A customer named Stephen Stein encountered a problem with Booking.com when he tried to book two rooms at The Churchill Hotel in Washington, D.C. He believed that his reservation hadn’t gone through, which led him to book through Agoda.com. However, he received an email confirmation from Booking.com, stating that his reservation had gone through. He had two prepaid reservations for the same hotel and tried to cancel the one made through Booking.com, but the company claimed that only the hotel could cancel it. Stein contacted The Churchill and spoke with a supervisor, who confirmed that he had four rooms reserved under his name. The supervisor canceled the rooms reserved by Booking.com, but the hotel couldn’t provide him with a refund since he had paid Booking.com, and he had to get in touch with the company for a refund. Booking.com said that his reservation had been made through a third party called Hong Kong Yongzheng Technology Co., Ltd., and only that third party could cancel the reservation through Booking.com to process a refund.
The article explains that Booking.com may keep a refund due to its refund policy, even if the customer is entitled to a refund from their hotel or airline, because the agreement is with the travel agency, which has its own refund policy. The current policy on rebooking and refunds at Booking.com is that it’s not directly involved in the contract between the customer and the accommodation provider. Instead, it just provides a platform for customers to search for, compare, and book accommodations. The article notes that it’s impossible to make any changes to a reservation after completing the transaction, but if Booking.com cancels or declines the hotel reservation, it promises a full refund.
The article asserts that while Booking.com has created a contract that allows it an escape clause because it’s just a platform, it’s still responsible for booking disasters. The company is responsible for the booking disaster in Stein’s case, even though it tried to push the responsibility to the hotel or a third party based in China. Lastly, the article provides tips for avoiding booking mistakes on Booking.com, such as reading the fine print and not limiting oneself to one booking site.