Booking.com price hike after booking

Ozzig

Upsidedownandaround said:

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".

Upsidedownandaround said:

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".

I give in, tonight's beer has got to me.

Booking .com has zero legal requirement to confirm anything it advertises. 

It was my own fault I did not fully research the website and its lack of obligation to represent the contents accurately beyond details supplied by the providers it allows access to. 

Let's move on, you had an overwhelmingly positive experience with them, I had quite the opposite.

In the future ( and since my experience ) I will always book direct where appropriate.

Best wishes,
Angry from Manchester 

Upsidedownandaround

I'm not trying to berate you for past mistakes. It's just important that people understand how they operate so people don't just go away thinking they are rubbish I'll move on to the next similar platform with the same misunderstandings about how they operate and in future can take actions to protect themselves.

Booking.com is a useful tool for searching and in some cases can be cheaper than booking direct.  I've never any issues with them however have with some of the accomodation I've booked through them.

However I've dealt with it in the same way as I would if I had booked direct by taking it up with the accomodation provider and not letting them fob me off with wasting energy elsewhere when they are the ones at fault and the ones who should rectify it.

As I said in my first post one of the main problems with booking.com is if people don't understand how they work then they are easily fobbed off by unscrupulous accomodation providers who will happily lie to customers about how its all booking.coms fault and they can't do anything so go away and hassle booking.com.