I booked a room for three nights through booking.com, for the first (and last) time. It went pretty smooth. Entered my credit card, and got an email confirming the registration. Unfortunately, I had to cancel the trip a few hours later, a full day before the check-in time on the first night.
I had noticed in the email there was a link to "manage your reservation". I clicked on that link, and went straight to a booking.com web page that had a large button "cancel your reservation". I clicked on that button, and instantly got a web page that said "your reservation in cancelled".
I thought that went awfully smooth. Usually it is a bit of effort to cancel something or get a refund. Well, it onlky took a few seconds to figure out why. I got another email that confirmed the cancellation, and informed me that the cost of cancellation was the ENTIRE price of the three nights.
Which really begs the question - why even have a procedure to cancel a reservation, if you are not going to refund 1 cent of the money? THat is like a store having a refund counter to take back products, but with no intention of ever giving back the money. Why would anyone take anything back? Well, I believe it is a scam. They like poeple to cancel, so they can rebook the rooms and keep all your money. That is why they make it so easy to cancel, but not advertise the fact they are going to keep all your money.
Booking.com blames the hotel, and the hotel blames Booking,com. Typical run-around. And I am the one left going to my credit card company to try and fix this mess.
I have never experienced this from any other hotel reservation I have made. It was always clear that I could cancel prior to check-in, without issue.
Shameful!