Compliant to Booking.com

Dodgysailor

Dear all, a few days ago I went to Gdansk in North Poland and booked a small apartment for one night through Booking.com. When I arrived to the apartment, the door was open , the bed undone, the floor filthy and with signs that someone was there the night or nights before. The landlord did not bother cleaning the apartment despite me sending him messages explaining the problem. The owner ignored calls and messages and I had to book a different place at my expense. I complained to Booking.com in order to get a refund showing them videos, pictures and an extract of my messages to the owner that were ignored and Booking.com says that they have tried to contact the owner but because he is not responding I can not get a refund. My question is that since Booking.co seems to protect house owners before tenants how can I escalate this further? I now want to make a compliant against booking.com but I am not sure where to go

elsien

How much stamina do you have?

https://thecomplainingcow.co.uk/how-to-get-what-you-want-from-booking-com/

Did you stay there, or did you book somewhere else for the night because even if it was disgusting, if you stayed there and made use of the facilities then expecting a full refund is a tad optimistic. 

XzavierWalnut

I have tried complaining to Booking.com and Cottages.com in the past without any success.
All they do is pass on your email to the accommodation owner, who usually disagrees.
It will be in the small print that Booking.com are acting as an agent and that the contract is between yourself and the property owner.

Dodgysailor

I did not stay there, it was in a really bad state. I ended up going somewhere else. But yes it looks like landlords only need to keep quite and Booking.com takes it as "they disagree" and therefore you are wrong and you can not get a refund. But my question is how to make a complaint to booking .com

elsien

Read the link that I gave you. It’s in there.

Dodgysailor

Very useful thanks!!

SSM2025

We booked a hotel through booking.com.  The hotel was a poo hole to say the least.  I complained to the hotel, who showed us other rooms that were just as bad (think 3 legged bed, every tile on the shower floor broken... it was 10 years past needing a total refurb). 

I tried contacting booking.com, but did not get a response.  I think I emailed them but I may be wrong.  We had to stay at the hotel one night as it was too late to book another hotel (I tried very hard). We left the next day.  On booking out the hotel management were horrific (refused to speak to me as I was a woman, then told me to shut up, insisted that we removed all photos from our phones, and signed a document stating we were booking out due to personal reasons).  He only stopped when I made it clear I was recording them.  We had a lovely stay in the other hotel. 

When we returned home, I complained to booking.com and wrote a damning review of the hotel.  Booking.com rang and appeared really pleased with their offer of £10 off our next booking through them.  I told them that on point of principle I would not have 1 penny of my money going to booking.com or the hotel, and that I felt that they needed to pay compensation, but as I did not want to make any money, I wanted this to go to a charity of my choice. 

After multiple telephone calls from them where I just repeated my demands, they increased offers, until they eventually agreed to my terms and donated £500 to a children's charity. 

So it can be done, just be very firm with them.