Okay so years and years ago I worked for… let’s say smexpedia.com. These third party booking platforms are just notoriously awful all around. They’re bad to you the consumer, they’re bad to the hotels, they’re bad to the hotel staff, they should be the last resort of booking. Hotels put their worst inventory up for sale on these sites that they know isn’t worth much. Then, these third party sites take those rates and do everything they can to squeeze every penny out of it. You are completely at the mercy of these two booking systems talking to each other, and bets are if something goes wrong you’ll end up at the hotel thinking you have a confirmed booking when in reality it’s gone missing.
If you booked via the hotel, if you get to the frontdesk they’ll help you. So most hotels do go empty, and front desk is happy to help, but if you booked via a third party you have to get it resolved through them. So front desk will have no ability to help you, and you’ll call the third party booking site and they’ll have you sit on hold for 40 minutes, then you’ll get someone who’s job it is to get you off the phone, and they’ll eventually call the hotel and try to blame the poor front desk person, and eventually maybe you get something worked out. This was the common story. We knew we were selling rooms that weren’t available, but the error rate was “manageable”.
And don’t think the bundles are saving you any money. Airlines operate on razor thin margins already, so they’re not wanting to give you a deal and remember now the third party wants a cut too. Rental cars are less and less bundle-able, and again, third party wants a cut.
Book directly through the hotel. Do research, pick a chain you like, and join their loyalty program. If you book third party you will get dick when you get to the hotel. Join the loyalty program and they’ll sometimes hook you up. Remember, many hotels go pretty empty regularly. If you’re nice to the front desk agent and they have the corner room open, they may give it to you, they have to me quite a bit. You’ll get nothing if you book third party, that was all decided well before you arrived.
I’m mostly venting to the abyss, but I hope someone sees this and it helps them
Personally I use those websites to find the best price, then call the hotel to book directly with them at that price. At least the hotel gets 100% of the money, I get a rebate and better & direct service and I get to fuck those websites out of their revenue share.
It’s as if all these tech companies being the middleman just makes things worse for everybody.
I used to book flights with aggregators. After an experience with Priceline (owned by booking.com) I will never, ever again.
Had to cancel a flight due to the whole family getting COVID. When we tried rebooking using the credit, we had to call in to a special number to deal with an agent. This agent had a different flight price list than what was publicly listed - and of course the agent’s prices were higher. They were so much higher that it was cheaper for us to throw our credit out and book online than to use our credit and book through the agent.
We spent hours railing against this. Calling, calling back, trying different agents, calling the airline, ombudsman, etc. I even wrote with receipts, call, and chat logs to CBC’s Go Public but never heard back.
That really sucks, I’m sorry :/ yet I’m not surprised at all. Airlines, while absolutely terrible, can see if you booked through them and if you’re a loyal flyer, and they’ll help you out. Priceline just don’t care at all about you, you’re a single transaction, and they already got their money
We used to do quite a bit of travelling ten years ago and we used booking.com quite often. In those early days of booking online, there was a period when you could call the help line and actually talk to someone from America or Canada. And they were always helpful. We got messed up bookings back then and we always got help and figured things out. At one point, we were booking so often, we got to know one or two of the operators we kept talking to in London, Ontario.
Fast forward ten years later and I would not recommend any of them any more. All of them send you to a call center in either South / Central America, Philippines or India and like your comment said, they do absolutely as minimal as possible to do anything and keep you waiting on the phone as long as possible.
None of them work any more and it is far better to use them to shop around for quality, reviews and recommendations … then book directly with the hotel.
Use the sites and services as a guide, then find a direct phone number to the hotel and book directly with them.
“Booking dot fuck you.”
Booking.com seems great until something goes wrong. Then, there’s no remediation.
Show up and discover a dirty, roach motel homeless flophouse instead of a vacation rental. The pictures are of the hotel but from a different time.
Good odds you won’t be able to get a refund.
Booking.com customer services words: We just talked to the owner, and they say it’s not like that, denied.
Send pictures. “Your picture…”. You mean pictures, plural? “No, there’s only one picture.” Try again. “Ok, I have multiple pictures.” And? “I don’t see the problem.” Mold isn’t a problem? “The owner says there’s no mold.” And the picture? “The owner says there’s no mold.”
Booking.com is awful.
I had a place where the hot water did not work. Owner wanted photos of the hot water system, then told me that it’s working and there is no problem.
