I Trusted Booking.com to Have My Back. It Didn’t.

Why do people book through Booking.com instead of booking directly? Convenience is certainly part of the answer. It brings together thousands of hotels and vacation rentals in one place, makes comparing prices easy, and often offers flexible cancellation policies.

But I think there’s another reason many of us use it: trust.

When I book a hotel, I usually prefer to reserve directly with the property. Apartment rentals are different. Unless I know the owner personally or have recommendations from friends who’ve stayed there, I want an intermediary standing between me and a stranger on the internet.That intermediary is supposed to reduce the risk.

After all, a lot can go wrong with a vacation rental. The owner might cancel at the last minute. The property might bear little resemblance to the photos. It could have serious cleanliness or maintenance issues. In the worst cases, it might not even exist.

My assumption was simple: if something went wrong, Booking.com would step in and help restore something close to what I’d originally booked. Then, on our trip to Berlin last month, two different reservations failed in two completely different ways.

The first apartment was cancelled less than two weeks before our trip. The second fell through minutes before check-in, and we were redirected to a different unit we hadn’t chosen. That substitute apartment turned out to have significant cleanliness and maintenance problems the owner never disputed.

What surprised me wasn’t that things went wrong. Travel has a way of throwing unexpected obstacles in your path. What surprised me was how Booking.com’s customer service let me down in both instances.

Over the following weeks, I spent hours exchanging messages, chats, emails, and phone calls with Booking.com’s customer service. I wanted to understand what protection Booking.com actually provides when a booking falls apart through no fault of the customer. By the end of the process, I still couldn’t answer that question.

Instead, I repeatedly encountered references to internal policies that customer service wouldn’t explain or allow me to read. Compensation appeared to be calculated according to criteria that were never disclosed. Even different customer service representatives gave me contradictory explanations of what Booking.com could and couldn’t do.

This article isn’t simply about a disappointing apartment in Berlin. Complaints about Booking.com are easy enough to find online.

Instead, I wanted to answer a broader question for travelers: what should you realistically expect if your accommodation falls apart shortly before – or even after – you arrive?

Below is the timeline of what happened, along with what I learned from it.

TL;DR: if a host cancels shortly before your trip, Booking.com may help you find alternative accommodation, but if the comparable options cost more, you’ll generally need to pay that difference yourself first and then request reimbursement in the form of Booking.com Travel Credits, which expire after one year.

If the accommodation itself turns out to have significant problems, any compensation appears to be determined according to Booking.com’s internal procedures. Those procedures were never explained to me, and customer service declined to share them despite repeated requests.

Why I Trusted Booking.com

I’ve used Booking.com for years and have reached Genius Level 2 status. Most of the time I booked hotels, usually when the rates or cancellation policies were better than booking directly. When traveling with my partner, we’d occasionally book apartment rentals because I considered Booking.com more trustworthy than dealing directly with unknown owners.

Like most frequent travelers, we’d had minor annoyances over the years – a poorly equipped kitchen, crappy pillows, non-existent sound-proofing – but never anything worth sacrificing vacation time to resolve.

I’d also seen friends and Secrets of Paris readers run into problems over the years, though at the time I treated those as isolated incidents. One story stayed with me.

A couple I’d met for lunch on the day they arrived in Paris had reserved and prepaid for an apartment overlooking Notre Dame. When they arrived, they discovered the address belonged to an unrelated business. They weren’t the first guests to show up looking for a nonexistent rental.

Booking.com found them another apartment within the hour, but it was on the opposite side of Paris near Métro Laumière in the 19^th arrondissement, a neighborhood they never would have chosen themselves. They accepted it rather than spend the first day of their vacation arguing with customer service.

At the time, I was indignant on their behalf. I didn’t realize I’d soon be asking myself the very question their experience raised: what exactly should customers expect Booking.com to do when a reservation fails?

Berlin: Cancellation #1

My partner Fred and I began planning our June trip to Berlin in February after hearing that the European Sleeper night train service was returning. As soon as we booked our train tickets, we reserved a one-bedroom apartment near Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district.

Less than two weeks before departure, I received a message from the owner – in German – which Booking.com’s automatic translation rendered as follows:

“Good evening, unfortunately I cannot process your booking. I am currently in the hospital following surgery after a serious head injury. I will not be discharged within the next 14 days. I am very sorry. I will send you a cancellation request so that you can quickly receive a refund from Booking.com.”

My heart sank. My frustration wasn’t directed at someone recovering from a serious injury. The problem was that we now had nowhere to stay. When I searched for alternatives, I discovered that apartments comparable in size, location, and quality had largely disappeared from the market. The few that remained cost nearly twice what we’d originally agreed to pay.

I contacted Booking.com’s customer service expecting the platform to bridge that gap.

Instead, the representative confirmed what I’d already discovered. Comparable properties were now substantially more expensive. They suggested lower-quality apartments within our original budget, some with ratings low enough that I questioned why they were still listed on their platform.

When I asked about booking one of the comparable apartments, I was told I would need to pay the higher price myself, then after completing the trip, I could submit a request to Booking.com for reimbursement in the form of Travel Credits.

That raised several obvious concerns.

• First, I needed enough available funds to absorb the additional cost upfront.
• Second, there was no guarantee that Booking.com would ultimately reimburse the difference.
• Third, any reimbursement would come as Travel Credits usable only on Booking.com and expiring after one year.

I can afford an unexpected increase like that. But many people simply don’t have the financial flexibility to suddenly spend hundreds or thousands of euros more on accommodation because someone else cancelled their reservation.

So I asked a straightforward question: if cash reimbursement wasn’t possible, where could I read that policy? Customer service wouldn’t tell me. Instead, I was simply informed that, “Based on the guidelines, we only process travel credits as of this year.”

I asked to see those guidelines. They declined.

In other words, I was being asked to spend hundreds of euros more based on a policy I wasn’t allowed to read. That wasn’t a risk I was willing to take. Instead, we booked a smaller studio apartment outside the city center at roughly the same price as our original reservation, hoping that at least this one would still be waiting for us when we arrived.

If I wasn’t a travel journalist with thousands of Secrets of Paris readers asking me for advice when booking accommodations in Paris, I probably would have shrugged it off and made the best of my trip despite the hiccup. But I wanted to know exactly what Booking.com’s policy is for assisting clients whose accommodation was cancelled by the owner. Since the Customer Service chat wasn’t very helpful, I decided to contact Booking.com’s press office. 

Canned Statements from Booking.com’s Press Agency

I wrote to Booking.com’s press agency the day after the cancellation of our Berlin apartment, presenting the Secrets of Paris and my interest in sharing Booking.com’s official policy on what assistance they guaranteed to travelers when the property owner cancels at the last minute: 

“While I understand this usually results in the client receiving a full refund, the question is: what does Booking.com do to assist the traveler who is now required to find last-minute accommodations, when usually there are none available of the same size, quality, location, and price, especially in Paris? 

What is the official Booking.com policy? I am assuming you do nothing to assist with this, and that you are not required by law to do anything other than honor the refund policy. 

If that is true, I will communicate that information to my readers, with the ‘caveat emptor’ warning before using Booking.com. If this is not true, please communicate your policy of assistance for clients who have been left without accommodations due to host cancellation.”

I informed him I would be including the information in the June 1st newsletter. He sent a reply on May 29th:

“We are always sorry to hear when a customer’s travel plans are disrupted by a host cancellation. Although these instances do not happen frequently, measures are in place to ensure that travel plans can be resumed and our customer service team is available 24/7 to support. We do our best to help find alternative accommodation of equal or better quality and while we cannot guarantee availability in every situation, we work to find the best possible solution for the customer. We encourage any traveler in this situation to contact us immediately so we can step in as quickly as possible.”

I immediately replied that this statement did not reflect my own experience, nor that of others who had the same issue. He did not reply to that email.

A Few Reader Experiences

In the June Secrets of Paris Newsletter I included a brief note about my experience, and asked readers to send in their own experiences with Booking.com, whether good, bad, or ugly. Here are just two of the many replies I received:

We were left stranded in London with small children when the apartment we booked was there but the cleaning ladies inside told us they had no reservation under our name. It seemed like the apartment had changed owners. Booking.com customer service was available on the phone and assured us that we would get reimbursed for a new apartment which ended up being more expensive and actually in a better location and a nicer place. After our trip we eventually did get the reimbursement but it was a very inconvenient experience and was not a good way to begin our vacation. Booking.com had no clue that this apartment was no longer honoring their reservations. They really should be on top of their inventory. To be fair I have had other platforms where owners cancel last minute on me. I have received various levels of support and sometimes just a refund, and sometimes reimbursement of the price difference as well. There should be some level of protection to ensure you have a similar property without paying extra and some help finding that place would be nice too. – Heidi F.

After using them extensively for some 20 years, I too have deleted their app and vowed “never again.” My experience involved a Paris stay in May 2025. The lodging was passable, but a month after check-out the landlord was still offering creative excuses for not refunding my 300€ damage deposit. Contacting Booking.com was a nightmare: Each time the AI agent would screen me, then I’d wait on hold for 30 to 45 minutes to talk with a human, lodge my complaint, and each time they’d promise to investigate and call me back. But of course the follow-up calls never came, so I’d have to start the process all over again. 

After a couple weeks the landlord did refund $300 — but because I’d paid in euros and he refunded me in dollars, this meant I’d been shortchanged by about $45. Booking.com had no interest in resolving this, stating that my refund had been issued and the case was closed. They suggested I contact my bank for an explanation of how exchange rates work (grrrr). I wrote a letter of complaint to their customer service boss but never heard back. I still get angry thinking about it — not because of the $45, but because of the wasted time and the frustration. And although my problem was thankfully minor, it did erode any confidence that Booking.com would help in a true emergency. What a shame. If your readers have suggestions for other trustworthy platforms, I’d love to hear them. – Heather M.

I decided the subject merited a full article on the Secrets of Paris website, which I’d write once back from Berlin. I didn’t realize I was only halfway through the story. 

Berlin: Cancellation #2

By the time my partner Fred and I arrived in Berlin on a Monday morning, we were already exhausted. The overnight European Sleeper journey had turned into a much longer trip than expected, including an unplanned three-hour bus connection.

We’d arranged with the owner of our studio apartment rental to drop off our luggage at 10:30am, then planned to spend the day exploring Berlin until check-in. After buying metro passes and crossing the city, we arrived a few minutes early and waited patiently outside the building.

That’s when my phone buzzed with a WhatsApp message from the owner saying that the apartment we’d booked was no longer available because it had been damaged by the previous guests. Rather than cancelling outright, they offered what they described as “a free upgrade”: a larger one-bedroom apartment just one metro stop away, on a quieter street.

After what had happened with our first reservation, I was just relieved they weren’t leaving us without somewhere to stay.

We walked another fifteen minutes to the replacement apartment, where a young woman named Julia met us, showed us around briefly, collected payment, and explained that the cleaner was still finishing up. We could return after 3:00pm.

At first glance, everything seemed acceptable. The apartment was indeed larger than the studio we’d booked. It had a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, Wi-Fi, and plenty of space for two people. The décor was dated and mismatched, but after the previous weeks of uncertainty – and an exhausting journey – we were simply happy to stop dragging our luggage around Berlin.

It wasn’t until we returned later that afternoon that we started noticing the condition of the apartment.

An Upgrade in Size, Not in Quality

The most serious problems were in the bathroom.

There was visible mold both on the shower grout and on the ceiling. The toilet seat wouldn’t stay upright; old tape marks suggested previous guests had already tried to solve the problem themselves. The sink had been propped up on blocks, and the towel rack was rusted.

More concerning was the lack of basic cleaning. Dust and grime had accumulated around the electrical outlets beside the sink, and two used toothbrushes had been left behind by previous guests.

The rest of the apartment showed similar signs of deferred maintenance.

Kitchen countertops and walls were chipped. Floor tiles were cracked. Several pots needed cleaning before we could use them. The refrigerator, microwave, and oven had all been plugged into a single extension cord. The kitchen sink’s hot water came out in only a thin trickle, making even washing dishes frustrating.

Elsewhere, exposed lightbulbs hung from the ceiling, the uneven floors required furniture to be propped up with wooden blocks, the television remote was missing, and the only wardrobe was already filled with spare quilts and pillows, leaving nowhere to hang our clothes.

None of these problems individually would have ruined our trip.

Taken together, however, they painted a different picture from the apartment we’d expected to receive, particularly one described as an “upgrade.”

Why We Stayed

Looking back, the obvious question is why we didn’t simply leave.

The answer is that by then we had already experienced one cancellation, spent days trying to find replacement accommodation, endured an exhausting journey to Berlin, and lost another apartment minutes before check-in.

We had only four full days in the city, all of them already planned around museum reservations and tours. Spending another day packing, searching for accommodation, negotiating with customer service, and moving across the city to possibly end up in Berlin’s version of the 19^th arrondissement would have consumed a significant portion of the vacation we’d spent months planning.

There was another factor. Fred and I aren’t backpackers in our twenties with unlimited flexibility. Like many people in our stage of life, we arrived needing this vacation. Between demanding jobs and the responsibilities of caring for both teenagers and aging parents, we had very little energy left for another logistical battle.

The apartment was livable. It just wasn’t worth what we’d paid for it. So we decided to document everything, enjoy the four days we’d come to Berlin for, and address the problem afterward.

Giving the Owner the Opportunity to Make Amends

The day before we checked out, Julia sent us a message asking how our stay had been. Rather than posting an angry review immediately, we decided to give the property manager an opportunity to respond privately.

We thanked her for arranging alternative accommodation after the studio became unavailable and acknowledged that the replacement apartment was larger and on a quieter street. We then explained, in detail, why we didn’t believe the apartment justified its nightly rate.

I listed the cleanliness and maintenance issues we’d documented, attached photographs, and concluded by explaining that while we appreciated having somewhere to stay after the cancellation, we didn’t believe the apartment was ready to be rented in its current condition.

We didn’t demand compensation. In fact, we deliberately avoided asking for money outright. I hoped that once the owner saw the photographs and acknowledged the problems, she might offer an appropriate partial refund herself.

Instead, she thanked us for the detailed feedback, apologized that the apartment hadn’t met our expectations, and said the issues would be reviewed and addressed before wishing us a safe journey home. Notably, she didn’t dispute any of the problems we’d identified. That distinction would later become important.

Because when I eventually took the same evidence to Booking.com, the question was no longer whether the apartment had been in poor condition. Even the property manager accepted that.

The question had become what responsibility, if any, Booking.com believed it had once those facts were no longer in dispute, when the owner didn’t want to offer us any compensation.

Booking.com’s Response

The day after I returned home, I contacted Booking.com’s customer service.

I sent them the same photographs I’d shared with the property manager, along with screenshots of our WhatsApp conversation. Those messages established two important facts: first, that we’d been moved into a different apartment than the one we’d booked, and second, that the property manager had not disputed any of the cleanliness or maintenance problems I’d documented.

I assumed the next step would be straightforward. Booking.com would review the evidence, compare it against whatever standards they expect accommodation providers to meet, and decide whether the apartment we’d received justified a partial refund.

Instead, I entered what felt like an endless customer service loop.

Chasing an Answer

Over the following weeks, I contacted Booking.com repeatedly through chat, messages, and phone calls. Notably, they don’t make it easy; you have to navigate through a maze of links to get beyond the AI chatbot and reach an actual human.

Most interactions followed the same pattern. I would explain the situation, attach the same evidence yet again, and be told my case had been forwarded for review. Several times I was promised a response within a specific timeframe that came and went without any follow-up.

When someone finally did call me (at 7:30am, which I thought was pretty obnoxious), I was told the case remained under review and that I would hear back within five to ten business days. That deadline passed as well.

The First Offer

Eventually, after multiple conversations spread over several weeks, Booking.com made its first offer: a credit to my Booking.com Wallet equal to about 12% of what I’d paid for the four-night stay.

The ridiculous amount itself wasn’t what bothered me most. What I wanted to understand was how it had been calculated.

The apartment I’d received wasn’t simply disappointing. It had documented cleanliness and maintenance issues that I’d photographed, reported, and discussed with the property manager. Those issues hadn’t been challenged. So I asked Booking.com a simple question: how had they concluded that these particular defects amounted to compensation equal to roughly 12% of the booking price?

I also explained that I didn’t want Travel Credits. After this experience, I had no intention of booking through the platform again. If compensation was warranted, I wanted it refunded to my original method of payment, and I wanted to understand the standard they’d applied. If they believed the apartment met the quality customers should reasonably expect, I wanted them to say so. If it didn’t, I wanted to understand how the amount had been determined.

On July 9th, Booking.com replied:

“The amount of this compensation is determined according to Booking.com’s procedures and remains at our discretion. Therefore, we are unfortunately unable to review or modify the calculation of this compensation once it has been awarded.”

They added that the Travel Credit could be used “like real money” toward future bookings on the platform.

The response raised more questions than it answered. What were those procedures? What standards had been applied? How did documented mold, poor cleaning, broken fixtures, and other maintenance problems translate into exactly 12%? None of that was explained. Nor would Booking.com provide those policies when I asked to see them.

An Unexpected Reversal

I wasn’t satisfied with that answer, so I kept calling.

During one forty-five-minute phone conversation, the customer service representative placed me on hold several times while speaking first with the property manager and then with her own supervisor. This time, the outcome changed.

Booking.com agreed not only to convert the original Travel Credit into a cash refund, but also increased the compensation from approximately 12% to about 29% of the booking price.

When I asked why the amount had changed, I was told it was because I had provided photographs that the property manager couldn’t dispute. But those same photographs – and the same WhatsApp conversation – had been included in my original complaint nearly a month earlier.

Nothing about the evidence had changed, only the outcome had. That inconsistency made it even harder to understand what standards Booking.com was actually applying.

The Question I Never Got Answered

At one point, another customer service representative told me something I found hard to believe. She said that if I had contacted Booking.com immediately after seeing the replacement apartment, they could have immediately found us another apartment in the same neighborhood for the same price, or refunded the difference.

I asked the obvious follow-up question: If that was possible, why hadn’t that been offered after our first apartment was cancelled before the trip? Back then, I had been told I would have to pay any price difference myself and request reimbursement afterward in the form of Travel Credits.

She couldn’t explain the contradiction.

Nor could anyone explain why I had initially been told cash refunds were impossible because they were “against company policy,” only for Booking.com to later issue one anyway.

What I Still Don’t Know

By the end of the process, I’d received more compensation than the company had originally offered. But the amount of money reimbursed isn’t the only issue, it’s how they decide the amount that still had me stymied.

And I still don’t have an answer to the question that I started with: When something goes wrong, what protection does Booking.com actually promise its customers?

After weeks of conversations with customer service, I still didn’t understand the rules being applied. Every important decision – the form of compensation, the amount, whether exceptions could be made, and under what circumstances – appeared to depend on internal procedures that customers weren’t allowed to see.

How am I supposed to write about that?

I don’t expect special treatment as a travel journalist, but I do expect clear answers about what the company’s actual policies are. I need to understand what ordinary customers like my readers should realistically expect when they use the same services.

At the moment, I’m afraid all I have for you is this: “If anything goes wrong and you don’t insist on compensation, you won’t get anything. If you contact them multiple times you might get 12%. If you contact them repeatedly over the span of six weeks, you might get 29%. But you’ll have to firmly insist on a refund to your credit card or you’ll be stuck with Travel Credits you have to use on their platform within a year.”

Caveat Emptor

I still can’t tell you what Booking.com’s policy actually is. I asked, repeatedly, and was never shown one. What I can tell you is what happened to me and to the readers who wrote in with their own stories: compensation seemed to depend less on what went wrong than on how long you were willing to keep asking about it.

Booking.com still offers real advantages: the price comparisons, the reviews, the sheer size of its inventory. I’m not telling you to delete the app.

What I’m recommending is that you stop assuming, the way I did, that Booking.com will take full responsibility in case of any problems with the property owners. I don’t think it’s fair to expect customers to assume the financial risk, accept compensation largely on Booking.com’s terms, and navigate a dispute governed by policies you’re not allowed to read.Especially when they’re taking a cut of every single booking made on their platform.

This isn’t the first time I’ve called out one of the big travel platforms. The investigation into TripAdvisor I wrote a decade ago went viral, not because the information was shocking, but because so few people were willing to say it publicly. I heard from travelers and small business owners alike who felt, for the first time, like someone was actually on their side. That’s really all I’m trying to do here too: give you the information to make your own call.

So before you book your next apartment through them, ask yourself honestly what your own Plan B actually costs. If a reservation falls apart, you may be asked to pay a higher price yourself, upfront, and trust that you’ll be reimbursed later in Travel Credits you didn’t want. Some travelers can absorb that kind of surprise expense and sort out the paperwork afterward. Many can’t. And for them, “we’ll reimburse you eventually, in credit, if you keep asking” isn’t a safety net at all. It’s a risk they’re being asked to carry alone, whether they can afford to or not.

Unforeseen circumstances are inevitable when you travel. But if you’re not in a position to cover that risk yourself, I’d think twice before depending on Booking.com to step up on your behalf.

UPDATE: Booking.com’s Response to This Article

I sent the article above back to the Press Office at Booking.com to give them another chance to respond. They asked me for my reservation number. I explained that I didn’t want a response to my personal situation, but rather to Booking.com’s policy on reimbursements and how they’re determined. This is their response from July 31st:

“Following our review, we can confirm that the guest arranged the alternative accommodation directly with the original accommodation provider before our Customer Service team was informed of the relocation. Concerns about the condition of that property were reported to us after the stay had ended. We nonetheless contacted the accommodation provider on the guest’s behalf and have offered compensation to the guest.

Each case is assessed individually, based on the specific circumstances, the evidence available, and when the issues are brought to our attention. Our Customer Service team is available 24/7 to support guests — including during their stay, where we are best placed to investigate and help resolve any issues in real time.”

Either they didn’t understand the assignment, or their AI chatbot wrote this response. I’d like to suggest some edits:

“Following multiple emails asking for policy clarification, we can confirm the guest was given alternative accommodations once arriving at the booked property, and having been sorely let down by Booking.com’s Customer Service already, felt they had no choice but to take it. The owner, a Booking.com Preferred Partner, failed to inform Booking.com of the swap, using alternative messaging services outside of the Booking.com platform.

Not satisfied with the amount charged for the sub-standard accommodations, the guests finally contacted Customer Service with photos and details of the property after trying to resolve the issue directly with the owner, only to be informed, multiple times over the course of several weeks by Booking.com Customer Service, that “nothing can be done,” the owner says ‘no’,” “we don’t offer reimbursements, only credits,” and “that’s Booking.com policy.” After several more phone calls, our Customer Service finally contacted the owner, and re-examining the same evidence, agreed to reimburse 29% of the price.

Each case is assessed individually, based on the specific circumstances, the evidence available, how many times the guest contacts us, and how insistent they are on getting a fair response. Our Customer Service team is available 24/7 to support guests — including during their stay, where we are best placed to investigate and help resolve any issues in real time. But we will never, in any circumstances, guarantee that assistance, nor be held responsible if the guest is standing on the sidewalk with their luggage.”

There, fixed it.