Discussion
I was booked for 2 night in accommodation in Takayama through Booking.com
I was unable to get there because the trains were cancelled due to bad weather. Although I could have got there for the second night I decided just to skip it altogether and take the train to Tokyo instead.
I was expecting to lose all my money (pre paid) and didn’t give it a seconds thought. That’s life.
However I got a message from the accommodation saying I would get a refund of one night (the night of the storm) but I’d lose the second night as that was a voluntary cancellation. This was a win as far as I was concerned.
This was the end of May but I haven’t received anything yet. I’ve messaged the property and also Booking.com. Who should I be putting the pressure on?
Timmos1974 said:
to be fair Booking .com are v v good
Not sure about that...we've just had an experience with them which left a very bad taste in the mouth.We booked an apartment near Cortina in Italy for a week through them. Booked, confirmed, reminded right up to the day before when - as is usual - they messaged to say that the apartment owner would be in touch to give access details.
After a long drive down through Germany, Austria & into Italy, we arrived at 17:30 as arranged. No message from owner, so I phoned him. Bad news - apartment has been let to someone else and they are already in. He blamed Booking .com. Brilliant, where TF do we sleep tonight?
We found somewhere by 20:00 & I immediately raised a complaint with Booking; automated reply says they will respond with 24 hours!
23 hours later, a passive-aggressive message arrived saying that I may be liable for any fees associated with the booking! I had difficulty restraining my language in my reply!
Another 23 hours, and this time a message arrives asking if Booking .com can help with arranging alternative accommodation. It absolutely beggars belief that even an automated system can be so stupid. I pointed out many salient facts in my reply.
Another 23 hours (there's a pattern here...) the next message arrived, passive-aggressive once again, to say that I would be given a full refund at some point in the next seven days. It arrived on day six.
So, to sum up, I wouldn't exactly say that they were v v good.
I’m not holding out much hope of getting money back from either party.
Looking at the t&c’s of Booking.com I think I should have raised the issue within 14 days. However the email from the property lulled me into thinking I wouldn’t need to.
I haven’t heard from Booking.com in spite of them saying they would reply within 24 hours. I’ve just messaged again so we’ll see if I get a reply this time.
As I said I thought I’d lost the money anyway so it’s a bonus if I get anything back. But it’s worth sending out a few emails.
Well a bit of good news.
I got a message from Booking.com to tell me I had a refund and to expect it in my bank in 7-12 days. Looked and it’s already there.
And they gave me the full amount including the discount they gave me for booking through them so I ended up getting back more than I paid. As well as that they refunded the currency transfer fee.
So pretty pleased. That’ll go in the savings account for Japan next year.
I've been using booking.com for a few years now, I just managed to tip over to tier 3 last August with 3 days to go till my two years to go ended. It's been brilliant, upgraded rooms, 20%off car hire, and upgraded hire on my next holiday. I believe hotels.com has pretty much reduced all their perks to very little now. On my last trip through Europe we got caught in traffic and were stuck for hours, I emailed booking.com and canceled and had no probs getting a refund, again it was going to be a few days but arrived later that evening.
Edited by gtidriver on Thursday 18th July 22:45
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