We have been using booking.com for our hotels when we travel. I like, or maybe I am used to see, the display and format of booking.com, I always find it easier to see the information on booking.com pages than others. I have been a loyal customer to booking.com and I am reluctant to set up another profile and do not like giving out my credit card information on many sites. Booking.com to me seems to have better flexible cancel periods. I prefer to pay the hotel when I check in. Some sites sometimes charge credit card full amount of hotel fee before the actual stay. Even when other sites say free cancellation there is a shorter window to allow me do a modification if needed.
A few years earlier, booking.com always gives the most competitive price and I hardly have a second thought going to another site. However, with growth of hotel booking sites booking.com seems have a hard time keep its best offer and I begin to notice other sites sometimes give much better rates.
This year when I plan a trip to Thailand, I find a difference of $40/night between booking.com and the other site. I was surprised to see this difference and I was like, let's wait a little longer, maybe booking.com would lower the price when they realize their price is set too high. I checked it every day but didn't see the drop. I saw booking.com offer "Price Match" and I was thinking, oh, maybe I could use the price match and wrap this wait and see.
I checked it further, the price match is not to match the competitive price when I place an booking, rather, it is a Refund system to give me back the difference later. For what I read, it works like a rebate so I will pay the listing price and receive the difference. To receive an approval of price match I have to submit a claim when I book a hotel. If I want to benefit from price match when I find a lower price on other sites I have to firstly secure my booking on booking.com that is to complete my booking before I can submit a claim.
I was skeptical about how price match would work. How will I know how long booking.com respond to my claim? What if booking.com refuse my claim? I thought it was a little trouble working on price match.
The trip was one month away from now but I was tired of checking price every day on booking.com so I eventually booked the hotel on the other site at much lower rate. $40 difference for 3 nights would be $120, it is a saving!
Out of curiosity, I tested price match when I booked another hotel that is located in China Town, Bangkok. I would be staying at different cities in Thailand. It would be an experiment and I did not want to risk losing for too much difference in hotel fee. I saw a hotel on booking.com that was $12/night higher while other conditions match. I planned 3 nights at this hotel and it would be $36 difference. I had been watching this hotel for a while and booking.com did not lower the price. I placed an order on booking.com and filed a price match claim. It was 5 days before I leave for this trip, 13 days before the hotel stay date.
After I submitted the claim on 5/12, it took 5 days to receive booking.com response. 5/17 Booking.com representative replied:
Hello? You are not in time to check the price when I give you the link! It may be possible that some site have price promotion for only a week. When I saw the price, it may be on the 3rd day promotion (who knows?) and when booking.com checked the price 5 days after I found the price, the price may no longer exists. Or, like the email replied, the cheap rates are so popular and quickly booked, no more available rooms so no price shown. Oh, and, why not detail on price match claim page that submission with screen shot would facilitate the investigation...Now you say the matching price no longer exists where do I go get that screenshot? Bummer!
I checked email every day and did not see a response I thought it would take up to a week to get a reply. I was flying on 5/17 and I did not check email. I landed past midnight in Thailand and too tired to check emails until 5/18 evening. It is not impossible that someone accidentally missed or overlooked the response email and it would have already past the 24 hours after receiving the email.
Fine, I went ahead cancel my booking but I still wanted to try price match. 5/20, I was already in Thailand but 5 days prior to checking in the Chinatown hotel. I found another site that offered low price and I booked the hotel on booking.com again.
Second time I of course gave the link and added a screenshot when I submitted the claim. This time booking.com responded within 2 days, the email dated 5/22, unfortunately, I missed the email during busy bird-watching schedules in a remote lodge. I did not read the email until after I checked in Chinatown hotel.
I checked in Chinatown hotel around noon, almost 12 a.m.. After checked in, I stayed at room and took some rest, my husband went to the gym. A few minutes later, I heard someone trying to open my door. I was just feeling weird and thinking who was that, then the door was opened! I jumped out of my bed and asked 'who is it?!'. A lady looking in shock looked at me and I am sure she saw my eyes full of surprise. Two Asian ladies standing at door. While they were confused they apologized and just quietly closed the door. I could hear them murmuring and they did not leave. One minute later, knock knock again. I opened the door and a staff asked me if this was my room and I said 'Yes, I just checked in this morning!' The staff said the two ladies just checked in and got my room keys, maybe there's a mistake. He turned to the ladies and told them to check with the check in staff.
I then checked my emails. In the email booking.com customer service told me my booking had been canceled because the property didn’t receive valid credit card details by the set deadline, so nothing she could do for now. I was surprised to see such response because I just finished hotel check in.
Now I was in a puzzle and cannot help thinking what's going on. I had not been asked for payment when I checked in and I thought I was already charged through credit card. I called my husband back and we went to the front desk. We told the front desk about what just happened and she said the two ladies made a mistake. Obviously the hotel made a mistake, not the two ladies. The ladies would not have the key access if were not given by the hotel staff. We asked for the manager who dealt with our check in. The manager came and sincerely apologized for our inconvenience and ensured our right to stay, she also changed our key code to make us feel secure.
I then asked her to confirm whether we had paid and told her booking.com said my booking had been cancelled. I didn't want to take any advantage of a mistake. The manager went to pull out booking data again and turned out we had not paid so we paid there. I guess our booking price was higher than usual because the staff told us breakfast was included but I was honest to tell her that our booking did not include breakfast. We usually like to include breakfast but we wanted to explore and eat in the morning markets in Chinatown. We asked the hotel to be cautious about any check in to avoid this to happen in the future.
I always print out a booking confirmation, keep the copy with me and use it to check in. The booking confirmation surely is an evidence for room reservation but in this situation this booking is no longer valid and should have been noticed at check in. The hotel stuff should have thoroughly checked the payment status. Actually when I was in line waiting for check in it took relatively long time for them to run the paper works. I cannot believe they let this happen. We could have left with a free stay but we chose to correct it, not sure if else would do the same. The manager went on saying it's probably why the same room assigned to different groups. If we came after the two ladies would we be assigned the same room or turned away because the hotel is fully booked, or if they would find out something was wrong? I don't know. This is truly a unique experience.
In the end, I did not succeed in using price match. Price match on hotels cannot be as simple as price match in Target. For what I have experienced, I say too much trouble to do a price match. If you find a cheap price on other sites, go book the hotel at the other site, do not waste time waiting for price match approval.
A few years earlier, booking.com always gives the most competitive price and I hardly have a second thought going to another site. However, with growth of hotel booking sites booking.com seems have a hard time keep its best offer and I begin to notice other sites sometimes give much better rates.
This year when I plan a trip to Thailand, I find a difference of $40/night between booking.com and the other site. I was surprised to see this difference and I was like, let's wait a little longer, maybe booking.com would lower the price when they realize their price is set too high. I checked it every day but didn't see the drop. I saw booking.com offer "Price Match" and I was thinking, oh, maybe I could use the price match and wrap this wait and see.
I checked it further, the price match is not to match the competitive price when I place an booking, rather, it is a Refund system to give me back the difference later. For what I read, it works like a rebate so I will pay the listing price and receive the difference. To receive an approval of price match I have to submit a claim when I book a hotel. If I want to benefit from price match when I find a lower price on other sites I have to firstly secure my booking on booking.com that is to complete my booking before I can submit a claim.
I was skeptical about how price match would work. How will I know how long booking.com respond to my claim? What if booking.com refuse my claim? I thought it was a little trouble working on price match.
The trip was one month away from now but I was tired of checking price every day on booking.com so I eventually booked the hotel on the other site at much lower rate. $40 difference for 3 nights would be $120, it is a saving!
Out of curiosity, I tested price match when I booked another hotel that is located in China Town, Bangkok. I would be staying at different cities in Thailand. It would be an experiment and I did not want to risk losing for too much difference in hotel fee. I saw a hotel on booking.com that was $12/night higher while other conditions match. I planned 3 nights at this hotel and it would be $36 difference. I had been watching this hotel for a while and booking.com did not lower the price. I placed an order on booking.com and filed a price match claim. It was 5 days before I leave for this trip, 13 days before the hotel stay date.
After I submitted the claim on 5/12, it took 5 days to receive booking.com response. 5/17 Booking.com representative replied:
Thanks for contacting the Booking.com Customer Service team.
We apologized for the late respond because of large number of mails and calls.
We received your message regarding a lower price you found for your reservation.So sorry to inform you that we checked the website now and they didn't have room availability so we can't see the cheaper price you saw.
We received your message regarding a lower price you found for your reservation.So sorry to inform you that we checked the website now and they didn't have room availability so we can't see the cheaper price you saw.
We need just a little more information to investigate your Best Price Guarantee claim. Please respond within 24 hours with the following details so we can help you:
Screen shot of the price you saw:
Link or platform;
The price (including taxes, service fees):
Meals included:
Screen shot of the price you saw:
Link or platform;
The price (including taxes, service fees):
Meals included:
We await your response within the next 24 hours. (We might not be able to validate the offer after that.)
Hello? You are not in time to check the price when I give you the link! It may be possible that some site have price promotion for only a week. When I saw the price, it may be on the 3rd day promotion (who knows?) and when booking.com checked the price 5 days after I found the price, the price may no longer exists. Or, like the email replied, the cheap rates are so popular and quickly booked, no more available rooms so no price shown. Oh, and, why not detail on price match claim page that submission with screen shot would facilitate the investigation...Now you say the matching price no longer exists where do I go get that screenshot? Bummer!
I checked email every day and did not see a response I thought it would take up to a week to get a reply. I was flying on 5/17 and I did not check email. I landed past midnight in Thailand and too tired to check emails until 5/18 evening. It is not impossible that someone accidentally missed or overlooked the response email and it would have already past the 24 hours after receiving the email.
Fine, I went ahead cancel my booking but I still wanted to try price match. 5/20, I was already in Thailand but 5 days prior to checking in the Chinatown hotel. I found another site that offered low price and I booked the hotel on booking.com again.
Second time I of course gave the link and added a screenshot when I submitted the claim. This time booking.com responded within 2 days, the email dated 5/22, unfortunately, I missed the email during busy bird-watching schedules in a remote lodge. I did not read the email until after I checked in Chinatown hotel.
 |
| China Town, Bangkok, Thailand (Hotel in picture is not the hotel I stayed in) |
I checked in Chinatown hotel around noon, almost 12 a.m.. After checked in, I stayed at room and took some rest, my husband went to the gym. A few minutes later, I heard someone trying to open my door. I was just feeling weird and thinking who was that, then the door was opened! I jumped out of my bed and asked 'who is it?!'. A lady looking in shock looked at me and I am sure she saw my eyes full of surprise. Two Asian ladies standing at door. While they were confused they apologized and just quietly closed the door. I could hear them murmuring and they did not leave. One minute later, knock knock again. I opened the door and a staff asked me if this was my room and I said 'Yes, I just checked in this morning!' The staff said the two ladies just checked in and got my room keys, maybe there's a mistake. He turned to the ladies and told them to check with the check in staff.
I then checked my emails. In the email booking.com customer service told me my booking had been canceled because the property didn’t receive valid credit card details by the set deadline, so nothing she could do for now. I was surprised to see such response because I just finished hotel check in.
Now I was in a puzzle and cannot help thinking what's going on. I had not been asked for payment when I checked in and I thought I was already charged through credit card. I called my husband back and we went to the front desk. We told the front desk about what just happened and she said the two ladies made a mistake. Obviously the hotel made a mistake, not the two ladies. The ladies would not have the key access if were not given by the hotel staff. We asked for the manager who dealt with our check in. The manager came and sincerely apologized for our inconvenience and ensured our right to stay, she also changed our key code to make us feel secure.
I then asked her to confirm whether we had paid and told her booking.com said my booking had been cancelled. I didn't want to take any advantage of a mistake. The manager went to pull out booking data again and turned out we had not paid so we paid there. I guess our booking price was higher than usual because the staff told us breakfast was included but I was honest to tell her that our booking did not include breakfast. We usually like to include breakfast but we wanted to explore and eat in the morning markets in Chinatown. We asked the hotel to be cautious about any check in to avoid this to happen in the future.
I always print out a booking confirmation, keep the copy with me and use it to check in. The booking confirmation surely is an evidence for room reservation but in this situation this booking is no longer valid and should have been noticed at check in. The hotel stuff should have thoroughly checked the payment status. Actually when I was in line waiting for check in it took relatively long time for them to run the paper works. I cannot believe they let this happen. We could have left with a free stay but we chose to correct it, not sure if else would do the same. The manager went on saying it's probably why the same room assigned to different groups. If we came after the two ladies would we be assigned the same room or turned away because the hotel is fully booked, or if they would find out something was wrong? I don't know. This is truly a unique experience.
In the end, I did not succeed in using price match. Price match on hotels cannot be as simple as price match in Target. For what I have experienced, I say too much trouble to do a price match. If you find a cheap price on other sites, go book the hotel at the other site, do not waste time waiting for price match approval.
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