r/Bookingcom

Hello, I made a reservation on Booking.com on May 3rd for the MC Arancia Marvida Palace resort alanya at a very reasonable price. However, two or three days later, they sent a message saying the reservation was canceled and the hotel's name changed on the massage page. It went from MC to Ara Hotel, and now it's changed yet again. I have the original confirmation email, but it seems they have a problem with the hotel because they removed it from Booking.com and are ignoring all my messages. They should be honoring my reservation for the amount I paid, which is around $1300 or slightly more. I'm asking for something, but it feels unfair to me. At the very least, if they have a problem with the hotel and canceled the contract, they should refund my money. That's all I need. Any further details would be appreciated. Thank you.

I booked a refundable room back in January when i wasn’t 100% sure of my plans. Now I know I will for sure be staying there and want to cancel and rebook under nonrefundable to get a big discount. Problem is, it’s sold out completely and I’m worried someone will snatch it. Or perhaps they raised their price during that period even though it’s been booked up for a while. Is it worth it?

Hi,

I saw the Route 66 $1 promotion coming up a couple of weeks ago, and that it would include 3 night stay, and a classic car rental.
Today was when the link would open and it was first come first serve. I waited until 12pm and clicked Book, and got this message:

You've booked the Route 66 Thunderbird experience!
Check your email for confirmation details and the next steps for your Hollywood-style escape to New Mexico.

But I haven’t received any email. Has this happened to anyone else? I’m wondering if it was just a glitch.

I made a cancellable reservation on booking.com I believe in the summer of last year, so a very long time ago.

I booked 2 rooms, each room for 2 guests.

On 7th May, soon before our trip, for some reason I decided to just check my reservation, and there was an option to add guest names. I thought "oh let me be a good and reasonable human being and maybe it will make it easier at check-in".

Well, that decision initiated a whole nightmare.

After adding names of guests, booking.com requested an extra charge of 600 USD by the end of the following day, and if not then my booking will be cancelled.

I tried changing back the names, it didn't work. I paid the difference because I could not lose that booking. It was EDC weekend and we specifically booked that hotel because it was beside a shuttle stop.

That night on 7th May, I tried calling the property, nobody was picking up. I called Marriott who owns the hotel, they couldn't help, I called booking.com - and they finally said I shouldn't have been charged and they will refund the money within 7 business days. So I thought "oh great , it's done".

Well it's now been over 7 business days. I called booking.com, they said nothing was refunded and they can't do it anymore because the money is with the property. But they sent them an email.

I called Marriott, they initiated a case with the accounting or payments department. I also called the property and finally someone picked up the phone, but the manager wasn't available so they said they will contact me back.

This experience has been the worst ever. It's sad because booking.com has been useful to me so many times and I never had any major issues with it. I just don't understand how adding names of guests (which I thought would help make the check in process easier) could add a 600 USD extra charge.

On top of that, booking.com did not warn me that adding guest names will incur such a charge. Only after I changed it I got a warning "pay extra 600 USD by tomorrow or this booking will be cancelled". They basically held me hostage, and I could not lose that booking.

Absolutely horrible experience, I'm still hopeful that maybe Marriott will refund me - but at this stage I am losing hope. I basically lost 600 USD by wanting to be helpful.

THEY TOOK 1250 EUROS, NO BOOKING, NO EMAIL, NO NUMBER AND THEY ARE UNREACHABLE ON THEIR PHONE WHICH AUTO DISCONNECTS AFTER SOME BLABLA FROM AI. ANYONE EXPERIENCE THIS????

Trying to move a flight, paid for flexible ticket.

I have been on with Customer Service for 2 hrs over 3 days and they keep blaming a technical problem. Cant move my flight. The airline wont do anything as booking.com booked it.

Bad experience, and the customer service level of english is really bad.

me: I need a flight moved from this Sunday to Friday
The: Ok, lets book you on that Sunday Flight

While booking.com is just a platform, I am sharing an experience.

I was planning to watch the total solar eclipse from Luxor Egypt. I booked Abeer Guest House on booking.com for about 130 USD for 3 nights.

I sort of made a mistake of letting the guest house know the purpose of my trip. The very next day I got an email from booking.com that Abeer Guest House has initiated a free cancellation of your booking. Booking.com had no idea why such an email has been initiated and they could not do anything about it.

A few days later they cancelled my booking stating that Abeer Guest House will be closed on those dates.

But the reality is far different, when the property realized that those dates of solar eclipse are way way in demand, they cancelled the booking made at much cheaper rates and now the same property fetches 10 times more amount for the same duration. They lied to me that they are closed. Recent search for same dates shows that the property is available for 1444 USD for the same dates.

I understand businesses are greedy to make profits but this sounds totally unethical.

My family is traveling to Boston 6-4/6-8.
I made an error by using Booking.com to make our hotel reservation. I found out quickly how bad that was.

The person we were visiting plans changed, and I had to change our reservations.
I had hit non cancellable and when I called within 20 minutes to make the change, I was told there would be a $421 change fee.

They sent me an immediate email that I had to click that I authorized the charge of $421. I thought I had clicked it, but today received a frantic call from the guy that did my reservation that I had NOT authorized it and had to do so immediately.

I was also told that our refund we were due because our dates were less costly, would be $888. And instead we received $649.!!

I am upset with myself for not realizing I was using them and that this is a costly mistake.
My husband is afraid if I don’t authorize the change fee that that they will cancel our reservation and we will be out $2k.
They have also already charged our credit card for the $421. Plus the reservation charge.

Could someone with more experience than myself tell me what my best course of action should be?
We are traveling with my medically fragile daughter and we must have a room upon arrival.
Don’t be too harsh as we never travel and this was supposed to be a treat for us.
Thanks to all. MW

Over the last few days I’ve been getting phishing messages on WhatsApp… and they include my real data (name, booking numbers etc).

Now normally I would just assume that the hotel has leaked my data somehow.

That said all of the messages relate to different bookings, from different hotels, in different countries….

The only common element is booking.com…

What’s the best way to address this? Has anyone else had this?

Last night, I booked a non-refundable place for three nights in Limoges, France, a small studio apartment, but when I woke up to start driving this morning, the host requested an instant 320 euro transfer before sharing the actual address (I called booking and they said it's normal, but I thought it was fishy). Lucky for me, the transfer failed, but the host refused to give any other option or give out the address, being very rude and unhelpful, telling me to cancel.

I also hadn't closely read the fine print in bad French that came attached, and it was crazy.
- Guest MUST send a picture of the made bed with his OWN sheets within 1 hour of arrival, or 50 euros is deducted from the deposit (who brings their own sheets?)
- Guest must send proof of some French type of home insurance, or 200 euro is deducted from the deposit
- Coffee mug stains on the counter 25 euro each
- Moving furniture 60 euro per moved furniture
- Several other clauses about required documentation to be sent or 200 euro deducted

So I started calling Booking, both German and English speaking agents. I had to call 6 times today, and the Germans escalated it to their superiors, being shocked at the rudeness of the host as well, who refused to help in any way. Managed to get the booking cancelled for free and rebooked into a regular hotel. My goal was not to let this host get away with it, and I was pleased it worked out. I was surprised by the helpfulness after reading so many bad stories here :-)

The place had no reviews and looked nice, and I have often stayed at new listings, because hosts try to do their extra best to get good reviews. Not this guy, though ^^

I visited Sardinia for a much needed mental/physical health respite. Booked for a property I believed was Hotiday - turned out Hotiday are agents selling rooms in various properties - there is no direct contact to Hotiday and they don't even respond to booking.com. I am extremely concerned that booking.com are allowing this. Has anyone got any advice or similar experience? Any legal advice how I can make booking.com take accountability?

Screenshot of the phishing payment page (my real name, check-out date and total amount are blacked out). Note the hotel branding, the Booking.com-style \"complete your reservation\" flow, and the fact that all booking details are pre-filled from leaked data. The payment buttons (credit card / Apple Pay / Google Pay) sit on a third-party domain, not on Booking.com or the hotel's own site.

the phishing website is even translated into several languages, except for the middle part apparently

A few weeks ago I commented on the post about the suspicious "PIN updated for security reasons" email from noreply@booking.com (my comment). At the time the leak was the only signal. Today the follow-up phishing landed in my inbox, and it's worth describing because it is very convincing.

The setup

I have a real, confirmed Booking.com reservation for a Japanese hotel (Park Hotel Tokyo). Payment is due at the property, nothing is owed online yet. The phishing email arrived this morning, addressed to me by full name and referencing every correct detail: real booking number, real check-in and check-out dates, real hotel name and address, real phone number. The amount shown is close to but slightly lower than the real Booking.com total (a common trick: plausible at a glance, also looks like a small "discount" so you don't double-check).

The email pretends to be from the hotel but the actual sender domain has nothing to do with the hotel or Booking.com. It claims a "confirmation" is required within 24 hours and links to a "complete your reservation" page on a third-party domain.

The fake site

The link goes to a per-victim URL of the form:

https://reserve.<phishing-domain>/de/<token>/<your-real-booking-number>

The page is hotel-branded, pre-filled with all your real booking data, and demands either full credit-card re-entry or payment of the entire stay via Apple Pay / Google Pay. A real hotel or Booking.com transaction would never happen on a third-party domain like this. The page even uses Booking.com-style URL parameters (label, sid, aid, auth_key, source=mytrips) to mimic a real "My Trips" confirmation link.

Red flags, in case you get one

• Sender domain has no relation to the hotel or Booking.com.
• Payment link is not on booking.com or the hotel's own domain.
• Amount shown is close to but not exactly your real total.
• "Within 24 hours" urgency.
• The email has no DKIM signature and no DMARC alignment (you can see this in the message source if your mail client shows it).
• A real Booking.com booking is paid either at the property at check-in, or through secure.booking.com, never via a "confirmation link" on a random domain.

Bottom line

If you have an open Booking.com reservation and you get an email asking you to "confirm" it or "complete payment" via a link, assume it is phishing until proven otherwise. The attackers have full visibility into real booking data via the partner-extranet compromise that came out in April (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/13/booking-com-customers-hack-exposed-data), so "they knew my name and booking number" is no longer evidence of legitimacy.

Stay safe.

My parents booked a hotel in Italy and the photos are literally AI, fake reviews, and the owner is asking for e transfer payment. They want to charge over a thousand dollars for cancellation fee when we already requested a cancellation during the time period. Is this not illegal? What can we do? Doesn’t help there’s no phone number to call either.

In b4 "tHey'Re juST A ReSelLer".

They profit every time someone books this immoral shit.

I was in a severe car accident on my way to a property booked through Booking.com in Sep of 2025.

I was owed a refund and assured by an agent that it would take 7-12 business days to process.  

It was not processed.

After abt. two months of calls, a Booking.com agent assured me that a full refund would be processed within 24 hours.

It was not processed.

When I followed up several days later, only a partial refund was processed.

The original promise of a full refund made by Booking.com has since been “under investigation” for 5 months.  I was told this investigation would not take more than 30 days.  It has been escalated at least twice by two different supervisors. I have been told that it cannot be escalated again, and we just need to wait.

I was finally told earlier this week by an agent that a full refund would be processed and that a supervisor would call me within one hour to process that refund.  Of course, nobody called (no surprise).

After following up on this new promise of a full refund, I have been told that nothing can be done until the appropriate team “responds” to the original “investigation.“

Again, the investigation is already 5 months without any updates. Well beyond the 30 day window.

Three different requests have been made for the call recordings.  One of those requests was fulfilled, except that they did not provide the correct call.  So, another request had to be made, and is yet unfulfilled. This may simply be incompetence, but feels more deliberate.

My calls are consistently dropped, as well, so it often takes repeated calls and time on hold to speak with an agent. This feels deliberate.

Over the last 8 months, different agents have promised that I would be updated within a week, within 30 days, etc etc.  Every single promise broken. This feels deliberate.

I have never once been updated about anything unless I take the initiative to call, and the “update” is always the same: that “we’re waiting on XYZ to respond” or “I will notify XYZ team.” This feels deliberate.

Supervisors insist that there is nobody else available to discuss the matter, and we are the mercy of some other internal team.

It doesn’t appear that anybody is actually working to resolve the issue at all.  I have zero faith that an “investigation” is even being done.

So, I've been sorting out my accommodation for my trip in October, and I've booked the first 3 stays. I booked last night, and woke up to a message this morning telling me that they hadn't set the prices correctly for the rest of the year as it was a while away, and asking me to cancel my booking and to rebook at the new price. The difference is only about £10, but I don't see why I should have to pay more for the same stay.

It isn't my fault that they weren't organised, and it seems a bit cheeky to ask someone to cancel, just to pay more for the same stay.

The city is not exactly a tourist's dream at this moment in time, either. What would you do?

I just hope you all feel good after giving us customer service agents bad reviews in your serveys that iam going to lose my job because of you all

Your serveys or points DOESN'T DO ANYTHING TO BOOKING IT ONLY AFFECTS US AGENTS AND IF IT WAS IN OUR HANDS WE WOULD'VE DONE WHAT YOU BUT IT ISNT

I booked a room through booking.com a few weeks ago to stay at a hotel in Virginia. Long story short I traveled from CT and was going to TN and wanted to stop halfway in VA to sleep. When I arrived just after midnight they told me they tried to contact me through email and phone call. I never received anything from anyone. Not the hotel or booking.com. So since I didn’t answer them they sold my room to a different person and couldn’t accommodate me in anyway. I called booking.com and they called the hotel to verify the situation. They verified what I said was true and are now only trying to credit me $61 of the $213 dollar value of the room. Is there anyway for me to get a full refund? Am I just screwed and have to take the loss?

This is the first time I’ve ever used booking.com or booked a hotel to stay at on my own. If in the future there’s a better way to book hotels I’d be thankful for the tips.

I usually stay in Airbnb type locations on vacation and have had very good luck with those