with the accommodation provider if your subjective opinions were that they were not up to standard that’s not booking.com’s responsibility.

You may expect it to and you may want it to be but it isn’t and terms you enter in to make that completely clear. 

If you are expecting online platforms and OTA’s to accept liability and responsibility for customers unhappy with their hotels or apartments for the millions of properties throughout the world they are selling then I’m sorry but your expectations are not at all realistic.

You're right, I give in. Completely wrong. Booking .com saying something is 4* should not match my expectation of 4*. 

Out of curiosity, would you in your opinion 4* accommodation include dried kebab meat on the furniture, bare electrical wires on lamps, broken glass on the floor, a kitchen worktop held in place only by the weight of an unclean microwave oven, a windows less bathroom with no working light source.

If it is, I will stop complaining about booking .com and lower my expectations of £500 accommodation considerably.

Upsidedownandaround

Ozzig said:

Upsidedownandaround said:

Sorry but your examples are nothing like the same thing. You are conflating facts with subjective opinions of a standard created by your own expectations of what a 4 star apartment should be.

Similar examples would be expecting every Deliveroo or Uber you booked that had 4/5 for reviews would be what you would consider to be 4/5.

Even in regulated industries like hotels star categories have wildly varying standards and requirement between different countries and aren’t necessarily an indication of quality but certain facilities and services available.

Even if the examples you gave were good ones the fact of the matter remains your contract was with the accommodation provider if your subjective opinions were that they were not up to standard that’s not booking.com’s responsibility.

You may expect it to and you may want it to be but it isn’t and terms you enter in to make that completely clear. 

If you are expecting online platforms and OTA’s to accept liability and responsibility for customers unhappy with their hotels or apartments for the millions of properties throughout the world they are selling then I’m sorry but your expectations are not at all realistic.

You're right, I give in. Completely wrong. Booking .com saying something is 4* should not match my expectation of 4*. 

Out of curiosity, would you in your opinion 4* accommodation include dried kebab meat on the furniture, bare electrical wires on lamps, broken glass on the floor, a kitchen worktop held in place only by the weight of an unclean microwave oven, a windows less bathroom with no working light source.

If it is, I will stop complaining about booking .com and lower my expectations of £500 accommodation considerably.

I wouldn’t  no.

I don’t think booking.com had been round dropping kebab on the floor, smashing glasses, ripping the worktop off and pulling out wires etc so I’m still not sure why you think it’s their responsibility or what you expected them to do about it.

Out of curiosity what were the previous reviews like, what was the property and what did you do about it with the accommodation provider you chose to book?

onashoestring

Ozzig said:

Upsidedownandaround said:

Ozzig said:

Upsidedownandaround said:

Ozzig said:

I understood how it worked when I booked a two-night stay for us and two young children.

It was the accommodation provider refusing to take responsibility because I booked via booking .com and booking .com refusing to take responsibility because the accommodation provider has a no-refunds policy.

Raised the issues on checking in (via phone as no reception service - checking in was a door code number texted to me at 16:30 on the day of check-in)

The accommodation provider said nothing could be done until the next morning.
The next morning the accommodation provider said nothing could be done that day and they had no other rooms to move us to and suggested escalating to booking .com, booking .comsaid "no refunds" but they could look for other accommodation for us but as it was such short notice we'd be paying top dollar for anything they come up with. I didn't have the money to pay for another accommodation and we had two small children at the seaside who would have been heartbroken if we'd just left to come home.

We basically spent two days cleaning and fixing the bits of the accommodation we used as we needed.

Complained to booking .com when we got home about how the system fell down and they said we can have a £20 voucher off our next booking.
I wanted an apology and some understanding that they need to fix the problem not £20 towards a booking I was never going to make.

I asked to escalate to a manager and was told to hang up and call back and ask again as the agent couldn't because they work from home and the next guy might but probably would be able to either.

I told him to close my account and confirm when my details had been removed from their systems and he said to hang up and call back again. 

Never used them again.

That’s not surprising then.

The fact you booked a poor standard of accommodation is nothing to do with booking.com. I’m not sure what you were expecting them to have done in those circumstances.

If your expectation was that they would provide you with alternative accommodation because you felt the accommodation was poor or you expected them to give you a refund for the accommodation providers failings then with respect I don’t think you do understand how they work.

Unfortunately that is one of the risks of using them though that you give unscrupulous accommodation providers the leverage of blaming booking.com to avoid taking responsibility.

Don't be so bloody patronising, booking .com advertised it on their website as 4* and included the statement 
 "Awarded to home and apartment-like properties by Booking.com. These represent quality ratings based on factors including facilities, size, location and service."

I didn't want a refund I wanted to stay in the quality of accommodation advertised and I wanted an acknowledgement they had an issue with the process and that it would be addressed.

I’m not being patronising. I’m just trying to explain how they and similar direct distribution platforms work so you avoid such issues in future and measure your expectations with who you chose to book with.

The star standard for home and apartment like properties will be a completely meaningless standard created by them based on reviews and information provided by the property. They are not accepting any responsibility or liability for a property failing to meet your expected standards.

If you are expecting a 3rd party to take responsibility for failures by an accommodation provider you have chosen to book with you won’t get it unless you go on a package holiday or use a small letting company which has control over and visits and inspects the properties.

I booked a 4* rated accommodation, a rating booking .com awarded to them, based on criteria that were clearly unchecked by booking .com . 

From booking.com 
“ 1J. Star ratings, review scores and quality ratings

We don’t assign star ratings. Depending on local regulations, they’re assigned (a) by the Service Providers themselves or (b) by independent third parties (e.g. organisations that rate hotels). …..   ……We don’t impose our own standards for star ratings, and we don’t review these star ratings, “

Ozzig

Upsidedownandaround said:

Ozzig said:

Upsidedownandaround said:

Sorry but your examples are nothing like the same thing. You are conflating facts with subjective opinions of a standard created by your own expectations of what a 4 star apartment should be.

Similar examples would be expecting every Deliveroo or Uber you booked that had 4/5 for reviews would be what you would consider to be 4/5.

Even in regulated industries like hotels star categories have wildly varying standards and requirement between different countries and aren’t necessarily an indication of quality but certain facilities and services available.

Even if the examples you gave were good ones the fact of the matter remains your contract was with the accommodation provider if your subjective opinions were that they were not up to standard that’s not booking.com’s responsibility.

You may expect it to and you may want it to be but it isn’t and terms you enter in to make that completely clear. 

If you are expecting online platforms and OTA’s to accept liability and responsibility for customers unhappy with their hotels or apartments for the millions of properties throughout the world they are selling then I’m sorry but your expectations are not at all realistic.

You're right, I give in. Completely wrong. Booking .com saying something is 4* should not match my expectation of 4*. 

Out of curiosity, would you in your opinion 4* accommodation include dried kebab meat on the furniture, bare electrical wires on lamps, broken glass on the floor, a kitchen worktop held in place only by the weight of an unclean microwave oven, a windows less bathroom with no working light source.

If it is, I will stop complaining about booking .com and lower my expectations of £500 accommodation considerably.

I wouldn’t  no.

I don’t think booking.com had been round dropping kebab on the floor, smashing glasses, ripping the worktop off and pulling out wires etc so I’m still not sure why you think it’s their responsibility or what you expected them to do about it.

Out of curiosity what were the previous reviews like, what was the property and what did you do about it with the accommodation provider you chose to book?

If they'd accurately portrayed those points I would not have booked.

The reviews for the property were generally good, but all I did was look at the last few months worth and they were good, the odd disabled access issue mentioned but nothing about kebab meat. The provider had a hotel and about 20 other properties, the recent reviews, but in hindsight, were mostly for their hotel that had recently opened, also a new annex. 

They appeared a decent provider.

Now bitten, I will never choose a no refunds booking anywhere regardless of how much of a bargain it is. ( Sorry Money Savers !)

Ozzig

onashoestring said:

Ozzig said:

Upsidedownandaround said:

Ozzig said:

Upsidedownandaround said:

Ozzig said:

I understood how it worked when I booked a two-night stay for us and two young children.

It was the accommodation provider refusing to take responsibility because I booked via booking .com and booking .com refusing to take responsibility because the accommodation provider has a no-refunds policy.

Raised the issues on checking in (via phone as no reception service - checking in was a door code number texted to me at 16:30 on the day of check-in)

The accommodation provider said nothing could be done until the next morning.
The next morning the accommodation provider said nothing could be done that day and they had no other rooms to move us to and suggested escalating to booking .com, booking .comsaid "no refunds" but they could look for other accommodation for us but as it was such short notice we'd be paying top dollar for anything they come up with. I didn't have the money to pay for another accommodation and we had two small children at the seaside who would have been heartbroken if we'd just left to come home.

We basically spent two days cleaning and fixing the bits of the accommodation we used as we needed.

Complained to booking .com when we got home about how the system fell down and they said we can have a £20 voucher off our next booking.
I wanted an apology and some understanding that they need to fix the problem not £20 towards a booking I was never going to make.

I asked to escalate to a manager and was told to hang up and call back and ask again as the agent couldn't because they work from home and the next guy might but probably would be able to either.

I told him to close my account and confirm when my details had been removed from their systems and he said to hang up and call back again. 

Never used them again.

That’s not surprising then.

The fact you booked a poor standard of accommodation is nothing to do with booking.com. I’m not sure what you were expecting them to have done in those circumstances.

If your expectation was that they would provide you with alternative accommodation because you felt the accommodation was poor or you expected them to give you a refund for the accommodation providers failings then with respect I don’t think you do understand how they work.

Unfortunately that is one of the risks of using them though that you give unscrupulous accommodation providers the leverage of blaming booking.com to avoid taking responsibility.

Don't be so bloody patronising, booking .com advertised it on their website as 4* and included the statement 
 "Awarded to home and apartment-like properties by Booking.com. These represent quality ratings based on factors including facilities, size, location and service."

I didn't want a refund I wanted to stay in the quality of accommodation advertised and I wanted an acknowledgement they had an issue with the process and that it would be addressed.

I’m not being patronising. I’m just trying to explain how they and similar direct distribution platforms work so you avoid such issues in future and measure your expectations with who you chose to book with.

The star standard for home and apartment like properties will be a completely meaningless standard created by them based on reviews and information provided by the property. They are not accepting any responsibility or liability for a property failing to meet your expected standards.

If you are expecting a 3rd party to take responsibility for failures by an accommodation provider you have chosen to book with you won’t get it unless you go on a package holiday or use a small letting company which has control over and visits and inspects the properties.

I booked a 4* rated accommodation, a rating booking .com awarded to them, based on criteria that were clearly unchecked by booking .com . 

From booking.com 
“ 1J. Star ratings, review scores and quality ratings

We don’t assign star ratings. Depending on local regulations, they’re assigned (a) by the Service Providers themselves or (b) by independent third parties (e.g. organisations that rate hotels). …..   ……We don’t impose our own standards for star ratings, and we don’t review these star ratings, “

Once again, in hindsight this should've been a red flag to not book using them.

Though I am tempted to see if they let me advertise my wheelie bin as a holiday let if I say it's handy for local amenities.

Upsidedownandaround

Ozzig said:

Upsidedownandaround said:

Ozzig said:

Upsidedownandaround said:

Sorry but your examples are nothing like the same thing. You are conflating facts with subjective opinions of a standard created by your own expectations of what a 4 star apartment should be.

Similar examples would be expecting every Deliveroo or Uber you booked that had 4/5 for reviews would be what you would consider to be 4/5.

Even in regulated industries like hotels star categories have wildly varying standards and requirement between different countries and aren’t necessarily an indication of quality but certain facilities and services available.

Even if the examples you gave were good ones the fact of the matter remains your contract was with the accommodation provider if your subjective opinions were that they were not up to standard that’s not booking.com’s responsibility.

You may expect it to and you may want it to be but it isn’t and terms you enter in to make that completely clear. 

If you are expecting online platforms and OTA’s to accept liability and responsibility for customers unhappy with their hotels or apartments for the millions of properties throughout the world they are selling then I’m sorry but your expectations are not at all realistic.

You're right, I give in. Completely wrong. Booking .com saying something is 4* should not match my expectation of 4*. 

Out of curiosity, would you in your opinion 4* accommodation include dried kebab meat on the furniture, bare electrical wires on lamps, broken glass on the floor, a kitchen worktop held in place only by the weight of an unclean microwave oven, a windows less bathroom with no working light source.

If it is, I will stop complaining about booking .com and lower my expectations of £500 accommodation considerably.

I wouldn’t  no.

I don’t think booking.com had been round dropping kebab on the floor, smashing glasses, ripping the worktop off and pulling out wires etc so I’m still not sure why you think it’s their responsibility or what you expected them to do about it.

Out of curiosity what were the previous reviews like, what was the property and what did you do about it with the accommodation provider you chose to book?

If they'd accurately portrayed those points I would not have booked.

The reviews for the property were generally good, but all I did was look at the last few months worth and they were good, the odd disabled access issue mentioned but nothing about kebab meat. The provider had a hotel and about 20 other properties, the recent reviews, but in hindsight, were mostly for their hotel that had recently opened, also a new annex. 

They appeared a decent provider.

Now bitten, I will never choose a no refunds booking anywhere regardless of how much of a bargain it is. ( Sorry Money Savers !)

Again though they do not portray anything.

The accomodation provider uploads all information, all room inventory and all prices on to the Booking.com platform.

Obviously you would hope they would remove properties blatantly lying about what they were providing but then again as you say their reviews "were generally good".