The official date of the founding of the Booking.com web service is 1996. The head office is located in Amsterdam (Netherlands). Currently, more than 15,000 people work in the company’s branches. In the structure of the enterprise there are almost two hundred representative offices located in seventy countries.
Mission
The main task of the service is to facilitate self-planning and travel organization. For the convenience of users from different parts of the world, national localizations have been created. There is a version of Booking.com in Russian.
At the disposal of travelers tens of thousands of hotel offers and excursions. Information about them has been translated into forty languages. The database of the site contains information about accommodation facilities in 227 countries.
Achievements
According to statistics, daily the service records more than one and a half million booking facts. A wide selection of accommodation is provided not only for idle tourists, but also for those traveling on business. Booking.com discounts guarantee the lowest prices.
Honest business
No hidden fees or surcharges. All conditions are very clearly and clearly reflected in the object card. The site guarantees a minimum price offer. Find cheaper, the service will return the difference. You can subscribe to the newsletter and receive the latest information on Booking.com discounts and promotions.
First meeting
On the main page of the site is a quick search form for accommodation options. In a few seconds, the system will provide comprehensive information. The selection meets the requirements specified by the user in the corresponding lines of the questionnaire:
- the name of the object or place;
- Arrival date
- departure date;
- number of travelers;
- information about children;
- number of rooms.
The tourist indicates the purpose of his trip, and also indicates the need for funds to accommodate persons with disabilities. After filling in all the data, click the "Check Prices" button. Booking.com's online hotel reservation system provides discounts to registered users.
Hotel selection
After loading the page with the selection, the traveler gets the opportunity to filter the results. The following settings for displaying query results are available:
- our recommendations;
- lowest price at the beginning;
- ratings, reviews and price;
- stars;
- Genius
- distance from the city center;
- rating on reviews.
Bestsellers are marked with special badges. The best deals are highlighted in blue. The object card contains information about the location, services, cost, general assessment. Booking.com's online hotel reservation and hotel search system has a variety of settings. They are grouped on the left side of the page with the selection results.
Criteria
You can filter the selection results in accordance with a number of requirements:
- budget;
- recommendations;
- location;
- number of stars;
- entertainment and leisure;
- seat availability;
- Special offers;
- discounts;
- availability of a 24-hour reception;
- booking conditions;
- beach;
- nutrition;
- type of allocation;
- attractions;
- type of bed;
- facilities.
If you wish, you can see the search results on the map. It clearly illustrates the placement of all objects. If the number of options found in the search list is small, the system automatically offers an alternative. All Booking.com hotels contain the number of recent bookings. As well as availability.
Bonuses to partners
Experienced travelers regularly use the site to pay for and book hotel rooms. In addition to the obvious benefits and convenience of remote booking, they also get the opportunity to save money on their trip. It's about cashback. The site actively encourages those users who attract new customers.
To return the full cost of one night in the selected hotel, you need to find a friend who is registered in the service and has already made at least one reservation. He must copy the link to the offer you are interested in, and then place it as an invitation link and send it to you.
After receiving it, you go through it to the page of the desired guest house in booking.com. It is necessary to bring the payment procedure of the selected hotel to the very end. Be sure to check for a message that the system will give you a bonus. It is important!
If you have questions, they should be immediately asked to the customer support staff via chat or e-mail. If everything went well, then in a couple of days each of the participants in the transaction, you and your friend, will receive 50% of the payment amount. So, if it was a question of paying 2,000 rubles for a hotel reservation transaction on www.booking.com, then the bank account of each party will be replenished by 1,000 rubles.
The service does not offer any long-term bonuses. All funds are credited almost instantly and are not virtual. If you continue to work with the site, you can earn a pretty decent amount. To do this, send your friends and acquaintances affiliate links to the pages of their chosen hotels. As a result, everyone will receive a reward, and you will save on vacation.
Tricks
Another way to earn money for your upcoming trip is to use the bonus programs of Booking.com. Confirmations of premium transactions appear in the user's account immediately.
The most popular among tourists is the offer to pay 16,000 rubles for accommodation in one of the affordable hotels and get a cashback of 6,000 rubles. Be careful, you can use such programs only once.
Existing bonus promotions:
- "Cashback 10% on any booking."
- "We return 1,000 to the card when paying 2,000 rubles."
- “For reservations worth over 2,400 cashback 900 rubles.”
Advertising
Often, in the descriptions of hotels, tourists see messages that at the hotel you can order a delicious and hearty breakfast at low prices. Experienced tourists recommend not paying attention to such promises. This is an ordinary advertisement that may have nothing to do with reality. In this case, there is no need to overpay for the choice on Booking.com “Apartment with breakfasts”. Usually, a huge number of cafes and eateries are concentrated near hotels, the prices are lower, and the food is tastier.
Better study the information regarding the availability and cost of connecting to the Internet, the exact location of the selected facility, the functioning of the pool and other useful options that are included in the price. Everything else can be ordered on site after a personal acquaintance with the hotel and the services offered, including breakfast.
Taxes
Sometimes when booking a hotel, information about local fees is not obvious. Tourists will be able to find out the final cost of accommodation only in the hotel itself, since no one knows the exact amount of taxes. Their maximum value can reach as much as 100% of the cost of rest. If you believe the reviews on Booking.com, then travelers regularly encounter the following types of taxes:
- tourist tax;
- city payout.
So, in Venice you need to pay 350 rubles for one day in the city, in Paris - 210 rubles, in Berlin - 5% of the total cost of hotel accommodation. In New York, this figure reaches 15%. Plus, guests of the metropolis need to pay a city tax. Its value is 240 rubles in one night. In some places, judging by the reviews on Booking.com, there are additional fees for children's stay. For example, in Berlin.
Car parking
Pointing out the advantages of the hotel, site programmers do not pay due attention to trifles. In this case, we are talking about parking for cars. Travelers who drive a rented or personal car are disappointed with this service approach. Due to their own carelessness, they incur additional costs.
It turns out that the management of the service does not advertise services that can increase the cost of living in a hotel, thereby fulfilling its promises of the lowest price. According to users, the site intentionally misleads its customers. So, the price of living in Paris can be 1,500 rubles, and placing a car in a private parking lot is 2,300 rubles. A lot of negative reviews about Booking.com are connected with this moment.
Paid car parking is far from the only controversial aspect. This includes storing things in an electronic safe, drying ski equipment in a specialized room, and using bath accessories. At the same time, the mention of a free travel card, as well as other additional services, for some reason is not displayed. As a result, information about the hotel is not complete enough.
Do not hurry
Often when viewing a sample proposed by the system, the client sees messages stating that the rooms in the hotel are being actively bought up. Booking.com reviews say it’s a well-known and efficient way to manipulate users. It is especially productive during the bulk booking period. For example, on the eve of summer holidays or on holidays.
If you have succumbed to the tricks of the programmers from Booking.com, the telephone of the accommodation will come in handy. Do not be lazy and call the owner of the hotel. In most cases, it turns out that there are plenty of free rooms. Similar messages generated by the site are a common advertising trick that marketers have adopted.
Discounts
Users often catch the site in guile. Promised discounts are not true. Information about them is presented in the form of crossed out old prices and new values indicated in green. This is a common service practice. Be sure, if you open the same page tomorrow, the global discount will still be valid.
Currency Conversion
To go on a trip and not go broke, you need to carefully study the terms of payment. The conversion of the ruble exchange rate can be made in different ways and depends on a mass of factors:
- type of bank card;
- terms of sale of US dollars or euros to a specific credit institution;
- time interval between booking and actual payment.
Have a question? Calling Booking.com will not work in this case. Contact the bank that issued and services your payment card. Otherwise, the error may exceed 10%. Doubt it? Pay for accommodation and hotel services on site in cash in the national currency of the host country.
Unauthorized withdrawal
It is not necessary to enter the data of a valid bank card when making an early reservation. In reviews, travelers write that they often encounter cases of unauthorized access to their personal account. Usually on the website there is information that the payment will be made on the spot, and in fact the money is debited from the specified card.
At this point, many travelers pay attention. To cancel an unauthorized transaction, you need to contact your bank, and then the technical support service. Usually, site employees politely apologize and refer to a solvency check.
Positive reviews
Travelers all over the world have appreciated the convenience of Booking.com. They pay attention to the huge number of options available remotely:
- low prices;
- actual information;
- reliable description of the hotel;
- the ability to select additional options;
- advance booking;
- lack of penalties in case of early refusal;
- friendly support service;
- round-the-clock service work;
- the presence of language localizations;
- discounts;
- partnership programs;
- bonuses;
- cashback system.
Negative moments
As mentioned above, a lot of travelers are unhappy with the experience of working with the service. They accuse the site of providing false information and intentionally misleading customers. Here is just a short list of complaints from users regarding the website’s management:
- an abundance of advertising;
- large error in currency conversion;
- the imposition of additional services;
- spamming;
- Concealment of information regarding additional fees and local taxes;
- unauthorized transactions;
- providing bank card information to third parties;
- slow response to customer requests.
Service Secrets
The site management declares that all its services are completely free for end users. In fact this is not true. The service charges a fee from the owners of accommodation facilities that are presented on the pages of the "Booking". It turns out that this amount is included by the hotel owners in the cost of living. As a result, the service is paid by both parties.
Hoteliers say that "Booking" takes twenty percent. By contacting the hotel directly, you can save this amount. Therefore, many experienced and economical tourists use the service only as a convenient base for finding hotels. The site does an excellent job with this feature. It allows you to track price trends, set reminders and receive notifications. Everything is completely free.