A friend and I paid Booking.com for an apartment in Paris. The next day we received an email informing us our “request” had not been confirmed and advising us to contact the owner.
Our many attempts failed, and so did Booking.com’s. A call centre manager suggested we travel to Paris, knock on the door and contact Booking.com if nobody answered. Otherwise we would not get our booking refunded.
We then discovered several reviews on Booking.com stating they had arrived to find the flat inaccessible. I am 83 and could not risk being left with nowhere to stay, so I cancelled and lost the €701 (£609) I paid for the booking.
MK, Swansea
The email stating your request has not been confirmed is a quirk of Booking.com which must unnerve many users. The booking form asks for an estimated check-in time. This is what the “request” refers to, not the booking itself, but nowhere on the email is this explained.
Booking.com told me blithely that hosts do not always confirm check-in times in advance due to “finalising availability”.
What it didn’t address is the fact that the host didn’t confirm anything at all. Nor did it explain why a positive review from 2024 topped the wholly negative feedback from 2025. Ignoring all these points, it did agree to refund you as a “goodwill gesture”.
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