When Jeff Wickstead’s vacation rental manager demanded that he cancel his Booking.com reservation in London, he had every reason to believe he’d get his money back. But he didn’t — and now he’s not sure what to do.
Is his $730 lost?
“I feel like the rental manager is possibly scamming me, and I’m being unfairly punished for bringing this to Booking.com’s attention,” he says.
Wait a sec. How did this go from being a denied refund case to an outright scam? I’ll explain in a minute.
Wickstead’s case raises a few questions:
- Can a hotel or vacation rental manager force you to cancel your booking on Booking.com?
- What are your rights when a hotel or vacation rental manager cancels your stay?
- What should you do if you’re asked to cancel your reservation?
We’ll also figure out what went wrong with Wickstead’s rental. First, let’s find out what happened to him in London.
“They told me to cancel”
When Wickstead booked a luxury one-bedroom apartment near St. Paul’s Cathedral through Booking.com, he thought he was getting a good deal. But a few weeks before his trip, the property owner contacted him on WhatsApp.
Apparently, the deal was too good.
“Our cost is minimum £240-250 per night but the platform has an error,” it said. “And [they] have given you too much discount that we small business owners can’t afford.”
The owner asked Wickstead to cancel his Booking.com reservation and book directly through them.
“So we’re afraid we would need you to cancel or you can just pay the reservation price of £1,790 but booking it directly with us, as the platform is getting a 20 percent [commission] from the reservation price and would offer big discounts,” it said.
Something seemed fishy about the request. Booking.com doesn’t allow its properties to contact guests directly to renegotiate a rate.
Wickstead contacted Booking.com and explained the situation. A representative told him the property was going to be investigated and that he should cancel his reservation and rebook.
“Booking.com’s customer service agents told me during two separate phone calls that Booking.com would refund me the price difference if there was one, which was their policy,” he says.
So he canceled the reservation and booked a new apartment. But when he emailed Booking.com with his receipts, he received a series of generic responses.
Is Booking.com ignoring him?
Wickstead says Booking.com is giving him the runaround. He says he sent the company several messages, but it has only responded with a vague request for a screenshot.
“I didn’t know what screenshot they were referring to,” he says.
Booking.com then emailed him a form for disputing a charge with a property. But Wickstead wasn’t trying to dispute a charge; he was requesting a refund from Booking.com.
“It’s as if they either have not bothered to look at any of the history of my phone calls to them so they don’t know what I am requesting or, considering how they are dragging this out, are sending me the wrong form on purpose so that they can reject my claim and hope that I just go away,” he says.
A review of Wickstead’s paper trail suggests Booking.com had outsourced its basic customer service functions to an AI bot. It sent him a series of increasingly tone-deaf responses to his questions. No human would have made such a mistake.
Wickstead was stuck. So he turned to our consumer advocacy team for help.
And the first thing we asked was: How is this possible?
Can a hotel or vacation rental manager force you to cancel your booking on Booking.com?
Hotels and vacation rentals are increasingly pressuring guests to cancel their third-party reservations and rebook directly.
The practice, which primarily affects bookings made through sites like Booking.com, Expedia, and Hotels.com, has raised concerns among consumer advocates and sparked debate about its legality.
There should be no debate. Asking a guest to cancel is a clear violation of the contract between the hotel and the booking site.
So why are hotels and vacation rentals asking? Properties typically pay commissions of between 15 and 30 percent to online travel agencies. Direct bookings allow hotels to collect guest data for marketing, and hotels may even be able to lower their rates and pass some of the savings along to the guest.
Bottom line: You don’t have to cancel your room and rebook directly. In fact, Wickstead did the right thing: Always report a suspicious request directly to the booking platform.
There’s a chance the hotel or vacation rental will then cancel your stay. So what happens then?
What are your rights when a hotel or vacation rental cancels your stay?
Booking.com’s lengthy terms of service don’t specifically address a cancellation — or a requested cancellation — by a hotel or vacation rental.
But there are numerous consumer protection laws and state and federal statutes that protect you when you enter a contract with a company like Booking.com. Both the booking platform and the hotel have a responsibility to provide you with the accommodations you reserved.
Here’s what hotels or vacation rentals generally must do:
- Refund your stay immediately. Properties can’t legally charge you if you aren’t the one who canceled. If you paid in advance, you’re entitled to an immediate refund.
- Provide you with alternate accommodations. In the hotel industry, that’s called “walking” — as in, you’re being walked to a different property. Often, a hotel will also cover your first night’s accommodations.
- Compensation for a price difference. If your new hotel or vacation rental is more expensive, as in Wickstead’s case, the property will often compensate you for the price difference.
Most consumers don’t realize they have these rights, so they take whatever the hotel or booking platform offers. Some are just grateful to get their original prepaid amount refunded so they can book another property. But don’t let the company off the hook. It can’t just take your money and leave you hanging.
What should you do if you’re asked to cancel your reservation?
A WhatsApp message asking you to cancel your apartment is an enormous red flag. You should contact the booking platform right away to get it sorted out.
Still, cancellations can happen for all kinds of other reasons — maintenance issues, overbooking, or property sales. What should you do if it happens to you?
- Collect your evidence. Screenshot your original confirmation as soon as you receive it, including the rate, dates and cancellation policy. And if someone informs you of a cancellation, record the date and time, as well as the name of the person who called you. Be sure to request written confirmation of the cancellation by email – don’t accept a phone-only cancellation. And save all communication with the property, including chat logs and text messages. Keep detailed notes of every conversation.
- Demand your rights. At a minimum, you should get a full refund of any prepaid amounts, which should be processed immediately, not in 5 to 7 business days.
- Find a better place. The hotel, vacation rental or booking platform should also provide you with a written explanation of why they’re canceling and find you alternative accommodations of equal or better quality. Ideally, the company would rebook you and cover your expenses, without you having to spend more money.
These strategies usually work, but sometimes you need to move things along. An appeal to one of our executive contacts or to a consumer advocate can get things moving in the right direction.
So what happened to Wickstead’s refund?
By the time I got involved in Wickstead’s case, almost two months had passed since the incident. I contacted Booking.com on his behalf.
A representative responded to me and said that Booking.com reviewed the case and that it had supported Wickstead in securing a successful reservation after “complications” with the original bookings.
“Additionally, Booking.com has refunded the guest the difference of the initial booking, given the inconvenience caused,” the representative said.
Wickstead contacted me shortly after that with an update.
“Booking.com contacted me last week and offered me a refund and an apology,” he told me. “The refund was in the form of a travel credit using their travel wallet on the Booking.com app. I requested a transfer from the wallet back to my credit card, which they approved. It finally arrived as a credit on my credit card yesterday. I can’t believe they actually did it.”
Wickstead says he’s thankful for the assistance.
“I would never have received a refund, let alone an apology, without your help,” he added. “They had tried every tactic to avoid helping me out until you stepped in.”
