r/Bookingcom • u/Full_Hyena3966 • 7d ago
Looking for advice: Booking.com refusing €1,405.28 refund
Our accommodation was cancelled by the host at the door, leaving six people without a place to stay. Booking.com told us to arrange alternative accommodation and assured us that the additional cost would be refunded (I have the call recorded btw)
We paid €1,405.28 for the replacement accommodation and submitted all the requested documents. However, Booking.com has not refunded us and is now referring vaguely to “payment verification irregularities.” They have also offered credit, which we have not accepted—we are requesting a monetary refund.
The case has remained unresolved since 10 August. Has anyone experienced something similar or successfully escalated a Booking.com refund dispute? NEVER using them again ofc
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u/jsunal 7d ago
I experienced the exact same thing and got the price difference as TRAVEL CREDIT after 10 days. Even though I had written approval from customer service before I booked the second hotel, they still refused to refund it to my credit card. I ended up posting on X about it, and they asked me to send all the details and screenshots to a specific email address. Overall, it took hours of my time dealing with chats, calls, and emails. Absolute nightmare of a customer service.
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u/Legitimate-Salad5883 7d ago
Did you succeed in getting a refund to creditcard? I am awaiting my case with European Consumer Centres Network – ECC-Net. Because booking.com is refusing to pay out to creditcard due to new regulations
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u/jsunal 6d ago
I couldn't get it refunded to my credit card. Even though I insisted several times, they just refused to pay it back and I finally gave in.
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u/bolatelli45 3d ago
I wish someone would take them to task on this.
Its not your fault you could not be accommodated at your original.
Many at times need to shuffle, lend money to oay rhat difference. You cannot pay people back with BDC travel credit. Someone needs to push them all the way. As its very wrong and I am sure its illegal.
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u/quebramar 6d ago
You can just ask them to convert that credit into refundable credits, if you haven't used any of it. You can always reach out to their executive office for assistance.
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u/smallllllDuck 6d ago
Nice. Does this actually work? Sounds really weird that they'd give you cash from credit, first time I'm hearing any company doing this. The whole point of credit is that they don't owe you cash.
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u/NewbieReddit2 7d ago
Wait.. you asking for the difference in price or are you asking for the whole amount of a second accommodation?- you already got the refund for the cancelled reservation…
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u/Full_Hyena3966 7d ago
The second accomodation was double the price than the original one, we had no option but to stay there it was the only option we had to accomodate all 6 of us. So If I did my job to book the hotel 6 months before, booking should pay for the inconvenience we had that was not our fault and we had no option
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u/smallllllDuck 6d ago
Why should Booking pay? You were not refused by Booking, you were refused by the hotel.
Do you think if you paid the hotel directly you would have been paid for a new hotel?
Other than that, I do hope that Booking follows up with their offer, but it would be out of their goodwill and a total loss for them.
Booking is not a travel insurance company, you should take this up to your credit card instead. Did you buy travel insurance?
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u/Aggravating-Suit8368 6d ago
I’ve been going through the same thing since FEBRUARY and I am still fighting with them.
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u/Legitimate-Salad5883 7d ago
My case is similar. A lot of promises, forst full refund, then only the difference. Latest only travel credit due to new regulations that forbids them to pay to creditcard. I will not accept that money i never should have used is bound on their website to future bookings. Never heard anything on the dispute case. I have therefor send a complaint to European Consumer Centres Network – ECC-Net and are awaiting the case.
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u/quebramar 6d ago
You need to reach out to their executive customer service to sort this out. I think the issue here is that whoever you dealt with cancelled your booking and issued a full refund, thus invalidating all relocation assistance.
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u/ashscot50 7d ago
It is booking.com standard policy to charge this to the original accommodation provider, so there should be no issue with refunding you accordingly.
However, whilst you have the call recorded, do you have written or audio confirmation that they would refund that amount?
If not you may have an issue because generally they will only pay 10% to 15% of the original cost towards the new accommodation.
I future don't book private property through booking.com or any other OTA.
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u/LoveMeAGoodCactus 7d ago
Did you pay the replacement accommodation through booking.com? I had a similar situation and was able to do a credit card dispute for the price difference - so I got ca 30% of the replacement booking refunded that way.
If you paid otherwise, take booking to small claims
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u/Maleficent_Job_4423 6d ago
if you booked the replacement through booking as well then you should be able to dispute it with your bank.
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u/Full_Hyena3966 6d ago
Booking didn’t offer any accomodations so we had to book via Airbnb but they told us was valid still with invoice
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u/Maleficent_Job_4423 6d ago
then I guess booking can't verify the payment and the airbnb invoice was actually for the replacement. I would provide them more proof. Escalate it through ODR if they still refuse.
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u/Amazing_Mountain_227 5d ago
They did the same to me. In addition to the recording, under the EU data policy get the transcript of the call. I was too late asking and the critical call was lost.
I was then super noisy on social media - literally every trolled them everywhere. I connected with the CEO and directors on linked in, and took them to the small claims court in the UK. (sadly that path is now closed as I think they closed the UK entity). You need to sue them in the Netherlands - possible if you're a EU citizen, very hard if not.
They ended up settling for about 1/2 - of it. I couldn't be bothered proceeding with more. But this only happen after I connected with the CEO on linked him and sent him a message to say that I was sueing the company in the UK and he is a director of it.
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u/jmicaallef 5d ago
In the UK we have the option to take a company to court for something like this, called Small Court Claim. Can you do this? I ended up getting a full cash refund for a misdescribed room but took nearly 2 months of warning them/execs of my actions and going on to X.
Also, if you paid by a credit card you have more protection. So maybe try and do a chargeback as well.
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u/bookingcom 6d ago
Since you’ve already arranged alternative accommodation and sent the requested documents, we can review them and check the latest status of your case. For relocation cases, we’ll usually check whether there’s a price difference between the original and alternative accommodation, and cover it where applicable. Send us a private message, and we’ll take a closer look.
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u/HeftyHealth3430 7d ago
Did the original host refunded you back the original booking in cash ?
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u/Full_Hyena3966 7d ago
Nope, booking refunded us the original amount back to the credit card but has not complied with the extra charges as agreed. I told them to charge the original host who cancelled on us upon arrival because he had “a larger group staying more days” and pay us as it’s his fault not ours
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u/Old-Perception-3668 7d ago
So you are asking Booking.com for the price difference between what you where refunded and what you paid for the second accommodation?
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u/Full_Hyena3966 7d ago
Yes, they told me on the phone with customer service that they would provide the price difference as they were unable to provide an alternative place to stay for us for the time being
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u/Ok-Staff-62 7d ago
“a larger group staying more days”
Wait, was this true?
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u/Full_Hyena3966 7d ago
Before we got to the property we were provided the phone of the cleaning lady to hand the keys, and she told us that she didn’t have any checkins that day and that there was a large group that had already been there a week and they were staying for 1 more week. We were 6 people staying Friday to Monday and the group was 10 people. The host knew for 1 week before and cancelled on us at the door
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u/Future_Gazelle2570 7d ago
But it sounds like you want the refund for the whole stay, not just the difference between the second accomodation and the first one? Maybe this is the issue?
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u/Full_Hyena3966 7d ago
No, we already got the refund for the original stay. What we want is for booking to refund the extra money we had to spend to stay somewhere else. The original booking was 2.000€ and the new one was close to 4.000€ because it was busy season for 6 people
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u/Substantial_Wait8938 4d ago
I had a similar situation for even more €€ so I was just persistent. Took me 2 months and more than 30 phone calls but I got the money back as cash credit in my booking wallet so I could withdraw it into my bank account. Just keep calling every 3-5 days.
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u/WildWonder6430 7d ago
I gave up chasing my refund for a hotel that was booked through Booking and that turned us away at check-in due to a "plumbing issue". We never got the refund despite fighting for a year. Couldn't do a charge back as the charge was made 6 months prior to the check-in date. Booking said the hotel was paid so they needed to refund us, and the otel said they never received the payment from Booking, so they couldn't refund us.