Booking.com online hotel booking system reviews

2024 Author: Harold Hamphrey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:06

The official founding date of the Booking.com web service is 1996. The head office is located in Amsterdam (Netherlands). Currently, the company's branches employ more than 15,000 people. The structure of the enterprise has almost two hundred representative offices located in seventy countries.

Mission

The main task set before the service is to facilitate independent planning and organization of travel. For the convenience of users from different parts of the world, national localizations have been created. There is a Russian version of Booking.com.

Thousands of hotel and excursion offers are at the disposal of travelers. Information about them has been translated into forty languages. The site database contains information about accommodation facilities in 227 countries.

Achievements

According to statistics, the service records more than one and a half million booking facts every day. There is a wide choice of accommodation not only for idle tourists, but also for those who travel on business. Booking.com discounts guarantee the lowest prices.

Honest business

No hidden fees andsurcharges All conditions are extremely clearly and understandably reflected in the object card. The site guarantees the offer of the minimum price. Find cheaper, the service will return the difference. You can subscribe to the newsletter and receive up-to-date information about Booking.com discounts and promotions.

First meeting

On the main page of the site there is a form for a quick search for accommodation options. In a few seconds, the system will provide comprehensive information. The sample meets the requirements specified by the user in the corresponding lines of the questionnaire:

• object name or place;
• arrival date;
• departure date;
• number of travelers;
• children's information;
• number of rooms.

The tourist indicates the purpose of his trip, and also indicates the need for funds to accommodate persons with disabilities. After filling in all the data, you need to click the "Check Prices" button. Online hotel booking system Booking.com provides discounts for registered users.

Hotel selection

After loading the page with the selection, the traveler has the opportunity to filter the results. The following settings for displaying query results are available:

• our recommendations;
• lowest price at start;
• ratings, reviews and price;
• stars;
• Genius;
• distance from city center;
• review score.

Top sellers are marked with special badges. The most profitable offers are highlighted in blue. The object card contains information about the location, services, cost, and overall assessment. The Booking.com online hotel reservation and hotel search system has a variety of settings. They are grouped on the left side of the selection results page.

Criteria

You can filter the results of the selection in accordance with a number of requirements:

• budget;
• recommendations;
• location;
• number of stars;
• entertainment and leisure;
• availability;
• special offers;
• discounts;
• availability of a 24-hour front desk;
• booking conditions;
• beach;
• food;
• type of accommodation;
• attractions;
• bed type;
• convenience.

If you wish, you can see the search results on the map. It clearly illustrates the placement of all objects. If the number of found options in the search list is small, the system automatically suggests an alternative. All Booking.com hotels contain information about the number of recent bookings. As well as availability.

Bonuses for partners

Experienced travelers regularly use the site to pay and book hotel rooms. In addition to the obvious benefits and convenience of remote booking, they also get the opportunity to save a lot on their trip. It's about cashback. Websiteactively encourages those users who attract new customers.

To return the full cost of one night in the selected hotel, you need to find a friend who is registered in the service and has already made at least one booking. He should copy the link to the offer you are interested in, and then format it as an invitation link and send it to you.

When you receive it, you follow it to the page of the desired guest house in booking.com. It is necessary to bring the payment procedure of the selected hotel to the very end. Be sure to check for a message that the system will provide you with a bonus. This is important!

If you have any questions, they should be addressed to the customer service immediately via chat or email. If everything went well, then in a couple of days each of the participants in the transaction, you and your friend, will receive 50% of the payment amount. So, if it was about paying 2,000 rubles for a hotel booking transaction on www.booking.com, then the bank account of each party will be replenished by 1,000 rubles.

The service does not offer any long-term bonuses. All funds are credited almost instantly and are not virtual. If you continue to cooperate with the site, then you can earn quite a decent amount. To do this, you need to send your friends and acquaintances affiliate links to the pages of the hotels they have chosen. As a result, everyone will receive a reward, and you will save on vacation.

Tricks

Another way to earn money for your upcoming trip is to use bonusBooking.com programs. Confirmation of premium transactions appear in the user's personal account immediately.

The most popular among tourists is the offer to pay 16,000 rubles for accommodation in one of the available hotels and get a cashback of 6,000 rubles. Be careful, you can use such programs only once.

Active bonus promotions:

• "10% cashback on any booking."
• "We return 1,000 to the card when paying 2,000 rubles."
• "When booking above 2,400 cashback 900 rubles."

Advertising

Often in hotel descriptions, tourists see messages that you can order a delicious and hearty breakfast at low prices at the hotel. Experienced tourists recommend not paying attention to such promises. This is an ordinary advertisement, which may not have anything to do with reality. In this case, you do not need to overpay for the choice on the Booking.com website "Apartment with breakfast". Usually, there are a huge number of cafes and eateries near the hotels, the prices of which are lower and the food is tastier.

Better study the information regarding the availability and cost of connecting to the Internet, the exact location of the selected object, the functioning of the pool and other useful options that are included in the price of accommodation. Everything else can be ordered on the spot after a personal acquaintance with the hotel and the services offered, including breakfast.

Taxes

Sometimes when booking a hotel, information about local charges is not obvious. finalTourists will be able to find out the cost of living only at the hotel itself, since no one knows the exact amount of taxes. Their maximum value can reach as much as 100% of the cost of rest. According to reviews on Booking.com, travelers regularly face the following types of taxes:

• tourist tax;
• city payment.

So, in Venice you need to pay 350 rubles for one day of stay in the city, in Paris - 210 rubles, in Berlin - 5% of the total cost of living in a hotel. In New York, this figure reaches 15%. Plus, guests of the metropolis need to pay a city tax. Its value is 240 rubles per night. In some places, according to the reviews on Booking.com, there are additional fees for the stay of children. For example, in Berlin.

Car parking

Indicating the advantages of the hotel, the programmers of the site do not pay due attention to trifles. In this case, we are talking about car parking. Travelers who travel by rented or private car are disappointed with this service approach. Due to their own inattention, they bear additional costs.

It turns out that the management of the service does not advertise services that can increase the cost of staying at the hotel, thereby fulfilling their promises of the lowest price. According to users, the site deliberately misleads its customers. So, the price of living in Paris can be 1,500 rubles, and placing a car in a private parking lot can be 2,300 rubles. A lot of negative reviews about Booking.com are related to this very moment.

Paid car parking is far from the only controversial aspect. This includes storing things in an electronic safe, drying ski equipment in a specialized room, and using bath accessories. At the same time, the mention of a free travel pass, as well as other additional services, is not displayed for some reason. As a result, information about the hotel is not complete enough.

Take your time

Often, when viewing the sample offered by the system, the client sees messages that say that the hotel rooms are actively sold out. Booking.com reviews claim that this is a well-known and effective way to manipulate users. It is especially productive during the period of mass booking. For example, on the eve of summer holidays or on holidays.

If you fall for the Booking.com programmers' tricks, the property's phone number will come in handy. Do not be lazy and call the owner of the hotel. In most cases, it turns out that there are plenty of free rooms. Such messages generated by the site are a common publicity stunt that marketers have adopted.

Discounts

Users often accuse the site of slyness. The promised discounts are not true. Information about them is presented in the form of a crossed-out old price and a new cost, marked in green. This is a common service practice. Rest assured, if you open the same page tomorrow, the global discount will still apply.

Currency conversion

Toto go on a trip and not go broke, you need to carefully study the terms of payment. The recalculation of the ruble exchange rate can be done in different ways and depend on a lot of factors:

• bank card type;
• conditions for the sale of US dollars or euros by a specific credit institution;
• time interval between booking and actual payment.

Any questions? In this case, calling Booking.com will do nothing. Contact the bank that issued and services your payment card. Otherwise, the error may exceed 10%. Doubt? Pay for accommodation and hotel services on the spot in cash in the national currency of the host country.

Unauthorized withdrawals

Do not enter valid bank card details when making an early booking. In the reviews, travelers write that they often encounter cases of unauthorized access to their personal account. Usually, the site contains information that payment will be made on the spot, and in fact the money is debited from the specified card.

At this point, many travelers pay attention. To cancel an unauthorized transaction, you need to contact your bank, and then the technical support service of the service. Usually the site employees politely apologize and refer to the solvency check.

Positive feedback

Travelers around the world appreciate the convenience of Booking.com. They pay attention to a huge numberoptions available in remote mode:

• low prices;
• actual information;
• authentic hotel description;
• the ability to select additional options;
• early booking;
• no early cancellation pen alties;
• friendly support;
• 24/7 service;
• availability of language localizations;
• discounts;
• affiliate programs;
• bonuses;
• cashback system.

Negative moments

As mentioned above, a lot of travelers are dissatisfied with the experience of cooperation with the service. They accuse the site of providing false information and intentionally misleading customers. Here is just a short list of complaints received from users to the management of the website:

• abundance of advertising;
• large error in currency conversion;
• imposing additional services;
• spamming;
• hiding information regarding additional fees and local taxes;
• unauthorized transactions;
• providing bank card information to third parties;
• Slow response to customer requests.

Service Secrets

The management of the site claims that all its services are completely free for end users. In fact this is not true. The service charges a commission from the owners of accommodation facilities that are presented on the Booking pages. It turns out that this amount is included by the owners of hotels in the cost of living. ATas a result, both parties pay for the service.

Hoteliers say that Booking takes twenty percent. By contacting the hotel directly, you can save the specified amount. Therefore, many experienced and economical tourists use the service only as a convenient base for finding hotels. This site does a great job of this. It allows you to track price dynamics, set reminders and receive notifications. Everything is completely free.