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Booking.com marketings tricks and business tactics

As it happens with any traveler, I am using the big four trip booking companies - Booking, Expedia, Trip Advisor, AirBnB or Canadian equivalents. Over the years, I discussed with many hotel/lodging owners and everyone is saying they are not happy with the way they are represented and the cut the brokers are getting for only providing an interface and a common entry point for travelers.

The broker companies offer convenience and service aggregation, a unique marketing platform and convenience for the user. It is a warehouse for a service (lodging), but many of the reviews are fake, misrepresenting the  reality. I realized there is competition about reviews, many companies are trying to get more and also veto the ones outside "reality". It is better to read the more recent ones. Companies like Google, Yelp (with many question marks), Trip Advisor are vying for people posting their last impressions or even their vacation photos. The reality is that the algorithms to promote the "most helpful" review can be played by fake reviewers. As a simple example, look at the online presence of any store and select items based on reviews and you may get items with one review and a maximum score in front of items with hundreds of reviews and a lesser score.

There is also the subjectivity of the review, where some visitors are asking for conveniences available to different entry prices or comparing apples with oranges.

There is also a phenomenon which surprised me: the hustle side or the "deal at any price" pushed by the brokers although they know of the the poor quality service and of many complains of the companies they are representing. I will exemplify with two personal cases.

This is the last room at this price

I was planning a trip to New York State to visit Watkins Glen and decided to stay in the area in the town of Bath. There is only one hotel in town and, as in any upstate New York county, not very crowded. Booking.com had the audacity after booking the room (but not committing) to insist that there are not many rooms available left. The reality was totally different: in the whole hotel, when we arrived there were less than 5 rooms booked.

Fudging the ratings and representing shoddy businesses

I learn this lesson the hard way. I was visiting Orlando for a week and needed to rent a car. The company I got from Booking.com had (on their website) good ratings. I never had any problems with car renting companies and I knew all the tricks used in the book, but this one surpassed the legal threshold. After I refused insurance and the optional RFID device for highways, I signed the contract and left. They could not print or send by email the contract right away and it arrived in my inbox after a few days. In the midst of a Disney vacation I did not pay attention to it. They in fact modified it (it was a simple PDF file) and just put my signature for a contract with insurance and having the RFID tag included (which I did not received, paying all highways at the man handled booths). I called Booking.com, argued with them and explained the situation. Maybe I was the only stupid in town, but then I found the Google reviews (for the named company). They were so bad that it made me cringe at the audacity of the car renting company to change the contract as per their will and still be in business. More so, when many people were schemed in the same way.

Booking.com should not support those companies in any circumstances, but hey, money doesn't smell and the companies ratings are just for more eye-balls, all should earn a living.

Summary

Don't believe in the rating system of the companies represented by Booking.com and search for other reviews. Booking.com is turning a blind eye to the shoddy practices of some of the car rental companies to the detriment of their paying customers.
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