Pathetic service and no accountability

I did a booking and received confirmation nr. Payment was scheduled to happen at the property according to confirmation. Then I received cancelation day before stay because property is closed. I phoned the property to be told by owner that booking was canceled because payment did not go through. And according to cancelation somebody tried several times to contact me. I checked my account details again and phone nr is correct. Did not receive any call. To secure the booking I had to make direct payment to property plus a R2000 breakage deposit. Money went out of my account the next day and since then the phone nr is no longer in use. I have obviously been ****ed and I had to book another property for the weekend. The only reason I paid the owner directly was because the initial booking was through booking.com and I have always been under the impression that all properties on booking.com are legit.