Why You Should NOT Book flights with Booking.com or GoToGate.com

[RB001]

... I now only book direct or just recently started making one or two bookings through Qantas hotels but only as an exception (Not sure who they use).
Caveat Emptor

Expedia

 

[CaptJCool]

Word of caution about making any bookings within this group of companies. I made a booking through Agoda for an overnight transit at Sama² KLIA. The booking failed because of a payment glitch. I then booked through Priceline (not knowing they are sister companies) and all went through and comfirmation received with the future date final payment will be deducted. A little later, I received an email from Agoda confirming my reservation. I thought the first attempt had somehow gone through & I had a double booking. I promptly cancelled the Agoda booking using the link in the email. Payment date came and Priceline charged my card. A few days before arrival, I rang the hotel to inform them I was arriving mid afternoon not the after 9pm in the original booking. The hotel informed me my booking was cancelled by Agoda back on the date I booked. I said yes but there should be an active booking through Priceline. There wasn't. I contacted Priceline and they replied to contact Agoda instead. After much throughing and froing, it appears the Priceline booking was actually given to Agoda to arrange. and when I cancelled, it was the same booking. I asked why then did they still deducted the payment weeks after the cancellation. They accepted it was a system error. They said they will cancel the original authorisation and that will trigger a refund. The refund never arrived. I chased up multiple times and kept getting fobbed off by Priceline to Agoda who in turn told me to contact Priceline. I got nowhere. I finally sent them a long scathing email running through the whole episode and telling them they are thieves blaming each other to avoid reponsiblility.
Their final response to me was the original authorisation has been cancelled. That's it. No refund after 8 months. That became a very expensive transit, I had to book a suite (only rooms available) plus the loss of the orginal. I now only book direct or just recently started making one or two bookings through Qantas hotels but only as an exception (Not sure who they use).
Caveat Emptor

Qantas hotels are a shopfront for Expedia

 

[latawiec]

I like to show ranking of the Booking.com as this could be very surprising

1. Booking com - self ranking with over 4


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2. Hotelchantele.com ranking
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3. Product review.com review with only 1.4
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4. ThrustPilot with only 1.2 or 1.7 (AU website).

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5. Consumer Affairs with only 1.1

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I would like you and others to make your own conclusions, particularly regarding self-ranking or self-review... by OTA.

Also I like to mention that it is important to check ownership of OTA before using it for booking and not to learn in a hard way what happened to me last year.

Thanks for the update and supporting reviews.

Like to point out the the first one might be sponsored, being paid ...

Still wouldn't recommend booking flights via their websites.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

I like to show ranking of the Booking.com as this could be very surprising

1. Booking com - self ranking with over 4


View attachment 368627

That is likely the App Store rating for the app. I would make the argument that Booking.com and just about every OTA is a 5 Star service. After all, you can book Lufthansa and a number of other 5 Star airlines with them!

2. Hotelchantele.com ranking
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That just means 85% of the review sponsorship fee was paid by the company!

4. ThrustPilot with only 1.2 or 1.7 (AU website).

View attachment 368640

I’ve heard of TrustPilot but not ThrustPilot. Then again I really don’t want to know what they’re all about

Joking aside, I would be curious how the airlines score in terms of customer satisfaction when booking direct with them. I suspect some on this forum have had a 1 Star booking experience at times with Qantas.

-RooFlyer88

 

[CaptJCool]

thrustpilot is taking Orf ….

 

[NamarrgonFlyer]

Qantas hotels are a shopfront for Expedia

Not necessarily. All these deals displayed here: https://www.qantas.com/holidays/deals will be procured by the Qantas Hotels team directly. Also, any classic reward bookings and any with triple points offers.

I’ve booked hotels with booking.com and never had a problem, however I just booked a Great Wall tour from Beijing using them and now I’m worried.

Booking.com only acting as a reseller for probably Viator in this instance.