[pembrook]

Anecdotal, but I’ve canceled booking.com reservations probably 50+ times over the past decade without issue.

They certainly use nefarious UX patterns like “10 people just booked this location!!” But I’ve always found the “free cancellation by” dates to be reliable.

On the other hand, booking hotels directly is an absolute nightmare of interfacing with whatever broken systems the underfunded “IT” departments of said hotel have bolted on. At that point you might as well just call the front desk and wait 20 mins to be transferred to 3 different people.

[thematrixturtle]

If you're booking with a major chain like Marriott, Hilton etc, it's always worth booking directly, because it's much better to at least interface directly with those broken systems. If/when things break down, their own customer support can usually sort you out (esp if you have elite status), plus they're much more willing to comp you to better rooms etc. If you book through a proxy, the odds of breakage increase and support on both sides will just point fingers at each other.

[notpushkin]

Perhaps it's cheating a bit, but most of the time they don't check credit cards you use for "booking confirmation". A friend of mine used to use 4242 4242 4242 4242 for quite some time, and when they've blocked it, he switched to his own debit card with spend limit set to $1.

[konha]

Using a fake CC or setting a spending limit doesn’t in any way absolve you from your contractual obligations.

[beastman82]

Yes. But in practice they ynot suing for breach and you don't have to get your money back

[yodsanklai]

> At that point you might as well just call the front desk and wait 20 mins to be transferred to 3 different people.

When they don't tell you to book from booking.com directly...

Booking.com has made hotel reservation much easier.

[gingerlime]

Or just pick up the phone and call? found it to be a better option in some cases. Got better prices than booking.com too.

The only problems we had with booking.com is that they give you no protection whatsoever. One case, the hotel clearly gamed the reviews and posted false info. It was so bad that we had to leave. But we were still charged the full amount, and booking.com just stood aside.

Just recently, my wife booked a hotel in Tel-Aviv. The hotel charged her card twice (booking.com seemed to have passed the card info to the hotel). We cancelled, and still waiting for the refund/release of the funds. Booking.com does nothing to help. We have to bounce between the unhelpful hotel and the slow-as-hell bank/credit card company.

OT: but are there any banks or credit card companies in Germany that actually help you when you're in this situation or need a chargeback? it seems like the low card fees in EU means much worse customer service compared to the US, or is it just my wishful thinking?

[mschuster91]

> OT: but are there any banks or credit card companies in Germany that actually help you when you're in this situation or need a chargeback?

In my experience the Sparkasse is pretty decent, but since they're regional institutions YMMV.

> it seems like the low card fees in EU means much worse customer service compared to the US, or is it just my wishful thinking?

We just don't have much credit card usage since SEPA-ELV works pretty well. SEPA Direct Debit stuff you can chargeback at almost all institutions via online banking or self-service ATMs, credit card depends on your institution.

[gingerlime]

not sure why you were downvoted, even though SEPA offers a terrible UX in my opinion, and in no way close to using cards. (both for the merchant and payer in my limited experience).

[soco]

For the cherry on top, the hotel would cancel your booking on their side - then you won't be able to leave reviews either.

[gingerlime]

yes exactly! in this case we cancelled, but because it was an already bad experience before even checking in. And we have no way of sharing the bad experience with others. Both the hotel and booking.com seemed completely disinterested resolving the issue.

[soco]

You know the most effective pattern on booking.com to screw your guest? If you have something odd, you cancel their reservation. The guests will NEVER be able to give you a rating, nor booking.com will move a finger to refund them.