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Does anyone else find the customer service from booking.com terrible?

If ever I need help from booking.com I dread phoning their customer service line.

I go through the options then enter my property ID, often the phone doesn't connect and I have to hang up and try again or I can be on hold for a while and every few minutes I am asked to enter my property ID again and again.

When a human finally answers they then ask for the property ID again!!

I have just done this and asked why I am not receiving the guest phone numbers when they book even though my policy states that I need it, if the guests are to book.

The gentleman replied that he could see it is in my policies but doesn't know why I am not receiving it. If I need their phone number I should phone every time to get the guests phone number?? I have better things to do with my life

When they are taking 17%+VAT of my profits I expect a better service than that


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M Adamopoulou 5 years ago

Info sorry for your struggles. No customer service in Athens is vey helpful and polite. They are busy most of the times but I turn my speaker on and do what else I have to do....
In my policies I have guests need a verified phone number to book... and till now have no problems.
Hope you solve yours...

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M Adamopoulou 5 years ago

Info I just wanted to point out that in Guests info I have also "Guests must provide a phone number when they book". I don't know if that makes a difference. Maybe you should check it out.

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Geoff Jakeman 5 years ago

Hi I am Geoff from Sydney. I am also a Chartered & CPA accountant for 37 years giving business advice. I have never had an issue with calling BC and getting their assistance.

Do not change OTAs hoping to get better service. Most others are absolute crap.

Just warning you.

Geoff

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Info 5 years ago

Thanks Geoff.

I am not sure if your aware but you can be with more than 1 OTA at a time, so I know what most of them are like and for me BC customer service in this country is probably the worst for me. In the UK there are many companies trying to fight OTA's as it is daylight robbery taking upto 20% of our profits for doing very little and hopefully they will be able to change legislation so there is a cap on the percentage charged which reflects the work they do

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M Adamopoulou 5 years ago

Hi!-Geoff-Jakeman, thanks for valuable info. I agree with you BDC is a leader in accommodation....

Have a nice day....

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Ergun Deniz 4 years ago

they have worst support service for such a big company and no respect to partners ! we will let you know in 2 days 4 days kind of such a annoying automatic messages its useless ! as may property owner say WORST FRIEND for booking.com and the way how they work unbelievable for such a big company useless  support and deal ! 

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M Adamopoulou 4 years ago

Hi! Ergun and welcome to the Partner Community.

Sorry to hear that...my local BDC support team offers excellent service...

Always polite and right to the point....never had any problems.

Wish you well.

 

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Easy Home 11 months ago

My local answer the phone yes, but they never solve my problems. It is always protocol after protocol with no solution. Ever

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Reef Lodge Bac… 4 months ago

M Adamopoulou you sound like you work for BC as your the only one defending their

 bad  service... ?

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M Adamopoulou 4 months ago

Ha...ha...

You are not the only one saying this!!!

 

I guess I am lucky as always. 

 

I am not defending BDC it's just that my local support office is not as bad as other ones.

 

I only have one listing with no serious problem . 

 

Once when I had a finance matter it was very bad.   I was trying for months to resolve a problem. 

 

I have to admit that communication with Finance dept is very slow and frustrating. 

 

Wishing everyone a great weekend. 

 

 

 

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Villa Helena 3 years ago

Yes, I agree with you . I try not to call unless I really really need to. Then I spend 40 mins try to find ONE phone number that will answer to me.

Today I have terrible luck. They deserve 1% commision !!!!

I am very unhappy and in general they never support hosts but customers. That is terrible too, they primarily have long term relationship with us.

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Andrew Bonsu 3 years ago

I had a booking, i asked b.com around 10am to move it to another apartment i have, the guest agreed by the way, 4 hours later after i called b.com, i call again because it still wasn't done. I also have a third apartment i needed open as i finally got a touristic license (mentioned both times to b.com) it wasn't opened. 10 hours later i get a booking around the same dates in the apartment i want it moved to, so again they did not move it. I call again, so 24 hrs in total has passed, i explain all over again with a new problem saying i can house both and to make changes, nothing was done, i call again a few hours later repeating myself to receive an email stating i said i cannot accommodate them to which i replied i can telling them they are useless. I call again, still repeating myself to be told it will be done in 15 mins, hours went by to see that both have been cancelled and i will be charged... COULD SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME HOW STUPID AND INCOMPETENT STAFF AT B.COM ARE AND WHAT CAN BE DONE, PLUS HOW I GET THEM TO GIVE ME WHAT I HAVE LOST IN REVENUE PLEASE??? 

So i agree, they are completely useless.

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Karen Ekpo 1 year ago

Becuase of the uselessness of b.com partner support, I find it way easier addressing these types of issues with guests on premise. As long as my guest is happy with the decision, I'm happy, so no need to reach out to bookings support.

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Anna 6 months ago

They are completely useless I am waiting to answer to my message about a cancelation 1 month now. They charge the person who booked here without him entering the property. I diclined his booking somehow and expained him that he can not arrive at 3 am as it is a family home here and promised him that booking will refund him the reservation and never happened. One month after I got paid when I said cancel and refund the person they got their commision and they never reply to my messages for one month. Their call centers and customer support "chat" (not really a chat to me but bots" are indians propably working for cents per hour etc that they are using bots and google translate to communicate. I am using AIRBNB much much better and for sure will be the biggest platform in the word as it has excellent customer service and very very easy site to navigate. Not like this hell here. even to search how to contact them will take someone new here 30+minutes and always you have to google it to find something in their extranet. Unbelievable worst page and accommodation platform ever. 

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Info 3 years ago

And they do not care :( I had another issue with not appearing in searches in the area. the B.com staff told me it was because i had not refreshed my cookies. I explained not all of guests looking for me will refresh their cookies regularly he replied he cant change how the internet works!!! When I asked to speak to a manager I was told he didn't have one!

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Easy Home 11 months ago

And that’s probably not the worst thing that they could have replied. People working in support have no idea what they are doing it is very frustrating 

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Julie Smith-Mo… 2 years ago

 I also agree I have just become a Host on 27th July 2021. I have had to pay their commission fee up-front for July when I entered my bank details when set up the advert, other competitors such as airbnb get your account up and running within 24 hrs, I have had an excellent response from my advert on booking.com but haven't received a penny in payments as yet and its been 17 days since I joined. Its disgraceful as you can't speak to anyone on the phone about payments, they just send you roud in circles on an automated system, I think its a disgrace for such a large company. and the large commissions they charge us. Airbnb are far more efficient for hosts and guests queries. Instantantly resolved. I just wish there was an alternative to bookings.com to advertise rooms. 

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Agata Appelt 1 year ago

They are appalling!  They are continually undermining our policies and security!  They never ever check the message thread and always take the guests side.  We just had a group of 3 17 year olds booking our apartment.  Their booking blocked our calendar for over a week.  We state in our listing that our minimum age is 21.  Yet booking com just went ahead and refunded them and charged us commission!  We do have groups of antisocial guests who book and we have to weed them out by requiring ID and a deposit and a minimum age.  Otherwise we could get shut down!  I just don’t understand why booking com doesn’t support us and actively works against us!

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Sunwise Bonaire 1 year ago

Quite apart from the fact that during the beginning of the pandemic, B.com compensated all (arriving) guests at the landlord's expense, while our homeowner clients had already made other, more reasonable arrangements with the guests, B.com really does have the most awful customer service we have ever encountered.

Simple questions are not read and always answered with the same standard, scripted answers with links to information that does not solve the problem. Really frustrating and it's that they generate so many valuable leads and bookings, otherwise we would have parted ways with them long ago.

We've had about 10 different account managers over the years and they all disappeared (we weren't involved with that 😅). Now we have no one to solve the issues we encounter in the Intranet. Their system is certainly not perfect, especially if you use a PMS (we have KIGO), so it is imperative that their help desk works properly.

Calling doesn't solve the problems. More scripted conversations, without any problem solving.

Below is a screenshot to show that from June 9 to today (more than a month, that is) we are working to fix a problem (wrong prepayment settings). Each heading in turn contains another three or four posts with standard answers with standard links, rather than getting to the root of the problem.

We only hope that someday things will turn around for the better.

Booking.com drama with only scripted, standard answers and new messages

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Amber Hyshka 10 months ago

transfer, transfer transfer again- we have yet to receive anything except horrific customer service. Most agents have no clue whats going on. When we ask simple questions like a guest cancelled will we still get paid. Is expedia any better?

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Sarah Keenan 9 months ago

After working with businesses globally for more than 20 years, Booking.com are the worst customer service I have ever come across. They never phone back for their security checks (banks don't even perform these checks), even after they have confirmed which phone number they will phone you back on.

Booking.com also discount your property's rooms so much that the guests' final bill often doesn't end up covering all costs of hosting the guests.

I have never been so frustrated working with a company.

Our booking system, Little Hotelier (through Site Minder) are the complete opposite - incredibly helpful and actually phone back if they need to. Perhaps Little Hotelier could train Booking.com on how to do customer service...

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mostafa ghaffari 7 months ago

i have called them multiple times to change the description of my listing and then they say for security purposes we have to call you back, and they never called back, so I'm back in the same spot having to wait 40 minutes behind the phone. 

The last time i was willing to hang up because i knew they weren't going to call me and she said i promise i will call you.

This is happening when my phone has 100 percent battery and phone signal.

Its so annoying and disappointing working with these guys.

TERRRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE.

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Nicolas Lopez Segura 6 months ago

They are TERRIBLE.  The worst customer service of all the vacations industry for hosts and owners. And I will say the worst customer service I have ever experienced in all the industries. 

 I don't even know how to deal with them when I have an issue which happen all the time with them. They never know what to answer, they do not provide any account manager even if you have many properties.  Most agents have no clue whats going on and reply basic and copy paste answers. 

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Karl Cassar 6 months ago

I share the same experience. It's a disaster.  I absolutely hate it when I get to a point that I need to contact their support, as I know what the ride is going to be.  Copy-and-paste answers, no agent actually trying to understand the problem, leaving you waiting for ages and then the line drops and you have to restart again. Airbnb's support is a wonder compared to this - given the immense market share they have and the 17-19% profit they are taking, I would expect a much better service. 

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Anna 6 months ago

I am waiting from them to answer a message that was about a cancelation about a month now. I am done with them AIRBNB is the best out there at the moment. I hate booking, I hate their system and I hate all the automatic messages they are sending from their scamming companies in India. I had my first booking last month and I was new here I did not know how the cancelation policy is working on their site. The person wanted to arrived at 3am and I declined it. We are a family home here we are not a hotel. Basically the person was mad I had to deal with him asking his money and booking just got their commition. They answer one automatic message to me asking me why i can not accept the person and If i could offer another day to him to come (stupid people in booking) the person was traveling for business anyway booking stole the commission from this person and he never got his money back. We send the 12 messages they replied on 1 and never answer to us again. The person lost his money and booking took of course the extras. I am using them only as an extra and I am deleting my properties next month. I found a better alternative. I do not have time to deal with those stupid scammers that they do not have any idea what customer support means. 

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Michael Vowles 5 months ago

Oh my god! I thought that I had already responded to this post about support - you hit all of my points 100%.  I know I am going to have a bad day when I know I have to contact booking.com support.  I have more success speaking to a brick.  

What is even more horrible is when they say they will do something and do nothing.  You contact them again about the issue and it is like the first conversation never happened.  I have taken to asking them to respond to me via my inbox about what they are going to do while I still have them on the line.  I have had to use this a number of times (stay tax set up is still not done after 2 years!).  They first say that it never happened and then I direct them to the message and then an 'escalation' to no where is logged.  

Extremely frustrating!
 

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Anna 6 months ago

If we compare the customer service in booking and airbnb then booking is the looser here. The worst customer service I ever experience as a host in my life. I am still waiting to answer to me on a cancelation 1 mont now. I have been texting and texting to them without answer. I am out of booking soon. I can not deal with them.

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Villa Nico 6 months ago

The customer service is super bad. Customer service agents seem to respond quickly without looking deeper into the case and thereby are not much helpful. For the communication of a customer problem, I've noticed that each time a different service agent is responding and each agent aims to pass on the problem to the next person. Horrible customer service organization.

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Michael Vowles 5 months ago

It appears that nobody knows what they are doing. They do not know the application nor do they know booking.com's policies and procedures.  A total waste of time. 

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Pashasha 5 months ago

Their customer service is diabolical and has been for years, if I did not get a lot of bookings from them I would leave the platform. 

 

They say they will get back to you in 2 days! NEVER. Absolutely useless. 

 

I had a fraud case and they charged me commission for the booking which was cancelled due to non payment and when I tried to get the commission back they just stonewalled me. I had to pay the commission as they blocked my property. 

 

Now I had a situation where there was a natural disaster in my area and I had no choice but to cancel a booking, I followed all the steps on their website when this happens then their customer service put on the extranet that it was cancelled due to a double booking which I am sure effects my ranking. They just dont get back to me about it. I wish there was some kind of resolution to this. 

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Info 5 months ago

I feel your pain. I don't know how they are allowed to get away with some of their policies legally. I despise working with the devil!!!

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Nicolas Lopez Segura 5 months ago

We shall all be together to make them change. I guess they are just waiting for a lawsuit at this point because it does not seems that they will change anytime soon. 

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Pashasha 5 months ago

I am sorry that you probably experienced the same... I must prefer AirBnb but they not as active in my area unfortunately... 

Hope somehow they will improve. 

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M Adamopoulou 5 months ago

Although my last experience was excellent....Unfortunately sometimes customer service is not very supportive. 

 

Wish everyone a nice afternoon. 

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Michael Vowles 5 months ago

Hey, what number are you calling?  I am happy to try calling another support team!

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Ingrid Ilus 5 months ago

After my first experience with booking.com as a host I have to agree - most terrible service I have encountered my whole life :( Lightyears from Airbnb, the user interface is much too compicated and customer service just terrible.

It has cost me so much stress that I should probably just sue them :)

Would not recommend them to anyone except they have already so large market share that it is difficult to avoid them. Probably that is also the reason why they have such terrible service and do not need to make an effort.

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Brian Duguid 4 months ago

The customer service is good initially when you call them, but for some reason when the call me it doesn't work. They have to escalate it to a manager in another country then sometimes it works this is after about 8 attempts, and me calling over and over. Very poor

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Natalia Carola… 4 months ago

I tried booking support yesterday for the 115th time, and again another disappointment. The lady that was with me on the phone, did not know how to be polite. Her surroundings were obviously a party, and when I told her that I could not listen to her, she did nothing to fix that, she told me they were her colleagues. I had to ask her one more time, and then she finally moved rooms. I told her what my problem was. Apparently she was mad that I made her change rooms so she was completely unpolite and unhelpful with my problem. I don’t know how much longer we’re gonna have to deal with booking but I hope that we have another platform soon enough. Please I can’t stand Booking anymore it’s a nightmare I get scams all the time because their system allows it and they do not support us hosts. They only support guests and the majority of guests are low quality and even 20% are scam.