travelingmom72

I was price shopping for my daughter to find a low cost place to stay the following summer if she got an internship in London in the summer of 2024. I put in arbitrary dates that totaled 70 days. Booking.com listed the prices in British Pounds so I wanted to see the costs in US dollars and the total with the VAT tax. Somehow when trying to get the total I accidentally booked a NON REFUNDABLE room. I promptly canceled the reservation totaling $9200. (it never showed me this total until AFTER I booked it). I called Booking.com the second this happened and they said it was up to the hotel TITIWAGNSA ONE PADDINGTON whether they will refund the money. They told me to dispute it on my card as well. My card is not honoring the dispute because they said I entered a contract when agreeing to use the site even though my lawyer says the contract is not valid as there was not "intention" behind the contract. It has been a 2 month nightmare trying to get this resolved to no avail
It gets even better, because I canceled the room the TITIWANGSA ONE PADDINGTON does not have even honor the reservation and they are keeping the entire $9200 AND I have no room that I really dont want anyhow! And there is NOTHING BOOKING>COM will do about it.
DO NOT USE BOOKING.COM

Melnq8

Curious how this accident occurred...you need to provide credit card details on the booking page before making a reservation - at what point did you provide your credit card info?

travelingmom72

because I have used this site before and my credit card is stored on the site. I never entered it for this transaction

Melnq8

Which is a good reason to never store your credit card on any site.

I would continue to pursue this with your credit card company, telling them what you just told me - that your card was stored and not used for this transaction.

travelingmom72

yes, a cautionary tale

janisj

Following over from your posts on the Europe forum. As everyone on that thread has tried to tell you several times . . . Booking did not steal anything and your fight is with the HOTEL. You accidentally made a non-refundable booking and the hotel is holding you to it. I would ask the moderators to either edit the title of your thread or have it taken down completely.

Travel_Nerd

Wait, you say you put in "arbitrary dates" for the purpose of research and in order to get the total amount, you had to click on the reservation button.

Not buying it.

Other than potential taxes and fees, the total of that 70 night stay would have shown you in your search well before you hit the "I'll Reserve" button. You would see the cost (probably in pounds) of that total time. Booking only shows the rates per night when you select ONE night.

In addition, rates fluctuate during time periods so selecting "arbitrary" dates will do nothing for you if you do not intend to travel during that time period.

The only accident here, it seems, is you did not realize that non-refundable truly meant non-refundable and that you actually reserved the stay.

Bokhara2

Mmmmm I've used Booking.com a few times and always, always had to hit "I'll reserve" in order to do so. I'm not sure how anyone could accidentally do that.

In any case - it is utter rubbish to claim "Booking.com 'Stole' $9200". They did not. You reserved non-cancellable accommodation. Accidental or not, the responsibility is on you. I hope you can manage to have the hotel over-ride their non cancellable policy and refund the $9200 to you.

janisj

In all the dramatics on the two threads I completely overlooked that detail. Yes - on Booking when you plug in dates, the amounts displayed for all properties is the total for the entire booking period. That's before selecting a specific property and well before 'accidentally' clicking Book it. No surprises.

If she is unsuccessful disputing the charge and her daughter does get the internship - that would be a reasonable cost unless she did a flat share. $9200 = $132 a night. £107 bed & breakfast with ensuite bath is pretty cheap.

Travel_Nerd

For what it's worth, I plugged in that accommodation name with 73 nights next summer.

ALL over the page it lists "non-refundable" NO matter which lodging one chooses. Each one. And, guess what, I got the estimated total (before taxes, yes) in dollars.


Edited to add a screenshot...

balthy

To get to the stage where the credit card is charged, the booking had to have been purchased, ie the purchase button clicked. If that's a mistake, that is one of those things, this should have been taken up with the hotel immediately and see if they can on this occasion refund the amount as it was a genuine mistake, or plead something along those lines. But since the OP also went ahead and cancelled the reservation, that only made things worse, there was no chance for the hotel to assess the situation and decide what to do and if they agreed, the hotel might have cancelled the reservation and issued a refund.

And entering a credit card into a booking site profile is for the purposes of purchasing or guaranteeing new bookings and will default to that payment type. The argument that it was stored but was not supposed to be used for this new booking will not stand. It was entered for this & every new future transaction, that's how saving data in accounts/profiles work.

mlgb

From the United States booking.com website, you will not get a final price calculated (with taxes and cleaning fees, etc.) until you hit "I'll Reserve" but there would have been ANOTHER final step after hitting "I'll Reserve" before a booking is purchased.

However, even before the Reserve stage they do show the booking conditions. I don't have any issue keeping my credit card on file at all, comes in handy trying to make a same day reservation on the road.

As others have said, it is the lodging's choice to refund you. Booking.com has done nothing wrong. One of the reasons I default to hotels.com for searches is that they do show the total price upfront without having to go to the "I'll reserve" stage. But they don't both carry the same lodgings.

janisj

Thank goodness the thread title was changed!

travelingmom72

Booking.com has since changed this hotel for this very reason. At the end of the day, anyone who is going to fault me for a shoulda coulda woulda etc. does not see that this is UNETHICAL of the TITIWAGNGSA HOTEL and Booking.com feels the same way: The total, in dollars, did not show up for whatever reason. i have booked many many times with Booking.com and this has never been an issue. My receipt on their website shows 7300 (and some odd) POUNDS not dollars.
all consumers should demand that hotels operate the same as all businesses and allow for a “cooling off period” or 24 hour cancelation within a certain time frame. Even airlines have this

janisj

Since the very first you have been blaming Booking -- now all of a sudden a change of heart and its the hotel at fault?? Is that because the title of your thread was changed?? Laws in the US have no bearing at all on laws in the UK. For that much money you might want to contact a UK based consumer rights organization or barrister -- complaining to a bunch of Americans really won't get you anywhere!

travelingmom72

I dont really understand your aggressiveness towards me and defense of Booking.com, I honestly question your motives, I have noticed there are a few posts of yours where you come to the defense of Booking.com, why is this, do you receive financial benefit from them or work for Booking Holdings?
This is BOTH the hotel and Booking.com's responsibility to find a reasonable resolution, I place blame on both if them. Both are profiting from at my expense. And yes, laws in the US do have bearing in the UK when you are a 3rd party site conducting business, all be it via the internet, in the US.

ekscrunchy

I, for one, doubt very much that Janis works for Booking.com!

suze

If you did not leave your credit card stored on their website, this could not have happened 'accidentally'.

It is not the fault of booking.com or the hotel that you made this mistake.

KTtravel

This is a buyer beware type of situation. Whether you are booking on booking.com or a hotel's website, before you hit "purchase'" you must double check the details, particularly if you are looking at non-refundable prices. It sounds like you have retained an attorney who hopefully also practices in the UK. I hope you are able to get this resolved.

Travel_Nerd

Really? Please state a statute, case law or otherwise in support of that statement.

If you have a case, file in small claims court, then. Good luck suing a foreign entity or entities in US Court. Btw, Booking is not based in the UK. So you you have two foreign entities to deal with here.