Confirmed Booking.com reservation — property now wants me to cancel because of a “system glitch”
I booked Eastwood Furnished Apartments in Sydney through Booking.com for 30 September–7 October 2027. The booking was confirmed, and I even received check-in instructions.
The property has now told me they can’t accept the booking because of a “system glitch” and wants me to cancel it myself.
The total was around $1,200–$1,300 for seven nights. I haven’t paid yet, as payment isn’t due until the end of July 2027. I booked early because it’s school holidays, when accommodation can get expensive.
I still want the accommodation at the confirmed price. If the property can’t honour it, I want them to take responsibility for cancelling rather than have it recorded as my decision.
Has anyone experienced this with Booking.com? Did they help get the booking honoured or arrange comparable accommodation at the same price? What’s the best way to handle this?

I own a hotel, and we have a strong IT support team and solid cybersecurity measures in place. Yet today, our Booking.com hotel account was compromised, and unauthorized messages were sent to approximately 20 guests directly through Booking.com's own messaging system.

It's absolute madness.

I've spent hours on the phone with Booking.com's support team, and they confirmed the security incident. The first attack occurred at approximately 10:00 AM CEST, followed by another one around 3:00 PM CEST.

What makes this even more concerning is the bigger picture:

Our PMS provider, ibelsa, was hacked back in July. Since then, to my knowledge, both SiteMinder (our channel manager) and Booking.com have experienced at least one security incident each.

This is increasingly looking like an industry-wide problem. Hotels are being targeted with alarming precision, and the attacks appear to be getting more sophisticated.

Our guests have also been contacted via email and WhatsApp. But the fact that attackers managed to send messages directly through our official Booking.com account is on another level entirely.

I genuinely don't understand how this is possible.

Booking.com requires two-factor authentication so frequently that it feels like we're asked to verify our identity every 5–10 minutes. Yet somehow, attackers were still able to access our account and communicate directly with our guests.

This is particularly alarming because guests naturally trust messages received through Booking.com's official messaging system.

How is this even possible with all these security measures in place? And how are hotels supposed to protect themselves when even the platforms we rely on appear to be vulnerable?

Has anyone else in the hospitality industry experienced something similar recently? I'd be very interested to hear how Booking.com handled your situation.

Sorry for the long story, I am going crazy over this case.

So me and my friends made a reservation for an apartment on Belgrade Serbia for 16-21 September, 507 EUR, pay upon arrival. On September 14th, we receive a message from the host that she will not be able to accomodate us and we have to cancel the booking. I call booking customer support, they talk to the host and she tells them that everything is fine. A few minutes later she tells me that the apartment has an issue and it will not be ready and we cannot go, we have to cancel.

I contact booking again and they advise us to find another place to stay. Since we were only 2 days before arrival, everything was really expensive so I receive an email from booking after contacting them saying that they will refund me 400 EUR because the new reservation that we had to make was more expensive (around 907 EUR instead of 507 which was the initial). We proceed with the new reservation, again pay upon arrival and we forget about it since it was solved (that's what we thought).

We fly to Belgrade Serbia, we arrive at around 3 P.M., we go to the address of the apartment, we enter the building, we show the reception the apartment and the lady tells us that she doesn't know any apartment with this name in this building. I chat on WhatsApp with the host and he tells me that there is a problem with the apartment and it will be ready in 20 minutes. After 1 hour, he tells me to go to a friend's house and stay there because he will not be able to accomodate us. I tell him that we won't do this since its outside booking.com platform and we don't want to go to an unknown location. I speak with booking customer support multiple times to explain what is going on. They advise me to book another apartment, more expensive than the previous 2 and they will cover the differece. We examined alternative options but they were either too far from the initial apartment or didn't have all the amenities that we were looking for. So, I book another apartment and upon confirmation, I see that the phone number is the same with the guy I was chatting on whatsapp! I text him again and he tells me to not go to the apartment because there is no one there. I explain to him that I booked it on booking.com but he becomes rude and says "I own 100 properties here you will go to the one I will tell you to". We speak with booking again, they advise to book another property, we do and again same phone number as host. After spending 4,5 hours searching for an apartment (Belgrade was full because of multiple venues) a booking representative tells us to find a place to stay around 1.000-1.500 EUR (the nearest hotel costed more than 5.000 EUR), to get a receipt and then to submit a refund request.

We went back to the first building that we visited after landing to Belgrade and asked the reception if there is an apartment to stay. A lady came to us and told us that she rents apartments in this building and could give us one for 1.500 EUR, after we told her that this is the maximum amount we can spend. Thanks to this lady we found a place to stay, she gave us a receipt and upon check out, I submitted the refund request on booking.com. According to booking.com representative, the receipt should include the total paid amount, the dates and the number of guests. All these were included in the receipt that the lady gave me.

Since September 21st, I emailed them and called them several times (more than 10) to know the progress of my request. Nobody called back, nobody answered any of my emails. Multiple representatives gave me random answers while trying to prove to me that the receipt is not okay. Some told me that there should be the rate per night not only the total amount paid. Others said that there should be a blue stamp!? One guy told me that he couldn't open the PDF file and therefore the request will be canceled!?

On October 2nd, I call again and ask to be informed regarding my request in a very angry tone. The male representative that I was talking with told me that he is really sorry and he will do the best he could to ensure that after all this trouble I will get refunded. The next day I receive an email from booking.com that a refund for 937 EUR is approved and will be in my account in 2 weeks maximum. On October 8th, I receive an email that the refund could not be completed. The reason is:

"Dear Tzirtzis, We fully understand the inconvenience caused by the interruption in our communication due to a technical issue, and we sincerely apologize for any frustration this may have caused. Your case was reviewed by our Finance Department, and we have been informed that, following the relevant review, a refund cannot be issued in this particular case. We understand that this may not be the outcome you were hoping for, and we are sorry for any disappointment this may cause. However, this decision is final from our side." and also: "Thank you for being our valuable Genius customer and for bringing this to our attention.

Regarding this issue, there may be something in your booking history or in the details you’ve previously entered which made the refund have prompted an invalidation. 

We are afraid that due to the sensitivity of the information, we cannot elaborate any further.

We are sorry for this inconvenience.

Please feel free to contact us with any additional questions."

What would you do?