With these threads/(over) reactions - I'm starting to visualize a 70 yo Sheldon Cooper >)

As usual, all the derision is coming from Fodorgarchs. wesleymarsh seems to have unusual requirements, but why so much aggression directed at him? He's sticking to his guns, many disagree, and that's that.

Why do the same posters have to be so insulting? I have reread the thread--what a waste of time, sigh--and wesleymarsh has not insulted anyone, but boy has he been insulted.

Why should people come to this board? It's an active question. The nyl questions general Internet research can;t answer are the really specific and unusual ones, but coming here is just asking for abuse.

Oh, and it's particularly disheartening to see the secret Volunteer Moderators among us dishing out insults. I guess the real, paid editors just dont care about that, but the bar for admission to the secret VM club is mighty low. Of course, agreeing to dirty work for free kind of finds its level.

I have over my 40 some years of travel experienced problems with airlines,hotels, guides, bookings etc. While I can rant as well as anyone ( and, I do ) I usually get over it in 24 hours. IMO, life is too short, and there are far more important things to worry about that a hiccup in traveling and something that doesn't turn out as you envisioned even if it wasn't your fault. In short, all this continuing criticism over a problem that has been dealt with seems an enormous waste of time. My advice is to move on.

But wesleymarsh said, correctly, that he was replying to Fodorites assailing his reasoning. He should ignore them, but how sad is that?? Because he didn't ignore them, and tried to answer their troll-ing remarks, he got further assailed for failing to let it go.

@NewbE
Thank you for your words of support. I sincerely appreciate it. You've pretty much spelled out why I don't participate often. I enjoy sharing my travel discoveries, and I sure do have a lot of them, but the spoilers ruin the experience for me.

I really need specific help when I travel to make me feel safe these days. A lot of strangers don't have patience with me, and a lot of those folk are just nasty people who like to poke fun at others. The world is full of them. There was a woman on SlowTrav, some lover of Paris, who would ride me for every detail I requested. She basically said I must be an idiot because I didn't know how to use Google. Yet, I knew my Google skills were much better than hers. Another woman on Trip Advisor, she actually had the title "Destination Expert," called me a neurotic and an obsessed worrier. I can't imagine calling a stranger these things, but nasty folk don't know any boundaries and they don't care about boundaries.

The upside to this, if your skin is thick and you possess patience and perseverance, you can encounter just one, kind individual who shares a precious detail that is most revealing and important. I returned to this board to ask about an upcoming trip to Paris. If it wasn't for the pop-up ad promoting the Booking apartment I had lost, I never would have created this thread.

Wesley--have you contacted Booking to complain or alert them to take down the picture?

FWIW, I find Booking quite reliable. My only concern is that hotels often have rooms available for my dates but they are not available on Booking. And some hotels have room types that are not in Booking. If you shop only on price, Booking works; if you want something more than just an inexpensive room, you have to do more.

It must have been said before in this thread: booking.com don't charge your CC, the proprietor does. If a property is up and listed as available, it is because the proprietor makes that so through their back end. I've run into B&B proprietors who admitted to me that they didn't always have the time to sit down and update. I think the greater risk of things falling through is with apartment owners and b&b's who list through booking.com. I've booked hotels with them for ages, for work mainly, but also complicated bookings for groups. With hotel listings, never a problem. If there was stuff I needed to sort out it was always with apartments and b&b's. booking.com takes a cut from their listing and their transactions. I always go to a hotel's own website to see if it is cheaper if I book directly.

>>have you contacted Booking to complain or alert them to take down the picture?<<
I realize the thread is getting long. I wrote earlier that my friend who booked the apartment on Booking, because he has a Genius account and swears by everything Booking, wrote the Booking supervisor who handled our cancellation. So far, I haven't heard anything back. If word comes in before I leave for Paris, I'll post it.

I hesitate to even mention that I got a letter from booking.com this week offering me a $50.00 credit on my CC for a booking made before July 31. I took the offer.

I have a Genius account too, but I don't know where it came from or what it means. It just magically appeared. Evidently, I'm no genius.

Let this thread die!!!
Enough love them don't love them, use them , don't use them! Seems nobody is changing any bodies minds here.....
FYI I use them all the time and have had issues , always resolved quickly and efficiently.

<<I just got charged for a hotel that I did not book in Rome and was charged 316 euros for missing the first night. It never showed up in my bookings but they say it was on theirs. They told me a week ago that they would contact the hotel and I still haven't heard anything.>>

This comment was posted a long way up thread but I think was only posted a couple of says ago, so my comment shouldn't be too out of date - dutyfree - isn't your best bet with the credit card company?

Again, I have to thank you for a most informative thread, Wesley.

I think this is an interesting thread. Having just put my toe into AirBnB with its own mixture of uncertainties and discoveries it will help me keep my eyes open for any issues.

I feel a George Bush II saying coming on but managed to control it.


If abroad was like being at home there would be no need to travel :-)

“One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight, for a very long time, of the shore.” -André Gide

“One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight, for a very long time, of the shore.” -André Gide
______________________________
Change the word shore to wallet and post this on the Rick Steves' pickpocket topic.

good luck with AirBnB, bilbo.

I'm still trying to work out what its advantages are over standard B&B. any thoughts?

Great question Ann

1) it's a portal that lets you book like booking.com
2) one of the AirBnB's we booked into had only just become a normal B&B a few days before we walked in, so it is stimulating activity for people who had not thought of offering it, so you deal with people who are a little less "mainstream" customer service types.
3) booking is actually much easier as the APP is smaller and more logical while booking.com is a right pain on a phone
4) my two deals so far were more face-face than most B&Bs I've used, plus you get to access washing machines which is not normally what I get from a B&B
5) Getting a whole appartment for just one night is cool

thanks, bilbo. I've not really found the opportunity to use it yet but when I do, i may be back to ask you for some tips!

Yes , trustworthy. I am using this site for hotel/hostel since 2008. No glitches till now.