Booking.com complaint: Scammed out of money

Booking.com list properties that are not as advertised! With evidence provided, they still refuse to refund the money.

I booked a place for my family I to stay in Peterborough at Kings Gate House via Booking.com as part of our UK visit. I paid particular attention to the reviews and the amenities listed, it stated that it was suitable for children and seemed as if it was in a good, convenient location.

The day before arriving in Peterborough, I received a message from ApartHotels, the hosts of Kings Gate House that the booking was a self check-in and that they would send the details required at 12 pm on the day of arrival. They failed to do this.

My family and I arrived in Peterborough, it was heavily raining we were left waiting for the details of entry to our reservation. We contacted the hosts for the details which was now sent 3 hours after they were supposed to, this was the first red flag.

As we ventured from the train station in the rain we were shocked at the hideous building in front of us. It was an uninviting colour situated by a noisy bar, communal bins, the smell of urine and lots of people smoking outside. This was the least of our troubles.

After several attempts to get in, we were met by a mess which looked like people had been squatting in the passage. We made our way up the stairs and could smell a strong aroma of marijuana, very different to being listed as ‘Non-smoking throughout’.

Once we got into the apartment, we were again shocked. The toilet lid was broken and on the floor, the sink was blocked, there were no towels, no cleaning products, no extra sheets, the place was dusty and the sofa had many stains. Above this, they attach the key to a keysafe so you can not remove it and are left with a turn lock from inside which is so accessible for a toddler to open. How on earth is this place suitable for a family?

We had to go out as we had important plans which was our reason for being in Peterborough for one night so we left and upon return we felt unsafe, there were so many loud, drunk people, people screaming and even to get a taxi to come there seemed impossible! We wasted over an hour trying to find a hotel to stay, many were unavailable and we ended up paying a lot to get somewhere further out.

I noticed a message from DH ApartHotels asking if we were enjoying our stay so I informed them of what we encountered and that we were booking somewhere else to stay as well as requesting a refund.

I received 5 messages the next day asking ‘How was your first night? Are you having fun?…’
These may have been automated yet it felt incredibly ridiculous and like a slap in the face.

I again requested my money back from DH ApartHotels which they didn’t respond to… I filed a complaint by speaking with Atma, Booking.com customer service advisor and have written to many other customer service team members such as Loidz S, Ritchel S and Rosemarie J yet they haven’t taken it seriously at all. I have asked several times to speak with a manager and they ignore this and send the same messages. I have disputed their decision of not giving my money back and have heard nothing. All they have advised is to write a review of which I already did. They are absolutely useless and unhelpful!

I will never use this site again as they haven’t offered anything at all. They don’t care that we had to take our 2 year old daughter out in the cold at night to get to another place, they don’t care that the place had drug usage and was absolutely in a terrible condition. All they care about is taking people’s money.