Booking.com and Refunds Due to Inability to Travel

lechuck123 on 25/03/2020 - 18:13
Last edited 25/03/2020 - 18:14

Hi all,

I wanted to put this up as this doesn't seem to displayed anywhere on the booking.com website. I had a booking in QLD for April that had passed its refundable period. Everywhere on the Booking.com site it stated "not refundable", contact the property owner if you wish to cancel and 'see what they can do' etc etc.

Now the cancel button said my fee would be an $800 cost (the entirety of the booking). I googled around for any policies booking.com had on the coronavirus as it was all very vague on the website.

Well I came across the "partner" page.
https://partner.booking.com/en-gb/help/legal-security/import…

Now this states that the owner may cancel and waive any fees (in my case the entire amount), but if someone gets in contact with booking.com directly they will automatically do it on their behalf.

The owner wouldn't do the cancellation for me when I got in contact, but a request to booking.com had my money returned in less than 6 hours.

Hope this is helpful for anyone else like myself who thought their accommodation money was gone.

Travel

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Comments

  • JimmyF on 25/03/2020 - 18:49

    The owner wouldn't do the cancellation for me when I got in contact

    Now this states that the owner may cancel and waive any fees

    They are YOUR fees, the owner still gets charged fees by booking.com and it goes against their them for cancelling.

    but if someone gets in contact with booking.com directly they will automatically do it on their behalf.

    Correct, booking.com can cancel everything at a no cost to the owner or you.

    So off you go.

    • lechuck123 on 25/03/2020 - 19:42

      Not me that negged you, however i'm not sure whether you're saying that I shouldn't have canceled cause it was my fault and cost to pay, or you're saying the owner can't cancel because they will incur fees.

      If it's the first point, I absolutely feel for the owner who will do it tough. I got told yesterday I'm on indefinite leave without pay.

      If it's the latter, this is from Booking.com I linked:

      If a guest reaches out to your property to request a cancellation or a rescheduling of their reservation, you can handle this request yourself. There is no need to refer guests to our Customer Service Center. Information on how to handle these reservations can be found here.

      We expect partners to refund any prepayment and waive any cancellation costs (fees, expenses and/or other amounts) in situations where the guests/travellers requested cancellations as a result of Force Majeure. Booking.com will waive the commission in these cases.

      It makes no difference whether they or booking.com cancel it

      • JimmyF on 25/03/2020 - 20:02

        you're saying the owner can't cancel because they will incur fees.

        Correct, this.

        It makes no difference whether they or booking.com cancel it

        I don't believe that is 100% correct, from past dealings with these 'booking' places (they're all the same) they charge both sides of the coin. That page you linked to seems to be missing lots of key words like no cost or cancel for free for example. see below for more on this.

        If the owner cancels a booking on or for a guest as you have requested, they incur a fee for doing so from booking.com. It appears booking.com will waive the commission, but most likely not the booking fees.

        So the owner doesn't want to cancel the booking for these reasons as you have found out.

        Then as you have found out, if you cancel on them, you now incur those fees for doing so.

        If it was meant to be free and easy, why doesn't booking.com just allow you to cancel online for 'free' not save talking to anyone?

        All reservations made for properties in Australia with a check-in date between 15 March 2020 and 14 April 2020 (including).

        Does your booking start/end within these dates?

        It makes no difference whether they or booking.com cancel it

        As above that page you also linked to, doesn't say at no cost to cancel to the host… It just says the host needs to suck it all up and waive all the 'fees' to the guest and even cover EXPENSES and other random amounts!?

        We expect partners to refund any prepayment and waive any cancellation costs (fees, expenses and/or other amounts) in situations where the guests/travellers requested cancellations as a result of Force Majeure.

        The only thing it appears booking.com is sucking up is the commission fee.

        Booking.com will waive the commission in these cases.

        so as I said above, the only person that can cancel the book for no cost to you or the host, is booking.com so have a chat to them.

        Why they haven't just adjusted all bookings within that date period to allow free cancellations is interesting. I'm guessing they're hoping for people just to not show, so they get their fees.

        Not me that negged you

        ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

        frozen water flakes will be frozen water flakes….

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