Travel Troubleshooter: Locked out of a vacation rental in Italy -- and Booking.com won’t help

Q: I reserved an apartment in Menaggio, Italy. I decided to use Booking.com because of its reputation and the property’s positive reviews.

Before I left, I noticed the ratings for this place had tanked, and I nervously reached out to Booking.com to make sure they would stand behind the booking. They said they would.

My concern was that many people were arriving and not able to get into the place and being forced to book elsewhere — basically, a fraud. A Booking.com representative assured me they had been in contact with the host and that everything would be fine.

As expected, I arrived and could not get access to the place though I tried for hours using all phone numbers. I immediately contacted Booking.com but did not receive a response until days later.

I had to find another place in the middle of peak season, which was no easy feat. But the listing stayed online, even as the negative reviews piled up.

Booking.com ultimately responded that if I had contacted them during the stay they would have been able to help me. But I was proactive and reached out before my stay and at the beginning of my stay, and was met with silence.

I want all of my money back, and I want Booking.com to cover my extra costs.

A: Booking.com should have found you a new apartment while it investigated the property. Instead, a representative gave you assurances that you would be able to access the rental, despite strong evidence to the contrary.

Your question exposes a practice that I’ve long suspected: that call center representatives rarely read their own website. (If they had, they would have at least looked into your concerns.)

You had a pretty good sense that you were getting the blow-off from Booking.com. You were getting canned chat responses from the “Booking Assistant,” which was most likely either AI or an AI-assisted representative.

I’ve been seeing too many of these kinds of cases recently. It feels like online agencies are no longer staffed by humans, but by AI that can’t understand the most basic customer service problem. I hope I’m wrong.

I contacted the company. A Booking.com representative apologized for your experience and said it usually investigates any potentially suspicious listings “swiftly.”

“In this instance, we recognize that we did not support as quickly as we normally would and have been in touch to apologize to the customer directly,” the representative added. “The property has been suspended from our platform while a proper investigation is carried out.”

In addition to refunding the original booking, Booking.com covered the difference in cost for the alternate accommodation.

Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy, a nonprofit organization that helps consumers. Contact him at chris@elliott.org or elliottadvocacy.org/help.