BE WARNED!! BOOKING.COM OVERRIDES PAYMENT AND BOOKING POLICIES SET BY A LISTED BUSINESS.

This is how the booking.com system operates: 1) When a customer makes a booking, Booking.com blocks rooms on the calendar of a business accommodation listing. 2) Booking.com shows the owner of the listing on their reservation page under 'status' that the payment is 'OK - paid online'. The owner is reassured that the customer has confirmed the booking by advance payment in alignment with the establishment's booking policy. This booking is honoured by the establishment and the rooms kept for the customer according to the contract between Booking.com and itself. 3) 15 days before the customer's arrival date, the Booking.com system (not the customer) cancels the booking, citing that the customer did not make payment for the booking. The owner of the establishment receives zero funds. When these ongoing incidents were queried along with 10 other cancellations in the peak tourism month of December with several of the bookings made as far back as 5 months previously, Booking.com cited either automatic cancellation by the system because the customer did not pay (despite the system message clearly indicating to the establishment that the payment was OK and made online on the date of booking) or in other cases, that the establishment mysteriously has a policy in place that allows free cancellation at any time enabled by Booking.com smart flex reservations; despite the establishment clearly conveying to Booking.com on 7 October 2023 and again on 27 October 2023 that they want nothing to do with Booking.com's new smart flex reservation system. The establishment contacted Booking.com repeatedly via phone calls and messages about these cancellations that both dishonour and override the booking payment policy as well as the cancellation policy of the establishment. Booking.com’s response was that sometimes they take payments and sometimes they don’t at the time of customer booking (ignoring the establishment’s advance payment policy) and when they don’t take payment, they don’t advise the establishment that the booking is not confirmed, nor do they take the booking off the calendar of the establishment. They leave the unconfirmed booking blocking rooms on the establishment’s calendar and then cancel them at the last minute with no funds going to the establishment. In other cases, when Booking.com takes payments from customers at the time of booking (seems to be random) Booking.com sits with the funds for several months gaining interest in their account and when the system cancels the booking at the last minute, Booking.com has gained interest on the booking fees, paid the customer a 100% refund and the establishment gets ZERO FUNDS.