Review of Booking.com


For those of you not acquainted with the website Booking.com it is a reservation service for hotels, apartments, etc. in many countries.  It’s website boasts the availability of 1,933,421 hotels worldwide.   

I have been abused at the hands of this website in several countries over the years.  I have sat on a curb outside an apartment in Hungary for hours only to be rescued by a couple who lived across the street and called the landlord to come let me in.  Ditto for nightmares in Southeast Asia, and other countries.

My most recent experience in Andorra should have been a vignette in the movie ‘Brazil’.  The condo owner was emailing me (I think in Catalan) that the key was at a certain location.  It turned out to be a car dealership across from a roundabout. The Google pin showing the location was stuck at the edge of the roundabout.  Further the address was ‘no address on the building' or some such words.  That fiasco turned out to be a two hour waste of time and endless frustration!  I only got the key and the location of the condo after a young lady took me in tow and had several phone conversations with the condo owner.

The process of getting a room with Booking.com starts out well.  You peruse available rooms on the website in a location for the dates you specify.  Many are rated by those who have stayed there.  But this can be a bit problematic.  Take the sylvan place in one country I booked.  It got a high marks for being new, lovely, etc.  However, there were no restaurants within miles and it could only be reached by infrequent bus service. By the time it got 10 for one or two items and a couple of fives for others the resulting weighted score looked pretty good – which it really wasn’t.  That being said, most of the scores to my mind seem fair. 

But here is the bone I have to pick with them.  By the way it is the femur, which you premed students know is the largest one in the body.

You type in where you want to stay and the dates.  Up comes a list of available properties.  You select one.  After all, its photos look good, the location looks great, it has the amenities you want, the price is right, and you book it.  You get an immediate confirmation email from Booking.com. all in English.  All is well.  But…..

The next email you get is from the property or a person who is renting out the condo, etc.  It is all in Magyar, or some other language you don’t have a clue about.  For all you know, the email says the property is really owned by an Arab prince and he is thanking you for gaining access to your credit card number.

Rounds of emails ensue with futile attempts to understand or be understood.  It seems that Google Translate, or any other app which translates one language into another is an abysmal failure for this purpose.  How on earth does it work so well when Google translates a whole web page in a foreign language into English in a nanosecond?

I am currently booked through Booking.com into an apartment in Saint-Lary-Soulan in the south of France for five nights.  I have received no less than five emails, all in French, from this property.  For all I know they could be giving me frequent updates about the fire ravaging the complex.  Who knows, maybe that fifth email says to bring marshmallows.

Booking.com should change its name to Stupid.com.  Good grief guys get on the stick and use some sort of translating software!  You have had the last of my business.

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