Never Use Booking.com. They put you in a loop of “talk to hotel, talk to booking”, and you will never get your money back.
my partner and I booked a hotel in Italy (Dulce vita rooms Rome) through booking.com
we arrive and the AC doesn’t work, it’s 80+ degrees in the room. The TV is broken, the room is dirty, the water pressure and heat are barely there. just a terrible accommodation. It was basically too hot to sleep in this 3rd floor hotel room with no air flow.
we tried calling the “reception” (a couple‘s WhatsApp), and they didn’t answer multiple times. they finally answered and said well can’t do anything about it tonight, we’ll come tomorrow.
we just said no, this is a poor accommodation not as described, we are leaving and requesting a refund.
The “reception” claims that booking.com took the money, not them, so they can’t do anything. great. We file a report with booking.com who says they will have a response within 24 hours.
no response. We get back a week later, and call booking. They then claim that the hotel processed the charge and they cannot issue a refund. Are you kidding me?
We will never use booking.com. they have the “talk to corproate, talk to franchise” loop to never have to settle when people get ripped off.
we are now filing a dispute with our credit card. Please take our mistake as advice and never use booking.com. they will side with the hotel and never help you
edit: guys, not everyone is versed in the history of every subreddit. I was trying to be helpful by spreading awareness. You can just scroll past something if you want to. I also wanted to specifically call out the hotel so people who aren’t using 3rd party apps can be aware as well.