There is No Protection for Consumers at Booking.com
Recently booked an apartment in Brisbane Australia for a week through Booking.com. ($1129 AUD) On Booking.com it says the property is rated a "10 / Exceptional" so i was deceived. (none of the reviews are able to be seen and it just says "external reviews")
Checked in, in the evening through contactless checkin. The host hadn't even given me the room number so I had to try the key on every room on that level until it unlocked the right one.
Upon checking in, I was appalled with the musty mildewy smell of the apartment and it was filthy, benches hadn't been wiped down, skid marks in the toilet, cockroaches crawling around, the shower was ridden with black mould, etc. To add a cherry on top, there was no blanket or doona provided, just 2 pillows and a flat sheet, mind you it's the middle of winter, and also their heating wasn't working.
Everytime I tried to call the number provided by the host, it always disconnected, and the only communication I had with them is through emails. (They had a weird AI generated profile pic).
So I immediately contacted the host and Booking.com to assist me with either getting a different room or to provide a refund and cancellation so I could find a new place.
To my surprise, they both kept stalling me and kept telling me they were "working on a resolution" for hours. Even until 11pm they said they were "working on a resolution", only for the next morning for them to refuse me any sort of refund or any actual assistance. I realised they weren't working on a resolution, probably just stalling me til it was late at night so i was forced to stay the night. Unfortunately i had 1 sleepless and cold night here as I had no other option for accomodation.
Checked out as soon as I could the next morning, and went to go stay at another hotel which has cost me another $1000.
The host keeps gaslighting me, has not acknowledged that there was no blanket provided, and is simply saying the apartment was clean. When obviously, I say with photographic evidence. It was not.
Its been 4 days now and they are still refusing to refund me. Ive spoken to 7 different representatives from Booking.com.
Booking.coms excuse is that they cannot provide a refund unless they have written consent from the host, and that they're only the middleman, but lo and behold, the host is not responding to them. What they're both doing is totally disregarding Australian Consumer Laws. (section 64 mentions that "no refund" policies don't apply if the service is not fit for purpose or if its not as described)
But yay! (sarcasm) at least Booking.com gave me a $28 travel credit as, in there words, "was a token of goodwill".
Whats even sadder is my partner is recovering from a severe brain injury and we didn't book this place for leisure purposes, just needed a comfortable place for us to be while he visits specialists in the city for his brain injury.
So yeah, never booking with Booking.com again, there is no protection for consumers if the host goes rogue. I honestly feel bad for the customer service agents who are being trained to stall people and not offer any actual solutions. (I also have more photos I just didnt want to spam too many photos in one post.)
Oh and I've also requested a tax invoice that includes their ABN from the host and theyre refusing to send that. Pretty sure that is illegal too...
TLDR; got scammed by a host through Booking.com because the apartment had no blanket, no heating and was dirty and mouldy. Host wont acknowledge this nor provide me a refund. And booking.com says theyre not responsible for anything and purely just the "middleman" even though the host is not cooperating.
*please note this was a private host and not the actual Evolution Apartments Hotel