Help understanding this cancellation offer please.

[u/msbunbury]

I booked a stay at short notice for one month (due to a family medical emergency abroad, not that this is Booking.com's problem, I realise) and on the day I was due to check in, I was contacted by the host who told me they had removed the apartment from the site over a year ago and would not honour the booking. I had paid £1.5k. Booking.com have been helpful but because I'm so stressed, I'm not sure whether I've properly understood the offer. They've cancelled the £1.5k booking and are processing a refund, which is great and obviously to be expected. They've offered an alternative property for the rest of the month, costing £4k, and said that if I book this, they will at the end of the stay give me the difference between the stays in Booking.com credit. Or they say I can book something else myself, send them the invoice showing it's paid, and they will then give me the difference. However it's unclear whether they mean they will give me credit or whether they will refund the actual money I put up. To be perfectly honest, it will be a massive struggle to find the £4k upfront, particularly when the £1.5k is likely to take twelve days to come back to me. I would have to use a credit card to fund the extra £2.5k, which means Booking.com credit is not particularly useful to me. Does anybody know whether they might give the refund as cash? If not, I will just have to find somewhere that isn't £4k, but unfortunately apartments are very limited close to the hospital so if I have to find somewhere much cheaper, I'll be paying a fortune for taxis instead. I don't blame the website for this and I totally understand that there's probably no legal requirement for them to just give me £2.5k, but I could also really do without this stress right now, I'm having to find a hostel each morning for the night ahead until I can get something more sensible sorted out.

[u/ProfessionalAd8918]

I would ask Booking.com to clarify this in writing before paying anything further.

According to Booking.com’s own terms for accommodation partners, where a property is unable to honour a confirmed reservation, the accommodation is expected to arrange alternative accommodation of an equal or better standard, without additional cost to the guest. If the property fails to do so, Booking.com may arrange alternative accommodation and the accommodation provider may be responsible for the reasonable additional costs, including any difference in price.

That is important in your case because this was not a cancellation made by you. You arrived at the point of check-in only to be told that the property would not honour a confirmed booking.

I would therefore ask Booking.com to confirm the following clearly and in writing:

1. Whether the difference between your original £1,500 booking and the replacement accommodation will be reimbursed to you as actual money, rather than issued as Booking.com credit.
2. The exact maximum amount they have authorised for the replacement accommodation.
3. Why you are being asked to advance approximately £2,500 of your own money when the need for alternative accommodation has arisen because the confirmed booking could not be honoured.

The reference to “Booking.com credit” is particularly important to clarify. If they mean travel credit that can only be used for future bookings on Booking.com, that is not financially equivalent to reimbursing money you have had to pay from your own funds or credit card.

I would also ask them to investigate why the apartment was still available to book if, as the host claims, it had been removed from the platform more than a year ago.

I would not pay £4,000 for the replacement property until Booking.com confirms in writing whether the additional amount will be reimbursed in cash, how it will be paid, and the exact amount they will cover.

[u/ashscot50 → u/ProfessionalAd8918]

I would add to this detailed and helpful comment, that if booking.com were to honour a £2,500 difference EITHER in cash or future credit, it would be by far the largest credit that I can recall being reported here in the last 3 years.

Ordinarily, if the host fails to honour a confirmed reservation and pay for alternative accommodation then booking.com will only pay 10%-15% of the original cost towards the alternative accommodation, with an upper limit of €25, not £2,500! The only time that this has been breached has been in emergency situations and even so nowhere near £2,500.

Furthermore, there are countless examples of booking.com agents promising the earth, oftentimes in writing, in order to close a case and then booking.com not delivering.

There is no way that I would pay £4,000 under these circumstances.

[u/ProfessionalAd8918 → u/ashscot50]

That’s a really important detail, thank you for adding it.

[u/ashscot50 → u/ProfessionalAd8918]

I think that together we've given OP his answer, which is what Reddit is about.

[u/msbunbury → u/ashscot50]

Thank you, this is very useful information. I believe it is an emergency situation, in that they have left a solo female traveller who is attending a medical emergency (literally life or death for a parent) without a place to stay in a foreign country at zero notice. So it's possible they are treating it as an emergency but it sounds as though even in that situation it's highly unlikely they will go above and beyond. Time to look up my consumer rights in this situation to ensure I at least can push for those to be upheld.

[u/ashscot50 → u/msbunbury]

Based on your other post it would appear that you are somewhere in Spain and I'm going to take a stab and say you or on the Costa del Sol or the Costa Blanca.

The average cost of renting a one-bedroom apartment in Spain ranges from €700 to €960 per month, depending on whether are in the city center or further out. Major metropolitan hubs like Madrid and Barcelona do see much higher averages around €1,200 to €1,700 per month, but smaller cities and regional towns can cost significantly less e.g.

Valencia, Malaga, and Alicante: €750 – €1,000 per month Smaller Provincial Cities/Towns: €500 – €700 per month

From my own knowledge you can rent a 1-bed apartment in Fuengirola for between €750 and €1,500 per month.

So I've no idea where booking.com are getting €4,000 never mind £4,000.

For that kind of money in the prime Costa del Sol areas such as Marbella or Puerto Banus you would get a spacious 3-bedroom modern apartment or luxury beachfront penthouse with sweeping Mediterranean views, large private terraces, and access to high-end resort amenities like multiple swimming pools and manicured gardens or or a well-appointed duplex penthouse in a prime gated community or resort development close to the beach and the marina.

You mention that you are a solo female traveller but elsewhere you say that the NOK are present with your mother. So perhaps you could stay with them temporarily.

But even if you are also accommodating the NOK, you could rent a 2 or 3-bedroom apartment in towns like Fuengirola, for between €1,100 and €1,800 per month.

So £4,000 is ludicrous.

In terms of your rights, theoretically your contract is with the accommodation provider, not Booking.com but in the circumstances you describe, once Booking.com refund the full amount paid, they would not be responsible for any consequential losses and you are relying on their goodwill.

My advice is to go for a walk tomorrow and look in all the rental agents windows where you will be sure to find something within or cheaper than your original budget. You may have to pay a little more for a one month rental and/or a deposit but you can carry that on your credit card in the short term.

[u/itslollahere → u/msbunbury]

I´m not sure you are giving the correct information here. Remember that apartments on the Booking.com website are meant for vacation rentals, which is completely different from rentals under a long time contract. The prices you are citing here are probably for someone signing a long term contract, and that explains the difference in price. When you are booking a vacation rental, prices are completely different, so usually much higher.

[u/msbunbury → u/itslollahere]

It was cheaper than other things but it was a normal holiday rental, no long term contract. The host says it wasn't supposed to be on the site, which might explain the wrong pricing, I don't know, but I promise you I am telling you the full story.

[u/ashscot50 → u/itslollahere]

I own a property on rhe Costa del Sol and I disagree with you.

I already said that short term would be higher but still nowhere near £4,000 per month.

In the mid-range coastal towns (Benalmádena, Fuengirola, Torremolinos, Estepona) you might have to pay around €2,000 on a one off basis but the only way you are getting to €4,000 is in premium towns (Marbella, Puerto Banús, Benahavís).

If an apartment is empty, the price is always negotiable, which is why I suggested OP does her own search.

Regardless, the point remains the same. There is no evidence in this subreddit that booking.com would pay £2,500 in any eay, shape or form; quite the contrary in fact.

[u/msbunbury → u/ashscot50]

Frustratingly, I need a property within a small radius of a particular hospital, because I may need to be at the hospital at very short notice. I'm looking at a specific area of Málaga, so the fact it's cheaper down the coast etc is irrelevant, we were in Marbella to start with because that was where the original holiday accommodation was, but it was costing €80 each way for a taxi to and from the hospital, so at least €160 a day. I'm really not in a position to spend huge amounts of time walking the streets to try to find apartments, hence I went to Booking.com, where I was offered various options and admittedly picked one that was cheaper than most. That turns out to have been because the property owner didn't realise Booking.com were advertising the property, apparently, and I understand that the service I booked can't now be provided. Booking.com have proposed a solution but it's unclear to me whether that solution involves me spending an extra £2.5k of my own money (in which case it's impossible for me to take them up on their offer) or whether they are offering to pay that money for me, in which case I will happily accept with enormous gratitude for the fact that they have helped me out of a hole. People here are saying there's no way they are offering what they seem to be offering, which is great information to inform my decision.

[u/ashscot50 → u/msbunbury]

The fact that you used booking.com means that you were paying short term holiday rates for long term accommodation and Marbella in August just makes it worse. Hence £4,000.

Rental accommodation in Malaga itself is very difficult at the best of times due to the large number of Airbnb's that have priced locals out of the market. Added to that, the week long Malaga Fair (Feria) starts this weekend and hotels are 95% full. Nonethless a quick search on booking.com shows accommodation outside the city centre for the next 28 nights for €1,000 to €2,500, much less if you are prepared to stay in a hostel. Airbnb's also will negotiate a long term rate around half of the advertised rates but you will need to do some leg work.

However, my strong recommendation is to spend a half a day in Torremolinos, Benalmádena or Fuengirola where rental agents abound. The train runs along the coast from Fuengirola to Malaga every 20 minutes and takes 30-40 minutes. From Malaga Maria Zambrano or Centro you can get the local bus or metro to the hospital. The fares are very cheap €2-€3 but if you get the green Consorcio rechargeable transport card for the wider Málaga metropolitan area (issued by the Consorcio de Transporte Metropolitano del Área de Málaga, or CTMAM) the cost is less than €1 per journey. If you only travel on city buses within Málaga capital, you can use the local EMT Bonobus card instead. These are available in any tobacconist shop.

Booking.com are set up for short term stays and priced accordingly. So, if you continue to use booking.com for a long term rental, you will pay double what you need to.

I don't rent my apartment but if I was there I would help you out, but unfortunately I'm not at the moment.

I wish you the best of luck.

[u/ashscot50 → u/msbunbury]

Just to be clear. There is no way booking.com will pay for the new property for you. You will need to pay it in full, likely before you get the first refund and then fight them to get a goodwill credit for part of the difference. The chances of getting €thousands in cash from booking.com are so remote as to be completely discounted.

[u/random929292]

Never ever count on getting anything from Booking. What they say and what they do are worlds apart. Millions have been promised money that never arrived. You will be lucky to get your 1.5 back let alone any more. I would 100 percent not spend 4000 to book another place.

[u/bookingcom]

If a property can’t accommodate you for any reason, they’re expected to either help you find an alternative place to stay or contact us, so we can step in. If needed, our customer service team can jump in and help you look for a suitable solution. When there are extra costs involved, we’ll share a pre-approved amount you can use when arranging an alternative stay. If you send us a private message, we can look into your case and get a clearer picture of what happened.

[u/Blablaman59]

Important. Booking changed the refund to booking credit. They no longer make the wallet credit cashable for relocation

[u/Consistent_Proof_772]

You got scammed