Please help! Booking.com taken £194 from me

bibbly

I booked a villa (pay immediately no cancellation on 22/2). Paid by debit card. 

Within 12 hours owner called and said there has been an error and it’s double booked. He sent me a cancellation link with a guarantee of 100% refund. 

Booking.com accepted the cancellation and I had an email confirming. 

When the refund has come through it’s £194.94 short 😱

Booking say that they’ve refunded me 100% of the euro amount I paid (it wasn’t shown to be in euros, just ££) and that it’s due to exchange rates at Barclays. £194 difference in less than twelve hours???? 

Barclays say there’s nothing they can do. 

Booking aren’t registered with ABTA or ATOL. 

I don’t know where to go from here. I’ve been saving for a long time for this 😢

la531983

Did you pay, for example, £1000 and they have refunded you €1000 and have done the refund in the wrong currency?

Post the amounts involved.

bibbly

I paid £3218 in sterling and was refunded £3023. Booking.com have told me that the payment was taken in euros and that the refund was the exact amount I paid 🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️

zagfles

Does your card charge a foreign exchange rate markup? If so get a card that doesn't. You're paying the same fee every time you use it, it only becomes obvious when you get a refund and it doesn't match.

Also are you looking at pending amounts or actual amounts on your bank statement? The actual amount may be different.

Neil49

Looks like the difference between the euro buying and selling rates. 

bagand96

bibbly said:

I paid £3218 in sterling and was refunded £3023. Booking.com have told me that the payment was taken in euros and that the refund was the exact amount I paid 🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️

Are you absolutely sure you were charged in Pound Sterling? Booking will often show a £ price for convenience of UK customers, but will also state you'll be charged in the local currency.

Check your bank statement to confirm what currency you were charged in. From there you should go to your bank:

- if you were charged in £ and refunded in € raise a dispute on the original transaction as you shouldn't lose out.

- if you were charged in € and refunded in € then this is likely down to your banks foreign transaction fees as well as exchange rates. You might be able to appeal to your banks better nature and see if they'll waive the fees. 

bibbly

Thanks for the replies. 

To answer the points raised 

- this is the actual amount I’ve paid/been refunded. Not pending. 

- I didn’t use a credit card. I used debit card. 

- I never at any time saw anything telling me this was going to be converted into €. Any figure I saw was in £ Sterling. 

- my bank (Barclays) have stated that it’s just exchange rate fluctuation and there is nothing they can do. 

It would seem that I have simply lost £194 through no fault of my own. 

I have requested compensation from Booking.com as according to the villa owner it is their system that failed to detect the villa had been booked on another platform. 

I won’t hold my breath. 

zagfles

I've made loads of bookings in the Eurozone with booking.com and they always say the GBP amount is approximate, and they state what you'll actually be charged in EUR when you go into making the payment. I did one a few days ago. What do your emails from them say?

It's absolute rubbish that it's exchange rate fluctuations. Typical bank CS fob-off. The GBP/EUR rate hasn't moved more than 0.6% in the last week so that can't possibly explain the >6% difference in what you were paid and refunded.

Your problem is almost certainly that you used a card that charges for foreign transactions. Quick look at Barclays website says there's a 2.99% charge for foreign debit card transactions.

https://international.barclays.com/important-information/rates-and-fees/

That'll almost certainly be where the ~6% discrepancy comes from, assuming they charge 2.99% for both payments and refunds. Get back onto Barclays, they may give you a goodwill refund. But get a zero fee card for next time.

la531983

Just a side note to say I have never been charge in £££s when using Booking.com for a foreign hotel, yes it says it in pounds at one point but this is just for guidance. 

bagand96

Random sample of the booking process on Booking.com:



You can see underneath the GBP price it states the EUR price and has a further explanatory note. As others have said this is standard for Booking.com as they almost always charge in the local property currency. 

Your confirmation email should also show this. 

If you were charged in GBP and then refunded in EUR you would have a valid dispute. But if you were charged and refunded in the same currency there's no dispute against the retailer. 

It seems the loss is a result of Barclays charges for the non-GBP transaction. Some banks can be understanding and have been known to waive certain charges in situations like this. You could try again with Barclays to see if they'll do it as a goodwill gesture (not sure if they're the most understanding of the banks though!) 

Booking.com aren't liable for your bank's charges - it's Barclays that have taken £194 from you in their fees.

Voyager2002

Booking should have cancelled the transaction rather than issued a refund.

Raise a dispute with Barclays on the grounds that you paid for a villa and it was not provided. Note that the merchant gave only a partial refund.