JimmyCorkhill
Registered User
- Messages
- 116
Hi
Booked a hotel apartment last April 2025 for a stay in April 2026 through booking.com, the property charged my card just under £1,200 (over €1,400) at the time of booking.
The booking had free cancellation up to a week before the stay. Plans changed so on 26th February 2026 I cancelled the booking and it was clear that the booking was within the free cancellation period.
After a couple of weeks of no sign of the refund, I contacted the property who gave some excuse that they no longer use card machines for bookings and would need to refund me via a bank payment, so I sent over my bank details. A couple of weeks later still no sign of payment and when I phone the accommodation they keep telling me that they have passed my details onto the accounts department and they cannot give any timeline on when I will received my refund. They wont give me a contact number or email address for their accounts.
In the meantime, I got onto booking.com who have confirmed the property have gone beyond the period to refund me and they will take action, however, the property has not responded to booking.com either. Dealing with booking.com has been heartbreaking, phoning a call center in Egypt where every call means telling the same story, being put on hold while the latest customer service rep gets up to speed by reading the history on it. Then banging your head against a wall when there is complete lack of common sense.
Booking.com have told me they will refund me while they chase the invoice the property, great says I. They want proof of the bank statement so I sent over my PTSB bank statement from last April showing the transaction in GBP with the exchange rate and the amount coming out of my euro current account & the name of the property.
They respond saying it doesn't show the currency on the bank statement or the transaction so I tell them it's a euro account, its an Irish account and it's default is euro.
Funnily enough, nowhere on the pdf bank statement I downloaded from PTSB does it actual give the currency of the account, or the currency symbol beside the transactions. On my wife's BOI account, its similar there is no sign of the currency of the account or the currency symbol beside the transactions.
When I log into my online banking and scroll down to the transaction it shows the euro symbol beside the transaction but that is not on the statement view if you get me.
I have sent over a page of the pdf statement and a screenshot directly from the online banking app of the transaction showing the euro currency symbol and booking.com keep requesting I show them a bank statement with the currency. On the phone they tell me I will get the refund then next thing I get a message from them saying to provide 1. A statement that shows the Transaction date, 2. Merchant Name, 3. Transaction Amount and 4. Currency Used. I have been onto PTSB, gone into one of their branches and spoke to the manager and that is just the way the statements are.
So, basically I am stuck in limbo. Booking.com want a bank statement showing the currency which is not possible to get and despite showing the transaction from a screenshot from the banking app they are saying it won't suffice.
I have phoned UK Citizens Advice who just suggested I contact the property again and were useless for the most part.
I have separately asked PTSB to do a chargeback but they have said if the property no longer uses a card payment banking system I may not get any joy there.
Genuinely not sure what else to do and I have got my self fairly stressed out over it all with all the calls and the fact there is a complete lack of common sense and feels like there is no options.
Thanks
Booked a hotel apartment last April 2025 for a stay in April 2026 through booking.com, the property charged my card just under £1,200 (over €1,400) at the time of booking.
The booking had free cancellation up to a week before the stay. Plans changed so on 26th February 2026 I cancelled the booking and it was clear that the booking was within the free cancellation period.
After a couple of weeks of no sign of the refund, I contacted the property who gave some excuse that they no longer use card machines for bookings and would need to refund me via a bank payment, so I sent over my bank details. A couple of weeks later still no sign of payment and when I phone the accommodation they keep telling me that they have passed my details onto the accounts department and they cannot give any timeline on when I will received my refund. They wont give me a contact number or email address for their accounts.
In the meantime, I got onto booking.com who have confirmed the property have gone beyond the period to refund me and they will take action, however, the property has not responded to booking.com either. Dealing with booking.com has been heartbreaking, phoning a call center in Egypt where every call means telling the same story, being put on hold while the latest customer service rep gets up to speed by reading the history on it. Then banging your head against a wall when there is complete lack of common sense.
Booking.com have told me they will refund me while they chase the invoice the property, great says I. They want proof of the bank statement so I sent over my PTSB bank statement from last April showing the transaction in GBP with the exchange rate and the amount coming out of my euro current account & the name of the property.
They respond saying it doesn't show the currency on the bank statement or the transaction so I tell them it's a euro account, its an Irish account and it's default is euro.
Funnily enough, nowhere on the pdf bank statement I downloaded from PTSB does it actual give the currency of the account, or the currency symbol beside the transactions. On my wife's BOI account, its similar there is no sign of the currency of the account or the currency symbol beside the transactions.
When I log into my online banking and scroll down to the transaction it shows the euro symbol beside the transaction but that is not on the statement view if you get me.
I have sent over a page of the pdf statement and a screenshot directly from the online banking app of the transaction showing the euro currency symbol and booking.com keep requesting I show them a bank statement with the currency. On the phone they tell me I will get the refund then next thing I get a message from them saying to provide 1. A statement that shows the Transaction date, 2. Merchant Name, 3. Transaction Amount and 4. Currency Used. I have been onto PTSB, gone into one of their branches and spoke to the manager and that is just the way the statements are.
So, basically I am stuck in limbo. Booking.com want a bank statement showing the currency which is not possible to get and despite showing the transaction from a screenshot from the banking app they are saying it won't suffice.
I have phoned UK Citizens Advice who just suggested I contact the property again and were useless for the most part.
I have separately asked PTSB to do a chargeback but they have said if the property no longer uses a card payment banking system I may not get any joy there.
Genuinely not sure what else to do and I have got my self fairly stressed out over it all with all the calls and the fact there is a complete lack of common sense and feels like there is no options.
Thanks
