118
votes
Accepted
Hotel booking: Why is Agoda much cheaper than booking.com?
Booking.com uses the Agency model, this means the website is a place where hotels list their offers and booking.com gets a commission with every booking done through their website.
On the other hand, ...
- 98.6k
95
votes
Accepted
Host telling me to cancel my booking in exchange for a discount?
Part of the host's contract with booking.com is that booking.com will take a commission fee of 10-25% out of each booking made through them.
So if you cancel your booking.com reservation and pay the ...
- 37.7k
59
votes
Accepted
How should a traveller report that his/her (reserved) accommodation is refused by the proprietor on booking.com?
This is probably some sort of scam, though probably a mild one. First check that the person who contacted you knows the details of your accommodation. If so they probably are the property owner.
The ...
- 68.5k
57
votes
Accepted
Rebooking same hotel for cheaper price - ethical?
Let's take a look at the facts:
You've signed a (virtual) contract with the hotel stipulating that you are free to cancel your stay for any reason
The hotel now has an offer to book a room for a ...
- 81.7k
47
votes
Accepted
Can a hotel cancel a confirmed reservation?
Can a hotel cancel a confirmed reservation?
Yes. The best you can do is report to booking.com and hope they get them to honor the original amount. This behavior is unfair however hotels and airlines ...
- 29.4k
47
votes
How do I get a hotel room in the centre when everything is sold out (and more expensive) because of a big event?
It sounds like you're not going to find an inexpensive private room in the city center. Hotels don't have any reason to conceal their availability; if you're not seeing things on the normal booking ...
- 5,328
38
votes
Scam or not? Booking does rents?
This looks very much like a scam. Apart from a very strange payment procedure,
which is a huge red flag in itself, I see at least three more red flags.
Firstly, the price is quite low, as you mention.
...
- 5,906
34
votes
Host telling me to cancel my booking in exchange for a discount?
TL;DR Keep your original booking.
It's possible that the host found out that the demand on accommodation for the period of your booking went up, so they will have no trouble renting the place for ...
- 10.2k
34
votes
Book a room with as few neighbours as possible
On AirBNB, set the type of place to "entire place," and then use the map to look in a rural area. Also, some listings give outside images that might give clues. And there might be clues in ...
- 9,749
33
votes
Can a hotel cancel a confirmed reservation?
The booking.com terms and conditions state, in part:
Obvious errors and mistakes (including misprints) are not binding.
All special offers and promotions are marked as such. If they are not labeled ...
- 62.5k
33
votes
Scam or not? Booking does rents?
This is a scam. I learnt about this particular kind of fraud on a newspaper years ago.
For your future safety, let me say that whenever I have a doubt, I google to confirm.
I google the sender, any ...
- 421
33
votes
Is it safe to provide CVV number by property message in booking.com
No, it is definitely a scam
Since you're not paying at the property and through Booking, Booking has all the information (because you gave them at booking) to do it.
Provided you used the proper way ...
- 27.8k
29
votes
Why are some hotels asking you to book through Booking.com instead of matching the price at the front desk?
As someone who runs an events business that regularly organises to resell bulk quantities of rooms with hotels, I can offer one reason colloquially from experience that builds off other answers:
...
- 391
29
votes
Accepted
Book a room with as few neighbours as possible
Is there any specific filter at Booking.com or AirB&B or any other booking service that would allow me to search properties sorted or filtered by the total number of rooms?
No. It's too difficult ...
- 112k
28
votes
What are the hidden fees for using booking.com
It really depends and even Booking.com does not know which is why they use the word may. Generally speaking there are additional fees that they either cannot collect or cannot calculate due to complex ...
- 46.3k
28
votes
Accepted
Understanding booking dot com's "Free Cancellation" Policy
I have used that clause for some of my bookings. It's just legalese for "we don't know how long will it take for your bank to show the refund on your account, don't freak out".
If you have ...
- 3,765
24
votes
Accepted
EV-friendly accomodation
The filters already exist.
While browsing locations at booking.com, on the left of the page you have some filters.
Under the Facilities filter, you can find Electric vehicle charging station.
On ...
- 1,898
22
votes
What will happen if I checked in for another room in the same hotel, but not for the booked one?
In my experience there are two possible explanations. The least likely one is that the person who checked you in does not understand the booking.com procedures. The more likely explanation is that the ...
- 885
21
votes
Accepted
Sales tax rate for hotel in Washington DC
Visiting the United States often confuses anybody from anywhere else in the world, is their taxation in most states. In the U.S., if there is a "sales tax" on purchasing items, it is not marked as ...
- 11.8k
19
votes
What are the hidden fees for using booking.com
As booking.com states, requirements made directly to the hotel, like extra beds, cots for babies or pets allowed at extra pay, will be charged by the hotel.
Those are charges you should know about as ...
- 62.6k
18
votes
Rebooking same hotel for cheaper price - ethical?
It's clearly legal as you are abiding by the terms of the contract.
Considering the ethics: Hotels and airlines use complicated revenue optimization systems that carefully monitor the supply and ...
- 112k
17
votes
Why are some hotels asking you to book through Booking.com instead of matching the price at the front desk?
In Europe/Germany there investigations ongoing related to booking.com's and expedia (and friends) pricing practice.
Essentially they compel hotels not to offer their rooms cheaper anywhere else. To ...
- 509
17
votes
What does prepayment mean on booking.com?
Usually, if nothing else is indicated, prepayment means a 100% prepayment. If the total costs $400, the entire amount will be charged at the indicated date. When you arrive at the hotel, there will ...
- 60.1k
16
votes
Can a hotel cancel a confirmed reservation?
According to this page by the Barcelona City Council's Municipal Consumer Information Office (OMIC), the first thing you should do is contact the business to try to mediate the complaint. If they don'...
- 933
16
votes
How do I get a hotel room in the centre when everything is sold out (and more expensive) because of a big event?
While the chances of success are low, you can sometimes get impossible-seeming bookings by knowing when the cancellation periods are for people with bookings to cancel without penalty. If the hotel ...
- 1,409
16
votes
Accepted
Which "other travel websites" does Booking.com fetch reviews from?
No idea if this is true/up to date, but in their support pages for partners (hosts), they state:
External review scores
You’ll be able to import external reviews by providing your property’s link ...
- 89.9k
15
votes
Accepted
How many 'genius' levels are there on booking.com?
There are 3 levels. Genius levels on Booking.com tells you your level.
Level 1
10% discounts
Level 2
10%-15% discounts
Free breakfasts on select stays
Free room upgrades on select stays
Level 3
...
- 160k
15
votes
My Booking.com accommodation in Portugal is asking for information via a Google Sheet
IT professional here. As noted in the other answer, the request is legitimate, so let's break down whether this is a "secure" way to do it.
The first question is security of transit: is ...
- 99.2k
14
votes
How to get itemized receipt from booking.com?
In cases where you need to show lodging charges for reimbursement or similar expense purposes, you would not use anything from booking.com or any other online site.
Instead, you have to get the final ...
- 32.8k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible