booking.com charging a cancellation fee

[Nanc]

i had made reservations for a hotel on the edge of SPdP for my arrival on September 6th with Booking.com
I had paid via pay pal a 25e deposit
i have to cancel due to the flight being cancelled.
Booking.com is charging me 22e

this doesn't seem to fit everyone's report about the beauty of using Booking and being able to cancel
What gives? any thoughts?

 

[C clearly]

I believe that the cancellation terms depend on the hotel and specific booking. When you make the reservation, the refund situation should be clearly stated. Sometimes you pay a few dollars more for a reservation that is refundable, while the cheapest rate is not refundable. You should look back at the original confirmation of your booking. I have found booking.com to be very reliable and to honour their refund policy.

 

[Nanc]

yup you're right- my reservation said 50% charge for any cancellation up to 7 days prior then 100% after that- good lesson, bad idea

i have contacted the hotel as there was an additional caveat about the establishment setting the fees and this place indicated they had never used Booking.com before.
Lots of lessons- hope this doesn't get too much more expensive or I will have to join the entrepreneurial Spaniards to find a way to pay my Way. (and for those of you missing a joke gene, that WAS a joke)

 

[bunnymac]

yup you're right- my reservation said 50% charge for any cancellation up to 7 days prior then 100% after that- good lesson, bad idea

i have contacted the hotel as there was an additional caveat about the establishment setting the fees and this place indicated they had never used Booking.com before.
Lots of lessons- hope this doesn't get too much more expensive or I will have to join the entrepreneurial Spaniards to find a way to pay my Way. (and for those of you missing a joke gene, that WAS a joke)

I had a similar issue with a booking. I assumed that the usual Booking.com T&C's applied. As posted above, I've always found Booking.com a great way to book hotels.

 

[Tia Valeria]

When using booking.com it is advisable to check the little question mark in the conditions column. This highlights whether there is a cancellation fee or in some cases even an alteration fee; no breakfast etc (no meal option) - these are set by the hotel not booking.com.

 

[Deleted member 43985]

i had made reservations for a hotel on the edge of SPdP for my arrival on September 6th with Booking.com
I had paid via pay pal a 25e deposit
i have to cancel due to the flight being cancelled.
Booking.com is charging me 22e

this doesn't seem to fit everyone's report about the beauty of using Booking and being able to cancel
What gives? any thoughts?

I would still send a note to Booking and ask them to request the hotel waive the cxl fee. We get those requests regularly and in your case where it's over a month before arrival I would always waive the fee knowing it will be booked by someone else. If the request comes from Booking they are quite likely more inclined to agree to waiving it. Good luck!
p.s. I used Booking a lot on my Camino and most things worked out well with the exception of one booking where the listed location and actual location were very different. I ended up sitting in Portormarin for an hour waiting for a van to pick us up and then return us in the morning. After that I checked the location on the map

 

[jsalt]

one booking where the listed location and actual location were very different

I booked a place in Melides (Portugal) with booking.com. We spent 3 hours trying to find the place, based on the GPS location given by booking.com. It was nowhere near where we’d been looking. It was also closed! (Which explained why they didn’t answer our calls.) And there was nowhere else to stay in or near Melides. We were able to get the last bus of the day to Troia. Booking.com refunded me 49 euros, which was the difference in price between what I had booked for 50 euros, and where we finally found accommodation for 99 euros. I had not paid anything at all for the first booking. I wonder if booking.com was able to get their 49 euros back from the place in Melides, which had advertised “availability”, and were taking bookings, although they were actually closed for the winter. Jill

 

[Anemone del Camino]

Interesting, a few days ago a Quebec hotelier gave an interview on the CBC radio about an issue she has faced with an online booking site. She has never done business with them, but they still lists her hotel on their website and listed it as fully booked, even if she wasn't.

She found out when a client of many years contacted her to ask if she may not have an available room that may not be part of the website's block. She did not understand what the client was talking about.The website did this on their own, without request, negotiation or consent.

For this site it was a way to force the hotelier into working with it as clients who googled to find info on the hotel would see it listed on their site and seeing it was fully book would move on to another hotel, possibly found on the website.

Not cool!

 

[Deleted member 43985]

I booked a place in Melides (Portugal) with booking.com. We spent 3 hours trying to find the place, based on the GPS location given by booking.com. It was nowhere near where we’d been looking. It was also closed! (Which explained why they didn’t answer our calls.) And there was nowhere else to stay in or near Melides. We were able to get the last bus of the day to Troia. Booking.com refunded me 49 euros, which was the difference in price between what I had booked for 50 euros, and where we finally found accommodation for 99 euros. I had not paid anything at all for the first booking. I wonder if booking.com was able to get their 49 euros back from the place in Melides, which had advertised “availability”, and were taking bookings, although they were actually closed for the winter. Jill

After reading this I feel bad for complaining! For us the money wasn't the main issue really, it was the fact that we got the 'stink eye' from dozens of Pilgrims when we piled out of the transfer van in the morning at the Portomarin bridge who must have been thinking we were a bunch of taxigrinos... How do you explain that one? Impossible...

 

[Kitsambler]

Booking.com is definitely an aggregator - each lodging sets its own rates and refund policies. They seem to focus on small, private holdings (the big chains take care of themselves) -- and these sorts of small businesses may not be quite as technologically savvy. So it does pay to pay more attention. (I had a weather cancellation on a booking here in the US; was able to get the refund by asking for it. )

 

[Nanc]

The hotel did refund
I contacted them directly as well as booking.
Pays to read the fine print
So many people raved on this forum about ease of cancelling that it seems a heads up was needed
All done
Nanc

 

[Deleted member 3000]

So many people raved on this forum about ease of cancelling

To be a bit more nuanced, the raving is about the ease of use. The refund policy varies by the accommodation. Booking.com clearly states the refund policy for any given reservation, sometimes offering a no cancel fee rate or a free cancellation rate up to a certain date. Read that part of the listing before you reserve, and you will never be surprised. I always know well in advance of each reservation date when I need to cancel or modify to avoid a charge. No one has ever charged me when I adhered to that date!

 

[mcopeland]

We made a booking for Palas de Rei - and then discovered that it was 6 km out of town and they were not willing to pick us up (yes, our fault for not paying more attention to the location - they had a very loose definition of "in town"). The refund policy is up to the lodging, not booking.com. We did two things - emailed booking.com and called the place. My husband is very persistent and got the place to not charge a fee. At the same time booking.com called the place and confirmed with them that they would not charge us. Booking.com stayed in communication with us, and we were pleased with the service, maybe because we had used them several times before.

 

[Albertagirl]

We made a booking for Palas de Rei - and then discovered that it was 6 km out of town and they were not willing to pick us up (yes, our fault for not paying more attention to the location - they had a very loose definition of "in town"). The refund policy is up to the lodging, not booking.com. We did two things - emailed booking.com and called the place. My husband is very persistent and got the place to not charge a fee. At the same time booking.com called the place and confirmed with them that they would not charge us. Booking.com stayed in communication with us, and we were pleased with the service, maybe because we had used them several times before.

@mcopeland
I find that one of the disadvantages of booking.com for a walking pilgrim is their practice of listing all accommodations anywhere in the vicinity of the place that you are searching for a bed in. Especially when one is totally unfamiliar with the area, it would be easy to book a room a long way away from where one wants to stay and too far to walk to to find a bed. I found that sometimes their offerings are in the town where I will be staying the night before. However, they do give the distance from where you have requested accommodation, so it is easy enough, if frustrating, to discover that they have nothing on offer where you want to stay. No doubt, their practice can be useful for persons driving to their next bed.

 

[jsalt]

it would be easy to book a room a long way away from where one wants to stay

Hi, on booking.com, if you click on the name of the town, underneath the name of the hotel, a map will open showing the exact location of the establishment.

 

[Jeff Crawley]

I booked a place in Melides (Portugal) with booking.com. We spent 3 hours trying to find the place, based on the GPS location given by booking.com. It was nowhere near where we’d been looking. It was also closed! (Which explained why they didn’t answer our calls.) And there was nowhere else to stay in or near Melides. We were able to get the last bus of the day to Troia. Booking.com refunded me 49 euros, which was the difference in price between what I had booked for 50 euros, and where we finally found accommodation for 99 euros. I had not paid anything at all for the first booking. I wonder if booking.com was able to get their 49 euros back from the place in Melides, which had advertised “availability”, and were taking bookings, although they were actually closed for the winter. Jill

I've used Booking.com many times and have never had a problem except, as you said, with the GPS locations.
What I've done this year was to copy the co-ordinates to GoogleEarth and zoomed in to StreetView so I could "roam the streets" looking for the hostal - a couple of times they've been more than a block away but I was please to recognise a lot of streets I've trudged along before!

 

[shellypaul]

yup you're right- my reservation said 50% charge for any cancellation up to 7 days prior then 100% after that- good lesson, bad idea

i have contacted the hotel as there was an additional caveat about the establishment setting the fees and this place indicated they had never used Booking.com before.
Lots of lessons- hope this doesn't get too much more expensive or I will have to join the entrepreneurial Spaniards to find a way to pay my Way. (and for those of you missing a joke gene, that WAS a joke)

I had a similar instance of no cancellations, period. I asked booking to contact them & they replied to me the hotel had agreed to move my arrival date with no fee. Was worth the email.

 

[grayland]

Unless there is a problem with crowds...I never used them except on the same day as I walked toward the stopping point.

Actually, I usually just turn up and look for a room if not staying at an albergue. Seldom find pensions, hotels etc. full.

 

[NualaOC]

I use Booking.com for most of my travel, including some Camino bookings. My tips would be:
1. Check the map carefully - if you don't, you can easily end up booking a place in the wrong location.
2. Check the cancellation conditions - they can be very different from one place to another. Consider setting a reminder on your phone to ensure that you cancel within the appropriate notice period if needed.
3. Read a few reviews - if a venue is on a Camino route, there will probably be a few reviews from pilgrims. They may include comments on proximity to the Camino, or other helpful details such as breakfast times, noise levels etc.
4. If no rooms are available, contact the property directly. They may only use Booking.com for some of their rooms.

For smaller properties, it's worth remembering that Booking.com charges a fee (20%?) for their aggregator services. Booking directly with the property means that they earn more revenue from your stay (although this can be sometimes be awkward with deposits etc.)

 

[jsalt]

Booking.com charges a fee (20%?) for their aggregator services

Hi, just to clarify , booking.com invoices the hotel 10% of the total fee after the guest has stayed (I’ve worked in the accounts dept of a hotel which uses booking.com).

 

[NualaOC]

Hi, just to clarify , booking.com invoices the hotel 10% of the total fee after the guest has stayed (I’ve worked in the accounts dept of a hotel which uses booking.com).

Thanks Jill, good to know!

 

[peregrina2000]

Interesting, a few days ago a Quebec hotelier gave an interview on the CBC radio about an issue she has faced with an online booking site. She has never done business with them, but they still lists her hotel on their website and listed it as fully booked, ven kf she wasn't.

She found out when a client of many hears contacted her to ask if she may not have an available room that may not be part of the website's block. She did not understand what the client was talking about.The website did this on their own, without request, negociation or conscent.

For this site it was a way to force the hotelier into working with it as clients who googled to find info on the hotel would see it listed on their site and seeing it was fully book would move on to another hotel, possibly found on the website.

Not cool!

Booking.com is really convenient, but I had never thought about how they are able to squeeze people to make them use the site. Thanks for that insight, anemone. I frequently use booking.com to get names, location, etc of places where I want to reserve. But I usually only use it as a search engine, and then call or contact the hotel directly, at least if it is a small place. As many others have said, that 10% fee is not trivial for a small family operation. I know that owners appreciate the gesture.

 

[mspath]

Booking.com is really convenient, but I had never thought about how they are able to squeeze people to make them use the site. Thanks for that insight, anemone. I frequently use booking.com to get names, location, etc of places where I want to reserve. But I usually only use it as a search engine, and then call or contact the hotel directly, at least if it is a small place. As many others have said, that 10% fee is not trivial for a small family operation. I know that owners appreciate the gesture.

Laurie is so right! Furthermore
it is always worth checking directly with an accommodation listed by any booking service! Both availabilities and/or prices may differ. Such accommodation pays a fee to that service and thus their stated price on that service link reflects that fee. All rooms are not always listed with any service. Thus for the lowest price and/or unlisted room find the accommodation website or telephone and ask directly.

 

[jsalt]

1. I check out places to stay on booking.com that don’t require a deposit.

2. I then check them out on TripAdvisor.

3. If the reviews are OK I then go to the hotel’s website.

4. If I can book a room directly with the hotel at the same price (or less) as on booking.com, without having to pay a deposit, I make a direct booking to save them commission fees. I am happy to give them my credit card details, so they can charge me if I do not cancel within 48 hours.

5. Otherwise, I go back to booking.com.

6. The hotel is getting “free” advertising, so I think booking.com earns its commission.

 

[jrm]

I had a similar issue... the day before arriving in SDC we booked a room on booking.com. When we got there the room was not as advertised. Only one bed as opposed to three, etc... So we didn't take the room. Booking.com still charged us a night for a cancelation fee as the property owner said that we never showed up. I just called my credit card company, explained what happened, and denied the charge. They charged it back and handled it with booking.com.

 

[DJwalKing]

p.s. I used Booking a lot on my Camino and most things worked out well with the exception of one booking where the listed location and actual location were very different. I ended up sitting in Portormarin for an hour waiting for a van to pick us up and then return us in the morning. After that I checked the location on the map

I had a similar experience with one of my Booking.com bookings. I thought I was going back to O'Pedroso, but ended up back tracking nearly the entire distance I had walked that day. The cost of the taxi both ways was more than the cost of the pensione. Definitely check locations before booking!!

 

[Deleted member 43985]

Interesting, a few days ago a Quebec hotelier gave an interview on the CBC radio about an issue she has faced with an online booking site. She has never done business with them, but they still lists her hotel on their website and listed it as fully booked, ven kf she wasn't.

She found out when a client of many hears contacted her to ask if she may not have an available room that may not be part of the website's block. She did not understand what the client was talking about.The website did this on their own, without request, negociation or conscent.

For this site it was a way to force the hotelier into working with it as clients who googled to find info on the hotel would see it listed on their site and seeing it was fully book would move on to another hotel, possibly found on the website.

Not cool!

I'm sorry, I don't agree with this assessment. I run a resort and we have official agreements with a few online travel agencies (OTA's). However, we get many bookings from other OTA's who we have no affiliation with. Any travel agency in the world, online or brick and mortar, can sell your property. They simply make an Parent/Child arrangement with a travel agency you do have an affiliation with (for example big travel companies like Thomas Cook have thousands of small, independent travel agencies around the world selling in their name). If an arrangement is made with the affiliated agency and the parent (affiliated) agency has sold out their allotment then the child (non-affiliated) agency must also say they are sold out too. This has nothing to do with the resort/hotel's actual occupancy but rather just the allotment of that particular agency. To say anyone is being forced to work with a OTA just isn't correct.

 

[Deleted member 43985]

Hi, just to clarify , booking.com invoices the hotel 10% of the total fee after the guest has stayed (I’ve worked in the accounts dept of a hotel which uses booking.com).

Hi @jsalt - there are different rates for different types/sizes of properties. My resort falls into the category of 20% and it is conceivable that there are other rates I'm not privy to.

 

[Deleted member 43985]

Booking.com is really convenient, but I had never thought about how they are able to squeeze people to make them use the site. Thanks for that insight, anemone. I frequently use booking.com to get names, location, etc of places where I want to reserve. But I usually only use it as a search engine, and then call or contact the hotel directly, at least if it is a small place. As many others have said, that 10% fee is not trivial for a small family operation. I know that owners appreciate the gesture.

Hi @peregrina2000 - to clarify, resorts/hotels aren't squeezed, we sign up to get their business! OTA's like Booking.com bring in huge amounts of revenue for us each year because it is such a widely known booking agency that is truly worldwide. Would we like to not pay the commission and get direct bookings? Sure, but it doesn't happen nearly as often as you would expect because one of the conditions major OTA's like Booking.com use is rate parity meaning if we sell our rooms on our own website for less than we offer them to Booking.com, they will pull their business from us or at the very least demote us on the search pages.

 

[Anemone del Camino]

I'm sorry, I don't agree with this assessment.
To say anyone is being forced to work with a OTA just isn't correct.

This is not an assessment on my part: I am only summarising the interview given by the hotel owner to the CBC. I think I will give that owner the benefit of the doubt on how she is running her business and the troubles she has had with an online booking company. What you are saying may be true in your case, and as you say you are in a business relationship with some online services, but she is not, and never has been, so why would she end up on one of those sites, parent or child.

 

[Anemone del Camino]

Hi @peregrina2000 - to clarify, resorts/hotels aren't squeezed, we sign up to get their business!
.

Again, you may have signed up with Online booking agencies, but the woman who gave the interview to the CBC certainly did not. In fact when the company engaged in a discussion with her after she complained they kept asking ner to sign up. She was being squeezed.

 

[Deleted member 43985]

Again, you may have signed up with Online booking agencies, but the woman who gave the interview to the CBC certainly did not. In fact when the company engaged in a discussion with her after she complained they kept asking ner to sign up. She was being squeezed.

Asking for business is not squeezing, it's asking for business. The OTA could not have included her on their website if they didn't enter a contract with someone else her hotel had signed a contract with. As I mentioned, anyone in the world can sell any resort/hotel if they can sign an agreement with anyone you have an agreement to business with unless you put a clause into your contract that prohibits them from reselling their allotment. Nothing illegal or immoral about it and as I mentioned, we have many guests coming from OTA's on every continent (except Antartica ) who we have no agreements with. They have simply made an agreement with one of our affiliated companies. They sell our resort and they make a commission like any other travel agency. In return we get very good worldwide marketing. It is all very normal in this industry.

 

[Anniesantiago]

The hotel did refund
I contacted them directly as well as booking.
Pays to read the fine print
So many people raved on this forum about ease of cancelling that it seems a heads up was needed
All done
Nanc

I was happy to hear this.
I have had this happen and upon submitting a request to the owner, had my money refunded.

You can blame this issue, by the way, on the pilgrims who consistently make reservations, then don't show up.
I heard one "pilgrim" bragging about it last year.
I felt like shaking some consideration into him! ACK!

 

[Anemone del Camino]

Asking for business is not squeezing, it's asking for business. The OTA could not have included her on their website if they didn't enter a contract with someone else her hotel had signed a contract with.
.

You keep insisting the hotel signed a contract, again, they did not. I don't inderstand why you keep wanting the situation to be different than it is. They hotel never asked, never wanted, and never signed to worth with an online business. And the online shop never asked them to sign up, it put them on their website and the claimed they were fully book. Inmoral, and probably illegal.

I will google to see if I can find the link to the interview, but please, don't try making what happened different than it really is.

 

[Anemone del Camino]

Better than a link to the radio show, a link to a newspaper article on the same story. I am not looking to win an argument, especially when I am just reporting a documented story. Glad your dealing with these companies are working for you @jozero.

http://ici.radio-canada.ca/regions/quebec/2016/07/26/007-hotel-capitaine-expedia.shtml

 

[Deleted member 3000]

Hi @peregrina2000Would we like to not pay the commission and get direct bookings? Sure,

That may be because 100% of zero is nothing! I hate to make a profit on my friends, but I have found that my enemies do not want to do business with me.

 

[Deleted member 36903]

This is an old thread but I wanted to flag up a recent problem and to warn pilgrims to check their bank statements after making and subsequently cancelling a room booking.
In May I booked an Ibis hotel room through Booking.com for myself and a pilgrim friend* as we intended to walkp part of Hadrian's Wall. The information about making the book was clearly expressed on the listing, don't pay in advance but on arrival and if you cancel before the stated date there is no penalty and you will not be charged. I received my cancellation email from Booking.com and assumed everything was okay but I had not checked the bank statement for the week I made the booking. Two weeks ago I discovered that Ibis had taken the full amount for the room contrary to my contract with Booking.com. After many phone calls and emails the hotel apologised for taking the money contrary to the terms of booking, I received a refund this week. But this is not the first time I have had this experience with Ibis, prior to starting my CP in 2016 I stayed in Barcelona, having originally booked Ibis rooms (directly, this time not with Booking.com) for that stay and my return after the Camino but cancelled within the given period for free cancellation because I needed to be nearer the train station for early departures. I received emails confirming cancellation. Again, it was a month or so later that I discovered that I had been charged for the rooms and it took almost three months to get the money back. I have stayed at Ibis hotels many times, they are good value and usually trouble-free but suggest that pilgrims who make bookings and subsequently cancel those rooms check bank statements for a couple of months afterwards to ensure that money has not been taken from their accounts.
*Help please. Does anyone know why whenever I try to type the female form of peregrine the system deletes the ending 'a' and subsitutes 'e'?

 

[Albertagirl]

*Help please. Does anyone know why whenever I try to type the female form of peregrine the system deletes the ending 'a' and subsitutes 'e'?

At a guess, because your English spellcheck is thinking of falcons when it makes this correction.

 

[Deleted member 36903]

At a guess, because your English spellcheck is thinking of falcons when it makes this correction.

Thank you for this @ Albertagirl. I had typed peregrinO but the spellcheck doesn't like the 'o' ending either but the elision of pilgrims with the peregrine falcon is wonderful and perhaps that is why one of our veteran members chose that bird as part of their forum name. At the end of each Camino walking day fellow pilgrims would often remark that we all shuffled like penguins so the idea of flying like a hawk appeals especially.

 

[Jeff Crawley]

Thank you for this @ Albertagirl. I had typed peregrinO but the spellcheck doesn't like the 'o' ending either but the elision of pilgrims with the peregrine falcon is wonderful and perhaps that is why one of our veteran members chose that bird as part of their forum name. At the end of each Camino walking day fellow pilgrims would often remark that we all shuffled like penguins so the idea of flying like a hawk appeals especially.

"we all shuffled like penguins" hence my avatar