The worst customer service for hosts - Booking.con

I am a host and have my cottage on Booking.com. The customer service toward hosts, is absolutely appalling lately.

Whenever I contact them, I get the SAME computerised reply that ends in “Whenever you need us, we’re always here for you”! What a joke. The same reply, regardless of the query.

When we started out, we had actual people respond to queries, but this is no longer the case.

Firstly, they add a nonsensical “10% City Tax” to the booking, that the guest doesn’t see unless they click on a tiny link. Most guests refuse to post this, which means we end up paying it. Considering Booking.com chargers almost 20% commission of Turnover, and randomly offers guests up to 22% discount, in the end the amount to the host, is less than 50 % of the profit.

The first time a guest refused to pay the extra fees, Booking.Com sorted it out on our behalf. Now we just get the same condescending Standard reply about how Booking.Com is sorry that we have experienced it and they are always there for us when we need them!!

Our real nightmare happened on the last weekend of October 2022. We had absolutely terrible guests, who broke every rule and decency.

They arrived 4 hours after check in at 23:00, drunk. Our cottage is on a smallholding out of town, and we had to go let a group of strangers onto our property, which is a high risk at his age.

They drank heavily all Saturday, littered alcohol bottles, packaging and food rests all over the pool area and gardens.

They unplugged the bar fridge at the lapa and took the lead to the cottage. They stole drinks from the bar.

We have the cottage on solar power and explained that loadshedding won’t affect them, but they just can’t use multiple appliances at the same time. They opened all cupboards, found the heaters for winter and the electric blankets and plugged them in.

When the solar tripped at 23:30, my husband checked on them and found 2 additional cars on our property - they had let 6 additional guests into the property. They were drinking, they had strewn even children’s board games around, dirty plates were on the floor. They moved furniture and lamps out onto the veranda and one lady was sitting wrapped in a plugged-in electrical blanket.

My husband gave the additional people 30 minutes to leave and threatened to call the police.

At midnight we checked on them and all but the original guest was there, in tears, apologising etc. We comforted her and my husband locked the main gate. We reported the misbehaviour to Booking.com and received the standard “We are here for you” reply.

At 6 am she messaged and said her husband is on his way to fetch her, we must please unlock the gate. We did and a completely new person arrived in yet another car. They didn’t leave, but the man joined her in the cottage and we went at 10:30 and told them to leave as check out is at 10:00. The cottage was completely trashed and the solar system broken.

I’ve had to block out all prime season dates, to get the cottage and solar repaired and we were frankly quite traumatised. We did not want to rush guests like that again.

On the 13th of December, we get a 5/10 review from this guest stating that the cottage was lovely, but my husband was walking around with a big scary gun! Bear in mind it is a smallholding, under the circumstances mentioned, a person carrying a licences firearm is not an unusual occurrence in South Africa.

I told Booking.com, the review is unfair. These guests should not be allowed to review after they broke every rule and misbehaved as they did. In the past, if a guest refused to pay their silly “City Tax” they marked them as having misbehaved and did not allow them to leave a review.

I sent Booking.com photos and details of the situation, they were fully aware of the nightmare experience, yet allowed the guest to review us. We have a 9,4 score from 28 reviews, it is clear that this review is malicious.

Since I’ve been trying to get the review removed, all I’m getting is the standard: Whenever you need us, we’re here for you.