Booking.com Reviews 109,413

Arrived at the "cosy" bungalow with my family to find.

Unfinished building work
Holes in the wall and external door
Cobwebs
Stained and cracked paintwork
Broken glass and cigarette butts on the patio.

Stayed long enough to unpack the car, see all the issues, contact booking.com to ask for a full refund, look for somewhere else to stay, pack up and leave.

Booking.com are fine with these issues as I got refused a full refund and offered vouchers. Which I find entirely unacceptable.

Awful experience. I booked a hotel in South Padre Island TX and it was all false advertisement. A complete scam. Booking.com did not refund my money after sending them proof of this old hotel with no front desk personnel, no A/C, old building with old and stained furniture the list goes on. Booking.com is a scam. Do not use their services.

I made a reservation through Booking.com and was charged for it, but I never received a confirmation email.
I called customer service to resolve the issue. The agent told me they could not fix it on their end without a confirmation email, which I had not received. They asked me to send a screenshot, and explained that a different agent would then pick up the case and follow up with me.

When I asked why they couldn’t just handle it on the call themselves, they said it was because of how their system works — phone agents are not able to receive files from customers. A customer service system that does not allow reps to receive a file from the customer they are actively speaking with is a basic operational flaw, especially for a company whose entire product depends on email-based confirmations.
The agent then hung up before I had acknowledged the next steps or raised my remaining concerns.

The outcome is that I have been charged for a booking I cannot confirm, with no clear timeline for resolution and no single point of contact handling my case.

Dealing with Booking.com is like being in a psychiatric ward or insane asylum with customer support being handled by the inmates.
First I mistakenly booked a room for the 6-9 of June. Then I somehow got to speak to an agent and asked to extend my stay to the 5-9 of June. Well we can’t add a day we’ll have to cange the booking and make another for the new dates. Can’t you just make a new booking for the extra day, a completely separate booking? Well we suggest you pay the hotel directly for the extra day. Fine. Done. Then I get an email that the booking has been changed to the new dates June 5-9. Excellent. Two days later in the afternoon ‘your booking has been canceled’ Why? I did not cancel it. Then I find an email coming in the middle of the night saying that if I did not reply to this request for confirmation of my new booking it would be canceled. Impossible to get bv AI Katia to a
person without telling her what I wanted to speak to an agentcabout. She/it doesn’t understand complex answers and comes back with ‘is there anything else I can help you with? Finally I invent some answer and then she wants my confirmation number. Fine I find it in the cancelation email. I start the number and before I can finish it she/it says ‘seems like your number doesn’t match, it must be 10 or 12-22 numbers. By this time I am yelling be patient and let me finish’. Wasting my breath she interrupts again ‘your confirmation number must be 10 numbers or 12-22 numbers, over and over again. Finally she let me finish but then she wants a code. The email doesn’t have a code and my reservation has vanished from the Booking.com app. Not possibke to do anything further without the code. So finally the light dawns…I will have to get the confirmation number and code from a different reservation I have with Booking and lie to Katia giving her this other code. She is not so smart and I finally get an agent and explain my lie and he sends me an email that has both the confirmation number and the code. So now we can talk business. Sort of. ‘We can’t reverse a cancellation’ But I didn’t cancel and you have received $2500 in payment from my bank in two differnt payments. What was the second payment for ? ‘Oh that was forthe extra night’! But one of your inmates told me to pay the extra day to the hotel directly, not through Booking.com. Yes but the reservation was canceled and is non-refundable. So I will contact the hotel to see if they will reinstate the reservation but then you will have a double reservation for the 5th of June. Why can’t you just reinstate the original reservation from June 6-9 since another of your inmates told me to do it that way and pay the extra day directly to the hotel? Innate #4 completely bumfuzzled , babbling incoherently. ‘I’ve called the hotel but no answer (2am at the hotel ) so I’ve sent an email to the hotel and you should receive an answer within 24 hours. Meanwhile I’m left wondering where my money is and in which insane asylum Booking.com keeps its employees.

Be very careful of my booking.com. Their price guarantee is not true. If you have a dispute they will just tell you to contact the hotel who will tell you to contact booking.com…. It’s a weak brokerage without integrity.

Accommodation description was deceiving, we (family of 4) were expected to share a tiny (!) space with the 2 owners (that fact was not disclosed). We hoped for support from Booking.com, but they (in short) told us to sort it out directly with the owner. He became offensive and threatening. We had to drive home immediately (for 5h), as we had nowhere to stay. Booking did not help us to get a refund nor reacted in any way.

It was in relation to your booking of a car rental Which went wrong. I ended up not taking the car due to fees which were not written clearly and some of the fees were not written at all. It was just in the very cunning way. Booking.com have refused to help me even though I'm a loyal customer I will be taking my business elsewhere

The worst and least trustworthy platform for properties and accommodation! 3 weeks ago I made an excellent review about a villa (Beach Villa Blue) that I stayed for holiday in Corfu and the review was never uploaded on the app! The villa was beautiful and the only reviews that were uploaded were the bad and negative reviews which made harm to the villa's reputation! This strategy is malicious for owners who have displayed their properties on this unacceptable app and for guests who take into consideration the reviews and lose beautiful experiences in amazing properties that have low marking and bad reviews due to this malicious app! This was the last time that I made a booking through Booking.com! Also the customer service was tragic!

After four months, company still dealing with an escalated complaint now with their HQ - appalling customer service.

I will never use the Booking.com website or app. I was unable to make reservations change. Any time I try the app, it states that there is no room available for my chosen date. I called the Hotel and I was told that they do have rooms available. Booking.com doesn't have anyone to talk to or to chat with for any arising issue!!!! Terrible and well designed to scam people!!!

When I booking a flight with them the site didnt told me that I need a ETA to go to a country that I was flying to. cause of all this I ask them to rebook it just tell me they on the case and get to me shortly, I am still waiting.

I was robbed during my stay at a property booked through Booking.com (Gatsby Guest House - Zen 60, Rome). Someone entered my locked room on the 5th floor and stole my brand new sunglasses worth 290 EUR. We filed an official police report.
The host was completely unresponsive — refused to come in person, communicated only via slow, templated messages, and showed zero willingness to take responsibility. When we went to their office in person during working hours, nobody opened the door.
From day one the room was dirty, the shower didn't work, and our request for a room change was refused without any explanation.
Booking.com's response was equally disappointing. After days of waiting, they offered me 12.57 EUR in Travel Credits as compensation for a 290 EUR theft — less than 5% of my actual loss. I have sent multiple messages and reminders over several days with no meaningful reply. When I asked for help contacting my next property in Stockholm, they provided me with contact details belonging to a previous owner who no longer manages the hotel.
I have a police report, proof of purchase, and a full written record of every interaction. Booking.com collects commission on every booking but takes zero responsibility when something goes seriously wrong.
I would strongly caution anyone against relying on Booking.com's customer support in an emergency. You are completely on your own.

If I could score negatively I would. We drove three hrs with two kids, a dog and a full boot of food. To get there for it to be double booked. Then two hrs on the phone at the side of the road with no welfare services to be given approval to book the only other property available an hr away. To get half away to be told double booked. So that’s £2k for two nights they have of my money to be told oops we will refund free of charge in 12 days!! Absolute joke and no compassion for welfare of children and pets

Worst support ever. No wander airbnb took over

If I could give 0 stars I would. As a property owner on there and as a guest hands down the worst experiences all round.

And it’s not even the properties that are the issue.

Between wrong pricing. Random booking initiated cancellation and not sticking to their own terms and conditions Not to mention the 16 months it took fighting with them to get paid as a property for an entire season I couldn’t think of a worse company to do business with

Pathetic experience.. booked a car from them haven’t send me the terms and conditions and after that don’t letting me cancel,normally i book it in London their it’s nothing like you should have at least two years old license…amend , change or do anything with the booking…same person be a manager when i ask to speak to manager, don’t let me speak to their manager, i said do you have a complaint department and they said we do ..and once i said i do need make a complaint the guy name Muhammad and the lady said you can’t make a complaint as well as i told him the legislation ( if trust piolt need a screenshots i have all of them with me ) filling a court case now

Booked a flight. Flight got cancelled by airline. Booking.com said (via chat) they would process the refund. One week later - de nada. No refund and no info. Contact their chat team again - “it’s being reviewed internally, please wait”. There’s plenty of other options for booking flights, accommodation and cars - and I’ll be avoiding booking.com from now on.

Why book using a middle agent who handles your money, but does nothing. If you have a complaint they wash their hands and pass you over to the hotel to sort out the problem. Our experience was it advertised a swimming pool? WiFi? Laundry which was very important traveling around Australia, and the resort provided none. The resort don’t respond and booking. Con do not follow up, we found it better to contact the hotels directly, you have NO protection by using a booking agent

Hosts of properties let me down. Left me waiting hours only to tell me they were abroad and property not available. I got my refund. But I spent hours in ages whilst waiting. I was offered a price difference by booking . Com which was great. I booked somewhere else but I didn’t realise it was a shared house. I let the owner know within 30 minutes and they wouldn’t refund me. Both times I called booking . com I was cut off. Half the beautiful sunny day where I had time off was spent sorting this out. Air b n b is better I. My opinion. Can’t believe I have to do the leg work for the refund and not the actual hosts. I could look for a third place to stay but I am done. I’ve been trying for over 5 hours now just to find somewhere.

Messy. I made a reservation on Booking. I paid and then received a message indicating that my reservation was cancelled due to unavailability at the property. I went back on their website, the property was still available and the price had gone up. This is no doubt a tactic on Booking’s part to incite customers to pay, then cancel and refund months later during which time the customers payments are invested elsewhere. Avoid Booking at all costs. Make the booking directly with the property. You may pay more but your money is safe. Booking is a full blown scam. And don’t even waste your time trying to reach service representatives. It’s another story and an utter waste of time.