[hdjjhhvvhga]

I got burned by the opposite: I booked a nice place for my brother's wedding 4 months ahead. At that time the prices were quite good. Fast forward a week before the weeding and I receive an email that the host is unable to process my credit card. So I try to contact the host - by phone, email, all possible ways, telling them I have several other cards, I can also pay by Paypal or wire transfer - but they don't reply. I notice the prices rose by 100% in the meantime and the host is trying to cancel my booking in an innocuous way. I wrote to booking.com - no reply. After that a second email arrived that the host was unable to charge my credit card (with a limit 50x more than the value of the booking...) and booking.com cancelled my reservation. Of course when I read the comments online it turned out I was not the first victim of this scheme.

So, if booking.com cannot guarantee the very basics, why should I use them as an agent? It makes no sense to me - it's much better to book directly.