We booked a two-bedroom apartment in Birkenhead for a few days in June using Booking.com.
Despite several attempts to contact the property owner and ask how to access the flat, we never received those details.
All calls went to voicemail, and a text was ignored.
When we arrived, we could not gain access and were forced to make alternative arrangements.
Now Booking.com won’t refund us the extra we had to pay. Please help.
M.C., Cardiff.
Barred: A reader and their friend, both in their 70s, were denied access to the flat they’d booked and paid for through Booking.com
Sally Hamilton replies: What a nightmare, turning up at a booked property and not being able to get in.
You tried the doorbells of three other flats in the same building but did not manage to raise a soul. You phoned the owner’s number yet again, but were met with silence. This was clearly a dodgy host.
You and your friend – you are both in your 70s – were not amused at having to decamp to a nearby Travelodge for the night and then to a Premier Inn for the remainder of your trip.
You paid a total of £563 over the period. You made at least ten calls to Booking.com and were promised a refund of £293 for the apartment, and £270 for the alternative accommodation.
When no money was credited, you raised a chargeback on your Lloyds Bank credit card.
Chargeback is a consumer protection offered voluntarily by banks that allows customers who pay for a product or service they didn’t receive to dispute the payment.
Lloyds reimbursed you, but to your shock, Booking.com challenged the chargeback and demanded you provide evidence that you couldn’t get into the property.
You forwarded photos of the closed-up property, plus screenshot evidence of the calls and text to the owner.
This seemed to do the trick and in early October you were told you could keep the £293 booking refund. But you heard nothing about the extra £270 for the alternative accommodation.
A few days after I contacted Booking.com on your behalf, the money finally arrived in your account.
A spokesman says: ‘We apologise for the delay in issuing the refund for the price difference. We can confirm that the property is no longer listed on our platform.’
It is good news that this accommodation is no longer advertised. But another frustrated Booking.com customer says the apartment where he had a ghastly stay in Rome last year is still advertised, albeit under a new name.
He and his partner arrived there for a long weekend last summer, only to be allocated a different property in the building than the one advertised.
Arriving late at night, they were too tired to make a fuss. But a noisy water pump on their balcony kept them awake for hours.
Issues continued the next day, with the shower gel giving off a smell of rotten eggs – a stench that penetrated the whole apartment. They tried to report their issues to the host over the weekend but got no response.
The final straw came on their last day. Returning to their apartment at around 8pm, they found the host had let herself in and taken their pillows and blanket, leaving them with only a sheet on the bed.
They phoned Booking.com customer service to complain. Staff said they’d sort things out when the couple returned to the UK.
However, as they were checking out, the owner (who turned out to have lived next door in the same building) appeared, and said she never looked at the Booking.com website over the weekend and so hadn’t seen their messages. Really? Not very professional.
On their return to the UK, they demanded their money back from Booking.com, providing videos and photos to back up the claim.
After much toing and froing, the company ended up offering a measly £30 goodwill payment. I felt Booking.com should do more to compensate them.
I asked it to think again. It came back with some good news. A spokesman says: ‘While the host is responsible for ensuring that the stay meets the expectations of the customer and declined to offer a refund when asked, we have made an exception and offered a gesture of goodwill. We will also be giving the host feedback for future stays.’
Nationwide blocked my payment to the Philippines
After typhoons struck the Philippines recently, I offered to help my friends there by making a payment from my Nationwide account to the international money transfer service Western Union.
I received a call from Nationwide asking for some intrusive details as to my reasons for making the transfer.
I stated that I had known these friends for about 30 years, and that I had offered them help rather than them requesting it.
Despite this, the building society blocked the payment, restricted my account and sent a form for me to complete.
This was even more intrusive, asking for a photo of the recipients holding their identification documents, and copies of email exchanges between us.
A.B., Birmingham.
Sally Hamilton replies: You were astounded that Nationwide refused to lift the restriction until you supplied reams of information.
What irritated you most was that you had been making payments to these friends at least once a year for many years, without any issue.
You also make transfers to other countries relatively routinely, so your payment was not unusual.
In the end, you gave up on Nationwide and made the transfer another way, but you asked me to intervene as you needed the restriction lifted.
I asked Nationwide to get it sorted, which it quickly did, although you had to provide less-probing information. Once the money was freed up, you switched your account.
A spokesman says: ‘It is our duty to protect our customers and part of this process is asking about the nature of flagged or unusual payments.’
It is frustrating to face such hurdles, but banks and building societies are legally obliged to meet strict money laundering regulations and protect their customers against fraud risk.
I suspect Nationwide was particularly vigilant with you because of its own past failings.
Watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority only last month fined Nationwide £44 million for providing inadequate anti-financial crime systems and controls between October 2016 and July 2021.
When this was announced Nationwide said it had spotted the issues and brought them to the attention of the FCA.
- Write to Sally Hamilton at Sally Sorts It, Money Mail, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT or email sally@dailymail.co.uk ¿ include phone number, address and a note addressed to the offending organisation giving them permission to talk to Sally Hamilton. Please do not send original documents as we cannot take responsibility for them. No legal responsibility can be accepted by the Daily Mail for answers given.