Booking.com Reviews 

I am extremely disappointed with my experience with Booking.com, particularly with the way a serious payment issue has been handled.

I cancelled my hotel reservation. On 24 August 2026, Booking.com charged my credit card ₹1,09,010.39 and subsequently refunded ₹1,08,341.88.

However, on 2 September 2026, after the reservation had already been cancelled and the refund had been processed, my card was charged again for ₹1,07,934.64.

I contacted Booking.com and provided screenshots showing the transactions. I was then told that screenshots were not sufficient and that they required an official bank statement showing the transactions, merchant name, my name and bank details. I have now obtained and submitted the official HDFC Bank statement as requested.

What is particularly frustrating is the difficulty in reaching appropriate customer support from India. For an issue involving more than ₹1 lakh, I expected to be able to speak to someone who could take ownership of the case and provide a clear explanation and resolution.

My credit-card payment is due soon, and I should not have to bear such a large disputed amount while waiting for an investigation.

I am asking Booking.com for something very straightforward: explain why ₹1,07,934.64 was charged again after cancellation, confirm whether it was a duplicate/reprocessed charge, and provide the exact refund date and refund reference/ARN if a refund has been initiated.

I would also like an explanation for the difference between the original ₹1,09,010.39 charge and ₹1,08,341.88 refund.

This has been a very stressful experience involving a substantial amount of money. I hope Booking.com will now take ownership of the case, escalate it to its payments team, and resolve it urgently.

I will update this review if and when Booking.com resolves the issue.
Confirmation number: 5461901811

Booking.com. Pay. No refunds. Arrive at property and the stench of synthetic orange fragrance wafts through the air and within seconds my lips tingle and my eyes burn and my head aches. No refunds. Hmm. Can't stay and sleep in that so I check out. The refund "process" of booking.com is an uncut jungle. Loops galore in the process. Never again will I use this agency. I just lost $469 bc I am allergic to synthetic fragrances, some more toxic than others. Turns out the hotel's strong smell was actually their cleaning agent.

Do not use Booking.com!!
Why? They apparently have the right to subcontract your booking with another company, and then any support requests cannot be replied to because those are with the other company. I got a wrong invoice for a hotel stay, in the wrong currency and without VAT, and my company is now refusing my to reimbourse. The orginal hotel (of course) cannot do anything for me, as the booking is not made over them. Also you cannot reply by email to their customer service. You need to go to the booking site again and make another query on the same subject.

I have booked a round trip flight with Booking this month, combining an outbound and inbound from two different airlines. The 1st airline cancelled the outbound.
I contacted Booking 6 days ago to find a solution, ie either change my outbound for free with the airline having cancelled it, or refund me the round trip.
After numerous and frustrating conversations with the Booking agents who informed me that (1) my request to reschedule the outbound with no extra fee) submitted "in priority" by Booking to the airline needed at least 72 hours to be processed and (2) that Booking needed to check with both airlines concerned by my reservation if in case of impossibility to reschedule the outbound cancelled by the first airline I could receive a full refund for the flight, including from the second airline - when they later informed me that a full refund was not allowed by Booking policies (on the arbitrary motive that they made the booking under two reference numbers when I have actually never requested to have a split booking),

I ended up by picking up the phone and contacting the 1st airline myself. They found me another flight in 10 minutes.

Despite being subjected to EU consumer protection regulations, this company which became now too big to fail adopts abusive practices consisting of: holding clients hostages by making separate files within the same one shot reservation to prevent them from cancelling the whole service if it is no longer useful to them ; making them waste precious time and energy with conversations with online agents directed to answer questions and push papers around without really having any power, or a goal of efficiency / problem-solving - conversations which by the way are untraceable as the "download transcript" option available on their application menu is disfunctional.

Do not let yourselves attracted by the well-known name of Booking. Smaller reservation agencies can be more effective and honest. And concerning flights, nothing beats dealing directly with the airlines (buying directly from them). You spend a few euros/dollars more but at least you have the guarantee of a dedicated customer service.

This company will not take responsibility for problems with the lodging and false advertising. If you end up in a dirty room with pee-stained carpet, they say oh well we know this must be disappointing and frustrating for you - but the lodging has refused to refund you so there is nothing we can do. You have got to be kidding me. Conveniently for them, the dispute feature on their website won't work. Every time I try to submit a dispute it says there is a technical problem. What a joke!

Just returned from Benidorm. On arrival found the swimming pool drained of water and closed, although Booking com advertised as open. Loud construction work directly outside my bedroom. Cleanliness of apartment below standard, smell of sewage in bathroom. After 3 days (7 day holiday) decided to check out due to the above. Unable to get hold of Booking com to make a complaint.

Cheated me by booking a room far below what I paid for. I am hundreds of pounds out of profit. They ignore any messages, make it very hard to contact them. The chat function does not work. Horrible customer service. Do NOT use this company. Book direct.

I was very disappointed with my experience. I had a confirmed reservation and traveled to the hotel expecting to check in, only to discover that, due to a labor dispute and service disruption, guests could not be properly accommodated.
While I understand that labor issues can happen, the hotel should have communicated the situation more clearly and proactively before guests arrived. This would have saved customers significant inconvenience, travel time, and stress.
The staff I spoke with were professional, but the overall experience was frustrating because I was unable to use the reservation I had booked and paid for. I hope the hotel improves its communication with guests during unexpected service disruptions.

Booked a Volvo XC60 , got a Volvo XC60 . Booking charger me 2100 euro instead of 1200 due to what they called an upgrade . The contract signed said 1200 euro .

Can't give Booking.com a more negative review even if I tried. if I could I would give a double even triple negative zero.

Booked accommodation and Booking.com who immediately took the payment of over $1100 for the 3 days in Uluru to be married on NYE at the Rock.

My partner got notification through for deployment to the middle east which meant he would not be in Australia in December. This was not his call this is his job.

Advised Booking.com of the predicament. They advised that I cannot cancel or amend my booking because of fine print stating no cancellation.

I said that if this is the case that I will just have to advise that I won't be attending our visit in December and to keep what we have already paid.

I was advised there's a cancellation fee. So our accommodation that I asked to be transferred to mid year was declined and if we don't turn up the cancellation fee is the cost AGAIN of our room.

So I am not taking this laying down, my next port of call is the thousands of complaints to Fair trade monthly. So for getting married in Uluru.....not happening, not giving my money to establishments that,A) don't support essential workers and B) don't have a ounce of compassion for certain situations.

I am not acting entitled, if anything I have told them I was sorry and for them to keep what we have paid in full so far....nope they want more.

I accept that I am in error of not reading the small print, my error.

UPDATE.....
Sails in the Desert have now looked at our situation and offered assistance.
Bottom line is, forget about travel sites and book directly with the hotel you want to stay at. Thanks for your help Jaime

I pride myself on giving accurate honest reviews.

In this case Bookingdotcom it's very easy their customer service is non existent, if you have a complaint they do not respond and after 10 days they say the cannot reach a resolution with the host ?

Thats a useless response we paid bookingdotcom !

In simple terms we booked an apartment with air conditioning and it didn't have any - a simple blatant error, you would think easy to resolve a full refund ?

We emailed the CFO and CEO Glenn Fogel and Dan Williams - no response?

Eventually we went to Mastercard who were excellent and resolved the complaint within 5 days !

So my advice is :

Before booking read customer reviews, no review or bad reviews avoid.

Second always book on Mastercard !

Using booking.Com is not safe
Twice this year apartments that we booked did not exist and we are still waiting for compensation from booking.Com
The stress now in using booking.Com is no longer bearable.
It’s clear their site is easily hacked and is dangerous to use.
We only use it for hotels with a reception serviced by personal and only pay at hotel.
All other transactions on booking.Com is too risky

Following a problematic guest I reported them to booking.com. The whole process is either controlled by bots or staff that cannot write a coherent message. The customer service channel in the extranet app is not fit for purpose as it does not allow you to see more than two lines of text which makes it impossible to write a longer message and there seems no way of actually speaking to a person.

After booking through Booking.com, I received rather sophisticated phishing messages containing my booking details. Other customers on Trustpilot appear to be reporting the same thing.

The pattern raises serious concerns about a possible customer-data leak. What is particularly worrying is the apparent lack of acknowledgement or transparency from Booking.com.

I have booked hundreds of stays on other platforms over the years, and never experienced anything like this.

If you care about your personal data, think twice before using Booking.com.

I booked a hire car through Booking.com and was specifically told in the booking information that physical Visa and Mastercard credit/debit cards would be accepted for the deposit, provided they were not prepaid, rechargeable or virtual.

I arrived at the Goldcar desk with both a physical Monzo Mastercard debit card and a physical Capital on Tap Visa card. Both were rejected.

I was then effectively forced to purchase additional insurance in order to collect the car, leaving me €353.32 out of pocket after excluding the fuel element.

What makes this worse is that Booking.com subsequently acknowledged in writing that I had presented a physical Monzo Mastercard and that Visa and Mastercard were listed as accepted for my booking.

Despite this, they have refused to reimburse me, have failed to identify any booking term that justified Goldcar rejecting the cards, and have repeatedly fallen back on the argument that the insurance purchase was “voluntary”.

It was not voluntary in any meaningful sense. I was at the rental desk, relying on the card information Booking.com had provided, and could not collect the car without paying the extra charge.

Their latest response simply says they have considered all possible outcomes and will not change their position.

I have now issued Booking.com Transport Limited with a formal Letter Before Action.

Extremely disappointing handling of a straightforward complaint, and a serious lack of accountability when information supplied through their own booking process turns out to be wrong.

I’m sharing this to help others avoid the experience we’ve had with Booking.com.
I booked an airport hire car through Booking.com and provided my flight number. When we arrived, the car hire company was closed and no keys had been left for us. The company said it had not received our flight details from Booking.com, classified us as a no-show, cancelled the booking and kept our deposit.
We’re now trying to find another hire car on grand final weekend. My advice is to check the price with the hire company directly before booking through a third party. It could save you a lot of stress.

Extremely disappointed with Booking.com's total lack of customer support and safety guarantees (Ref: 6975918186).

On the very first night of our stay at "Circe 52", Terracina, we experienced a major issue: water was everywhere, making the apartment completely uninhabitable and unsafe.

The host admitted the fault in writing via WhatsApp, apologized, promised a full refund, and then completely disappeared, ignoring all calls and messages.

Booking.com support acknowledged receiving written proof of the host’s fault and admitted that the host is ignoring their calls as well. Yet, instead of issuing a full monetary refund for an unfulfilled stay, Booking.com refuses to refund my payment card and uselessly offers me to "contact the unresponsive host directly" or accept €63.45 in internal wallet credits.

Why pay through Booking.com if they refuse to protect customers when an emergency occurs? Expecting guests to stay in a flooded apartment or chasing a ghost host is completely unacceptable.

I reject these wallet credits. A formal bank chargeback for "Service Not Provided" has been filed with my bank, and I demand a full monetary refund to my original payment card immediately.

No support even when informed an accommodation was a fire safety hazard. Appalling.

Booked through Booking.com with a partnerdeal ( was Agoda) and they did not send our booking to the accomodation. The accomodation checked days if they could find our booking but they did not receive this. We contacted booking.com and they would not really help us so we wanted to cancel but booking could bot do this only the accomodation. The accomodation did not have a BOOKING TO CANCEL. We needed an email from the accomodation with approval of cancellation. They sent it to us and booking and still no response or our money back! We have been customers for 12 years!

Booking.com has been dishonest with me, refusing to refund the cash I had in my wallet. Despite my efforts to resolve the issue, Customer Service agent Julianne A was unhelpful and unresponsive. I strongly advise against using booking.com, as they have a policy of not refunding cash and instead offer excuses, such as the expiration of customer wallet cash, which was never communicated to me. When I requested a refund to my original payment method, the booking agent assured me that the cash credit would never expire. However, when I checked later, I found that the wallet cash had expired, and booking.com refused to refund it, citing a change in company policy. This excuse is unacceptable, and I want to emphasize that this was not a reward or travel credit, but my own wallet cash.