Booking.com stalling over customer refund for room in permanently closed hotel

We have another story about Booking.com’s phantom bookings and hotels that are listed on the platform despite no longer being available. A reader named Mark travelled to London recently and booked a hotel via Booking.com. Things did not go according to plan. On August 4th, Mark booked the Park Grand Paddington Hotel for three nights at a cost of just under €400. The money left his account and went in the direction of Booking.com a day later. “However, the evening before travel on Monday, August 10th, as I was doing final checks, I noticed, with alarm, that the hotel I booked was listed as ‘permanently closed’ on Google Maps and that it had been removed from the website of its family hotel group.”READ MOREIn a bit of a flap – understandably – Mark urgently emailed both Booking.com and also the hotel group seeking clarification and advice, as he was due to travel the following day. “I received no response that evening,” he says. “I also rang Booking.com and the hotel, and got no answer.” With little option, he says, he went in search of another place to stay and booked and paid for another hotel in the English capital. “I made numerous attempts to phone and email Booking.com and the hotel group on that Tuesday to Thursday, but I only got automated responses or an AI-type phone operator, [which] did not sort out my issue,” he says.Eventually, he heard from the new owners of the hotel he had originally booked, and they told him the Park Grand Paddington Court Hotel had indeed closed and had changed ownership.He then heard from the hotel group and says they accepted “full responsibility [for the mix-up] and that they had already approved a full refund”.That might well have been that. Only it wasn’t.“I have contacted Booking.com on numerous occasions via their customer helpline, and they accept that I am owed a full refund – however, they say they need time to engage with the ‘partner hotel’,” he says. He says he was “verbally told over the phone to expect the refund by the weekend of August 28th and subsequently on September 4th. Both dates elapsed without receiving a refund. I felt these promises were made to get me off the phone.”He says he told Booking.com they were the company he made the booking with and were the company he had the contract with, so he expects the refund to come from them.“As you can imagine, the entire experience was and is still extremely stressful, particularly so as I was travelling with an elderly relation who I didn’t want to burden with the details of having to book entirely separate accommodation at short notice, literally the night before travel, essentially paying on the double,” he says. “I have provided Booking.com ample opportunity and time to refund me the €399.85. At this point I am beyond frustrated with Booking.com and its efforts at customer service.”We contacted Booking.com, and while we were waiting to hear back from the platform – and we were left waiting a long time – Mark got in touch.He said that after we had made contact with Booking.com and supplied it with details of his phantom booking, he got the following message. “We are writing to confirm that your refund of €399.85 for [the] reservation has now been issued as cashable credit," he was told. “We sincerely apologise for the delay and for the inconvenience caused while you were waiting for the refund. We understand how frustrating this must have been, particularly given the circumstances surrounding your accommodation. Thank you for your patience and understanding.”