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Booking.com is moving its customer service staff to an outsourcing company

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Re: Booking.com is moving its customer service staff to an outsourcing company

#3

Post by onion2k »

They're outsourcing their customer services.

Thia is actually quite annoying, because the one time I've used their customer services they were really good. I needed to cancel half of a reservation (booked for 2 nights, needed to leave early), and the hotel staff said they couldn't do that as I'd booked through a third party. I called Booking.com and they made it happen. Hopefully whoever they outsource to can continue the good work.

Re: Booking.com is moving its customer service staff to an outsourcing company

#6

Post by quickaskq »

The one time I used booking.com I got screwed over. Their website is riddled with dark patterns and has probably been A/B tested into oblivion. The tactic they used that screwed me over was that they advertised 100% refunds on last minute cancellations. I used booking.com for this exact reason as I didn’t know if I’d be staying the night in the city I was driving past. Well turns out I didn’t need the booking but when I went to cancel I didn’t get a refund. When I went to go back to booking.com to see what their policy was, it was clear they carefully worded the last minute cancellation policy to really mean something completely different from what they knew they were advertising.

Lesson learned: never use any third party service when you can book the place directly. Also last minute cancellations probably just don’t exist

Re: Booking.com is moving its customer service staff to an outsourcing company

#8

Post by neoglow »

88840-8855 wrote: post #4

I'm using booking as it has a great UI and genius + Amazon Prime give me by far the best prices. I haven't found any alternative yet.

Booking at the venue itself will almost always be cheaper and provide more luxuries like a free drink in the bar or free breakfast.

The third party takes a cut of the cost. The hotel wants that cut badly, so just call them up, say you found a cheaper price at the third party and see what they do. They will likely give you a better offer and they themselves will have a better profit as well in the proces.

Re: Booking.com is moving its customer service staff to an outsourcing company

#9

Post by whitepoplar »

88840-8855 wrote: post #4

I'm using booking as it has a great UI and genius + Amazon Prime give me by far the best prices. I haven't found any alternative yet.

Hotels.com price matches and has a pretty great loyalty program. It's like a punchcard where after 10 punches you get a free night's credit (avg. rate of your punches).

Re: Booking.com is moving its customer service staff to an outsourcing company

#10

Post by cehrlich »

onion2k wrote: post #3

They're outsourcing their customer services. Thia is actually quite annoying, because the one time I've used their customer services they were really good. I needed to cancel half of a reservation (booked for 2 nights, needed to leave early), and the hotel staff said they couldn't do that as I'd booked through a third party. I called Booking.com and they made it happen. Hopefully whoever they outsource to can continu…

I’ve had the same experience in the past. I travel to Japan a lot and outside the big cities many hotels there just don’t have anyone who speaks English, which obviously makes direct interaction with the hotel difficult. Booking.com customer service was always excellent. Never took too long to get connected to a real person, and that person was usually able to solve my problem or at least find a good compromise.

If their service declines I hope a new service gets created that replicates what they do, but I worry that if someone was to build a company like this nowadays they’d just not hire phone support staff.

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