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Location check has now shut down our listing, anyone having this problem?

Our add was wrongly put by Booking, while we don’t figure on the map for a search. When we queried BDC they sent us a mail saying they are doing a location verification which freezes all transactions for 10 days. We made a mistake by listing exclusively with them. Hole trying to understand what’s happening over a few calls, frustrated and feeling cheated, we don’t have any way to regain control of our investment into turning our rooms for rental. That makes it a zero income for us. And they just waltz the ball from one department to the other. 
What’s going on? We are new to this and had a great start with excellent 10/10 reviews from our guests, so it shocks us to be treated like this. 
 


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Celia & David … 2 years ago

Hello

 

While we respect the need for Booking.Com to protect us and guests from fraud, we too have experienced exactly this.   There is no issue with the need for Booking.Com to do appropriate and essential security checks to ensure partners and their properties are genuine.  However, we too have experienced our listing being shut down, not being able to reach the department who deal with this, it not taking ten days (we are now shut down for one month), terrible communication, lack of process, no ownership by their staff or agents.   Very bad experience.  Seems it has been their action has been badly thought through, not understood by staff, not consistent, and is incoherent at times with poor communication and accuracy.  I have wasted time trying to get this resolved, lost booking revenue, and had no payments paid out while we are shut down.   I chose to use Booking.Com for quality and felt it was a better match for this particular property.  I will be listing now with other portals as it seems they don't live up to good standards of business partnership or show a duty of care to their partners. 

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Sita harris 2 years ago

Thank you for your reply. Am just puzzled as to whom they employ to run the place. And why create such bad press for their own customers with no will to redress any of their mistakes. It takes a few minutes to apologise and change that address to the correct one. Why all this Kabale? 
it’s deeply upsetting. I hope your issue was cleared. 

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Fluff (new account) 2 years ago

Persistence can be the key on many occasions!

I was recently helping a friend get their new listing up after they had hit a brick wall regarding a previous owners account linked to the property.

After talking to way too many clueless robots at support I finally spoke to someone that actually knew what they were doing! Within an hour of that conversation the problem was sorted.

For Thailand we are getting a lottery on which call centre responds to our calls, can be Singapore, USA, Thailand or the most *** one in India, where they are consistently both hopeless and surly.

There seems to be massive inconsistencies on the training of staff, whether BDC's own or call centre based. This has definitely become much worse since the start of C19.

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Sita harris 2 years ago

Thank you for your reply and sharing your own experiences. It’s amazing how from choosing to sort out the problem and their mistake, they prefer to close us down. I will hold a red candle waiting, conjuring for any good will or someone with sense out there to respond. But knowing how all is focused at making money, I suppose our cause will be overlooked and dumped as we are not big players with hundreds of rooms to sell. 
But this has been a good lesson for us. Never to trust any online business profit making from others. 

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Milanohaven Apartmen 2 years ago

I really have no idea why this is happening. We are closed for 16 days and there is no light at the end of the tunnel. They keep saying that THEY have the delay and not to worry... but i do worry because i don't earn ... does somebody knows how to resolve this?

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Sita harris 2 years ago

Sadly No, we are still waiting. Despite talking to everyone there, they keep on saying ...Just wait! 

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Elizabete Nazare 2 years ago

Hello!

I just posted a similar experience. We have been closed since October 5th, more than a month ago, for the same reason (location veriification). It is very frustrating...

Has anybody else had there situation solved? Any feedback?

Kind regards,

Elizabete

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Catherine Glausiusz 2 years ago

Hi, We have been waiting nearly 10 weeks. Many over 5 months on other threads… most give up. The only people who have been able to sort is via getting a lawyer involved (which is really annoying!) but has to due to money owed whilst the account was frozen.

If you do a search on location verification you’ll see booking.com are not performing it for anyone. They say that they are - and claim it’s a backlog - but it’s not. (Many are now nearly 200 days and just gave up). Their IT systems are in such a mess now they cannot tell who has been waiting and who hasn’t - it’s a totally broken process. All monies are withheld too unless you get a lawyer. 
 

It’s totally unbelievable. Many have reported to Trading Standards. 
 

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Milanohaven Apartmen 2 years ago

We are still waiting for a resolution. We keep writing complaints and calling and nothing. Still no call back. To say it's frustrating is an understatement. The only thing i don't get is if they can't handle the load of work, why did they close us all at the same time? Why not do this gradually in a period of 3-6 months. I truly don't understand what and why this is hapening

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Elizabete Nazare 2 years ago

I agree completely... And you are right: frustrating is an understatement (revenue is being lost and the holidays are approaching and we are closed!, and everything is in order on our end!!!).

I will continue to insist with the phone calls and emails to see when the situation can be solved.

Domus Praia Jale

Sao Tome e Principe

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Sita harris 2 years ago

Countless phone calls have not yielded to any results so far for us. It’s maddening. 

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Maria Alberga 2 years ago

Hi Elizabete,

I am new on this site, and I noticed that you used an email address.. I have an issue and cannot reach anyone by phone, would you be kind enough to send me their email... sorry to hear about your dilemma, after reading some of these posts its quite scary....trust you get your issues sorted soon, thanks so much and wishing you a wonderful Xmas and New Year.

Regards

Maria

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Janita - Accou… 2 years ago

Hi Maria, 

You can compose a message via the extranet under Inbox > Booking.com messages. If there is no "compose new message" directly there then click on See Contact Options > select a relevant topic eg. Account > select a relevant subtopic eg. Other > then click see all contact options > Message > write your message. This will ensure it goes to the correct team for assistance. 

Thanks! 

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Celia & David … 2 years ago

We are now blocked for six weeks and no end in sight.  I have spoken with Booking.Com staff some of them have tried to get it resolved but the department concerned you cannot speak to directly, even their staff cannot speak with them.   We did get an agreement for their team to call my property manager at two specific pre-agreed appointment times, but they did not do this.  As we don't have anyone on-site, this cannot be resolved as Booking.Com have since said they can only call at a generic time to do the location security video.  In our case, it is not practical to ask someone to wait at the apartment without an appointment in case Booking.Com calls.    With regard to the security code that should have been posted, we have never received that, and no one can confirm if it was sent nor which address or data fields to create the address might have been used.  Happy to update everyone if we ever find a solution.  Others are reporting they have been waiting for six months!

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Catherine Glausiusz 2 years ago

We are nearly 10 weeks and have followed all correct procedure. 

Hate to say it but no one at the company is looking into it. The only way to get it sorted is legally. It’s just annoying to have to do that. (We are owed thousands).

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Milanohaven Apartmen 2 years ago

OMG six months! I will definitely close the structure if this persists. It's total madness. I don't understand why? This is bad for them as well.

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Sita harris 2 years ago

Huge backlogs?! Or understaffed ... for some reason, B should start solving this otherwise it will amount to a total disaster over time. 

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Celia & David … 2 years ago

Yes, we agree it is very bad for BDC also. In our case, we were going to list another three properties but with this problem, we have had to make the business decision to use other booking portals.

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Mattias Walvin… 2 years ago

Its over bureaucracy! It has to be made easier or AirBnb will take the property owners. I like Booking but their ability to help their partners and themselves is not at the top!

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Sita harris 2 years ago

True. If only someone at the head is able to address this appalling issue, they will be in no time overtaken by Airbnb. 

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Catherine Glausiusz 2 years ago

Yes - we are now getting business via air bnb. Which we’d done it sooner!!!

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Milanohaven Apartmen 2 years ago

It took them month and a half, but today we finally recieved the video call and our property is open again. I wanted to write this, because i can't see anyone else to write a comment after the resolution fo their problem.

All my best to you and i hope everybody will get their property back open soon.

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Victoria Naler… 2 years ago

Congratulations, thank you for telling us the good news. The rest of us will wait ......

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Sita harris 2 years ago

Dear All, 

We are finally open! 
We got the video call to inspect the location and all was instantly online ! 
So, if you are like us, hang out there …as there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

Good Luck Everyone and Thank you for all your replies. 

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Andreas Engstrøm 2 years ago

Dear Sita,

 

How long did it take? Now waited 3 weeks.. It's a bit frustrating since we have been fully booked since...

 

BR

 

Andreas

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Katja und Mart… 2 years ago

You are A Baby in "waiting" family. Im closed since 6th of Oktober. Almost 8 weeks :(

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Andreas Engstrøm 2 years ago

Yikes. And still no word? Did you call many times?

 

br

andreas

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Katja und Mart… 2 years ago

I've called i think 30-40 Times. First month almost everyday. 

I lawer Took this Case, WE will See what is possible to do

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Sita harris 2 years ago

Nearly 2 months I should say. Keep calling them. And wait. 

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Maria Martin 2 years ago

yes customer service is the worst - I also could handle the problem by suggesting a video call - try telling them?

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Sita harris 2 years ago

Nothing works! You just have to wait. Try listing on other platforms in the meantime and do something else. It’s totally frustrating. I suppose the backlog is enormous and they have to hire people from everywhere ... 

Good Luck

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Celia & David … 2 years ago

Update.

After two months we filed a formal complaint through the BDC website complaints.  We also instructed our solicitor.   The complaint was responded to after 9 days.   Someone more competent then gave clear instructions for the process of verifying the property and was able to act competently to set up a pre-arranged telephone call (something we had repeatedly asked for).  We were also offered the opportunity to verify the location by using another platform (AirBnB) or similar if it had five or more reviews, despite having five or more reviews on Booking.Com which shows guests had stayed, been to the location and found everything as advertised.

There was no apology and to date no reply to our solicitor.   We are now informed we just wait a further two weeks to receive payment due to the fortnightly payment cycles.  It does seem the complaint system worked so I suggest navigating to that and putting your complaints in.

Good Luck!