Booking.com is a provider of online reservation services that functions as an intermediary between guests needing to make accommodation reservations and hotels, properties, or vacation rentals. Booking.com has some pretty humble origins since it started in 1996 with just one man in a tiny Amsterdam office space. His name was Geert-Jan Bruinsma and he’s a tech guy who had a strong entrepreneurial spirit. His goal was the bringing together of his fellow Dutch travelers with the places where they wanted to stay. So, he did that via his startup online booking service, which was called Bookings.nl. Following a merger with Bookings Online in 2000, it began operating as Bookings.org. Later, it was changed to Booking.com when Stef Noorden became CEO.
Fast forward to Oct 2, 2012, and Booking.com was purchased by Priceline.com for the cash price of $135 million and, since June of 2019, Glenn D. Fogel has been CEO, making him responsible for all of the operations and the company’s global strategy. The head office is still in Amsterdam where Booking.com B.V.got its start.
Many people may have been wondering how Booking.com Reviews 2021 work, so here’s a quick rundown of that. A guest selects an overall score (from 1 to 10) for rating their experience at a particular property, hotel, or one of Booking.com vacation rentals. Essentially, that’s the only question a guest is required to answer prior to submitting a review. The average of all of those scores becomes an establishment’s overall Guest Review Score, which will be displayed once they receive three or more reviews.
Booking.com Pros and Cons:
Like any other online booking service website, there are some Booking.com Pros and Cons, including:
Pros:
- Hotel accommodations are not only easier to find but also more business-friendly than many other travel portals, most of which are focused mainly on personal travel.
- You can research and buy tickets for European train and bus schedules.
- You can make dinner reservations via OpenTable.
- You can access the mobile app, which is highly rated.
- You get many advanced filters, in-app payments, and push notifications.
- You also get Global currency support, multi-lingual support, and special deals.
- Unlike many other travel companies, Booking.com focuses exclusively on assisting travelers with reserving rooms.
- New daily deals are added to their site every day.
- They have more than 81 million reviews that have been written and submitted by travelers who utilized the website for hotel accommodations, short-term apartment rentals, vacation rentals, and/or hostels.
- Booking.com is as reliable as the majority of major booking sites and is actually one of the largest e-commerce travel companies worldwide.
- Applying for their price match guarantee is really simple. If you locate a property that is exactly the same and for the same dates at a cheaper price, all you have to do is email or call the Booking.com Customer Service team.
Cons:
- Multiple booking discrepancies reported to Consumer Affairs,
- Somewhat limited ability to understand some agents,
- Hidden fees.
- No “Mystery Deals” like Priceline offers,
- Misleading property photos,
- Common double-booking errors that are often not refunded.
Booking.com customer support
If you find that you need to speak to a live person in Booking.com customer support, you can simply dial (888) 850-3958. You will, however, need to remain on the line for approximately ten minutes before speaking to a representative.
Booking.com cancellation policy
Booking.com offers free cancellation services for the majority of rooms. In fact, you can change or even cancel your booking via their self-service tool found at ‘My Booking.com’. And, the Booking.com cancellation policy regarding non-refundable reservations is as follows:
~ If you booked at a non-refundable rate, you could request a cancellation free of charge by using the “Cancellation Fee Exceptions” tool.
~ This automatically allows free cancellations if the request is received within a specific period (like within 24 hours of making the reservation).
~ Or, if you’re not within the cancellation window, you could resell your non-refundable hotel booking to another traveler and receive your refund that way since most hotels allow for name changes on reservations.
~ If your booking is canceled, Booking.com will refund your money immediately, however, the actual processing time could take seven to ten days (this depends on your bank).
Booking.com- Can you book a cruise, hotel, flight, and rental car?
You can book almost any type of travel reservation (with the exception of cruises), including:
- Airport Taxis
- Buses
- Business Apartments
- Flights
- Hotel Accommodations
- Rental Cars
- Restaurants
- Trains
- and much more.
Booking.com Ease of use
It’s fairly easy to use as follows:
~ Seeing and managing your upcoming trip- Just navigate to their “Bookings” tab.
~ Find your booking,
~ Click on ‘manage booking’,
~ Once there, you can add a room, change dates, view your booking policies, and confirm.
~ You’ll also see their cancellation policy and can cancel if your plans end up changing.
Offer good last-minute deals?
Unfortunately, what you won’t find at Booking.com are those great last-minute mystery deals offered by Priceline on their unsold hotel rooms.
Do they offer good monthly payment plans for your vacation?
No, however, Affirm, Uplift, and PayPal are some of the payment services that allow you to book now, paying your vacation or business trip off over time (with interest or without it, but it depends upon which service you choose to use).
Do they take discount coupons?
When signing into Booking.com, you’ll see discounted prices and can also save even more by using a Booking.com discount code that you can get from PCWorld. In addition, you earning a free night is easy with ten one-night stays, a single ten-night booking, or any combination that totals ten nights. After reaching those ten nights, you’ll get a free night that can be applied at checkout.
Booking.com Summary
Booking.com is a good option for most travelers because it’s just plain quick and easy to use. It also makes planning European trips much easier when you’re trying to figure out bus and train schedules on top of your flight across the pond. In the end, Booking.com might not necessarily save you a whole lot of money, but it can really save a great deal of time and exasperation when planning your next trip.