Booking com price different at hotel

You can claim a refund for the difference if you happen to find your reservation cheaper on another website.

Just remember to contact us after booking with us and at least 24 hours before your check-in date. You'll need to provide us with the link to the other offer and it must be online and available when we check.

We Price Match checklist

• The other offer must be for the same property and accommodation type.
• The other offer must be for the same check in and check out dates.
• The other offer must have the same cancellation policy and conditions.

When can't you make a claim?

• If the other offer is on a website that doesn’t reveal the property or accommodation type you’ll be staying in until after booking.
• If the other offer is part of a loyalty or rewards programme. We define this type of other offer as any situation where a customer gets a reduced price from a property or other website as a reward for repeat business, logging in, entering a coupon code, referring other customers, or performing any other action which then changes the initially shown price.
• If your current Booking.com booking is a Partner offer, i.e. an offer that's labelled as 'Partner Offer' on our platform (these offers are made available by Booking.com partner companies) or if you're comparing the other offer with one of these Partner Offers on our platform.

Found your booking cheaper elsewhere?

• Look for Found this room cheaper elsewhere? on your confirmation page or in View all bookings.
• No account? Log in with your booking number and pin.
• You can also contact our Customer Care team.

I wonder how the same hotel owner would react if you emailed him and told him you made a mistake reading the amount while booking, and because of this you intend to pay 40 euro less for your stay...

Since you booked it on booking.com the first thing you need to do is to contact booking.com (which you already did) and tell them to accommodate you according to your prepaid booking. You have no interest to be an intermediate between hotel and booking.com. If they cannot accommodate you to this specific hotel - ok, this happens, but in this case they shall accommodate you to a similar location/quality hotel for the original price. Insist to talk to supervisor if the customer care representative is uncooperative.

If they do not cooperate, tell them in this case you will find a similar hotel yourself (using your own definition of what is similar) - and then charge them for the difference between bookings. If they refuse, you would sue them in court. Have to say that my experience with them was generally pleasant; I only had to go once through this routine a few years ago, and was promptly accommodated by supervisor.

Another option you have is to sue the hotel. In many countries the laws bind businesses to honor advertised prices, even if they were posted by mistake. The exceptions are generally limited to "obvious mistakes" - such as 40 cents a night booking. Telling the hotel you intend to sue them might make them more cooperative, and the law might provide for additional damages and even attorney fees. Note that in your case the hotel didn't seem to act in good faith - an e-mail notification sent 12 hours before the reservation could hardly be seen as good faith.

You might also need to explain them that if they posted the "correct" price, you would not stay there, and would find a comparable accommodation. In this case instead of making 40 euro more they might possibly end up with no booking at all. While this is not strictly necessary and doesn't relieve them from their obligations, this would help present it as a valid business dispute and not just a temper tantrum.

Booking travel can often be a stressful process — and this is especially true if you’re looking to get a good deal. Between different hotel chains, online travel agencies, sales and credit card portals, how are you supposed to know where to go?

One of the places you may end up on your search is Booking.com. An online travel agency, or OTA, Booking.com offers something unique: a price match guarantee. The Booking.com price match may be able to help you save money on your vacation, even at the last minute. Here's a look.

What’s a price match guarantee?

There are plenty of ways that companies try to gain your patronage. They may offer special perks to those who book on their website, or a loyalty program designed to reward you for repeat business.

Others offer a price match guarantee, which operates as it sounds — the company guarantees that you’ll find the lowest publicly available prices on their website. If this turns out to be false, they’ll offer to match the price you found elsewhere.

Many different hotel chains do this, including Hyatt, Hilton and Marriott. Plenty of online travel agencies, like Priceline, Orbitz and Hotels.com do, too.

So, does Booking.com have a price match guarantee? It does, but it differentiates what it offers with extra lenient rules.

How the Booking.com price match works

Price matches usually work like this: First, you’ll book a hotel room on your preferred website. After searching other sites and their offerings, you may see that the hotel room is cheaper elsewhere. If so, then, you’ll submit a claim for the price difference for your original booking.

The claim will be reviewed, and if specific criteria are met, you’ll receive a price adjustment to meet the competitor’s pricing. Some sites may even give you an additional discount or bonus points to sweeten the deal.

🤓Nerdy Tip

Hilton and Marriott will not only match the price you’ve found with a competitor, they’ll also give you an additional 25% discount on your booking.

Generally, however, you’ll only have the opportunity to price match within the first 24 hours after booking. Beyond that, the claim is no longer valid. This may be an issue if you’re booking well in advance as hotel prices can fluctuate dramatically.

Booking.com’s best price guarantee extends the amount of time during which you can make a claim. No matter how far in advance you book your accommodation, you’ll be able to submit a price match form — all the way until 24 hours before arrival.

This gives you a lot of leeway when it comes to making a reservation, as well as peace of mind. Be aware that Booking.com’s best price guarantee applies to accommodation bookings only.

Other bookings, such as flights and rental cars, don't receive this benefit.

How to submit a claim for a price match

There are a number of criteria that need to be met for your Booking.com hotel reservation to be eligible for a price match:

• The other offer has to be for the same property and accommodation type.

• The other offer must have the same cancellation policy and conditions.

• The other offer needs to have the same check-in and checkout dates.

Now, you may be wondering: “Does Booking.com price match itself?” The answer to that question is yes. Booking.com has no specific language on its price match page barring customers from price matching its own deals.

There are, however, situations in which a price match request isn't valid:

• If the lower price you’ve found is from a website that doesn’t reveal the property or accommodation type you’ll be reserving until after you’ve booked it. A good example of this is Priceline’s Pricebreakers system.

• If you only receive the offer as a result of being in a loyalty or rewards program, the rate isn't eligible. Think of the member prices you’ll see when booking hotels on Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott — you receive a discount as a member and that would make your price match claim invalid.

• If your booking or the offer you're comparing is labeled as a "Partner offer." That is, the offer is presented by a Booking.com partner company.

Submitting a price match claim is simple. If you have a Booking.com account, you’ll log in. From there, you’ll navigate to your reservation confirmation where you’ll be able to submit a claim.

If you don’t have an account, you can use your booking number and PIN in order to retrieve your reservation. Otherwise, you can call the customer care team to have them submit the claim for you.

🤓Nerdy Tip

If you’re making a booking with an online travel agency, you’ll want to use a credit card that maximizes bonus points on general travel. This includes the Chase Sapphire Reserve® and the Citi Premier® Card, which both earn at least 3x points on travel purchases.

If you’re looking to book with Booking.com

Companies want your business, and they’ll do plenty of things to earn it. Along with loyalty programs and coupon codes, some travel providers will offer a best price guarantee as a way to win you over.

Booking.com is one of these companies, but it separates itself from the rest by offering a more flexible best price guarantee. Unlike others, you can submit a claim for a price match on booking.com beyond 24 hours after booking. Instead, if your reservation is eligible, you can ask to have the price matched at any time — up until 24 hours before arrival.

How to maximize your rewards

You want a travel credit card that prioritizes what’s important to you. Here are our picks for the best travel credit cards of 2022, including those best for:

Why there is a difference of price in hotel booking?

Are hotels more expensive on booking com?

Is it better to book a hotel from booking com?

Why does my booking com price change?