Booking.com has a 1.0/5 average rating with overwhelmingly negative customer experiences involving refund failures, poor customer service, fraudulent listings, billing errors, and unresolved complaints.
Common concerns
Customers mention
Poor service quality, incompetent platform! I booked a flight from Nantes to Palma de Mallorca specifically because it was advertised as a DIRECT flight via Booking.com. That was the entire reason I chose and paid for this ticket. After everything was booked and paid, they suddenly sent an email saying the flight had been changed. The original journey was around 1 hour 45 minutes. After their “change,” it became a 5-hour trip with connections. That is NOT a minor modification — it is a completely different journey. Then I contacted the customerservice-very tough journey: you have to wait on line over 30 -50 mins to get the phone call through and they promised to come back with solution but they never did. They just refer the client to the airline directly. The airline is even a big jok: you can never get a living person to talk to, unless you tell the bot that you need a new booking!!! Naturally, I requested a cancellation and refund because I do not accept such a significant change. Their response was basically: “Since we informed you more than 15 days before departure, you are not entitled to a refund. You may only rebook another flight with us.” In other words: they just work with the airlines and take your money first, then change the product entirely, and finally trap you into their loop. This company treats customers like cattle to be milked for money — first extracting every cent possible, then showing absolutely no respect or responsibility afterward. Absolutely unacceptable business practices. Avoid this company if possible.
Booked a flight. Oil protest in Dublin meant chaos at airport, no chance of getting out even of airport area, Booking.com have not dealt with refund. They have a third party company outside uk? that processes 'issues'. Will report them to Ombudsman - hope they make public aware of severe problems getting redress for the public. I won't be using them again.
Terrible experience. While booking a hotel, the payment step appeared to go through, but the app showed “Something went wrong, please try again.” I followed the instruction and tried again, only to discover afterward that Booking.com had created two bookings for the same hotel. I contacted customer service, and they repeatedly told me they could not do anything. Their app/payment flow caused a duplicate booking, and they refused to take responsibility. I lost money because of their error. I would not trust this app again.
Terrible Service. They are very rude my reservation was canceled on their end I was told there was nothing they can do . To modify the reservations there’s a $135 fee when I asked to speak to a manager I was told I could get a refund and that was $150 fee . I didn’t want a refund I wanted my room.. So I’m out of $300 . I would NEVER USE THIS COMPANY AGAIN..
Booking .com reserved my SUV with thrifty. I was over charged $90 and they refused to help. Will never use them again.
After I hit purchase, they sent an email saying the price was no longer available and sent a new price with a new purchase button. I didnt want the new price so I backed out of paypal and made other plans. A few hours later I found an email saying I had purchased the hotel at the original price. I had already purchased another hotel at this point. When I tried to contact customer service I got an AI bot that didnt understand and was unhelpful. The experience was imo illegal bait and switch, cost me a fortune and ruined a day of my vacation, worst of all. I will never use booking.com again!!
We rented a van in Costa Rica thru Booking.com who informed us that we needed additional car insurance. However, when we arrived at the car rental office in Costa Rica, they told us that the insurance we purchased through Booking.com was not valid there. I reached out to Booking.com for assistance, but they did not respond. I feel taken advantage of by these untrustworthy operators. Stay away from them!
I am absolutely appalled by Booking.com's complete disregard for consumer rights. This is the SECOND time in just one week that my confirmed and fully paid reservation has faced malicious price manipulation on this platform. I successfully booked a property, completed the payment, and received an official, legally binding confirmation from Booking.com. The reservation was entirely FIRM. However, the host later regretted listing the price too low and tried to force a cancellation, which I firmly refused because a confirmed booking constitutes a binding contract. Instead of standing up for the consumer and enforcing their own platform policies, Booking.com support agent Rob actively stepped in to act as an accomplice for this rogue property. Rob sent me an official email trying to pressure me into accepting a ridiculous "pricing adjustment," demanding my confirmation to pay an astronomical total of $1,200 CAD! Is this even legal?! This is a textbook "bait-and-switch" scam. Booking.com is blatantly violating consumer protection laws by allowing properties to lure travelers in with low rates, and then using their own customer service agents as leverage to squeeze more money out of customers once they are locked in! I demand a formal investigation into agent Rob’s handling of this case and immediate intervention from Booking.com's senior compliance team. I will NOT pay a single penny of this unauthorized price hike. If this is not resolved according to consumer laws, I will escalate this entire thread and evidence to international travel watchdogs and formal regulatory bodies.
I have had no problems with this company until recently. I submitted a critical review of a property which appears to be positive in the review section. I did run my critique past the owner of the property before posting the review with Booking.com, and received a load of abuse from her. How can you believe any reviews if the only select the positives?
Absolutely useless company. Booked flights to Turkey with Corendon Airlines. Flights were priced in Euros but booking com charged me the same amount in Sterling. I.E 354 Euro became £354. Return flight was cancelled and they refunded,after Lloyds intervened £159 instead of £184. Customer service desk manned by someone who’s English was useless and she complained that she couldn’t understand me. Total joke b of a company to be avoided at all costs. I’ll leave it to Lloyds credit card to sort it out. Thank heaven for section 75. Avoid at all costs. Conmen.
I booked several properties for a Spanish holiday through Booking.com. The first promised a complimentary taxi to the Seville apartment if we spent a minimum amount on the booking, which amount we well exceeded. The complimentary taxi ride did not appear on the confirmation. After several attempts to contact the company - made very difficult through sloppy AI links and messaging - I was finally told the following: After carefully reviewing your reservation, we can confirm that a free taxi service was indeed offered. However, we regret to inform you that, as per the applicable terms and conditions, this benefit is currently not eligible to be availed. The amount or criteria required to qualify for this service does not meet the necessary threshold outlined in the policy. This was literally false advertising. I have used Booking.com many times over the years, but I will never use them again. Disgusting and dishonest service.
I booked accommodation in Edinburgh over a month in advance through Booking.com. Throughout that entire month, the property never collected payment despite my repeated attempts to contact both the property and Booking.com to resolve this. I have full records of every contact attempt. Less than one week before my stay, the property cancelled my booking without warning. Two days prior to this, a Booking.com representative had explicitly assured me the booking would not be cancelled at this stage, and also committed to providing either compensation or alternative accommodation. Neither promise was kept. I was forced to find and book alternative accommodation at short notice at a significantly higher cost. My bank statements confirm no payment was ever attempted by the property. I also successfully booked the replacement accommodation using the exact same card immediately afterwards, proving there was never any issue on my end. Booking.com has repeatedly dismissed my compensation claim, blaming a "payment error" despite being unable to provide any evidence of an attempted transaction. They have ignored the broken promises made by their own staff, ignored the call recordings that would corroborate my account, and ignored the fact that even if a payment issue existed, the property had over a month to resolve it before resorting to a last-minute cancellation.
Absolutely gone downhill. I’ve been using and enjoying their services for a number of years. This year, we booked our 1st anniversary trip, and the flights got cancelled due to the Middle East conflict (we’re based in the Middle East vacationing in Europe). Booking.com promised to issue a full refund. 2 months, hundreds of dollars in phone bills, and several confirmation emails from booking.com later, we were given “Travel Credits”… Their Travel Credits are near useless with about 90% of the properties listed. Basically, we never got a refund. They have no actual customer service email to send to, their customer service is a loop of death, and their statements are conflicting in the very least… Gone are the days where Booking.com’s word meant something…
Beachfront Central Boutique Apartments, Durres, Albanie The reality is different from the photos on the site. The organization rents out various apartments in various buildings. The buildings are dated and are cleaned very poorly. Simply filthy. Agreements are not honored. We had booked a beautiful apartment with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms on the 3rd floor because one person is afraid of the light. We had this confirmed by the organization. Upon arrival, it turned out that we had been assigned the 10th!!! floor. This was not an option, and then we had to move to another apartment in a different building. This certainly did not meet our requirements, such as 2 bathrooms, etc. Subsequently, we were sent to yet another building and given a much less luxurious apartment there than booked. It was a take it or leave it situation. People, be careful and look elsewhere; do not book here.
I've used Booking.com for hundreds of reservations over very many years. Generally it is a good platform, but when things go wrong it is beyond difficult to get resolution. They are currently proving the most impossible company to deal with. Rates are often at least as good if I book direct with hotels and as their customer service is so woefully lacking, I'm at the point of concluding that the convenience of using this platform doesn't outweigh the huge inconvenience of not being able to speak to anyone sensible to resolve occasional issues when they arise - it just isn't worth the hassle factor.
Booking.com is rated 1.0 out of 5 from 48 verified customer reviews on ReviewTerminal — rated Bad. 0% of customers gave 4 or 5 stars.
Booking.com has an average rating of 1.0 out of 5 based on 48 customer reviews on ReviewTerminal.
Booking.com has 48 verified customer reviews on ReviewTerminal. Every review is from a real customer and is published without company involvement.
Based on 48 verified customer reviews, Booking.com holds an average rating of 1.0 out of 5 — rated Bad on ReviewTerminal.
