Mary M.

I booked a weekend away at the seaside, two nights at a hotel in UK. The booking process said "free reservation" so I went continued to reserve my room. Immediately after completing this process, the first night's payment of £100 was taken (effectively as a deposit) so I could not cancel even though booking was months ahead! When I complained about this and said I wanted to cancel Booking.com refused and said it was in the "small print". Customer Services were rude and unhelpful. I asked to escalate it to Head Office in UK but they said they had no address there. I insisted I wanted to write to CEO and they said they had no address, except in Amsterdam, and again they refused to give me the address. Absolutely bonkers as well as unpleasant to deal with. Never again.

Never book with these cheap third party "travel agents" registered in other countries (ebookers in India I believe). I spent 30 minutes trying to get something very simple sorted - a child tax refund - but they either couldn't understand or refused to. They also charged £15 each fees hidden under general "taxes" but do not make anything clear about their fees separately. Why do the OFT let them get away with this? I know why. The OFT doesn't exist anymore.