Using Booking.com

Has anyone used this website / company (BOOKING.COM) to book hotels prior to or after their cruise?

 

What was your experience?

 

They say we pay the hotel directly.

 

Do most people prefer to go directly to the hotel website and pay them - do you feel comfortable putting your credit card on a hotel website (in Greece?).

 

Thank you for any assistance.....I'm much more nervous doing these things in Europe than in the Caribbean.....I speak NO foreign languages.

 

Judy

I have been using them for several years now. They pass on great discounts and give a great service. Because they have so many people booking through them, hoteliers can go out of their way to be helpful. Rather embarrasingly, I have, on two seperate occasions clicked 'book', when I have had the wrong date selected on the page calendar. This occured when I had clicked on something else, then back to the booking, so it was absolutely my fault. Each time, I only discovered the error, the day after I was wrongly booked into the room and I received the email request from Booking.com to post a review. Following panicky calls to booking.com (these were expensive bookings), the nice customer service people told me that they would ring the hotel and ask them if, as a curtesy, they would let me have the room for the intended night at no additional charge. On both ocassions, the hotels agreed to do so. I have no doubt they would not have been so generous if an individual rang them exlaining the mistake and making that request.

 

When I have several hotel bookings in different locations on a trip. They are all well laid out in their app, little maps come up to tell me how to get there, with reminders of check-in, check-out times etc.

 

In short, I love Booking.com

I sent Booking.com a message asking them to confirm (AGAIN)....that my confirmation was good - that the room has been booked and for the price we agreed on.

 

I also sent an email to the hotel....just to cover my bases.

 

Hopefully I'll hear back soon and feel better - but your message is very reassuring! Thank you!!

I sent Booking.com a message asking them to confirm (AGAIN)....that my confirmation was good - that the room has been booked and for the price we agreed on.

 

I also sent an email to the hotel....just to cover my bases.

 

Hopefully I'll hear back soon and feel better - but your message is very reassuring! Thank you!!

You should have received an automatic confirmation email from Booking.com confirming your reservation. If you didn't receive that, I doubt the booking went through. I'd suggest giving them a quick ring.

I've used them a number of times both in the US and in Europe and had great luck both with the reservations and customer service. On one occasion when a hotel charged me for a room I had cancelled well within the cancellation period the customer service was excellent and the issue taken care of promptly.

Has anyone used this website / company (BOOKING.COM) to book hotels prior to or after their cruise?

 

What was your experience?

 

They say we pay the hotel directly.

 

Do most people prefer to go directly to the hotel website and pay them - do you feel comfortable putting your credit card on a hotel website (in Greece?).

 

Thank you for any assistance.....I'm much more nervous doing these things in Europe than in the Caribbean.....I speak NO foreign languages.

 

Judy

 

Hi Paumavista,

 

I have used Booking.com for more than 6 years and absolutely love it. I'm always on their website looking for Hotels. Looking for one for my upcoming Hawaii trip. The best part about Booking.com is that you don't have to pay until you are actually at the Hotel.

I've used Booking.com for several years. Hotels in the US including Alaska and Hawaii, Canada, several countries in the Europe, the UK, New Zealand and serviced apartments and hotels in Australia.

 

I never book a hotel that I have to pay for in advance. Too many things can change, or I may decided I want to be in a different area of a city.

I just booked two different hotels for Puerto Rico and New Orleans with no issues and not only received confirmation emails from Booking.com but also the hotels themselves! I have no hesitations with them and the prices were the best I could find, I still look at the site to see just in case......:D

We used booking.com to book our hotels in Japan last December. It was great! We were able to book the room and pay at the hotels. It was nice to know that we had a room (since the first night was without our Japanese-speaking daughter! :D).

We are using them again to book rooms before and after our cruise next summer!

We have used booking.com extensively in Australia and in Japan. There is never an issue with cancelling and changing bookings as long as the booking conditions allow it. We do check hotel websites first to compare their pricing, and look at reviews on Trip Advisor.

 

Yesterday we were offered a $10 upgrade on a pre-cruise booking for this week.

I did book a non-refundable by accident and they graciously helped me change to pay when we went....that trip never happened so I was doubly happy!

I really really think that booking from the web site of the hotel or it's chain is a very good policy. According to the Washington Post and NBC Today show, the advice is that to avoid scams and possible identity theft you should book with the hotel directly. My SIL worked for many years at the hotel manager level for several large chains. Standing orders were that if someone had to go without a room (or worse got the room with the tricky toilet or next to the elevator that bangs) it would go to one of the reservations that were made through a 3rd party. You don't want to make any customer upset but there is a pecking order. First is high ranking loyalty club members, then loyalty club, somewhere are corporate reservations then way down are the 3rd party bookers. So many of the chains have a guarantee to be lowest price on their own site -- why take the chance with the 3rd party. If you do have any trouble with your reservation -- you are a customer of the 3rd party and the hotel itself will do very little for you. You have to call the other booking agent and Good Luck with That.

 

I do plenty of comparing using the booking sites but for the actual reservation I use the hotel/chain web site and always add my loyalty number so they know I am one of theirs. Works for me. Also get the hotel's emails -- occasionally there is a real bargain among the offerings.

I do find it harder and harder to make sure that you are actually on the web site of the chain or the hotel. Subtle changes like a .net instead of .com or hidden address parts lead you to a 3rd party site -- this is just like stealing your reservation. By signing into the loyalty program or looking at your past or future reservations you can check that you are actually in the reservation system that you think you are. This goes for hotels/cruises/rental cars etc. Sometimes the 3rd party does actually make your reservation and sometimes it does not (you show up to NO reservation). Sharks in them waters.

We use booking.com in Europe and Agoda.com in Asia extensively. No issue whatsoever.

 

In fact, we did have an issue with a Booking.com hotel in Panama city that was not issueing a timely refund. We made a call to Booking.com and it was sorted immediately.

 

Sometimes though the hotel website may give you a better deal such as including breakfast or a taxi ride to the airport for booking direct. Always pays to check. We did five weeks in Greece and Greek Islands this fall....seventy percent of the bookings were on Booking.com.

I used them last summer. We went to Europe for a month and it was very convenient to have all our reservations on one site. I was very pleased with the reviews on the site and the accommodations were excellent.

I booked the Handlery, in SF for 4 nights several weeks ago. Total price was $1,200. Checked other websites is was about $100. more, including the hotel's own.

Rechecking finds same dates, same room $1020.10.

cancelled and rebooked.

I agree!

We've used them on numerous occasions in the UK and Europe and never had a problem or issue. Some hotels keep your CC details to guarantee your room and you pay on arrival. Others take from your card. We have never had an issue with bookings.com or any other company used.

Enjoy

 

 

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