The Accomodation Was Not As Described; Sorry
Discussion
I recently spent six days in Poland at a reputable hotel chain. Overall, my time there (centered around a wedding) was great however the hotel didn't quite match the description.
A key factor in my decision making was that the hotel had a swimming pool. There were also other attractive features in 'queen room' which included a patio balcony, kitchenette and (bizarrely but very handy none the less) a tumble dryer.
The swimming pool was empty - no water - due to an ongoing maintenance issue and from what we could establish from the front desk staff, hadn't been used much at all since the hotel opened for business. Furthermore there was no balcony at all; no tumble dryer (boohoo) no kitchenette and the room itself was actually quite small. Queen rooms are supposed to be larger than a double and my laser optic eye estimated the room to be no bigger than a double.
We went down to the lobby to have a drink and politely raised the question with reception. They said all rooms are exactly the same and advised not to look at the pictures. I decided that I would take it up with Booking.com as I had taken advantage of my 'Genius' discount and booked via them. In the circumstances I thought a part refund would be reasonable.
Booking.com eventually responded to my message (which wasn't easy it has to be said as you have to argue with a bot to get through). They're basically thanking me for helping them improve the facilities and extend their "sincerest apologies for the inconvenience". They're not offering anything off, nor a few quid off my next booking (which would have been acceptable as I do use booking.com on my travels).
Is 'sorry' acceptable? I feel they're batting the problem to the hotel who are telling booking.com to sort it out themselves.
I'm probably not going to give it much more of my time as the wedding was great and I loved my time in Poland. It's a shame that we sometimes get dicked around after we've parted with our money.
A key factor in my decision making was that the hotel had a swimming pool. There were also other attractive features in 'queen room' which included a patio balcony, kitchenette and (bizarrely but very handy none the less) a tumble dryer.
The swimming pool was empty - no water - due to an ongoing maintenance issue and from what we could establish from the front desk staff, hadn't been used much at all since the hotel opened for business. Furthermore there was no balcony at all; no tumble dryer (boohoo) no kitchenette and the room itself was actually quite small. Queen rooms are supposed to be larger than a double and my laser optic eye estimated the room to be no bigger than a double.
We went down to the lobby to have a drink and politely raised the question with reception. They said all rooms are exactly the same and advised not to look at the pictures. I decided that I would take it up with Booking.com as I had taken advantage of my 'Genius' discount and booked via them. In the circumstances I thought a part refund would be reasonable.
Booking.com eventually responded to my message (which wasn't easy it has to be said as you have to argue with a bot to get through). They're basically thanking me for helping them improve the facilities and extend their "sincerest apologies for the inconvenience". They're not offering anything off, nor a few quid off my next booking (which would have been acceptable as I do use booking.com on my travels).
Is 'sorry' acceptable? I feel they're batting the problem to the hotel who are telling booking.com to sort it out themselves.
I'm probably not going to give it much more of my time as the wedding was great and I loved my time in Poland. It's a shame that we sometimes get dicked around after we've parted with our money.
Mark V GTD said:
No, ‘sorry’ is not good enough. Out of interest, what did the hotel reviews on Booking say about the rooms and facilities?
You know, I rarely look at reviews but have just checked. Overall, the reviews are good (nines and 10s) but the common 'sad face' rating is room size and facilities. A couple further down the reviews have mentioned the pool and spa not being open due to Covid (but should be now). The hotel have not communicated the pool/spa being closed yet it is mentioned in the description along with images of it. All the one-star reviews are by revisiting Poles
I had a similar issue last year through booking.com, we booked a mobile home on a site we had previously been to in the south of france. The advert stated that the pool would be open along with other facilities but when we arrived whilst the actual site was still open all the amenities had closed for winter.
We tried the owner of the caravan via booking.com and they didnt reply so i made a complaint via booking.com themselves which was kind of difficult. Initially they tried to offer a basic 10% refund but i stood firm as if we had known that the pool and kiddies play facilities would be shut we wouldnt have booked there and probably would have done a european centre parcs which are open year round.
After a lot of emails and me being very forceful and threatening a credit card chargeback due to the accomadation not being as described i got a 50% refund which i was happy with.
Just keep at them and threaten a chargeback if you paid by credit card.
We tried the owner of the caravan via booking.com and they didnt reply so i made a complaint via booking.com themselves which was kind of difficult. Initially they tried to offer a basic 10% refund but i stood firm as if we had known that the pool and kiddies play facilities would be shut we wouldnt have booked there and probably would have done a european centre parcs which are open year round.
After a lot of emails and me being very forceful and threatening a credit card chargeback due to the accomadation not being as described i got a 50% refund which i was happy with.
Just keep at them and threaten a chargeback if you paid by credit card.
bigandclever said:
Glassman said:
Queen rooms are supposed to be larger than a double and my laser optic eye estimated the room to be no bigger than a double.
Queen refers to the size of the bed, not the room.I've got a friend who has a hotel and uses Booking.com to advertise his hotel/rooms etc, Booking.com take a good % for their service understandably, but it's up to the hotel to advertise correctly and show availability. He has to block book his rooms to show no availability when he is closing to go on holiday etc as an example.
In summary, Booking.com are just the agent I guess and the issue is with the hotel, I'd be contacting them directly to discuss and worst case give them a crappy review on Booking.com/Trip advisor etc.
In summary, Booking.com are just the agent I guess and the issue is with the hotel, I'd be contacting them directly to discuss and worst case give them a crappy review on Booking.com/Trip advisor etc.
In February Bogdan said:
It was not possible to use the swimming pool and sauna. There is no prior information regarding not using the swimming pool and sauna
...to whichRenata from Reception said:
Mr. Bogdan, we sincerely apologize to you for this situation. Unfortunately, for technical reasons, the entire SPA area has been closed until further notice. Information about this additional service in our Hotel has been deleted on the booking portals, however, auto-information has been sent that could mislead our guests.
We apologize once again.
We apologize once again.
Glassman said:
bigandclever said:
Glassman said:
Queen rooms are supposed to be larger than a double and my laser optic eye estimated the room to be no bigger than a double.
Queen refers to the size of the bed, not the room."Queen Room" = Room with Queen bed
"Twin Room" = Room with twin bed
"Queen family Room" = Room with Queen bed and Sofa bed
"Premium Queen Room" = Room with Queen bed but probably a bigger bathroom and complimentary sweeties/drinks
I think you need to persevere with Booking.com. You'll have each party blaming the other, but in the end they need your custom - there are plenty of alternative sites you could be using after all. The hotel don't deserve a good review if they haven't notified you in advance that the pool etc was unavailable. That's pretty basic customer service.
I had an interesting experience with Air Bnb recently. I booked a place on the Northumberland coast for several days. When I arrived the place looked like a drug den and even my dog was worried about going inside. It was council heaven, but more importantly, there were some serious safety issues which I wasn't happy about. I left very early on the second morning and complained and Air Bnb asked me how much refund I would like, which surprised me. I got a part-refund soon afterwards and they kept insisting on me leaving a review which I was reluctant to do, but in the end left a frank and honest review. Live and learn eh.
I had an interesting experience with Air Bnb recently. I booked a place on the Northumberland coast for several days. When I arrived the place looked like a drug den and even my dog was worried about going inside. It was council heaven, but more importantly, there were some serious safety issues which I wasn't happy about. I left very early on the second morning and complained and Air Bnb asked me how much refund I would like, which surprised me. I got a part-refund soon afterwards and they kept insisting on me leaving a review which I was reluctant to do, but in the end left a frank and honest review. Live and learn eh.
Glassman said:
In February Bogdan said:
It was not possible to use the swimming pool and sauna. There is no prior information regarding not using the swimming pool and sauna
...to whichRenata from Reception said:
Mr. Bogdan, we sincerely apologize to you for this situation. Unfortunately, for technical reasons, the entire SPA area has been closed until further notice. Information about this additional service in our Hotel has been deleted on the booking portals, however, auto-information has been sent that could mislead our guests.
We apologize once again.
We apologize once again.
As the money went to booking.com then I would argue that with them and say you want a reasonable credit say 20% or something.
I doubt they will argue it.
That said, never, ever book any sort of travel, flights, hotels etc on a debit card. Just my 2ps worth but its always a credit card for me. Gives you a lot more protection.
TGCOTF-dewey said:
Could be worse... I booked accomodation and when I turned up it had burned down 6 months ago... Booking still 'selling' it.
Had an utter nightmare sorting out new accommodation for that night :angry:
I apologise for finding that quite amusing - would have loved to see your face when you eagerly turned up to your nice accomodation to find it was a burnt out wreck Had an utter nightmare sorting out new accommodation for that night :angry:
Booking.com dont give a s
t - short of fraudently booking you a room that doesnt exist, they wont do any kind of refund.
The Hotels that do this description discrepancy bks - in spite of what they say around 'blah blah pool shut cos of covid' etc they dont give a st.
Lots of hotels on booking com play this game - Parking Yes (But its a few streets away) etc etc. Basically inflate the room leading to more custom but lots of dissapointed customers.
Also, Polish customer service is not exactly known for being best in the world, they didnt tell you to ps off when you complained so they handled it quite well!
t - short of fraudently booking you a room that doesnt exist, they wont do any kind of refund.The Hotels that do this description discrepancy b
ks - in spite of what they say around 'blah blah pool shut cos of covid' etc they dont give a st.Lots of hotels on booking com play this game - Parking Yes (But its a few streets away) etc etc. Basically inflate the room leading to more custom but lots of dissapointed customers.
Also, Polish customer service is not exactly known for being best in the world, they didnt tell you to p
s off when you complained so they handled it quite well!KAgantua said:
Also, Polish customer service is not exactly known for being best in the world, they didnt tell you to ps off when you complained so they handled it quite well!
I found the Polish in Poland were very polite in general, including the hotel staff. They can appear a bit dead pan and they're not too accustomed to saying please and thank you. s off when you complained so they handled it quite well!river_rat said:
TGCOTF-dewey said:
Could be worse... I booked accomodation and when I turned up it had burned down 6 months ago... Booking still 'selling' it.
Had an utter nightmare sorting out new accommodation for that night :angry:
I apologise for finding that quite amusing - would have loved to see your face when you eagerly turned up to your nice accomodation to find it was a burnt out wreck Had an utter nightmare sorting out new accommodation for that night :angry:
Oh, I can smile about it now
But at the time it was terrible...
It was made worse by trying 2 other hotels before finding one that would take us... Then the one that did had broken AC so the room was 30+ degrees.
Still you don't remember the mundane... Things going wrong makes life more colourful. As long it's not a total disaster.
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