Booking.com

I've used booking.com three times in the last year. On two of those occasions my credit card has been scammed by a third party. Booking.com was the only non-regular website i used during those times, so I strongly suspect using it exposed me to scammers.

I also received a scam email offering me prizes if I completed a 'survey' about using booking.com shortly after one of the occasions I used it. It was a very realistic scam, to the point where I almost fell for it.

Booking.FAIL House we had a confirmation for in Fort Lauderdale was sold and no one bothered to tell us. Customer service offered to find our party mother place to stay only the places they offered were not in the same state or even country as our original reservation. Now there is noting suitable available and they stopped replying to my messages.

They do make sure what is being advertised by the accomodations is accurate. The accomodation said it also had single beds but was only a matress on the floor. They do not make sure that the accomodations are following their own country rules...i.e.we were charged an additional 19% vat tax by the property in colombia and then we find out we did not to pay that since we are tourists. They should be more awhere on what there customers are doing.

They have the worst client service. They do not help at all. We had scammers who lied about an apartment we booked, when we were there it was not safe and basically nothing was ok about the apartment. I called booking and cancelled the apartment. I demanded my money back but booking do not want to help and each time I call the line cuts off and I get someone else. In one day I told my story 8 times from scratch and spent 2 hours on the phone, my day was ruined. Shame on booking not punishing scammers and give them free pass, as long as booking get their percentage they do not care. For me after being a client for more than a decade I will never use booking again and won't recommend it to anyone. We lost now 940€!

It's a total rip off if you need an emergency cancellation. I am trying to get in contact to talk with someone. But all sites lead to nowhere, not even a contact number.
Beware!

I have had multiple frustrating experiences with Booking.com, but my most recent trip to Costa Rica on February 14,2025, was the last straw. I booked a hotel through Booking.com, received a confirmation, and drove all the way to the property—only to find out it was completely sold out. Thinking it was an isolated incident, I booked another hotel through Booking.com, drove for hours, and upon arrival, discovered that it was also fully booked, despite receiving a confirmed reservation.

This is not the first time I've encountered this issue. Booking.com seems to confirm stays without properly verifying availability with hotels, leaving travelers stranded. To make matters worse, Booking.com often charges for these non-existent bookings, making it an exhausting and time-consuming process to obtain a refund—usually involving disputes with credit card companies.

Additionally, the lack of proper communication tools for travelers to cancel or modify reservations, particularly in certain countries, only adds to the frustration. A company as large as Booking.com should implement a system that verifies a hotel's availability before confirming a booking.

After repeated bad experiences, I will no longer be using Booking.com. I strongly advise other travelers to proceed with extreme caution—or better yet, book directly with hotels to avoid the stress, financial loss, and wasted time that comes with relying on Booking.com.

I needed to modify a reservation, after two days to trying, I gave up and cancelled and booked with the hotel. Disappointing and will never use booking.com again.

I booked with booking.com scammers and my surgery was canceled. I tried to move my dates after staying 1 night. Absolutely no help from the scammers. There based in the Netherlands so no recourse. Total scam. New motto should be WE'RE KEEPING THE MONEY NO MATTER WHAT SUCKER.

Absolutely appalling experience that nearly left us stranded without a place to sleep in Tromsø during high season. We booked and PAID for a 2-bedroom apartment months in advance. The booking was confirmed, dates were correct, and we even chatted with the host who confirmed everything. Fast forward to the night before check-in – the host tells us Booking.com messed up the dates. Someone else is staying there and we have no place to sleep for the first night. We spent the whole night on the phone with Booking instead of enjoying our trip. No clear help, no accountability, just generic responses and "sorry for the inconvenience." They offered to refund the original booking and told us to find new accommodation ourselves – during high season, when everything was either full, overpriced, or terrible. Eventually found a smaller place at a higher price and Booking only refunded a small portion of the difference after multiple stressful calls. Customer service was disorganized, unhelpful, and rude. Worst of all – no proper apology, just a "take it or leave it" attitude. If we hadn't followed up with the host ourselves, we would've been stuck in the freezing cold with 4 suitcases and nowhere to stay. NEVER again. Use another platform unless you enjoy last-minute chaos and zero support.