How does Booking.com enforce cancellation fees when booking without a credit card?
- By
- Aparna Patel
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- 20 Jul, 2023
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Once, I have missed my trip but the hotel has strict cancelation policy. I thought I will be charged by Booking.com, but very strange situation happene. The Booking.com has given all my credit cards attached to the account to the hotel (not only one which was attached to the reservation). The hotel charged 100EUR for the room. The next day they tried to charge my card for 6000EUR. It hit the limit of my card. The Booking.com confirmed that it was hotel and they are very sorry. The lessons I have made:
- the Booking.com will give your credit card information to the property owner, which can not be fair enough. Moreover, the owner can work with Booking.com through third party partner and can not be validated properly.
- I will never give Booking.com the real credit card. I just confirm reservation with debit card with 5$ on it.
If you follow the last advice you can not afraid cancelation policy at all. The Booking.com do not force you to pay, just the hotel.
Don’t ever just not show up. In most cases if you contact the hotel directly (depending on the size) you can come to an agreement and a lot would waive the fees. I have a small hotel and when people book and not show up it really affects us. At least have the courtesy to let people know
The cancellation policy might simply be some boilerplate that does not really apply in this case or maybe something Booking.com adds to all property descriptions but that they make no effort to enforce (or leave the hotel to enforce).
After all, it’s the way many hotels have been working for a long time. Before Internet booking (and therefore the possibility to collect credit card details easily) became ubiquitous, it was not uncommon that a room would be kept for you until a certain time (say 7) and could be sold to someone else if you hadn’t showed up (or possibly phoned) in time.
Obviously, being able to hold onto credit card details and recover the money directly is easier than pursuing legal remedies but it does not really make a difference on whether or not you owe the hotel some money and a certain number of no-shows, theft, vandalism or non-payment is part of the costs of doing business.
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Booking.com won’t charge you. The hotel might.
They would have to send you a bill using the contact information Booking.com provides and convince you to pay it.
Credit:stackoverflow.com‘