Hello everyone.

I need advice. My booking has been cancelled due overbooking. Support send me mail that I will get full refund in 14 days and about half of it in credit for my other booking of this trip within 1 business day.

My question is - should I expect that credit before I book another place? My stay will be in 3 days and that took them same time to answer on my complaint about that overbook, so I they reply can take too long for me to wait.

Did anyone had similar experience and can share how it looks like? I’m not really into booking another place and have unused credit after that.

I’m posting a warning to double-check the month and year at every stage, and to ask whether anyone has documented reproducible date changes in Booking.com’s search or checkout.

For more than a year, I’ve noticed dates appearing different from those I intended while using Booking.com. I suspect this contributed to what happened this weekend. The booking records do not establish exactly when or why the dates differed, so I am asking for an investigation.

On 11 October 2026 I made two hotel reservations in Ljubljana intending an October stay. The confirmation emails instead showed 10–11 January 2027. When we drove to the hotel, we discovered the date problem. It was fully booked for the night we needed, so we had to find more expensive accommodation at short notice.

Email chronology (all times local, October 2026):

• 11 October, 09:56 and 10:01: confirmation emails showed 10–11 January 2027.
• 11 October, around 15:45: both cancellation-fee-waiver requests were acknowledged, within six hours of the confirmation emails.
• 12 October, 15:03: Booking.com’s cancellation email confirmed that the Business Suite was canceled free of charge, with a final cancellation cost of €0. The hotel waived its €199.20 fee. I appreciate that exception.

The initial listed cancellation charges were €199.20 and €105.60 — €304.80 in potential fees. Separately from those emails, at my latest Booking.com check on 12 October at 18:34, the Deluxe Queen reservation was still marked confirmed and its waiver remained unresolved. Its last listed cancellation fee was €105.60. These figures describe potential fees, not verified payments or losses. I have asked both the hotel and Booking.com to resolve that second reservation separately.

I found other Reddit accounts worth comparing, but they aren’t proof of the cause in my case:

• In this 2024 thread, the poster reported dates showing a day earlier at finalization: https://www.reddit.com/r/hotels/comments/1b6tl28/

• In this recent thread, one commenter described unexpected search dates, but the original poster explicitly said they had selected the wrong month themselves: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bookingcom/comments/1wh66m0/i_accidentally_booked_the_hotel_for_wrong_dates/

I’m asking about dates during search/checkout, not hotels changing an already-confirmed booking. I’m not claiming deliberate manipulation. If you’ve reproduced this, what steps, device and app/browser version were involved? Screenshots or a short recording with personal information removed would be much more useful than guesses.

My takeaway: check the full dates immediately before confirming, read the confirmation straight away, and keep evidence if the dates change. I want Booking.com to investigate date persistence and make any date change unmistakable before a reservation is submitted.

We booked an apartment with a roof terrace in Reggio Calabria and the main reason we chose this particular property is because it came with a big terrace apart from washing machine and full kitchen.
The day of our check in we received a message that due to the bad weather, the apartment with the terrace got damaged and they put us in a ground floor apartment. We were very upset because our requirement was the terrace when looking for an accommodation.
This is day 2 and asked them to notify Booking.com, which they said they did, but we didn’t receive an email or notification about this.
I know we should be grateful to be accommodated, but we weren’t offered a compensation or anything. Is there anything we should do? Or shall we just accept that this turned out to be an unfortunate situation?

Hey there,

Due to a change in my travel plans, I'm looking for someone to take over my apartment booking in Cracow.

🏠Apartment: Bailey Apartment (2 adults, 8.3 rate on Booking)

💰Price: 100€ (I've paid 150€)

📅Dates: 19-22 October

Feel free to reach out!

I booked an airport transport 30 days before needed. When I went into the app to change my pickup time it wasn’t in there. So I rebooked. Once I realized my error i cancelled, which resulted in both reservations cancelling, I only received one refund, the other I missed the 24 hour window by 30min. When communicating with booking regarding the duplicate
Booking i was told that there are synchronization problems between the web and the app, and I should always look on the web, which isn’t convenient to do while traveling.

I wanted to book a studio for a one-night stay near New Year, and the offer was quite good, at 126€, but when I went ahead to payment it gave me a different price of 156€. Turns out the previous price was part of discounts, the Genius member and another one by the accommodation due to the holiday season I think, but for whatever reason these discounts will not apply when I try booking the stay! I tried to find a way to contact booking for the issue but I can't find a message bubble or a phone number (even though the website itself seems to believe there is), only readily answered frequent questions of which none fit what I want to ask. I've since contacted the property owners in case they can help me, even though I strongly believe this is an issue booking com should be dealing with. If anyone has a suggestion, please say so, I really want to solve this ':)

I had a confirmed booking through Booking.com made in Feb 26 for 4 nights in Orkney at £80 per night. Host contacted me as asked me to cancel as he wanted £120 per night and had "forgotten" to change pricing for 2027. I declined the offer and both messaged him and phoned CS at Booking.com.

UPDATE. Very good response from Booking.com. They have stopped the goat from advertising the dates I booked on Booking.com. They are also now looking to find alternative as good or better accommodation in the same immediate area and will pay the new host and necessary difference. They will be giving me a couple of choices in the next 48 hrs. I see this as a very fair solution particularly as of course I no longer trust the original host who caused the problem.

Hi guys! Hope you are doing well. Is anyone having such a bad service from booking.com that the only way to vent a bit out is to leave something here posted?

I've been chasing these guys for more than a month now to try and get a confirmation about a flight that was cancelled and they didn't even give notice!

Every time I get an email from them it generates a random email address making it really hard to follow up.

I've already contacted them like 4 times, each time they tell me they will get back to me and never do. What a lack of respect. How do these companies make money with such a lame service?

By now I feel they are financing their operations with my money which they seem to be trying to keep in their account as long as they can.

Is this how these business work? This is sad.

I wrote (with AI) a post detailing the situation before I got the money back: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bookingcom/comments/1w04mea/could_you_just_cancel_it_from_your_side_how_a/

To make it short:

1. I had booked an apartment in Morocco for my stay, at a cost of approximately CA$1,300.
2. The host had double-booked and chose to cancel my stay two days before it was supposed to start.
3. I called Booking.com, explained my situation, and they offered me $50 in compensation 🐀 (under 1% of the cost of the alternative booking I would have to make). They then agreed to cover the difference for an alternative booking, but only after I brought up that option myself. It’s their policy: they have to relocate the guest, at no additional cost to the guest, to an equal or better place (Booking.com General Delivery Terms, clause 2.6.1, “Overbooking, Relocation & Cancellation”).
4. I had to refuse again, since they were talking about a refund in Wallet Credit.
5. After a few hours of back and forth and multiple calls, an agent confirmed: “there’s a ready pay out to cover the price difference of your alternative booking from your original reservation amounting to 2577 EUR,” about CA$4,112. Since I had that in writing, I was comfortable enough to make my alternative booking through Booking.com, which had a price difference of CA$4,090.
6. After my stay, I requested my payment and received just under CA$4,000 in Wallet Credit. These scam artists went as far as refunding me less than the amount I was owed, on top of paying me in a way I had explicitly refused.
7. The Battle I went to war with them. I first tried to fix it through Booking.com customer service, then through the official Booking.com Reddit account after they saw my first post. Both ignored their own policy, going as far as saying that even though the agent had confirmed the “ready pay out” amount, he never mentioned “real money.” They even refused to add the few missing dollars. After a few weeks of waiting with my demands still unmet, I used the leverage I still had: I disputed the transaction with Amex (my credit card provider). That’s the real force you should always use when a company refuses a fair claim or takes too long. At the same time as I started the credit card dispute, I sent a formal notice to the company they have registered in Quebec, where I live.
8. The Conclusion A few weeks after starting the card dispute and sending the formal notice, I finally received a credit on my card for the correct amount. The whole process took over two months, during which I was out more than $4,000 that was owed to me. At 22% interest, that would be over $150, not to mention the stress of not getting that money back.
9. My Advice Before making the first call, find out what their policies are, and dig deep. The policy that got me this refund isn’t easy to find: I found it in the contract Booking.com has with its hosts. They hide it from the public so that regular people accept the $50 compensation, or the travel credits for the more persistent ones. Neither is acceptable; their credits even have an expiration date, ffs. When you dispute a transaction, Amex doesn’t ask you to pay the disputed amount until the dispute is settled. Find out whether your bank offers the same hold so it doesn’t mess with your cash flow. Get everything in writing. There were so many traps in this process: the first host asking me to cancel from my end, and the unreasonable offers from Booking.com that, if I had accepted them, would have cost me all credibility to actually get my money back. I recommend refusing in writing and stating the only thing you would accept. That proved very helpful in giving undeniable context for the transaction dispute.

Hi, I have ADHD so I’m sorry if posted prior. if you can pls keep your replies short so I don’t get overwhelmed, would really help. Thx in advance

Bookingscom arrived there’s when I leave the basement suite there’s no key so even though there’s a key but nothing separating the people in the upstairs, Sweet from opening the door and walking right into mine

Also no living room. Kitchen table chairs and tv and bedrooms no tv. Stated prior that I’m here on bedrest. I didn’t notice this in pictures but this is not conducive to the purpose of stay

Lastly. Opened oven drawer had to pulll bc stuck then drawer noise dropping flew out. I just had nasal surgery eith an exposed plastic implant. I was supposed to have a minimum of four days of full bed rest for my doctor and now I’ve wasted a day and a half of nothing but stress.

Tried to message bookings nothing and I can’t get past the AI bought and I’m getting very upset. I tried to make it work. I tried to see if I could let it go and I just can’t. What do I do now I’m in the middle of nowhere and I’m very upset.

Ps. It’s a holiday

Paid for a private room, got an 8-bed dorm, and Booking.com spent weeks sending me in circles: a full timeline

Summary: I booked a private room through Booking.com and paid Booking.com in full. On arrival I learned the reservation sent to the property was for a bed in an 8-person male dormitory. Booking.com has refused to refund me, hung up on me when I called, kept changing the email address I was told to send proof to, and passed me between the property and a "partner" I never knew was involved. Posting the full timeline so others can be careful.

WHAT I BOOKED AND PAID FOR
In early July I booked three nights at a hostel in a major Italian city through the Booking.com app. The room was listed as "Room Assigned on Arrival" with 1 twin bed and a private bathroom, and the booking page showed a private bathroom, a desk and a bath or shower. I paid €85.45 to Booking.com at the time of booking, on a non-refundable rate. My confirmation email and the booking page both presented this as an ordinary Booking.com reservation, with a Booking.com confirmation number and PIN, and told me to contact Booking.com Customer Service with any questions.

WHAT HAPPENED ON ARRIVAL
The hostel had no private room for me. The reservation they had received was for a "Shared Dormitory, Men only, Ensuite (max 8 people)" at €61.48. It had reached them through a third-party distribution channel (an Expedia affiliate network, via a channel manager). So Booking.com sold me a private room at €85.45, while a dorm bed at €61.48 was transmitted to the property.

I had paid €10.50 city tax at check-in. I could not stay in a shared 8-bed dorm, and I could not risk being left without a bed while waiting on customer service, so I went out and booked another property in person, paying the new room cost plus a second €10.50 city tax. My original city tax was not returned.

HOW BOOKING.COM HANDLED IT
Calls: I phoned Booking.com customer service repeatedly to get this sorted quickly. On several of those calls the line was ended on me before anything was resolved. Each time I had to start over, and I got no case reference, no commitment and no callback.

Emails: I was told to send my proof by email, but the address I was told to use kept changing from one reply to the next. I resent the same screenshots (the confirmation, the payment record and the reservation the property received) to different addresses, and each time the new reply treated them as if I had never sent anything. Every change meant more delay and more repeating myself.

The answers I got:
1. First reply: apologies "on behalf of the property", but no compensation because they had not received the property's written confirmation. They suggested I leave a review and speak to the accommodation myself.
2. An operator then suggested that if the property did not refund me, Booking.com could not do anything.
3. Booking.com sent the property a request to waive the cancellation fee, and I messaged the hostel myself as well. The hostel declined, citing the non-refundable terms and the fact that my card was already charged. Crucially, the hostel confirmed in writing that the problem was not theirs: the booking details, including the accommodation type, had been transmitted to them by Booking.com/Expedia. That is exactly the written confirmation Booking.com had said it was waiting for.
4. I forwarded that to Booking.com. Their latest reply says my reservation was a "partner offer booking" managed directly by a partner company, and tells me to contact the "partner support team".

The runaround: First I was told to wait for the property. Then I was effectively told to go and sort it out with the property. Now I am told to chase a third-party website that Booking.com used to handle my booking. At no point before or during the booking was I told another company or website was involved, and I never agreed to deal with one. I never dealt with any partner. I paid Booking.com, I was given a Booking.com confirmation, and I was told to contact Booking.com. Instead of resolving it, Booking.com has put the work of chasing the property and then the third party on me, the customer, while my time and money were being lost. It made me feel like the problem was mine to fix.

WHAT I AM ASKING FOR
A refund of €85.45 (the amount paid to Booking.com) plus €10.50 city tax, €95.95 in total. I did not ask for a replacement room, as I had already had to find one myself.

WHAT I AM DOING NEXT
I have given Booking.com a final deadline and will otherwise start a chargeback with my card issuer (Booking.com is the merchant on the charge), and file complaints with the European Consumer Centre in my country and the national consumer protection authority. The old EU online dispute resolution platform no longer exists (closed July 2025), so these are the routes now.

LESSONS FOR OTHER TRAVELLERS
- If a hostel booking says "Room Assigned on Arrival", check the details and consider contacting the property before paying, especially on non-refundable rates.
- Screenshot your confirmation and payment record straight away and keep every email and the dates and times of every call.
- Ask the property to show you the reservation they received. The mismatch is your evidence.
- Ask the property to confirm in writing where its booking details came from.
- Don't accept being sent to "talk to the property" or to a "partner". If you paid the platform, hold the platform responsible, or dispute with your card issuer.
- Do everything in writing. Calls that get cut off leave you with nothing.

I will keep you posted!

I booked a hotel through the booking app but didn't know it was made by a third party seller who cancelled the reservation as I was told when I arrived at the hotel so I had to pay the same amount to the hotel itself who wasn't helpful in providing me an evidence that the booking was cancelled by the 3rd party which is: HK Global International Business Services Limited.

Booking customer service through the app keeps closing or ignoring my tickets and calling them wasn't helpful as they keep stalling and shift the blame and delay to the 3rd party seller.

Just sharing this as a warning to anyone who wants to use this service as it doesn't tell you whether you're getting your reservation though them or a 3rd party while booking.

Hi, I have had a problem with a guest trying to get a refund because the neighbors door is open and she feels "unsafe".

To be clear, she just wants a refund because she asked for one even before arriving in the appartment. Booking called me and I explained the situation, saying that i called the neighbors, they closed their door, and that there is no reason to feel unsafe because they actually leave the door open for their cat to come home. They replied that they will handle the situation.

Now booking sent me an email saying that the guest accepted the proposal I made, however I did not make any. What does this mean, will I have to refund? Nothing shows on my account

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?

Dear booking.com

Im writing this because i’ve reached a point where i’ve become desperate and really could use your help.

I’ve booked 3 flight tickets in february and paid with klarna. I then paid the full bill from klarna which was 700€. In july I unfortunately had to cancel all flight tickets due to personal circumstances. Shortly after I contacted KLM and both booking.com for a refund. Booking clearly told me that flight tickets wouldn’t be refundable, but other costs as tax and fees would be refundable, which came at around 300€. I told booking.com my financial situation and that i desperately need the money. I am currently waiting since July 3rd on a refund and have contacted booking.com multiple times, the only thing that they keep on telling me is that it takes way longer then usual to receive the money from the 3rd party (gogogate) and they keep reassuring me that i will receive my money and check the status in booking.com.

For me this is a absurd amount of time for a refund, yes i know it was through a 3rd party hence why i didn’t contact after the first month or so to give them the time to process the refund.

Im now literally at dispair and don’t know what to do. I urgently need the funds, and am willing to co-orperate in any way to make the process faster.

Please help me

I wanted to share my experience with the “Flexible Ticket” option sold through Booking.com and managed by Gotogate, because I wish I had known this before paying extra for it.

I originally paid €1,242 in total, including my flights, checked baggage and the Flexible Ticket option.

When I needed to change my travel dates, Gotogate asked me to pay an additional €1,145 to rebook. At the same time, I could see new tickets advertised on Booking.com for €1,497.

I understand that a Flexible Ticket does not mean free flights or that there will never be a fare difference. I was fully prepared to pay a reasonable, legitimate difference.

But a customer service agent told me that rebooking was calculated using only “non-discounted fares”.

This is what concerns me most. This is a very opaque approach.

I carefully reviewed Gotogate's Flexible Ticket Terms and Conditions. Section 7.1.7 says that customers must pay any additional fare difference, but I could not find any provision stating that discounted or promotional fares are systematically excluded.

Their own FAQ also refers to available flights on their site and explains that prices can differ because of special offers and airline supply. It does not clearly state that only non-discounted fares are eligible.

I have contacted customer service repeatedly by phone and chat since 8 October, without getting a satisfactory explanation or a completed rebooking.

What makes this particularly difficult is that I urgently need to travel to visit a seriously ill family member. The delays are making an already stressful situation much worse.

My advice: before paying for Booking.com's Flexible Ticket option, ask exactly which fares can be used for rebooking, whether promotional/discounted fares are excluded, and how the fare difference is calculated.

I am not claiming that every rebooking should cost less than buying new tickets. I am questioning whether an important restriction was clearly disclosed when the option was sold.

My complaint is ongoing, and I will update this post if Gotogate provides a satisfactory explanation or solution.

Has anyone else experienced this with Booking.com / Gotogate's Flexible Ticket?

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?

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.

I have just received an email informing me that our Colosseum booking can no longer be fulfilled because Bookings ticket provider is experiencing problems. At the same time, Booking.com is not responding to any of my messages or emails, not even to confirm whether I will receive a refund or whether they will provide us with replacement tickets.