Booking.com & last minute cancellation.

skymole

I booked accommodation in a bungalow on a site in France in April. It was very specific in that it was critical that we were staying at that location. It was a specialist paragliding holiday and there were two sites open at this time of year on the dune (Dune du Pyla). It would not have been practical to stay even a few miles away and commute for various weather/wind considerations - we needed to be specifically at the location.

I booked one of the only two open sites through Booking.com.

I received a phone call from the accomodation in the evening a few hours before our departure flight, informing us that they had to cancel the accommodation. The site tried to arrange alternative accommodation at the only other site in the area that was open. I also contacted them but they had nothing available.

I tried to contact booking.com but there was no response by phone.

I left several messages on their system but still to this day have not received a response.

I then decided that there was no alternative other than to re-arrange the trip for another date.

I rescheduled the flights and airport parking and cancelled the car hire.

Due to the lateness of notice we lost several hundreds of pounds.

The accommodation agreed to refund us the cost of the bungalow.

When I called booking.com the advised me that, I should have travelled to the destination regardless and called them the next day. They told me that they would have found alternative accommodation. They ignored the fact that there was nothing in the area suitable and available. When I told them that I was unhappy with their refusal to help resolve the issue the agent disconnected the call.

I'm wondering if it's worth me pursuing this or if I should just write it off...

Any advice would be appreciated.

DullGreyGuy

If the accommodation has already agreed to refund you what are you chasing Booking.com for? 

Aylesbury_Duck

Have you spoken to your insurer?  I'd have thought they'd be the first port of call for costs arising from the unavailability of the accommodation.  

Did you make your very specific location requirements known to booking.com before/when you booked?  You say they ignored the fact that there was nothing suitable in the area but if they didn't know of your very precise requirements before the problem arose, how did you expect them to deal with it?

cantbelieveit23

I can't see where you can go with this one.  Booking.com (and the site) can only be liable for the rental charge.  This is the problem when different parts of a trip are booked separately: if you had booked a "package" then you would have rights.  It would be worth checking with your travel insurance (especially as I guess it included specialist cover for the activity) but since you made the decision to abort without presumably consulting them, I'm not sure anything would covered.
One point on Booking.com: several years ago, I booked an apartment in Romania for 4 nights, free cancellation, pay at property.  A few weeks before arrival, the apartment owners asked for advance payment or they would cancel the booking.  I referred this to Booking who supposedly tried several times to contact the owners without response.  They told me I should turn up to the apartment and they would find us an alternative if we were turned away (July in a popular seaside location!?).  I wasn't prepared to risk it, so cancelled it myself and booked a more expensive alternative.  So this is probably a normal response from Booking.

Aylesbury_Duck

I've read enough about booking.com to avoid them and continue booking directly with venues.  I'm sure the vast majority of their bookings go perfectly well, but the idea of having to turn up to test that the accommodation provider will play ball is too much of a gamble for me.

skymole

DullGreyGuy said:

If the accommodation has already agreed to refund you what are you chasing Booking.com for? 

They agreed to refund me for the accomodation, not the consequential costs like flights and car hire

MattMattMattUK

skymole said:

DullGreyGuy said:

If the accommodation has already agreed to refund you what are you chasing Booking.com for? 

They agreed to refund me for the accomodation, not the consequential costs like flights and car hire

That is what travel insurance is for.

skymole

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Have you spoken to your insurer?  I'd have thought they'd be the first port of call for costs arising from the unavailability of the accommodation.  

Did you make your very specific location requirements known to booking.com before/when you booked?  You say they ignored the fact that there was nothing suitable in the area but if they didn't know of your very precise requirements before the problem arose, how did you expect them to deal with it?

Our insurer didn't cover us for a loss caused by third party cancellation. 

No I didn't make them aware of the specific requirements before booking - Why would I? I just booked. My point is that they rejected the claim saying we should have travelled to our destination in any case. (I would have arrived in the early hours of the morning) I had already established that there was absolutely no accommodation. So if we had caught the flights we would have had to abandon the holiday in any case. Booking.com would not magic up accommodation out of nowhere where none exists.

DeathByFluffy

MattMattMattUK said:

skymole said:

DullGreyGuy said:

If the accommodation has already agreed to refund you what are you chasing Booking.com for? 

They agreed to refund me for the accomodation, not the consequential costs like flights and car hire

That is what travel insurance is for.

This. While the situation is unfortunate, you're going to be relying on insurance to cover the losses - and if your policy doesn't cover it, then you're probably going to struggle to reclaim the money. 

skymole

cantbelieveit23 said:

I can't see where you can go with this one.  Booking.com (and the site) can only be liable for the rental charge.  This is the problem when different parts of a trip are booked separately: if you had booked a "package" then you would have rights.  It would be worth checking with your travel insurance (especially as I guess it included specialist cover for the activity) but since you made the decision to abort without presumably consulting them, I'm not sure anything would covered.
One point on Booking.com: several years ago, I booked an apartment in Romania for 4 nights, free cancellation, pay at property.  A few weeks before arrival, the apartment owners asked for advance payment or they would cancel the booking.  I referred this to Booking who supposedly tried several times to contact the owners without response.  They told me I should turn up to the apartment and they would find us an alternative if we were turned away (July in a popular seaside location!?).  I wasn't prepared to risk it, so cancelled it myself and booked a more expensive alternative.  So this is probably a normal response from Booking.

I think you are right, though my first interaction with an agent intimated that they would at least be able to provide a credit for a future trip even if they could not refund the costs.

sheramber

You need to add consequential loss to your travel insurance policy  to be covered.