Booking a hotel online has never been easier. You just need to go to Google Map and choose the property you need. There are lots of booking sites for sure, but I stuck with Booking.com for the sake of convenience since they had my particulars. For my recent Taiwan trip, I actually booked 3 different properties through them.
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| This was taken at our replacement hotel, Just Sleep Sanchong. |
Our bookings with 2 properties, K-ONE Homestay and No. 21 Jiaoxi Hot Spring Homestay went smoothly, with the properties keeping in touch with us through the Booking.com chat functions about our arrivals etc. But the property we booked in Taipei, Ximen 日記 in Taipei, located at No.36, Xining South Road, Wanhua District, 108 Taipei was a complete disaster and rightfully deserves a blog post.
So Booking.com bookings are all confirmed with the credit card details furnished to the company and the properties can make a deduction for any deposits required through the card officially. 2 nights before I was supposed to check in this horrible hotel, I received a message from them through the chat function at 7.32pm that they required a deposit of TWD1000 by 8.00pm on that same day. Read chat below -
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| Check the time stamp. They can send and read message but not assist. |
Ok my mandarin really sucks and I do not use PayPal, and because I do not have a Taiwan telephone number as I was using an eSIM, I was at a loss when I read the message much later. I even tried to get a local to see if he can help me with calling the property but was alerted by him that Booking.com was being compromised before as the news article showed!
When I finally managed to contact the hotel that very night, I could only speak to the front desk who answered and feigned ignorance and that she was unable to do anything as she is only a receptionist and thus refused to help in any way. She even went to say that it was no big deal and all I had to do was to rebook online. Ok, so here comes the problem. Over 90% of the hotels in that area was fully booked for the same period and there wasn't even ANY accommodation availability on Booking.com at all! Taiwan is overrun by tourists these days!
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| Super nonchalant when they finally replied after cancelling. |
I was super frustrated that I was unable to get any assistance through the property and even Booking.com was unable to help that very night because I was unable to get through to them as well. Thankfully we had a local tour guide, who helped us to finally get an alternative hotel the next day through his connections at a further location, at a higher price, and for a smaller room that we had to squeeze into. That hotel, Just Sleep Taipei Sanchong turned out to be GREAT (which was a blessing in disguise) but we had to make do with the squeezing and all the additional costs that came with it.
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| Reaching Booking.com was hard as well. |
My Opinion
Accommodation prices are on the rise in Taiwan due to the success of their tourism board in promoting this sector and hotels are all raising prices which is understandable. My hotel booking was confirmed months ago and guaranteed by my credit card. I find that to cancel my booking based on a failed deposit payment request via a personal account through the chat within 28mins of asking, was ridiculous at best.
I am of the opinion that the property had lots of customers waiting to book and at a much higher price than what I have confirmed months ago and came up with this bright idea of cancelling confirmed bookings at their end based on sketchy company policies etc so that maximum profits can be realized. Most likely not the first time also lah.
I finally had the time after returning to give finally give Booking.com a call and confirmed that this request by Ximen 日記 is running afoul of their guidelines and they will take action. I had also requested for compensation for the anguish (true ok, really KNN) and additional costs, and they mentioned they will look into it. I am not THAT hopeful BUT I feel there is a need for customers like you and me to be aware of what they are getting themselves into when booking with third party companies.
Even more importantly is as a customer, when assurances are they able to give when a property decided to unilaterally cancel a confirmed booking just that easily? I mean they sounded apologetic when I called earlier to register my displeasure but sorry cannot help me when I was there in Taiwan with wife and 5 kids with nowhere to stay lah. What actions can they take against the property? I think the property will still be listed and rooms sold through them lah. I cannot believe I took the time to blog and call up to complaint lor but it was NOT RIGHT for them to do such a thing.
One really needs to be prepared for the unexpected and so I hope this post serves as a caution to anyone travelling to Taiwan (especially if you are thinking of booking with Ximen 日記), or anywhere else for that matter when it comes to booking through third party apps. Have fun travelling and all the best in all your other bookings!
