I've been meaning to leave feedback of my recent experience with Booking.com, but I just had to take a moment to understand and realize that even in these days, in 2026, you can easily get scammed by big companies. Everything started when I booked a trip to Romania with two of my colleagues for three days. We rented a car through bookings website and when I went to pick up the car in the morning, I was told that I cannot collect the car because my credit card, which had a limit of £5,000, was not accepted in Romania by the third party rental company.
ONLY BECAUSE the printing on my card, it was no longer 4D, as in like "embossed" I think this is how they call it, when I card has the 4D printed on the card letter and numbers....
I tried to explain to the third party, which we've rented the car through bookings, that UK has changed all their cards back in 2022, so there is no longer a bank in the UK that issues a card that you can see the letters and the numbers on the credit cards. The person with who I was speaking to, they said that there are still people having the same card. I've tried to explain that their card is due to expire, and at some point no one will ever have this. So I called Bookings and I tried to explain to them that I am unable to pick up the car because the terms and conditions that the third party were no longer valid for UK citizens and residents. So I told Bookings I'm happy to lose the £6 rental for that car for the four days we re-rented the car, but I'd like to get my insurance back, which is £70, an insurance that I've never benefited from it, and also advise Bookings that they should review their terms and conditions because that term, one of the terms that they mentioned, should no longer be valid in their policy. So the lady on the phone that I spoke with, she said that she can't do anything about it, those are the terms and conditions, which those terms and conditions are supposed to be seen by logging into another app in order for me to see those terms and conditions. So they weren't actually in my confirmation of a booking. On the side of that, even if it would have been on the confirmation of a booking, I am in a position that I've been charged for an insurance that I've never claimed and I've never used. Because Booking never updated their terms and conditions based on the UK latest legislations and latest information. So I wanted to let this experience on here so everybody from a resident in the UK to be aware that if they do not have a card that has their numbers and their names printed 3D, like the old style, they will not be able to pick up a car with bookings.com. And most probably, Romania will not be the only country. I'm sure there are other countries that they still have their old terms and conditions that they need to revise. I am about to take this further down because it's unacceptable for me to have my holiday ruined and also to be charged because they do not like to take the responsibility for this experience, horrible experience.
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