Gold diggers- Booking.com and Exclusive Holiday Homes & Property Management

Booking.com / Exclusive Holiday Homes and Property Management.

I booked a holiday on Booking.com and paid R42,688.00 immediately as the full payment amount was required for accommodation checking in this Thursday 15 Dec out 23 Dec 2022.

I also paid an additional R2,000.00 breakage deposit to the agent, Sharon, from Exclusive holiday homes a week before we should have checked in, on Friday 9 Dec. Payment went through twice so she has a R4,000.00 breakage deposit amount which needs to be refunded to me. When this will be done she also hasn’t answered me. Strange how your money gets taken immediately but refunds hardly ever get done within a timeous manner.

With regards to the current state of E.coli bacteria within most parts of Kwazulu-Natal’s coastal areas and in the water used for domestic purposes I felt it necessary that booking.com should at least add a disclosure with regards to this before clients make bookings within those areas. Nevertheless the agent, Sharon, was also well aware of this without disclosing this at all only until I brought it up this morning.

I am currently 22 weeks pregnant and have a 21 month old toddler, so I am automatically at a higher risk should I get the bacterial infection. I only wanted to go on December holiday in peace with my family before our other baby arrives. To take my daughter to the ocean for her first time and share valuable, quality family time together. Also we got pregnant via IVF so I am automatically a higher risk pregnancy. I’m not saying this for anyone to pity me I’m mentioning my current medical condition and the processes I had to follow to get here.

On Sunday evening (last night) I saw numerous posts on social media groups regarding the current E.coli status and the health risks. People posting their struggles with recovery and children in hospitals for days which was extremely concerning considering my current situation. It’s not a health risk I am willing to take.

I made contact with the agent this morning first thing and booking.com regarding the situation and that I am very concerned for our health. I struggled for hours to eventually find a contact number for booking.com as their turnaround time of 24 hours is non existent. I’m still waiting for an invoice I asked for last week Friday.

Sharon wasn’t helpful either and only worsened the situation, sending me contact numbers which don’t exist and automatically go through to voice mail, claiming that everyone apparently knows about the E.coli situation and didn’t feel like they are responsible at all in any way for infoming clients about the bacteria in the area. According to her and the owner of the property in Zimbali, there isn’t any trace of E.coli in the water within the estate area or Ballito beaches. However that isn’t what the statistics show that are posted weekly on numerous social media platforms. And what they fail to completely understand is I am pregnant.

According to Sharon booking.com hasn’t paid them for the accommodation as I paid booking.com directly. According to booking.com they can’t refund me as the property owner needs to make the call if I can get a full refund or not. I’m very confused as to how this works, considering my payment was made directly to booking.com so they should make the call to refund me.

I have been fighting the whole day just for Sharon to tell me that they are only willing to refund me 50% of my money back. A loss of more than R21,000.00 for us.

These people don’t care about the health or well-being of other people it’s clearly only about the money to them. Their level of understanding fathoms me.

The manner in which Sharon spoke to me, ignoring me for hours, finding excuses for not getting back to me, dropping the phone in my ear numerous times, telling me how they will also be seeking legal advise (on what grounds I don’t know) is sickening. I asked numerous times to speak to the property owner himself, as to which they agreed that he will only call me tomorrow. Absolutely no responsibility is taken from booking.com’s side either they just pass the buck.

I won’t leave this matter here. I will name and shame these companies/people for dealing *********ly and for exploitation. That the risks involved of a pregnant woman getting E.coli, witch can even be transmitted through even a scab wound on the skin, and possibly loosing a child doesn’t seem to bother them too much. The money is clearly more important.

How would we bath/shower/brush teeth considering the risks involved? Do I have to go buy clean water also, just another expense I’d have to incur. How do I prevent my toddler from getting in contact with any water at all? These are basic expectations that I shouldn’t have to be worrying about.

We are going to the ocean for a reason to swim in the sea and play on the beach with her. I don’t even know if the swimming pool’s water is really safe? What type of holiday would this be… it wouldn’t be fun at all. Being stuck with the mindset of ‘not doing anything water-wise’ isn’t reasonable to expect from anyone.

They can’t give me any guarantees, I even went as far as to ask that íf we should get infected would they cover/pay the medical bills. But to these questions no answers were given.

Not informing your customers of health risks beforehand, being dishonest about current environmental situations that could seriously affect someone’s health and assuming everyone just magically knows is ridiculous.

I would NEVER have made a booking where I willingly knew that my unborn child’s life could be at a severe risk and that they could die.

You people disgust me, your shallow and ********* way of doing business is appalling and your greed is atrocious. I hope this message gets conveyed far and wide and I will never do business with you again.