Booking dot com: Stay Away
 

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They're scammers, do not use this seemingly legit site!

I've used before, never a problem.

Tell us why you think it's not a legitimate site. It's been around quite a while and although I never use it so as to avoid its fees it's very popular with many.

booking.com is a large company, I believe headquartered in the Netherlands. A number of years ago, I interviewed with them for a job in China.

Different lodging places can work to have their property listed with booking.com (similar to how say one could list on AirBnB). I am not sure who you ran into as a scammer but if it is someone listing on booking.com then I would try raising the issue with the parent company since it is both your interest and booking.com interest to have good listings (similar to how if I had issues with an AirBnB rental I would bring it up with AirBnB).

Aside from that, I've found some parts of the world have better coverage from Booking.com than say Expedia. So I tend to use both sites and sometimes others if I need to make a reservation. I've been fortunate that my interactions with sites listed in booking.com have all gone smoothly. So I understand you are presenting reviews from: https://www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/booking_com.html I'll let people read those reviews and decide for themselves.

For reference, the rating of booking.com seems to be very similar to expedia.com - https://www.consumeraffairs.com/trav...ervations.html and also airbnb.com - https://www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/airbnb.html as all three receive ratings of 1.1 stars. I have used all three sites while bicycle touring and based on my experiences would not have given them a 1 star rating, but then I am also not motivated to go out and rate them unless there is a problem...

I'm curious, how long ago was your use of Booking.con?

The online offers seem meaningless when you get to the price at the time of sale. I am not against foreigners selling me things, but this guy on the phone was barely intelligible, quick and very pushy. The busy call center had numerous competing conversations to add to the mix. The reservations sold to me were $107 more than calling the hotel and reserving in person on my cell phone - I didn't know this at the time. It seemed overpriced, but knowing I could cancel for free before March 20th (this happened over a week ago), I took the reservation. Less than 24 hours later I cancelled through Booking.con and was informed there would be a one night stay cancellation fee, $198 U.S. dollars, the exact opposite of the Inn's policy! I had to put my foot down on this and the person on the other end of the phone was reluctant to refund. It took a little longer than a week to get my refund.
I feel violated. End of story.

Half a dozen bookings in Madagascar in August 2025. First night was made perhaps a month before the trip, others made as we went along so a day or two before arrival at the respective hotel.
Many times before that, but August last year was the most recent.

It's always less expensive - not to mention much safer - to book directly with the lodging provider. No middleman to confuse any issues or fix blame on.

The word "always" is a bit strong. I agree that often you get a better deal going directly with the hotel but I can think of two counter-examples at least where the online rates were lower than when I showed up at the hotel.
- The first example was in New Haven CT. I had looked up the price in Expedia ($87) but hadn't booked yet because I wasn't sure where/when I would stop. When I showed up at the motel, they quoted me a price of $147. I told them I was surprised and that they (still) had a rate in Expedia - and suggested I might instead book that way. The clerk then decided to declare they were full and wouldn't honor either rate.
- The second example was in Fort Stockton TX. I showed up and asked if they had rooms and the rate. They told me they could give me rate $x as a walk up - but that it would be cheaper to book via Expedia. So that is what I did.

I don't know if I would have had similar experiences calling in advance vs. showing up. Sometimes, I also book via the web to avoid the whole arriving with a bicycle question. It is an extremely small percentage situation though I did have a case in January. This time I had booked in advance (via Expedia) but on arrival at the Red Roof Inn in San Marcos, TX that they had a policy of no bicycles on the property. I decided to vent with the following review comment left on Yahoo. I am in San Marcos multiple times per year in a quick sub-24-hour overnight ride so I sample some of the basic motels...
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I almost never book rooms very much in advance. I know sometimes you can call the reservation desk of a motel directly and get a price. That price can sometimes be beaten by just logging onto Expedia, sometimes not. In this case I was wanting to do it all online, but there was no way to get to the purchase of the more attractive online price. I am suspicious of this "glitch', that required me to call on my phone, as my computer has never had a problem with online purchase for many years. It's their game, they know exactly what they're doing. I know when I'm being played, and I was played.

I simply book through the establishment's official site. I have even done it a few hours before arrival. One and done. No worries.

There is a lot of shady stuff out there. Here is a recent example from the Shady Spruce Hostel in Missoula:

The cancellation policy on the website:

• Cancellation Policy
  

Staff must be notified by either voice, voicemail, text or email 72 hrs. prior to the arrival-time selected by guests on their original booking form. No refunds will be issued inside this 3 day-72 hr. timeframe. No exceptions.

On March 3rd, I booked a room for June 15th. Shortly thereafter, I got an email. This is part of it:

Cancellation Policy (UPDATED 01/10/2026)

Full reimbursement will only be made from cancellations requests, via calling, texting or email, within 7 full days following the initial booking time/date during our Peak Season - May 1 through August 30.

If you could take the time to update your automatic confirmation email with the new cancellation [policy that we into effect two months earlier, why couldn't you take the time to update the website to reflect the policy change? My suspicion is that some (if not most) people probably ignore the confirmation email if the trip is not to take place for a while, relying on the 72-hour cancellation policy they read on the website. After a week, you could be totally SOL, although that is not clear since it reads "[f]ull reimbursement will only be made....". Am I entitled to a partial refund if I try to cancel after seven full days from booking but within the 72-hour window stated on the website?

Sorry that was just funny. The name is literally Shady. That is why I only stay at the Aboveboard Spruce Hostel.

I stayed in a motel once while touring and it was luckily quite friendly to bikes. However I find at least in my daily travels if you are nice and seem desperate enough people will generally let you in with a bike and as long as it isn't filthy they are usually cool but if nothing else you can always sneak it in and apologize if they catch ya.

Cannot speak much to Booking website other than they run commercials and it gets that stupid earworm: booking dot com more like booking dot yeah. I think I might have used them for a flight and no issues. However I will say reviews can be tough when someone has a bad experience and they don't have a good place to go they will go to a review site even if the complaint is not valid to the actual place or service and might be specific to a certain user of the platform. Like say I am at one of those AirBnBs and the owner of the house says we have towels and they don't have towels and they won't get you towels and Airbnb isn't the issue but you in that moment see a way to post a review but it isn't directed at the person who you have an issue with because it is for the platform. Also some people are paid by other companies to post bad reviews I got one for my business that was completely false and in the end got taken down and a previous business I worked for would occasionally get them usually saying "hurky lurkies is a bad shop and they treated me bad but I want down the street to buncos derp shop and they were great" something like that names of course changed to protect the innocent. That is why I always have trouble with reviews as the legit ones are so frequently hidden by bad reviews (not star ratings) that have no substance or are unrelated to the business or service or product they are reviewing. I don't care if it ships fast, nor do I care that you decided not to read the instructions or learn how to use it before you used it and failed nor do I care if you had an issue with something separate from what you should be reviewing.

:roflmao2:I have to admit that I hadn’t seen what I had done there. I think I wrote “dishonest” at first but changed it before posting.

At least the place is up front about the $10 charge to use their bike storage facility.

The reason I chose the place is because it’s only a few blocks from where the shop I will be shipping my bike to. I got the private room. A lot cheaper (and closer) to than the motel I booked last year.

Coming from Australia, we have used Booking.com for quite a few years, both for local accommodation (within the state and within Australia) and for international accommodation. That said, we tend to use Agoda more because it is generally cheaper, has similar cancellation policies, and beats the accommodation prices most of the time.

We have never had to phone them for any issues as far as I can recall.

I've used booking.com many times over the years in several countries and never had any issue. Their rates are very often cheaper than booking direct with the hotel. I have also cancelled many bookings as I then found something better and never had a problem.

I never used booking.com. I only make reservations for lodging in advance if I am making sure that I have lodging associated with a flight or train trip. On a bike tour, I am almost always camping. I think I stay in hostels more often than motels when bike touring. When staying at hostels, I make reservations directly with them or on the HI website, if I make a reservation.

I have gotten a lower motel rate a couple times with Expedia, the version of Expedia that is associated with AARP (https://www.expedia-aarp.com/).

When I arrive at a motel without a reservation, I always ask for the AARP discount. It is not much, but in some years my motel discounts were enough to pay for the annual membership, which also is not much. A year and a half ago, I did not like the quoted rate at a motel, I looked it up on Expedia on my phone, they gave me the the same rate that I would have paid if I had made a reservation in advance on Expedia. I do not remember how much I saved that way.

Expedia really screwed up my flight several years ago. I could not figure out what was going on with my reservation on their website, so did not try too hard. When I got to the airport, they said that Expedia had me flying from Montreal to Chicago, and then getting on a plane in Halifax to fly to Montreal. In other words, they got my two connecting flights in the wrong order. Photo below are three ticketing agents trying to figure out what Expedia was thinking. They eventually got me onto two flights in the correct order, I got home at 3am.

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I have not gotten an airplane ticket from Expedia since that trip.

_______

Yes, B.com HQ'ed in Amsterdam. Amazing new sustainable building complete with climbing walls and the most amazing/huge bike parking garage.

I worked for Booking Holdings a couple years ago and they owned Booking.com ...along with Priceline, Kayak, OpenTable, Agoda (Asian B.com), CheapFlights, FareHarbor, RentalCars.com. Most people don't know all those brands are under the same roof. Offices were being consolidated, and there's actually "neighborhoods" for employees of the different brands to come in to office and reserve desk.

As I left, the big push was for AI development and "The Connected Trip." They spent a ton on AI to replace call center agents and projected savings in the tens of millions. You will also eventually be able to give B.com AI a vague idea of what you want to do...and they will plan the entire trip, fight, hotel, rental car, restaurants, zip lines, fishing, etc....whatever...for you. That's the "connected trip" part. They want to be the one-stop-shop for every aspect of your trip. You won't have to think or plan anymore. Just tell their AI..."I feel like cycling in Europe for 2 weeks in June"...and they'll assemble the whole thing for you. Welcome to the future.

Yesterday I read an article where someone told AI to put together his business trip. And he gave AI his credit card number. Next morning he found that the trip would cost $31,000.

Oops.

The robots are doing their jobs destroying humans but they are super intelligent so instead of violence they are bankrupting everyone. I kind of enjoy trip planning but I guess if I had to do it for work all the time I would want an easier time but you hire a dang secretary or something or just take the 10 minutes to book a dang flight and hotel.

Can it help me plan a bicycle trip to reach the Sacred Canyon of Humantay? ;) - https://futurism.com/artificial-inte...marks-tourists

I cannot fathom the lack of common sense, and general intelligence of someone who would give AI their credit card and tell it to book a trip, or buy anything.

I have used and know people who have used Booking.com without issue. I would not hesitate to use it again.

My perception is the discounts that are unique to AARP have gone down in the last decade compared to what was before. In particular while I haven't owned an automobile for 25 years, before I was old enough for AARP, I specifically had a AAA membership because I could save the equivalent of AAA annual fee in hotel discounts. When I became old enough for AARP, I dropped my AAA and AARP/AAA typically had the same discounts.

However, I noticed while there is still often an "AARP discount", I've also noticed it really isn't different from what you get if you ask for "best rate" or similar language. So you want to make people feel like they are getting a good deal - but I noticed less and less that the deal was any different for AARP vs. a broad grouping of other categories that also get discounts.

Agree. Discount is not much.

I think I saved more than one year of renewals that one time when I stood at the counter and said to the guy, according to AARP Expedia here on my phone, your rate is $XX, he then gave me that rate. And the motel saved too because they did not have to pay Expedia when I did that, I just looked them up on my phone and showed him the price that I would have paid if I reserved it on line. The only reason I did that was that I thought that particular motel was charging more than was reasonable for that location.

Another ludicrous premise of a thread. The scale and influence of Booking.com is enormous in the lodging industry and these old wives tales of getting a better deal or better rooms directly are things of the past. It’s all about ratings scores and that is the primary driver for success in the industry. Can you imagine how it would go over as you’re tucking into your free breakfast to find out the person sitting beside you got a better deal because they phoned directly bypassing Booking.com. Take a look at the following table regarding the size of their business. The OP must have been living underground if he wasn’t aware of Booking.com and then came to that opinion.
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I use them extensively especially as I have moved on from sleeping in a tent or on the ground. Their support whenever I have needed it has been amazing. I am organizing a small tour this spring for 10 friends over 12 nights all through Booking, it will be over 120 nights on that one trip alone on my account.