I don’t really care to write an article like this, my blog is generally not a space for rants. But my hand has been forced as a result of extremely bad business decisions made by Booking.com during the COVID-2019 pandemic.

I have been a loyal customer of this company more times than I can count for all sorts of trips…personal, business, vacation, etc. In fact, it could be said that if I hadn’t used this company to book my first visit to Zipolite on the coast of Oaxaca, I might have never actually visited, much less later moved to Mexico. However, I will NEVER use Booking again and I advise you to not use them either. Additionally, Booking is owned by the same parent company that operates Kayak and Priceline, so I also recommend against using any of these sites in the future.

Semana Santa is one of the major vacation weeks here in Mexico, the week before Easter when schools and most businesses normally shut down for the week. It is closely associated with Spring Break, when thousands of students from the US and other countries also come to visit Mexico. It’s a make-it-or-break-it week for the tourism industry. Together with a group of 5 other guys, we booked a penthouse apartment in Acapulco overlooking the ocean for 5 nights to end Easter Sunday. One member of the group decided to surprise (and spoil) us all by paying for the entire booking as a gift.

 

At the time of the booking, we had heard of the pandemic, but never imagined it would reach the level it has. Even as things started to come into focus, we talked about it and decided we would make the trip even if it meant isolating ourselves in the penthouse together, where we would still have plenty of private outdoor space, including a beautiful pool overlooking the Pacific. However, after the government elevated the pandemic response to phase 2, resulting in the closure of all schools and 90% of businesses across Mexico, we realized it was really not a good idea to go, so we decided to cancel our trip.

Having initially forgotten which site we used to book the reservation, we looked into the cancellation policy with AirBNB. We were happy and assured to see that they were honoring all cancellation requests during the pandemic without a penalty. Unfortunately, we soon realized that we had, in fact, booked the reservation on AirBNB’s competitor site, Booking.com.

After several attempts to cancel the trip only to be told we faced a steep cancellation fee in excess of $1600 USD for a booking that cost just under $2000, I decided to try to resolve the issue by contacting Booking’s Facebook page. Initially, their response gave me cause for hope. They told me, “we’re really sorry to hear you’re having to deal with these issues. Due to these unprecedented times, our customer service team is working around the clock to assist travelers such as yourself with any issues you come across. Could you please share with us your booking number, so we can look into the matter further? Thank you for your patience and stay safe.”

I shared the booking information with them and a representative named Marcos O. contacted my friend who made the reservation with the following message sent in Spanish, translated here:

Dear [my friend’s name],

Thank you very much for choosing Booking.com.

We will contact you regarding your reservation number [reservation number] in the Penthouse with Beach Club plus Root (sic) Garden Panoramic, with entry date 2020-04-08 and departure date 2020-04-12.

We will contact you regarding the message we have received through social networks from one of the guests on the reservation.

We have established a special action plan for certain reservations within specific dates, but at this time we cannot proceed with the cancellation and refund of yours because the entry is for April 8 and, for the moment, our plan does not includes reservations from that date. In these cases, the last word is the host.

Beyond this, we see that the host has already rejected the cancellation without charges and has offered you a change of dates and you are negotiating with them. Please note that, as we cannot apply our special plan, the cancellation depends exclusively on the host and we cannot contradict their decision, since we act as intermediaries but they are the ones who offer the final service.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely,

Marcos O.

Yes, this is the actual message we received from the company that in its initial public response on its Facebook page pleasantly told us “Thank you for your patience and stay safe.” It seems like a shockingly predatory business practice from a company that clearly is willing to take your money and pay it to the host, yet unwilling to get involved when a worldwide pandemic makes taking the trip anything but safe. They are apparently unwilling to do anything for us, leaving us at the mercy of the host, who is only offering us a change of dates despite the fact that the government of Mexico has closed down 90% of Mexican businesses through April 30.

To be clear, it seems to me that a company that will abandon its customers in the middle of the worst worldwide public health crisis in a century will most likely treat its customers no better in the event that a loved one dies, a flight is cancelled, or any number of other traveller emergencies. They have made clear in their two-faced replies via their Facebook page and in their email to my friend that they are only in business to support hosts, leaving travelers like my group in a precarious position of having to negotiate with a stranger in a time of crisis. We will never forget how we have been treated by this company during this pandemic. The six of us are all frequent travelers, working professionals. We have used Booking, Priceline, and Kayak more times than we can possibly count, but we will NEVER bring our business there again.

In the future, we will look to reputable companies such as AirBNB, which instituted a reasonable and fair cancellation policy during the COVID-2019 pandemic. I would recommend you do the same. In the world of customer service, the customer is always right. That simple fair-weather business fact seems to have been forgotten by Booking, Priceline, and Kayak. So I recommend not letting them off the hook for what they have done to their customers during this crisis as we are just one booking of many that have posted similar complaints to their Facebook page. A company that isn’t there for you in a time of crisis doesn’t deserve your business when good times finally return. Never again, Booking, Priceline, or Kayak. Never again!

This article will be indexed by search engines and remain published forever as a truthful record of how they treated their customers in the face of the COVID-2019 pandemic. If they do the right thing and refund the entire amount of the Booking, I will update the article to let you know how it goes, but the article will remain published all the same. Regardless, they have lost our business for good, and don’t deserve y0ur business, either.

UPDATE: In the end, my friend who used his credit card to pay for the trip contacted his bank, which issued a full refund. We never again heard from Booking or the host, and they have permanently lost our business.

• covid-2019
• profiteering