Small Claims Court orders booking.com to refund me, but they are ignoring it

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spokesong

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I am having ongoing issues with booking.com. I won a claim against them and was awarded €1500 be small claims court in Dublin on 3rd June.

This arose from a booking I had paid for well in advance in Brittannia hotel canary wharf from august 27th 2025 for six nights in twin room When i turned up with my sight impaired friend Bob who I was guiding we found the hotel surrounded by wire fencing with no access to reception, so bob and i were left bag and baggage on the street in a febrile atmosphere with hostile young fellows waving union jacks as it appeared the hotel had asylum seeking refugees.

Bob and I had no issue with refugees and indeed had share the brittania in Edinburgh with some of them. We had clean and secure room and good breakfast.

We spent whole day in Canary Wharf trying to contact booking.com. Subsequently I tried emails phone calls forms that the sent and didnt answer including registered letters to their company addresses in Amsterdam.

Eventually I took action in small claims and thought I was home and hosed; but now find myself in a dead end. Booking.com showed their contempt for the court by simply ignoring the decree. The dublun sherrif does not send baliffs outside the country and the infirmation i am getting from europa reads like gobbldeygook and its been suggested i would need to hire and presumably pay for professional legal assisrance in amsterdam which would negate the value.of my award. WHERE IS THE JUSTICE IN THAT??
Any advice or help.please. ive written already to Conor pope on this.
 
Did you pay by credit card/ debit card? If so get onto the provider and initiate a charge back.

You have a limited number of days to do this. Maybe 120?

Regardless today ring them up. You have a bullet proof case.

*(taken from internet) - Maximum absolute limit: Up to 540 days under special card network rules (such as for delayed travel, future events, or undelivered goods where the timeline starts from the expected delivery or event date.
 
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spokesong said:
my sight impaired friend Bob
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spokesong said:
I won a claim against them and was awarded €1500 be small claims court in Dublin on 3rd June.
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spokesong said:
Booking.com showed their contempt for the court by simply ignoring the decree.
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That is a great story.

I would say that booking.com very rarely gets these sorts of judgements against them so they don't know what to do with it.

The only way to get a response is to get Charlie Weston of the Indo or Conor Pope of the Irish Times onto it and you will be paid promptly.
 
I never knew that the Small Claims Court can deal with issues that occurred outside the state?
 
The court does not enforce.

The OP has gone to the Sheriff who says he does not enforce abroad.

He could go to a solicitor and seek to have the judgement registered as a mortgage against Booking.com. But he would be even further out of pocket if he employs the legal profession.

He has got a long way on his own. A journalist should get it over the line

Brendan
 
Persia said:
Surely the easiest path is a chargeback like I proposed in post 2?
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By the time he's gone through the small claims process and obtained a judgment, he's likely to be out of time for a chargeback.

Grizzly said:
O.K. I see that there is a European Small Claims court also.
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No. It's the European Small Claims Process. It's not a separate court - just a procedure you can use in the regular courts to pursue a small claim elsewhere in the EU. You pursue the claim through your local court - in Ireland, the District Court. OP has already been through the small claims system in Ireland; he doesn't say whether he followed the standard Irish small claims process, or the ECC process.

If he followed the ECC process, he now has a judgment which he can enforce in the Netherlands against Booking.com. It's still up to him to enforce it, using the Netherlands procedures for the enforement of judgments. But enforcement should be fairly straightforward; it should be pretty much as easy as enforcing a judgment obtained from the Netherlands own small claims court would be, and it shouldn't require hiring a Netherlands lawyer. The Netherlands being the kind of country that it is, it it probably possible to communicate with the Netherlands enforcement agency in English.

If he followed the Irish process, he now has a judgment which he can also seek to enforce through the Netherlands courts, but it's likely to be a much more elaborate process, with a lot more opportunity for the defendant to delay, or attempt to relitigate the dispute, and it might not be easy to do without a lawyer.

The lesson from all this; never, ever, ever book through booking.com. When it works, it works well but, when it doesn't work, it's a nightmare.

Use booking.com as a research tool; then contact your chosen hotel and book directly with them.
 
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Persia said:
Surely the easiest path is a chargeback like I proposed in post 2?
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The chargeback would refund him the money he spent. But it would not get him the extra money he had to spend to get accommodation in London. And it's a good story so highlighting it in the media is worth doing and it might be quicker than chargeback.

And as he spent the money in August 2025, they would probably say he is out of time.
 
(taken from internet) - Maximum absolute limit: Up to 540 days under special card network rules (such as for delayed travel, future events, or undelivered goods where the timeline starts from the expected delivery or event date.
 
Well done spokesong

1790410356824.webp


Booking.com was asked why it has so far failed to pay Mr Walsh the money awarded by the court.

A spokesperson said: “We are sorry for the customer’s experience. The hotel was unable to host the guest, and we updated the customer in July, using the email address provided at the time of booking.”


The spokesperson said that following the judgment, Booking.com contacted the court on June 29 to request Mr Walsh’s payment details.

“While we did not receive a response, we will ensure the customer receives the claim, and will update them directly,” they added.
 
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