BRITS using Booking.com have been left £1,000s out of pocket after a huge payment glitch.
The online travel agent provides a platform for hotel chains to sell rooms and small-town homeowners to rent out their own properties as a side hustle.
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But a fault in the website’s payment system has left hosts without holiday rental payments, The Sun can reveal.
Claire Heath who rents out a one-bedroom lodge on the grounds of her home in Lindfield, West Sussex, has been waiting weeks to receive over £2,500 in guest payments.
The 47 year-old told The Sun: “The lodge is a great side hustle to help me pay the bills with the cost of living so high at the moment.
“But I’m now £2,500 down and don’t know when the cash will hit my bank account.
“We’re booked up until the end of August but if I’m not paid I’m going to have to put the future guests off.
“It’s an absolute nightmare and Booking.com aren’t interested in helping us out.”
In most cases, Booking.com takes payment from guests on behalf of the host.
The host then receives the cash back, minus commission and fees, within ten days of the guest checking out.
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However, some claim they’ve been sent invoices from Booking.com requesting that any outstanding commission fees be paid manually.
Candy Harrison, 60 from West Yorkshire was last paid on June 19 and is currently owed £2,287 from recent bookings.
She said: “Booking.com usually charges 15% commission when guests choose to stay in my cottage in Pickering, North Yorkshire.
“This is usually deducted from the guest fee before the money is paid out to me, but I’ve received an invoice requesting that I pay Booking.com these fees directly.
“I’ve never had to do this before and they owe me over £2,000 so something is clearly not right.”
Like Claire and Candy, others have been waiting weeks to receive their cash from guest stays that happened over a month ago.
Jane Denley, 66 from Hampshire is charged 17.5% in booking fees and bank processing charges but hasn’t been paid for the last 12 bookings at her lodge.
She said: “I’m still due over £1,000 for past bookings and money is becoming increasingly tight.
“I still work part-time in the music industry, but my husband is now retired, we rely on this cash flow to pay our household bills.
“Without this extra cash, it’s become a big struggle to pay our council tax and energy bills.
“We’ve contacted Booking.com to no avail, but we’re so desperate that we’ve asked for an advance to pay our cleaner.”
Booking.com did notify its hosts that it was carrying out essential maintenance across its financial system earlier this month.
It told customers that no payments would be processed between July 1 and July 11.
But dozens of customers have since contacted The Sun to complain that they’re still out of pocket today.
Numerous hosts have also taken to Booking.com’s online community forum to air their confusion.
Some are even contemplating cancelling bookings at their properties next month out of fear that they’ll still be out of pocket.
Gianfranco Di Maio, a 71-year-old pensioner from County Down, Northern Ireland is still owed five different payments worth close to £2,000.
He said: “I’ve been left worried sick, this income helps pay the bills.
“The problem is we’re considering cancelling future bookings because of this issue.
“I recognise that this could be horrible for customers who have booked a few nights to attend events like weddings and christenings.
“But what can you do when Booking.com isn’t paying out.”
A spokesperson for Booking.com told The Sun: “We always strive to support each of our accommodation partners in the best way possible, and fully understand the importance of processing payments on time.
“We can confirm that we have been carrying out essential finance system maintenance across our business, which may have been the cause of the delay, but our accommodation partners were informed of this in advance, and provided with guidance and ongoing support to mitigate the impact.”
It’s unclear if the payment glitch is affecting customers globally, but The Sun has seen evidence of issues in Europe too.
Booking.com is yet to confirm when outstanding payments will be issued.
If you’ve been affected by the glitch consider making a formal complaint on the Booking.com partner’s website.
How do I complain to Booking.com?
Customers need to follow the steps below to submit a complaint to Booking.com:
- Visit the dispute resolution centre on the Booking.com partner hub website
- Select partner and enter your personal information.
- Select a topic, then under message enter a description of your complaint – make sure you’re as detailed as possible
- Click send
Booking.com will then confirm receipt of your complaint via the extranet inbox or by email, and provide you with more info about the process and what you can expect for the next steps.
It will also send you regular updates on the progress of your complaint.
A member of the Booking.com team may then contact you if we need more info about your complaint.
It will then let you know what the outcome of your complaint is at a later date.
