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I booked a room / apartment with the following description:

enter image description here

It says it has a kitchen, but it turned out to only have a shared kitchen. Shouldn't it say its shared here? Also it says toilet and it also says shared toilet.

Can I complain or ask for a refund from booking? This listing sounds like it has a private kitchen in the entire apartment I booked, but it could also be interpreted as not having a private kitchen and not even having a private toilet.

It is also marked as "entire apartment": enter image description here

I asked the owner and he says "apartment and kitchen are shared".

Then in the apartment description it says:

enter image description here

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    That listing clearly states there’s a private kitchen. Did you already start your stay there? Do you have an alternative you could revert to?
    – jcaron
    Commented Feb 3 at 14:02
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    Are you using any translation browser extension or is it Booking.com actual contents?
    – Relaxed
    Commented Feb 3 at 15:43
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    Are you sure the issue isn't rather with the communication with the owner (possibly due to language issues)? From the pictures the kitchen clearly seems to be in the apartment to let (it's in the same room as two of the beds, really, so they possibly meant "open plan" rather than "shared"), and the toilet seems to be just to the left of the kitchen.
    – jcaron
    Commented Feb 3 at 17:11
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    Pure speculation, but the description includes "also includes 2 bedrooms"... could it mean there is one toilet/bathroom private to the apartment, but shared between the two bedrooms (as opposed to two en suite bathroom/toilets)?
    – TripeHound
    Commented Feb 3 at 22:33
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    @jcaron the owner speaks the same language as me lol. But he was obv. replying on mobile and the sentence was strange and mistyped. He answered me "yes, apartment an kitchen are shared, there is a fridge". Guess Ill find out. Or maybe I booked an apartment without a private kitchen but the place does have apartments with private kitchens?
    – user1721135
    Commented Feb 3 at 22:47

1 Answer 1

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When I run a search on Booking.com I don't see any “Private” or “Shared” kitchen but only “Kitchen” (as a filter or heading) so I am not sure you should expect this to be singled out in the list of facilities or search results in general. On the other hand, “In your private kitchen” doesn't leave much ambiguity so you have grounds to be disappointed.

I also see that the listing seems very confusing about the bathroom (what is a “shared toilet” inside a “private bathroom”!?) It could either be a case of Booking.com experimenting with different formats or the owner not being completely honest, all the way to bait-and-switch fraud (or both together).

I don't have any recent direct experience but I have not only heard positive things about Booking's (or AirBnB's) dispute resolution process. It's difficult to know what you can expect but complaining doesn't seem unreasonable. At the same time, if you did stay at the property already (as opposed to contacting Booking as soon as you learned the kitchen was shared), it might be difficult to insist on a full refund.

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    The problem is I noticed this too late, I can't find a replacement in two days. Doesn't "entire apartment" at least suggest you have your own toilet? I think I can live with shared kitchen but my wife won't be happy about shared toilet at all. There seems to be definitely a shower in the room. Maybe they somehow managed to only add shower but not toilet in the rooms. The place has great reviews and is cheap, but it does seem like a bait and switch. Entire apartment seems to have some kind of meaning on booking otherwise it wouldn't have a system label.
    – user1721135
    Commented Feb 3 at 17:01
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    @user1721135 Yes it does imply that. If the place turns out not to have a kitchen or toilet in the apartment at all, you can also call Booking and ask for a replacement.
    – Relaxed
    Commented Feb 4 at 1:30
  • it turned out all is well, just misunerstanding on what shared means. They said it means the kitchen is in the living area and not its own room. First time I hear it described like that.
    – user1721135
    Commented Feb 5 at 19:40

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