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“Rant” ruined birthday in Aberdeen!


Lord Geordie
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The place I used to work at used booking.com because every 6th booking is free or something like that. Now I never experienced the joy but a mate from Scotland who would do loads of long distance jobs did on several occasions. There was the hotel in Aberdeen that he was booked into all paid for and when he got there it was shut, and another was a b&b and his room was right next to the lounge he kept expecting people to walk into his room. A few of the guys have said if its not a proper hotel then they ain't going due to ending up in proper dives.

 

Kick up a fuss, post on all social media you can and try your credit card , if you used a CC.

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12 hours ago, Lord Geordie said:

My review on booking . com is still waiting to be published “if it actually does get published” and trip advisor does not recognise the place I stayed so I can’t leave a review there either. Facebook is the only real platform I can use thus far. But it’s limited to a small friends group as I don’t share with the public on there. Still waiting to hear from booking . com after sending another email this morning. But alas no reply as yet. 

as i mentioned earlier,how did you pay for this booking

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On 29/06/2019 at 09:00, Lord Geordie said:

I recently booked a two night romantic get away in Aberdeen for my partner for her birthday! The plan was to cook her a nice meal, wine, and rather than a room I booked an apartment in the city centre. This had raving reviews on booking.com and was the best I could find in regard of review scores. 

After a five hour drive I arrived at the apartment and parked in a private space I had to hire for three days, as the parking is a pain apparently. after being told how to get the keys, let ourselves in. My jaw dropped the moment I walked in! Woodchip paper hanging off the walls, filthy woodwork, filthy carpets, the staircase leading to the apartment was devoid of spindles. 

I opened the apartment door and went to put the luggage into the bedroom, to be greeted by almost taking my eye out on a screw sticking out of the wall by an inch, no headboard, filthy mismatched bed base. There was a blood stain on one pillow and drool stains too!

There were crumbs and cereal still on the kitchen floor, the rug was full of dirt too, the dishwasher taped shut with parcel tape, the cups were badly stained also. 

I sat in the living room trying to console Jacki as by this point she was devastated. I picked up my phone and rang booking.com and spoke to a rep, at that point I noticed something beneath the plinth of the sofa. Chips and custard cream bits? And in front of the fireplace was a hoop style earring. Quite obvious they had not even cleaned the apartment.

the rep said the could not contact the owner and had sent him an email with a 30 min deadline to answer it. At that point they would ring me back to try and help me out. So an hour later still no call back, I took it upon myself to call back and spoke to another person. This time I was told because they can’t contact the owner, there is nothing they can do. I explained the situation again, and I was not prepared to put Jacki through having to stay is such a filthy hole! 

They then said they would contact him again and ask if he would voluntarily refund me the money!!

so after that call Made arrangements to book into a hotel instead and blow the two day spending budget just to make it a nice stay for Jacki. The hotel staff were able to find us a room at short notice and we set off from Aberdeen up to Dyce. 

We made the most of the time we had there! Visited Dyce, Aberdeen, Inverurie, Banchory, Forfar, Dundee, and Perth. My romantic meal I had taken up had to be binned as I had no way of cooking it and instead we had a takeout with the bottle of wine. 

I got home to find an email from booking.com saying that they can not refund me as the owners contract is that the complaint must be within the stay and not after check out? I complained the moment I arrived and was due to stay TWO evenings? But basically I can kiss goodbye to it even after providing the photographs of the place! 

I was also asked to leave a review of the apartment on booking.com! So I did, along with all the photographs! Surprise surprise, it has not been published  

what should have been a romantic trip away for two nights, filled with fond memorable moments, is now more memorable for the wrong reasons. 

I am now home with a raging headache from the stress, and feeling rather deflated. 

 

 

Is it possible to have a link to this place and the reviews?

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12 hours ago, Capt Christopher Jones said:

as i mentioned earlier,how did you pay for this booking

I paid via debit card. I contacted the bank to see if I could use a charge back or section 78 I believe it’s called but it’s not eligible due to the amount being lower than they would act for. 

6 hours ago, old'un said:

Is it possible to have a link to this place and the reviews?

It’s called City Centre Nice Apartment on booking dot com! And sadly unless you have stayed you can’t leave feedback :lol: even those that do apparently can’t leave negative feedback either 🤔

Edited by Lord Geordie
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4 hours ago, Lord Geordie said:

No such thing as useless info :good: I appreciate the thought 

😂 I was just going to say about the charge back stuff, but then saw it had already been mentioned and discounted 👍🏻

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Took my gripe onto social media, and I received an email from Booking dot com, they apologised for the situation we found ourselves in when we arrived. They also made an offer of £25 off another stay, or I can cash it in as a form of part refund! 

Bearing in mind, they are not singularly responsible for the situation, nor do they make a huge sum from booking fees. “Certainly less than the offer” I think it’s a rather nice gesture on their part. 

I still have had no communication with the apartment owner? Not a peep. I was expecting some form of communication after leaving a scathing review on booking dot com “they eventually posted the feedback” 

I guess he just doesn’t have any moral fibre as a human being, and hope karma does a 360 to bite him in the backside! 

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26 minutes ago, Lord Geordie said:

Took my gripe onto social media, and I received an email from Booking dot com, they apologised for the situation we found ourselves in when we arrived. They also made an offer of £25 off another stay, or I can cash it in as a form of part refund! 

Bearing in mind, they are not singularly responsible for the situation, nor do they make a huge sum from booking fees. “Certainly less than the offer” I think it’s a rather nice gesture on their part. 

If you booked through them, then they are responsible, they might not make much but they are making money, £25 hardly makes up for the hassle you had.

can other people still book the same place you did? 

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21 minutes ago, Mice! said:

If you booked through them, then they are responsible, they might not make much but they are making money, £25 hardly makes up for the hassle you had.

can other people still book the same place you did? 

If this is the right place, then yes they can, looks like its run/owned by a Polish guy

https://www.booking.com/hotel/gb/city-centre-nice-apartment.en-gb.html

Edited by old'un
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Still think you should get CAB to help you. 

They gave me a "letter before action" in an easily adaptable format which got a swift response from the company in my case, took me 15 minutes of my time to write and 20 in the CAB office talking through the case.

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9 hours ago, Lord Geordie said:

nor do they make a huge sum from booking fees

  No No no No!.  My half sister and her hubby used to run a B&B in Portsmouth, all went well for many years then things seemed to be dropping off.  She found out it was because of people using Booking.com and not their own website or direct contact.

  They registered with Booking.com whose terms varied between 30 and 40% !!!  They take the money, so they control your finances.  Withing 3 years sis had to sell up and move on.  Booking.com are bad, but Groupon are far worse with 60 and 70% discount "Demanded" before you could use them.  I used to work for a guy running Kite surfing out of Beadnell on the North East Coast and he simply could not use them as their "Offers" basically meant he took no money at all and Groupon kept whatever the punter paid.

  All theses aggregators, Booking.com, Lastminute.com, Groupon etc etc are basically making their money by destroying businesses.

  We avoid them at all cost, they destroy livelihoods,

 

RS

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I see in the ad it has a 3 star rating, I would be looking at who gave them that rating and make a complaint to them. If it’s a tourist board they take this sort of thing very seriously. If it’s booking.com they should be inspected it again and it also adds to your arsenal. 

I would tell them to do one with the £25. Full refund at the very least. 

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