Arrived to accommodation with my 7 month old, only to find a building site and a so-called cancellation email from venue issued mid the day of my arrival

Good Day,

I have been a Booking.com customer for many years, however I will be reconsidering my patronage based on this booking and the terrible experience I have had.

My family (wife, mother in-law and 7 month old infant) where traveling to Nelspruit for a function , hence I went on your site and booked accommodation as I usually would.

I received confirmation of booking August 17th 23, reminder of trip received 28th August 23rd, my card was charged August 28th 23. We then set off the morning of 1st September for our destination. Upon arrival I was told that the venues reception and general manager , Ndalo Lodge - Mbombela, that they have cancelled our room due to construction and they had sent out a email, I went to my mail and see this was only received to my inbox on my check in date (1 hr before my actual arrival). This therefore was of no service or relevance as we had driven 6hrs to get to our destination already.

Keep in mind this is in 33 degree Celsius heat, with a 7 month old baby in our vehicle. I pleaded with the staff to make a solution , however upon surveying the site I realized there was indeed no solution to be made, it was a complete building site (I have images as proof), no functioning facilities i.e. pools or dining and all rooms where filled with workers. The fact that Ndalo Lodge is taking bookings is *****. You are aiding a ******** activity as they are no doubt using these funds for build.

I have therefore had to make emergency bookings elsewhere which is now costing me double my planned accommodation spend. I have all my email proof showing no warning of Ndalo Lodge booking being unavailable until day of check in as well as physical site images. I would like my refund immediately and I suggest you close their profile.