Contacted by hotel directly - when booked through booking.com

D_W123

Hi
i had a message on my booking.com hotel reservation on Tuesday, asking for my email.  I replied on booking.com with this.  The next morning, I had an email offering me to cancel on booking.com without charges.  Then to re-book with them directly and to receive a voucher for €350 for use in their bar/restaurant.  Has anyone else had experience of this and is it a legitimate offer?

lisyloo

I would suspect that's against their terms and conditions with booking.
I would be wary of cancellation conditions. 
Often you get better cancellation right with booking than you do direct.
Also are they asking for payment up front?
You will find it incredibly difficult to enforce your legal rights in a foreign country if anything goes wrong as you'll have to work with foreign law.

Westin

As @lisyloo remarks, be very wary of such an approach and offer.

I doubt Booking.com would appreciate the possible underhand nature of the direct offer to you either.  I suspect the hotelier would be in sorts of bother and could also jeopardise their trading agreement.

daveyjp

Far easier to use booking.com as a research tool and then book directly with the hotel.

bagand96

Bottom line is the hotel will have to pay a commission to Booking.com for your booking. It might just be that even after offering you the voucher they'd still be better off saving the commission.

Booking direct with a hotel isn't anything out of the ordinary, in fact often recommended. MSE's own hotel article suggests trying the hotel direct with the chance of added freebies.

I agree the way they've gone about it is underhand and almost certainly in breach of their arrangements with booking.com. Personally I wouldn't worry about that too much though and do what's best for myself.

Good advice above to check that any new booking with the hotel directly will meet your needs and be under the same terms (room type, cancellation and payment terms etc). 

NoodleDoodleMan

Sounds dodgy to me - a free voucher to the value of 350 Euro ......................really ?

If they are asking for money upfront that would confirm my suspicions.

bagand96

lisyloo said:

You will find it incredibly difficult to enforce your legal rights in a foreign country if anything goes wrong as you'll have to work with foreign law.

Booking.com are based in the Netherlands so if you ever did want to try and enforce any legal rights against them you're still going to have to work with foreign law.

They also make it clear they only act as your agent in arranging the booking so their legal responsibilities are limited. 

I guess I understand that with booking.com you're using a major international brand whereas with the hotel directly you're not. I very much like the booking.com platform, it's about the best out there in my opinion, but anecdotally I'm not sure their customer service is anything to write home about (never had any issues myself but going on forum posts here)

Checking the booking terms with the hotel directly is excellent advice. Paying on a credit card will add S75 protection.

D_W123

I paid 50% at the time of booking.  And the remaining half was always due to be paid directly with the hotel on arrival. (FYI - I did go on the hotels website before booking however they were either the same or more, can’t remember which).

I’m unsure from the comments whether it might be a good idea to contact the hotel and ask them directly.

the cancellation policy for this hotel was always ‘at the discretion of the hotel’ so if I cancelled it would depend probably whether they re-sold the accommodation.

DullGreyGuy

NoodleDoodleMan said:

Sounds dodgy to me - a free voucher to the value of 350 Euro ......................really ?

If they are asking for money upfront that would confirm my suspicions.

We dont know the total value of the OP's booking... €350 could be 50%, 5% or 0.5% for all we know. 

The advantage of a €350 F&B voucher for the hotel is firstly that the €30 burger you order using it doesnt cost them anything close to €30 to provide and, unlike rooms, its rarely turning away cash business. 

Assuming the OP is paying a decent sum it doesnt seem dodgy because of the offer, the breach of Booking's terms obv is. 

NoodleDoodleMan

€30 for a burger - that's a decent sum !!!

DullGreyGuy

NoodleDoodleMan said:

€30 for a burger - that's a decent sum !!!

Claridges charges £40 for a room service burger so £25.76 isnt that bad by comparison. Even our local more budget friendly Doubletree charges circa £20 and the Hilton on the other side of the river £23 - the later upgrades you to Yorkshire Wagyu, allegedly 

The point being a €350 voucher doesn't cost the hotel anything close to €350