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Comment by DrNosferatu | Hacker News Reader

Booking.com is a de facto monopoly - break it up!

Turkey banned booking.com for this reason, and while in turkey booking.com tells you: you cannot book from this country (so you need a VPN)

Then I know in Greece the booking.com commission is about 20%.... which is a lot! In Argentina it was (5 years ago) much lower due to availability of several other platform, so yes being the only provider is not a good thing

Btw I love booking.com: I still remember the scams in Venice until the internet popped up with reviews, and I really appreciate platform that helps who works very good: I met owners that told me: "yes, it costs, but I get customers as soon as I provide a great service"

I dislike airbnb as other have written: poor customers service when you tell them a host try to scam.

I've just talked to a host: he says the commission is variable where the more you pay the more they promote

My point is that there is no practical alternative to using booking.com for hotels, and therefore they treat costumers as they please (very bad - during and after the sale) and charge whatever they want (very high). It should be “the free market” driving price formation and market share. Clearly, this isn’t happening here anymore.

But like the Covid vaccine purchase fiasco, EU regulators will just sit idle cozying up to big business instead of standing for the interests of their citizens.

The fact that a project like the OP even exists is screaming proof of what I’m saying: if booking.com wasn’t indeed operating as a monopoly, wouldn’t the “free market” drive out the use of Booking’s notorious stress / bullying sales practices?

I have not yet had to try Airbnb's support for host scam, but unfortunately I am now in a situation with a scam host on Booking.com. Some time after booking and paying for the apartment in NYC, the host disappeared, they removed the listing, don't answer emails/phones/etc. I've been complaining to Booking.com over their chat and phone - no real action for almost a month. The only thing the first line can do is to file a ticket to appropriate department (fraud, I assume) and their hands are tied. They apologise for delay, etc. but nothing is really being done, I'm afraid.

Just in case someone stumbles upon this via Google and wondering what was the outcome. After almost a month of complaining via online chat and over the phone, asking for escalation, Booking.com finally issued a refund. The offered to book another place with a promise to cover the rate difference (about 1/3 of the initial cost). I don't know what actually helped, my stream of complaints, or maybe the fact that I warned them about possible legal actions like ACM ConsuWijzer in the Netherlands which I learned about from this thread or maybe simply this process just takes so long. Due to the lack of transparency BB, it's hard to tell.

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