Booking.com (www.booking.com) has a 1.1 out of 5 rating on OK.one, based on 246 user reviews collected here. It is listed under Travel & Vacation and its reputation is poor. 96% of reviews are 1 star, a relatively high share; The business has not yet replied to negative reviews. Last updated 2026-08-10.
I had a prepaid reservation through Booking.com for Posh South Beach in Miami Beach.
I arrived at the property on time for check-in and was willing and able to pay the required security deposit. However, the hotel refused to check me in because I did not have a physical payment card.
I presented the same payment card used for the reservation through my banking application, showed valid government-issued identification, and offered to pay the security deposit using Apple Pay. The hotel refused these payment methods and denied accommodation.
I contacted Booking.com immediately and requested assistance because I had paid for a service that I did not receive. Although Booking.com contacted the property, it ultimately informed me that it could not issue a refund without the hotel's approval.
I believe Booking.com should do more to protect customers when a property refuses accommodation based on a requirement that the customer disputes was not clearly disclosed before booking. I have since opened a chargeback with my card issuer and filed complaints with the relevant Florida consumer protection authorities.
While Booking.com facilitated communication with the property, I was disappointed that the issue could not be resolved and that I remained responsible for pursuing other avenues to recover my payment.
As useless as it gets.
All they do is list properties on their website and collect a commission. But when you arrive, and the listing doesn’t match the description, no A/C, no Wi-Fi, or other missing amenities, they take zero responsibility.
After spending time with customer support trying to find a replacement, I was simply told, “Sorry, we can’t help. We’re just the middleman.” Done with Booking.
Unfortunately, Booking.com shows no interest in the quality of its customer service. If you want compensation for a lost ticket, you end up in an endless limbo: a chat where they use friendly words to pretend they are helping, while you are forced to repeat the same story over and over all day—and continue the next day, too. Calls get disconnected, a new agent takes over and claims to be escalating the case, and then... you never hear from anyone again. You can be certain, then, that you will not receive any compensation this way.
Accommodations are not checked for scammers who just rip people off. Almost impossible to sort any issues out later and get the money back via Booking.com customer services.
Terrible customer service when something goes wrong
Booked a hostel in London through Booking.com. The AC didn't work (room stayed above 30°C), we were woken at 2am by a tow truck with a sleeping receptionist, and an unexplained siren triggered a panic attack. The hotel ignored our written complaint. Booking.com's response? A £99 travel credit – not a refund, not an apology. When your booking goes wrong, they won't have your back. Book elsewhere.
I was very happy with booking.com for years but the récent expérience was very poor. I had 2 issues: one with fraudulent transaction on my credit card (related to accommodation), the other one with overcharge for luggage). Almost impossible to reach a human in customer support, and in order to get rid of clients customer support only sends no reply emails with no information how to follow-up. Very bad experience.
Canceled my booking within 24 hours and my money was not refunded. They kept the entire 190.82 as a cancellation fee. I cancelled it online and received an email stating they needed permission from the hotel. I spoke with the hotel and they had no issue with the cancellation. I waited and waited. Today I went back to the website and still saw the reservation and clicked cancel again. This time it said canceled but charged me the full amount as a cancellation fee! What a rip off
** Family holiday ruined after more than 20 days of failed support **
Firstly, I have also left this review on GoToGate, as this is the company Booking.com is partnered with for flight bookings. Neither company seems to want to take ownership for their appalling customer service.
Our family of five was due to fly with Air China on 2 August 2026 on a holiday we had spent months planning.
We fully accept that we accidentally entered one passenger's name incorrectly when making the booking. One letter was missing. That mistake was ours. However, we reported it more than 20 days before departure, giving Booking.com what we believed was more than enough time to resolve such a simple issue.
Instead, we experienced one of the most frustrating customer service experiences we have ever encountered.
Over the following three weeks, we completed approximately 13 online chats and made around six telephone calls. We were repeatedly assured that our case had been escalated, prioritised and passed to a specialist team. On several occasions, we were promised the corrected ticket would be issued "within two hours", then "within ten minutes", then "within another two hours".
It never arrived.
The corrected e-ticket was never issued. The passenger's itinerary did not display correctly within Air China's system, and another passenger's date of birth was also incorrect. Despite repeatedly asking, we never received written confirmation that all five passengers held valid tickets or that we could travel together without issue.
With no confidence that our family would even be allowed to board, we made the heartbreaking decision to cancel the entire holiday.
This wasn't just about the international flights. The uncertainty had a domino effect on every part of our trip, including internal flights, hotels and other prepaid arrangements across multiple countries. Rearranging everything at such short notice simply wasn't financially possible.
The day before departure, we formally requested that Booking.com cancel all five passengers. We were then told they couldn't process the cancellation because the booking had already been escalated and they were still waiting for the airline.
In other words, their own internal escalation became the reason they said they couldn't help us.
On the day we should have been travelling, my husband contacted what was presented as the formal complaints team. He was told there was no complaints process through that channel and was given an email address instead.
The chat was then ended before he even had the opportunity to reply.
When we emailed the address provided, we immediately received an automated response stating that the inbox does not deal with complaints.
You honestly couldn't make this up.
As a result, our family holiday was completely ruined. We have been left with significant financial losses, including £894 for kennel and cattery bookings and £500 for pre-booked airport taxis, alongside the loss of a holiday we had been looking forward to for months.
At the time of writing, we have still not been offered a refund, compensation or any meaningful resolution. We do not want vouchers or flight credit. We simply want our money returned to the original payment method.
The issue has never been the original typing error. We accepted responsibility for that from the very beginning.
The issue is that Booking.com had more than 20 days to correct one missing letter, yet despite countless promises, repeated escalations and hours spent chasing updates, they failed to resolve it.
Instead, we were passed between Booking.com, GoToGate and Air China, repeatedly given assurances that never materialised, and ultimately left without a functioning complaints process when everything fell apart.
We have retained all chat transcripts, call records and evidence, including proof that we were directed to an email address that does not even accept complaints. We are now pursuing a formal complaint, seeking legal advice and will consider recovering our losses through the Small Claims Court if necessary.
I would strongly urge anyone considering booking flights through Booking.com to think very carefully. If everything goes smoothly, you may never have an issue. But if something goes wrong, our experience suggests you could find yourself trapped between Booking.com, GoToGate and the airline, with nobody willing to take ownership or provide a solution.
Booked return flights and hotel stay in Egypt and everything was perfect. Price was good, hotel was magnificent. Everything worth 5 stars, really.
Unfortunately Booking.com works with GoToGate that offers fasttrack service through airports and failed miserably.
So cannot give more than 4 stars as a choice of GoToGate as partner cannot possibly be more damaging to customer overall experience.
If I could give 0 stars, I would!!! They have scammed us out of a house! My children are with us & they have a lady that isnt even the house owner triple renting out the same house the same night. We got there & there was already people inside the house & we waiting around calling for 2 hours & then we had to go into debt just to get a place for the night because we are 3 hours from home!!!! I hate booking.com!!!!!
The above website have made a change to their website, the customer service phone number has gone now you they use terrible automated assistance service. The is a list questions you would like to ask but no help navigating through their website to reach an answer. Cancellations are common from my own experience, when the is a dispute the refund take weeks if not longer before you get reimbursed. The insurance protection you buy from the website is expensive and difficult to make a claim.
I booked a hotel stay and could not check in to the property because Booking.com did not pay for the room, I had to pay for another reservation and they refused to refund the original reservation. I tried multiple times to get support but I'm just get automated email responses and the phone support keeps hanging up after 25-30min of wait time, this company is a scam!
I used booking.com to make reservations at Surestay in VA Beach. The first room looked clean, BUT at 11:30pm getting ready for bed we saw BED BUG! No other hotel available, so we ended up with another room. That room wasn't suited for 4 people. The underside of the couch mattress had feces on it. They gave a Floor mat to sleep on which had hair all over it. Booking.com said they couldn't give a refund unless the hotel responded. Pictures were provided and booking.com did nothing to help get a refund they just passed issue on to the customer. Don't use booking.com, they take your money, no help if there is an issue
Do NOT Use This Site.
I would give this 0 if i could. I have been using Bookings for at least 5 years. So It's not that I have just had one bad experience. After many issues and lack of help, finally I'm giving up and will never use them again.
If you decide to use them, be aware that this could happen.
You turn up at check in and do not get the room you booked. Because it was not booked directly via the hotel, the hotel can not do anything about it.
You turn up at hotel and it's closed. When given a new hotel they promise to refund difference but that does not happen.
You turn up at hotel and they don't have enough rooms for you. You have to walk to another one they send you to.
It's impossible to talk to anyone about general refund issues. If you do finally talk to someone the call gets disconnected. This happens multiple times.
It's a vicious loop to contact by email. Either the links in email do not work or you get directed to the same page they have already sent you.
The process is utterly and totally frustrating. They should be investigated.
Me and my family were sent to a death trap. Within minutes of arriving at the property, two of my daughters got locked into the bathroom because the door handle was faulty. I called the property owner and booking.com immediately, but 45 minutes later my kids were still trapped in the bathroom. One of my daughters has asthma and the extractor fan was not even working. I had no choice but to call the fire service, who thankfully arrived very quickly and got my kids out. With booking.com and the landlord, I agreed full compensation and to continue the full stay free of charge, only to find later that both parties failed to honour their agreement. The landlord threw us out one day before our checkout was due, and booking.com only refunded us one third of the total price, after agreeing a full refund. In my experience, booking.com only care about money, and their customer service is a complete and utter waste of time.
I am disappointed with Booking.com's "We Price Match" policy. I found the same accommodation at a lower price shortly after booking and submitted a price match request. My claim was rejected because the cheaper offer was non-refundable while my Booking.com reservation had free cancellation.
Although this may comply with their terms and conditions, the difference was not made clear enough during the claim process. The policy feels overly restrictive and does not deliver the price confidence that customers expect from a "We Price Match" guarantee.
I have used Booking.com because I trusted that I was getting a competitive price, but this experience has left me disappointed. I hope Booking.com reviews its policy and makes the requirements clearer and more customer-friendly.
Never trust this booking company, they will scam you! Also their partnership with go to gate support ended the chat with no reason, the chat session was not finish on my side.
I have used booking.com quite a lot and haven't experienced any problems serious enough to contact their costumer support, but this summer we booked an apartment that smelled awful and had both cockroaches and bedbugs and booking won't respond at all to my complaints. The customer service seems to be non existent.
Normally ok, but recent experience has been very poor. Booked a room near Wembley Stadium but on arrival place had been sold so not able to stay. Owner said booking.com aware but still taking bookings. Took ages to speak to someone. Booked elsewhere, miles away, at higher cost which they said they would compensate us for. Since then not heard from them or been able to make contact. REALLY frustrating and difficult to deal with, feel they really let us down.
