tldr; Almost all of booking.com customer support employees are having their contracts transferred (outsourced) to another company, Majorel. This Luxembourg based one, will offer 6 months contracts but it’s unclear what will happen next and also it’s not stated what will happen to those employees that don’t accept the transfer. Corporate tactics at work once more in order to reduce costs :-(
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
#12I'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. You get no dark patterns and shady practices as bonus.
False, we used it, you can't cancel your order unless you talk to some shady agent and then you have to pay some amount of money, also, it's very expensive, booking.com you could cancel your order for free
Re: Booking.com is moving its customer service staff to an outsourcing company
#13The 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 whe…
Many times booking directly from the hotel has benefits like more relaxed cancellation rules, which conveniently booking.com and others charge money for.
Re: Booking.com is moving its customer service staff to an outsourcing company
#14The 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 whe…
10 people are reading this comment right now, 3 people have upvoted it. And it's you, dear HN folks, who implements all this.
Re: Booking.com is moving its customer service staff to an outsourcing company
#15The 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 whe…
They exist for EU users of booking.com
And several of the dark patterns don't.
Because of fairly mild regulations that protect the consumer.
Draw your own conclusions here.
Re: Booking.com is moving its customer service staff to an outsourcing company
#16The 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 whe…
Booking.com is a great site for finding hotel rooms, provided you use it only for this reason and then go direct to the hotel's own site.
Re: Booking.com is moving its customer service staff to an outsourcing company
#17I'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.
How much are you really saving? I value my time much more than I do saving $20. Booking.com does provide a really nice UI for finding great places as well.
Re: Booking.com is moving its customer service staff to an outsourcing company
#18The 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 whe…
10 people are reading this comment right now, 3 people have upvoted it. And it's you, dear HN folks, who implements all this.
Are you referring to the "x people has looked at this room in the last y" scam message?
Re: Booking.com is moving its customer service staff to an outsourcing company
#19Re: Booking.com is moving its customer service staff to an outsourcing company
#20The 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 whe…
Book directly with the hotels if possible. Lots of hotels will forgo the 24-hour cancellation charge if you ask nicely. Hotels can't do much if you book with a 3rd party since you're a customer of the 3rd party, not with the hotel.