Scarlett Kelly paid for a vacation rental in Paris through Booking.com, but she never got to stay in it. Booking.com wants to keep her money on what appears to be a technicality.
Today’s case is still active, which means I’m not really sure what to do with it. I’m asking for your help to figure out my next move.
Kelly’s case raises all kinds of questions, including:
- What kind of conditions can someone impose on a vacation rental?
- If you can’t meet all the conditions for a rental, should you lose your entire stay?
- What remedies exist to get a refund when you lose your rental on a technicality?
Before we answer those, let’s take a closer look at Kelly’s problem.
“Booking.com allowed the property owner to lie”
This spring, Kelly paid $592 for a nonrefundable apartment in Paris for early June. She planned to take her 70-year-old mother to the City of Light for a week of sightseeing.
“A week before my arrival, the property owner demanded a $300 damage deposit,” she recalls.
Just one problem: Kelly, a graduate student, didn’t have the money.
“I committed to getting a loan and paying for the deposit during my stay — only I was a few days late,” she says.
Hear a discussion of this case in our audio feature
Everything seemed fine until she tried to check in. She arrived at the property at 4 p.m., but there was no one to meet her. She went back and forth with Booking.com for the next six hours.
But the online agency had some bad news: The property manager had listed her as a “no-show” and would be keeping her money. (Related: Vacation rental warning words: don’t book if you see this!)
Kelly said that wasn’t true — she was at the property at the appointed time, but no one was there to greet her. The manager said that wasn’t true.
“Booking.com allowed the property owner to lie about a no-show when people proved that I was there, canceled my reservation, and stole my money when my mom and I were left to freeze to death on the street,” she says.
Whoa, wait a minute. Can a vacation rental manager just do that? What is going on here?
What kind of conditions can someone impose on a vacation rental?
A closer look at the terms of this rental show that Booking.com is, in fact, right — at least technically.
The required damage deposit was disclosed in her confirmation. However, it is unclear if it was part of the initial price display, and I would seriously doubt that it was part of the original price quote. What’s more, the method of payment — by wire transfer — is highly suspicious. Our advocates strongly recommend never wiring money.
The check-in window, improbable as it is, is also disclosed. The check in time is between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. and is noted on the property listing page. So if Kelly showed up at 4:01 p.m., she missed the window. (Related: New strategies for avoiding vacation rental “gotchas”.)
This raises one big question: Can a vacation rental manager simply impose any conditions it wants on a rental?
The damage deposit isn’t that unusual, but the method by which it’s collected is problematic. When you wire money, it’s gone and there’s no protection, unlike with a credit card. So a manager could simply pocket her deposit for the smallest infraction, and presumably with Booking.com’s blessing.
But the bigger issue is the one-hour window. I hadn’t heard of a one-hour check-in window until Kelly’s case landed on my desk. Even if she agreed to these terms, there should be some flexibility, particularly when you’re dealing with international travelers and potential delays.
Bottom line: A vacation rental manager can impose these conditions and Booking.com may also support them. But that doesn’t make them right.
If you can’t meet all the conditions for a rental, should you lose your entire stay?
Whether these rules are right or wrong, there’s really one much bigger issue. The vacation rental company kept all of Kelly’s money. It’s unclear if it denied her entry because of the missed check-in window or for her failure to pay the damage deposit in timely fashion.
Is that allowed?
A review of Booking.com’s terms suggests the answer is yes. You are bound by the terms and conditions of your reservation, which you agree to at the time of your reservation. If you disagree with the terms — and I would have strenuously disagreed with the terms of this apartment — then it’s up to you to click away from the listing. (Related: I lost $6,074 after Booking.com canceled my vacation rental. Can you get it back for me?)
Legal experts may weigh in here on an unconscionable contract. But between Booking.com (based in the Netherlands), the apartment rental (in France) and Kelly (based in Canada) I think it would be a lengthy discussion with an inconclusive outcome.
I’ve seen many businesses impose ridiculous terms on their customers and have seen them upheld by a third-party booking site like Booking.com or a credit card company.
That’s one of the reasons I’m always saying, “Buyer beware.” You really need to watch out for these gotchas.
What remedies exist to get a refund when you lose your rental on a technicality?
You don’t have to accept these onerous terms. The best way, and only surefire one, to avoid these problematic terms is to never book a rental like this. This serves two purposes: It keeps you out of potential trouble, and it also sends a message to the platform and the business that terms like these won’t be tolerated.
If you’re already stuck with a vacation rental situation like this, you can also appeal to the rental company for leniency or directly to the platform. A brief, polite email to one of the Booking.com executives might have worked. Kelly tried contacting an executive by email, but was ultimately rerouted to Booking.com’s customer service department.
Here are the names, numbers and email addresses of the Booking.com executives.
Another way to get around this is to contact your credit card company. Filing a credit card dispute might have worked for Kelly. After all, she did not receive a product she paid for, and that’s covered under the Fair Credit Billing Act. (Here’s my guide to filing a credit card dispute.)
Of course, she could have also contacted a consumer advocate — which is what she eventually chose to do. Kelly appealed to my team for help. And when we read her story, we empathized with her. Being left out in the cold is one of the worst things that can happen to you.
When Booking.com kept her money, that was the final insult.
What does Booking.com have to say about this rental?
I asked Booking.com to have a look at Kelly’s case, and it did.
Booking.com verified the terms of her rental, including the one-hour check-in window and the wired damage deposit. The company said a representative was waiting for the guest to arrive during the check-in window, and only marked it a no-show after that period had passed.
“Booking.com supported the customer in reaching out to the partner to make an exception and refund the booking, but the partner did not accept the exception,” it said.
After Booking.com asked about Kelly’s reservation, the owner agreed to a $100 refund “as a goodwill gesture.”
But Kelly will have none of it.
She says she spoke with people in the neighborhood after she arrived, asking if someone had been at the apartment. No one remembered seeing anyone.
Kelly did some more digging and found that her apartment rental had a track record of keeping the money when someone missed a check-in window. Like a good graduate student, she also researched the legalities of her problem.
“I confirmed that Booking.com’s actions are illegal, including breach of contract and unjust enrichment, fraud and theft, negligence and endangerment, and obstruction of justice,” she says.
Wait, obstruction of justice? Yes, Kelly alleges that Booking.com deleted her paper trail — the communication between her and the rental manager — from the system.
Should I take this case?
So that leaves us with one final question: Should I push Booking.com to fully refund Kelly?
I’m hesitant because Kelly agreed to these absurd terms at the time she made her reservation. Had she not known about them, this would have been an open-and-shut case. But she had agreed to these terms.
Kelly has been threatening Booking.com with a lawsuit and demanding an additional $10,000 above and beyond her refund for pain and suffering, which I don’t think is helping her case.
“I paid for a room,” she told me. “And I should have gotten it.”
There may also be a third way to fix this. I mentioned a credit card dispute before. Kelly could file a dispute with her credit card company. Canada has similar rules to the U.S. for disputing those charges, and she might be able to quickly recover all of her money. That may be the easiest way to a happy resolution.
Over to you, my friends. Should I push Booking.com for a full refund? Or is the lost money a form of tuition, which will ensure Kelly always reads the fine print on her purchases from now on?
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