Booking.com Reviews 

Hi, I'm having the worst experience of my life during a stay.

I booked a hotel through booking.com last month. Part of the reason I booked was booking.com advertised parking. When I got to the hotel it was £14 pound for parking. I questioned booking.com about this and they said its in the hotel terms. I DIDNT BOOK THROUGH THE HOTEL. Booking.com should make it clearer.

I had a very disappointing experience with Booking.com regarding a car rental at Bergamo Airport.

I booked a rental car through Booking.com and paid PLN 1,641.83 in advance. The Booking.com website clearly stated that debit cards were accepted for the security deposit. Based on this information, we had no reason to believe there would be a problem.

However, when we arrived at the Dollar rental counter at Bergamo Airport, we were told that a debit card was not accepted and that a credit card was required. This directly contradicted the information displayed on Booking.com.

We were traveling with elderly family members and a young child, so this was particularly stressful. We immediately contacted Booking.com customer support from the airport. Instead of resolving the problem or providing an alternative, we were simply told to cancel the reservation and find another rental car ourselves.

As a result, we spent around 3 hours at the airport trying to resolve the situation and eventually had to rent another car at the last minute for PLN 4,320 (EUR 997) — more than twice what we had originally paid.

Booking.com eventually refunded the original PLN 1,641.83, but this does not resolve the actual loss. Because of the incorrect information provided on their platform, I was left with an additional cost of approximately PLN 2,680, as well as several hours of unnecessary stress.

What is especially frustrating is that Booking.com and Rentalcars have since been sending me back and forth, with neither taking responsibility for the incorrect information that caused the problem.

I have screenshots showing that Booking.com stated that debit cards were accepted, as well as the receipt for the replacement rental.

Booking.com should take responsibility for the additional cost caused by the incorrect information on its own platform.

Booking.com customer for around 10 years, Genius Level 3, and extremely disappointed with the customer service.

I accept that not having my physical credit card at the rental desk was my mistake. However, after an interrupted support chat and a difficult situation at the rental location, Booking.com refused to refund the remaining €125.66 even as a goodwill gesture.

What disappoints me most is that despite my long loyalty — and even making another car rental booking with Booking.com afterwards — there was no flexibility at all. Policies are important, but loyal customers should also feel valued.

Very disappointing experience after many years of using Booking.com.

I’ve always found them good. However they recently double booked me and the problem of alternative accommodation / cost became all mine. They even said it would take 14days to refund me for original.

Very poor and I’ve just googled ‘alternative to booking .com’ . I did email but they didn’t accept replies and I couldn’t be bothered to go looking.

They have terrible customer service, if you tried to contact them you may or may not get a response after a week or more with zero outcomes, don't expect anything from them.. the positives are prices and the app clean UI nothing else.. I don't recommend

I am extremely disappointed with way Booking.com handled my case in Thailand. During our stay in Pattaya, we faced a serious dispute with the hotel. The hotel pressured us to pay additional charges and threatened to call the police. As I was travelling with my family and children, I felt I had no practical choice but to pay for two additional nights to avoid further escalation. After that, I had to move my family to another hotel and pay additional accommodation costs. I contacted Booking.com several times, explained the situation in detail, provided the requested documents and invoices, and sent a formal complaint. Despite all of this, I still have not received a satisfactory resolution. What is most disappointing is not only the financial loss, but also the lack of proper support during a stressful situation involving my family. I expect Booking.com to seriously review my case, refund the additional amounts I had to pay, and provide a proper response to my complaint. I am still waiting for Booking.com to take responsibility and resolve this matter.

Wait times are greater than 2 hours. I filed a dispute and their customer service is a joke. I was not able to stay at one of their properties due to poor and dangerous conditions. I took photos, reached out to customer support and the owner of the property with no response. 2 months later and it still has not been resolved.
Do not book with them, buyer beware.

Accommodation Information
I would like to raise a serious concern regarding the way pet-friendly accommodation is advertised on Booking.com.
I recently booked accommodation at Summerview Guesthouse in Bryanston through Booking.com. I was travelling approximately 600 km from home with my dog, a Golden Retriever. The accommodation was advertised as pet-friendly, and I paid for my stay in advance.
Before I travelled, the host contacted me by telephone. At no point during that conversation did he ask what type of dog I had, its breed, or its size. Had I been asked, I would have explained that I was travelling with a large Golden Retriever.
When I arrived, however, I was refused accommodation because my dog was considered a large breed. I was therefore left stranded approximately 600 km from home, despite having made a confirmed booking and having already paid for the accommodation. There was also no suitable alternative pet-friendly accommodation available to me at the time.
What makes this particularly frustrating is that the property was presented as pet-friendly, without making it sufficiently clear that large dogs would not be accepted. A customer should not have to discover a significant restriction such as a size or breed limitation only after travelling hundreds of kilometres and arriving at the property.
I was subsequently entitled to a refund, but the refund process was extremely frustrating. It took approximately a month, despite numerous communications with both Booking.com and Summerview Guest Lodge. The length and difficulty of the refund process left me feeling that I was being given the runaround, and it caused considerable stress after an already very difficult experience.
I would therefore ask Booking.com to urgently improve the way pet policies are displayed.
If a property advertises itself as pet-friendly, the listing should clearly state:
What types of pets are accepted – dogs, cats, birds, etc.
Maximum number of pets permitted
Maximum weight/size of dogs
Whether specific breeds are excluded
Whether large, medium or small dogs are accepted
Whether pets are permitted in all rooms or only designated rooms
Whether there are additional pet fees or deposits
Whether pets can be left unattended
Any other restrictions that could result in a guest being refused accommodation
Most importantly, if a property does not accept large dogs, this information needs to be displayed clearly and prominently before a customer makes and pays for a booking.
It is not reasonable for a customer to select “pet-friendly accommodation,” make a paid reservation, travel 600 km, and only then discover that their dog is not acceptable because of its size.
I would also ask Booking.com to investigate my particular case with Summerview Guesthouse, including why I was allowed to make and pay for the booking without the host establishing the size or type of my dog, and why the refund subsequently took approximately a month to resolve.
I hope Booking.com will take this complaint seriously and use this experience to improve its pet-friendly accommodation information. Clear and accurate pet policies would prevent other travellers and their pets from being placed in the same extremely stressful situation.
I look forward to receiving a proper response explaining what action will be taken.

I have used this company for many years. However this year I have found when things did go wrong to be completely and utterly uncooperative. They endlessly support the owners of properties (their revenue stream) and not the people who stay there. We were promised exclusive use of a property and when we got there we were sharing. The other people sharing also felt exactly the same. Both totally let down by the company who I have now decided to opt out of.

Cancelled flight of 22 May was refunded by BA on 12 June 2026 to Booking.com the travel agent. However Booking.com still has not refunded me after numerous enquiries and promises of escalation to resolve.

We had a reservation with an apartment in Rome (Sep 25–28) through Booking.com. A few weeks before check-in, we got a message through Booking.com's official in-app messaging system (the actual verified chat inside the app) saying payment had to be made exclusively by bank transfer, and that the credit card on file was "only a guarantee" and wouldn't be charged.

About 10 days later, we got an automated email from Booking.com saying the property is "no longer present on our platform" and can't fulfill the reservation. Their own cancellation email states refund handling is the accommodation's responsibility, not theirs, and the support can be reached in an way.

I have likely spent close to the 10s of thousands between my wife and I for accommodation and travel via booking.com but have vowed never again.
In brief, my recent booking was a disaster and due to it being so late (10pm) with an early hours flight to catch, I decided not to call booking.com to register that my booked accommodation had no room for me. I spent a good hour or so searching the local area with a guy who worked at the accommodation but ended up miles away incurring extra cost in cabs and paying double for my night's stay.
Booking.com refund policy obviously doesn't take common sense into consideration (I.e. if I had called and waited the usual 45mins for the accommodation to ignore booking.com, like they did when I tried calling...I would have already been close to midnight and without accommodation).
I submitted all of this in writing, sent all invoices from Uber and the hotel I stayed in only to be offered £15 'courtesy' refund.
So, as a matter of principle I simply will never use Booking.com again which is a shame because I prefer the platform but cannot see past the disregard for loyalty and sheer quantity of holidays I have booked in the past.

I had an unauthorised charge of $289.19 from booking.com for a stay in Amsterdam, and I never went to Amsterdam or even booked a trip there this summer! Despite being a "genius member" and contacting them several times with failed attempts to resolve the issue I just have to say their team is really bad with customer service. For a month now I've been receiving generic "we'll get back to you in a week" emails despite contacting their regular and financial teams.

Terrible service. Very poor online platform. I’ve had bookings on offline houses. All call centres are foreign people with very poor broken English. Had guests doing drugs and holding parties. It takes around 30 minutes to connect to the call centres only for someone who can hardly speak English to tell me I need a security call back for them not to call back. Happens too often. Unprofessional and unhelpful. More importantly dangerous and inattentive.

on the 28th of August my flights were cancelled as a result my hotel too since there . I immediately contacted bookings by phone and they said that it would all be sorted. I have emailed them too each time with pin and other codes they require and each time I get another email asking me for the same details. It seems like a good way to loose a lot of money. Everyone advices me call call one and the other including bookings.com. Was there even a flight?

We booked a room by Booking, com and we got a very dirty room without electricity. I talked to the hotel manager and tell them they have to give me Back 1 night but they told me that they can not. i called Booking but they told me that they can not help and i should talk to the owner. By the way my wife were sleeping outside because she was not abale to sleep inside in the dirty room. It was late night so we were not able to book a New room somewhere else. I am very dissaponted about Booking, com because they do not care anything.

I am writing this review to warn other travelers about my recent experience using Booking.com for car rentals. I have been a loyal Genius Level 3 member, but after this incident, I will never use their platform again.

I booked a car rental (Booking Ref: 762431860) and, due to the platform's outdated version not allowing for an online name change, I called the local Europcar office at Alghero Airport directly to confirm if I could use the booking with my partner as the main driver, as she held the necessary International Driving Permit. They explicitly confirmed over the phone that it was perfectly fine to proceed.

However, upon arrival at the counter, Europcar refused to honor the original reservation, despite my prior confirmation. Instead, I was forced to pay 2.5 times the original price for a completely new reservation to secure a vehicle, leaving me stranded and with no choice.

When I contacted Booking.com to resolve this, I was met with rigid, unhelpful responses. Despite proving that I had made the effort to clarify the driver change in advance and providing evidence of my contact with the office, their team refused to investigate the matter thoroughly. They insisted that because I didn’t have a written confirmation or a recording of the call—which the rental office refused to provide—they would not issue a refund for the unused booking. They ignored the logic of the situation entirely and offered no real advocacy for a loyal customer.

Booking.com’s handling of this dispute has been dismissive and opaque. I was told my case was fully assessed, yet they failed to take the simple step of contacting the rental office I provided to verify the facts. Do not rely on Booking.com for car rentals; if something goes wrong, you will be left on your own, and their customer support will not stand behind you.

This site is okay for hotels only booking but beware when it comes to holidays. Upon booking I was asked for 1st and last name only which I provided. Only to then see I couldn’t amend on airline without charges. I went back to booking.com to check the booking they couldn’t locate it. 5hrs of going back and forth on the phone and chat. This is was made through another company with no transparency. I would not choose to book through them which is why I didn’t in the first place otherwise would have gone direct. On chat I spoke to Raja who introduced himself on chat then just left me there for half an hour over 20 messages later just disconnected. Spoke to another person no accountability whatsoever again couldn’t help. Called them couldn’t find any details and started to make me panic that it maybe fraud. I asked how when I did it through booking.com. 6hrs later I finally managed to resolve and locate who booking was with. Absolutely appalling behaviour. Explained what had happened not even sorry someone just left you hanging.frustrated on the phone gave all details. Cried shouted still no sorry. I was in bits thinking my money had been robbed. Not worth it at all. I’ll stick with who I know in the future.