I was reasonably happy with Booking.com on the few times I've used them in the past - on the plus side, they have a wide selection of very good deals on their site. The problems start if you have issues with your hotel. I made a booking earlier this month with them for a hotel in Egypt and was urged to reserve with my card. I was explicitly told that my card would not be used prior to our arrival and we would pay for everything at the hotel. We duly went to the hotel and settled our bill. I then found out today that the hotel had also taken half our payment from my card on the day we'd reserved our room, so I've ended up paying twice effectively.I've been trying to contact the hotel - no luck thus far - so I wrote to Booking.com (no answer) and then decided to call them. I waited 25 mins to get through to someone, who was incredibly cavalier about the whole situation - no apology of course, and no basic customer service training that I could discern. He told me to wait while he called the hotel (apparently they sometimes hold on to your money for a few business days but should return it - I clearly missed the memo on that). I waited some more for him to come back and tell me that there was a whole bunch of stuff I'd now have to do to get my money back, starting with sending them screenshots of my bank statements, etc. (He had no luck getting in touch with the hotel). I am frankly appalled. If their hotels do go rogue on them, I'd expect much much better service and reassurance from them that they care, and that they'd do everything possible to help you. A simple apology would also go a long way. I'm going to contact the hotel myself tomorrow and try and sort this out - will make another trip there if necessary. But it's definitely put me off using Booking.com in the future or recommending them to friends. Such a shame that so many online sites don't invest in decent training for their customer service reps - it simply isn't a priority for them.
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