With the following article, I share my personal experience in the hope that other people will not go through the same discomfort. Additionally, I am a man of my word, and I had “promised” the establishment to make this misdeed known to as many people as possible. So here is the piece.
Let’s go in order. On Monday, March 14th, I booked this accommodation in Madrid for 5 days on Booking.com, at a cost of € 692.
Shortly after, I received an email stating that I would be contacted directly by the property (Holplace Group) for payment (which was already strange since in the years that I have used Booking, I have never had to pay outside the site).
I then received a link for payment on WhatsApp, but my bank repeatedly denied the transaction (probably for security reasons since the link displayed a euro exchange with Bulgarian currency).
So, being unable to pay, I canceled my booking on Booking.com to look for another place.
The following day, I contacted Booking’s customer service and explained what had happened.
They offered to act as intermediaries with the property and find a solution.
After a few hours, Booking informed me that they had resolved the issue and that the property would contact me again with a new link to complete the payment.
Indeed, shortly after, the property sent me a welcome message, a new link for payment (this time functional), and a link to complete the online check-in.
On the afternoon of the 15th, I landed in Madrid, had the taxi drop me off at the address of the property, rang the bell, but no one answered.
I then wrote a message on WhatsApp to Holplace (the company that manages El Spiritu Santo De Tesoro ), and they told me that the booking had been canceled, so there was no apartment available.
The moral of the story: I paid them €692 for an unused property.
When I arrived in Madrid, I had nowhere to sleep, so I had to look for and pay for another place. I have contacted Booking’s customer service several times to at least ask for a refund of these funds.
For the moment, the property is clinging to the fact that the booking was non-refundable. Let’s see how the situation evolves, but in the meantime, it is right that people know to avoid unpleasant inconveniences.
In any case, the city of Madrid is beautiful, and it is worth seeing at least once in a lifetime.
Dario Rabozzi