UPDATED Beware of Booking.com and read between the lines carefully

The money was returned.

UPDATE. It's nice when a company still values ​​its reputation. The story below has a real "Happy End". The money was returned to the girl.

The customer support service, located in Britain, apologized to Natalia for the situation and decided to compensate for the financial costs associated with booking an apartment.

The girl herself emphasizes that the “problematic” rooms are still in the Booking.com database and you need to be very careful when placing an order. You can find the original post.

How it was

Shared this story Natalia Myshkina, publishing the sad experience of cooperation with the booking service for apartments, apartments and houses Booking.com.

The family decided to go to St. Petersburg, having previously booked an apartment from Categories Luxury Apartments. Booking conditions provided for payment for the first day of stay. All three days were estimated at 29,700 rubles.

The service guaranteed 100% accommodation and, in the event of a force majeure situation, the provision of completely similar housing.

A one-year-old child, elderly parents and the whole family went to St. Petersburg, but they could not stay in the booked apartment. A few hours in the pouring rain, calls to Booking.com and forced to search for an apartment on my own.

Natalia emphasizes that when communicating with representatives of the Booking.com booking service, the manager advised to keep all receipts and checks related to the inconvenience. Moreover, upon returning to Moscow, Natalya was promised to settle the issue and compensate for the entire amount of financial costs upon the provision of appropriate checks.

The end of the story is unexpected. After several days of persistent correspondence and calls, the girl was answered. Booking.com manager reported that no compensation is out of the question.. Neither for an apartment, nor for other expenses, nor for advance booking on the service website, nor for registration, summing up as follows:

The Booking.com service does not bear any responsibility for non-accommodation of the client, even if the reservation was previously made through the official website of the company.

In the rules presented on the official website, this is really said:

And it won't be easy to prove anything.

Nevertheless, the girl intends to go all the way: firstly, to return the amount spent on booking a room; secondly, to compensate for the forced expenses and, finally, bring Booking.com to clean water. The original material of Natalia you can.

It’s frankly scary to imagine what a vacation in any foreign country could turn into with this approach of the Booking.com service. Ahead of vacation: sea, vacation, summer. Forewarned is forearmed. Be careful!