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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

#31

Post by dmarchand90 »

baby wrote: post #24

I despise the experience so much that I can’t feel bad about the demise of that website. They’re are guilty of all the dark patterns imaginable. The day you stop providing a useful tool to your users is the day you can start counting til you close shop. On the other hand google hotel is providing a top service. This is actually my biggest worry with facebook. Even though I own their stocks, I’m scared that they are f…

I'm not necessarily a huge fan but I'm not sure what the alternative there is. They're pretty comprehensive. If you have any suggestions by the way I'm very happy to jump ship!

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

#32

Post by Moru »

neoglow wrote: post #8
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.

Some of those hotel third party sites demands that the hotel don't give any other price than what they have on the third party site. So you really have to call to have a chance at a better price.

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

#33

Post by Moru »

dagw wrote: post #28
franczesko wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hotels.com. You get no dark patterns and shady practices as bonus.

Hotels.com as screwed up my booking twice (showed up and the hotel had no record of me booking a room) and had terrible customer service both times. Never again.

Same here but that was just the same with booking.com. Turns out it was the hotel that screwed up, not the booking site.

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

#35

Post by Taurenking »

microtonal wrote: post #29

Meh. They are just terrible. We once booked a hotel with a children's bed, which was advertised as an option on Booking.com . When we go there, no bed, and they could provide one. After much discussion, they allowed us to cancel the room and they would refund the 125 Euro. Except the refund never came. So, we contacted booking.com and have been passed between support personnel for months. At some point they wanted mo…

No post body was provided.

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

#37

Post by jan_Inkepa »

dataengineer56 wrote: post #22

I once booked a room in a reputable international chain hotel through booking.com. My sister (living in a different country) booked the same hotel for the same night for a different price and paid with her card in a different currency. The only "link" between the two bookings was that we booked rooms in the same hotel for the same nights, the bookings were made within an hour of each other, and we share a surname. A…

> Booking.com said "talk to the hotel" and the hotel said "talk to booking.com".

I got trapped in a loop there as well, it was pretty wretched. Hotel would only except credit card details sent via plaintext emails (on the phone I couldn't reach anyone at the purported hotel, just a call center, where they couldn't deal with processing), nobody would release me from the obligation to pay, neither booking.com nor the hotel hotline. I just ignored their emails after a certain point, deleted my account, and hope nothing ever comes of it.

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

#38

Post by blunte »

quickaskq wrote: post #6

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 whe…

While I most often use hotels.com, I have used booking many times. I have never had any trouble nor complaint with the website, but perhaps that's because I'm in the EU and there are more regulations (as another commentor noted).

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

#39

Post by pcardoso »

dmarchand90 wrote: post #31
baby wrote: post #24

I despise the experience so much that I can’t feel bad about the demise of that website. They’re are guilty of all the dark patterns imaginable. The day you stop providing a useful tool to your users is the day you can start counting til you close shop. On the other hand google hotel is providing a top service. This is actually my biggest worry with facebook. Even though I own their stocks, I’m scared that they are f…

I'm not necessarily a huge fan but I'm not sure what the alternative there is. They're pretty comprehensive. If you have any suggestions by the way I'm very happy to jump ship!

I use Destinia.com. They usually have the same hotels as other sites but prices are usually much cheaper. Sometimes not just slightly cheaper, but €500+ cheaper. Been using them for more than 10 years.

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

#40

Post by [deleted] »

fennecs wrote: post #25
durnygbur wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10 people are reading this comment right now, 3 people have upvoted it. And it's you, dear HN folks, who implements all this.

Clearly producing value for shareholders needs to come before ethics, morals and general decency.

[deleted]
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