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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

#51

Post by j4yav »

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…

They did the same thing to me and I never used them again. Don’t they realise they are losing repeat customers?

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

#52

Post by qeternity »

jahnu wrote: post #15
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…

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.

Consumer travel protections in the US are much stronger than in Europe. I’m not really sure what regulations you’re thinking of.

Source: American expat in Europe.

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

#53

Post by omnibrain »

MandieD wrote: post #45
dmarchand90 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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’ve had a decent 15 years or so of using Expedia (.de and .com, depending on where I was traveling and which credit card I wanted to use). Prices and availability generally in line (maybe slightly higher prices) as Booking.com, without the in-your-face FOMO inducements.

I banned the use of Expedia in our company because they were almost never able to produce a decent invoice (in the name of the company, listing the name of the employee who had the room). Expedia said the hotel has to provide the invoice. The hotel said Expedia has to provide the invoice because we had contract with Expedia.

Never such a problem with booking, because with booking the contract always has been directly with the hotel.

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

#54

Post by tluyben2 »

NumberCruncher wrote: post #49
jahnu wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> several of the dark patterns don't The "only x room left with these conditions" false claim is used also in the EU.

Yep, cannot understand people still fall for that though. But I guess if you are a first time user…

As it is a lie, it should not be allowed.

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

#55

Post by lordnacho »

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…

This kind of thing is exactly what an ombudsman would be good for. Screwing a million people for a little bit of money each.

They should have the power to fine a firm that's found to not actually be checking whether other people are online, whether a hotel is actually empty, etc.

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

#56

Post by dannyw »

cube00 wrote: post #36

Book direct and support your local accommodation providers. Most providers will match any rate you see on these aggregator sites because they still are getting more money then if you booked through the site after they take out their fee.

Most but not all. I once had a mechanic try to not match their AutoGuru advertised rate that we agreed to over the phone, because "I don't remember having that conversation".

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

#57

Post by NumberCruncher »

In Germany this isn't a legal move. One of my former employees (global telco everyone knows) tried to do the same, namely moving the contracts of the employees to an other company. 200 of them started a class action and won easily. The company had to terminate their contracts (which means the employees are eligible for unemployment benefits, etc.) and had to pay a good severance. Something like (years of employment) * 2 monthly salaries. Some of the employees took the money and went into early retirement.

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

#58

Post by em500 »

dudeinjapan wrote: post #50

Any Booking.com engineers reading this are welcome to apply to join us a TableCheck ( https://www.tablecheck.com/en/company/jobs/ ) We see Booking.com's online travel agent ("OTA") model as fundamentally predatory/parasitic to hospitality operators. Our business is designed to cut-out of the likes of Booking.com and other middlemen--let the operators own the guest data and build direct relationship with their guests.

They're not firing thousands of engineers. They're transferring most of their thousands of call centre workers to a different company. Are you hiring lots of call center workers?

Q. to all you off the cuff commenters: did you even realise that they had thousands of call centre workers?

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

#60

Post by omnibrain »

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.

That's ok if you book a single hotel from time to time. But if you book several hotels for a road trip (our last Scotland road trip would have been 12 different hotels/BnBs, and because it was during a holiday season and we intended to visit islands just doing the classical "BnB" strategy of driving into town in the afternoon and look for a BnB was not feasible) having everything on a single site is hard to beat.

And with Covid hitting in early 2020 it was even easier to cancel everything on one site with just a few clicks.

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