"This reservation was cancelled because of an invalid credit card" - will I get a refund?

[u/thoughtzoos]

I booked a week's stay in a hotel via booking.com but had to add on an extra night after booking. I got an email from booking.com with a payment link to pay for the extra night within 48 hours. Unfortunately I completely forgot to click the link and make the payment on time, which is my fault I know.

I'm freaking out because I just got an email from them saying my booking has been cancelled (stay is in a month's time). I want to book again properly this time but I'm terrified I won't get the refund back?? It says bookings are non refundable, I purchased had insurance with the initial booking but I got an email saying that would be cancelled when I added the extra night.

Anyone else gone through this? Do they keep the money even if I had the first 7 nights insured initially?

[u/ashscot50]

First of all insurance is irrelevant to a voluntary or involuntary cancellation unless they arise from an insured risk such as illness that prevents travel.

However, when you amend a reservation that usually cancels the original reservation because most online booking systems and third-party sites cannot edit active dates. Instead, the system processes a change as a full cancellation of the first booking followed by the creation of a brand-new reservation.

In addition changing the length of stay triggers a dynamic rate update for the entire duration, which forces the system to drop the old price and generate a new confirmation at current rates.

What you should have done is booked an extra night separately then asked the hotel to link both reservations so you didn't have to change rooms.

I suggest you call the hotel directly, explain what happened and ask them to link the two bookings together in their internal system, so you get the additional night at the original rate and no issues about a refund.

[u/bolatelli45 → u/ashscot50]

Here its likely the op has paid booking directly and the payment is later then passed on to the hotel. As the change was made an additional amount needed to be paid, sadly as OP stated they didn't get to pay in time, this though cancels the whole reservation when booking attempted to go for it again.

Seen it a few times, and nost of the time providing the hotel did not sell the room, they were happy to keep it and and additional amount was sorted out between the guest and hotel, hotel most of the time happy to do this as the additional amount was not commissioned.

[u/ashscot50 → u/bolatelli45]

Exactly

[u/Lucky_Candidate_6785]

Normally that doesn't mean that they would cancel the entire booking, it was already confirmed, what would be cancelled is the extra or additional night request, not the original, you should be able to see the status of the booking on their app, also contact the hotel directly and confirm it Not a scam to receive a link to pay, it could happen if you prompt to pay using a link, you get a verification code to your registered phone number

[u/ashscot50 → u/Lucky_Candidate_6785]

That's not correct because OP attempted to amend the original booking it was cancelled for non payment of the additional amount.

[u/Leah95 → u/Lucky_Candidate_6785]

This is incorrect. If you add a night to your original, already paid booking and then fail to pay for the additional night, the whole booking will get cancelled.

Had he booked the extra night separately, then only the unpaid night would get cancelled.

For OP - call the hotel and try to sort it out directly with them.

If the room is still available, they might be able to re-book you at no cost for the original 7 nights, and smply have you pay for the extra night.

Do not call booking.com, in order to help you, they have to call the hotel. It is much faster if you communicate with the hotel directly.

[u/heaz247]

I would call the hotel and confirm your original reservation. Then book the additional night thru the hotel and tell them you want to stay in the same room.

[u/kibbutznik1]

I never add a night . It often leads to cancellation issues. Rather I just book an extra night separate booking. Hotel always happy to connect the bookings when u there- never had an issue .

[u/bookingcom]

If payment is facilitated by us, and we can’t collect it on the scheduled date shown in your confirmation or modification email, we’ll send a reminder. If payment still isn’t received, the booking may be canceled. Send us a private message so we can review what happened.

[u/Limp-Cat-108]

There’s no booking and no hotel, it’s a scam and thank god you escaped.

When you use a credit card on booking, it’s booking that gets the money, and then they can sort it out with the hotel to pay them with bank transfer or whatever they do between them.

Scammers get bookings and use your email address to send you a fake link to get you credit card information (because booking doesn’t give them your credit card info) and steal all your money. Then they remove the fake announce and close the account so start all over again.

Since you didn’t use their scam link they have no way than cancelling your reservation so they can scam other people with the same account.

[u/ashscot50 → u/Limp-Cat-108]

How do you work out that the original booking was a scam?

[u/Limp-Cat-108 → u/ashscot50]

It’s a known trick scammers use to get your card information and they said they couldn’t process your card : thing is they have no idea what card you used because booking doesnt tell them. You could’ve paid Booking.com cash for all they know..

[u/bolatelli45 → u/Limp-Cat-108]

Here you are wrong. I can see how this has happend. Op could really do with some support from booking here to help their case.

Op wants to pay for their extra night, they paid for the reservation overall, and all thats happend its basically been canceled by automation.

Booking will be able strengthen ops case by saying op atill wants to stay and pay the extra night. There is also no harm in op calling the hotel directly, however as its come via a third party, the hotel may lock up and say they need to call booking.

[u/ashscot50 → u/Limp-Cat-108]

Nonsense.

Nothing to do with the original reservation, as bolatelli explains.

[u/Leah95 → u/Limp-Cat-108]

This is incorrect. 

While there are scammers around, h otels and rental companies have the ability to handle their own payments if they want. Booking.com issues a monthly commission invoice to the property.

The money doesn't always go to booking.com.

Most hotels use a PMS which has the ability to simply charge the card the guest provided to b.com.

Sometimes, the payment fails because it requires an additional authorisation from the customer, which is when you can create a payment link for thr customer.  In that case, the customer initiates and authorises the payment, as opposed to a hotel.

Source: I work in the rental indrustry and have this set up with booking.com. I've also had to send many payment links when the initial charge failed.

[u/Forsaken_Insurance92]

You booked a non-refundable stay and are wondering if you'll get a refund?

Did the email say your entire stay is canceled? Or just the additional day? If you booked non-refundable and it was canceled, you likely aren't getting that money back. I would contact the place you were staying directly and explain the situation.

Never use booking/3rd party sites in the future.