A Taylor Swift fan had concert tickets and accommodation. Then Booking.com pulled the rug out from under him

A Taylor Swift fan says she has “a hard time” with Booking.com after the travel booking giant left her without accommodations for the pop star’s upcoming concert in Toronto.

“I was a bit panicked,” Sarah Fournier told Go Public after the accommodation she had secured earlier, and at a good price, as the dates around the concert were canceled – and then at least the One of them was re-listed at a higher price. price.

“I just knew something was wrong,” she said.

After canceling his reservations, Booking.com refused to help Fournier find similar accommodation at a similar price.

A legal technology expert says her experience shows that consumers can’t be sure that what they book on travel sites is locked down and that they will actually get what is offered to them.

“Often, consumers believe that platforms, in this case like Booking.com, support them,” said Jonathan Penney, a law professor at York University who studies the legal and ethical impacts of technology.

“(Instead) they wiped their hands of it. Walk away and say ‘you’re on your own’. It’s a real problem,” he said, referring to Fournier’s situation.

Booking.com was the world’s most visited travel site last month, with 556 million visits, far ahead of Trip Advisor, Airbnb and Expedia, according to Statista.com.

Prices were up to 8 times higher

When the music megastar announced he was coming to Toronto last August, Fournier immediately began planning a trip from Montreal with his brother and friends for the November 2024 show.

The concert was more than a year away at that point, and Fournier didn’t know if she would get hard-to-get concert tickets — but she knew accommodations would also be in high demand.

“My first thought was to go to Booking.com,” said the 22-year-old.

In early August, she booked the two vacation rentals on Booking.com for her group of four to stay in Toronto from November 21 to 24. She paid about $1,100 and $1,500 for the three nights.

Soon after, they got the concert tickets.

Just when Fournier thought everything was settled, Booking.com pulled the rug out from under him by sending him an email to inform him that his reservations had been canceled.

By then, prices and demand had skyrocketed and the site was listing similar properties for between $3,000 and $8,000, almost eight times higher than when booking was made.

In an email, Booking.com told Go Public that it does not set prices, which are “determined by our lodging partners.” The company also wouldn’t say how much money it makes from bookings on its site.

Booking.com said what happened to Fournier is “extremely rare” and apologized that his “experience was not as smooth as usual given the situation.”

Mixed messages

When Fournier tried to find out why her reservations were canceled, she received mixed messages, with Booking.com and the properties blaming each other.

The online travel booking company told him the reservations had been canceled because the properties were “no longer working”.

But when Fournier called the properties directly, she got different answers.

One of them, Downtown Suites, said its reservation was canceled due to a “problem” on Booking.com’s side. This property told Fournier she could re-book the same place directly through them – but when they repeatedly asked for more money up front than she agreed to, she says she decided not to.

Fournier called the other property, Guestic Front Street, and recorded the conversation.

In the recording Fournier provided to Go Public, a company representative admitted the property was relisted at a higher price after his reservation was canceled.

“You don’t see a problem with that?” » Fournier asked the company representative.

“Absolutely not,” the representative said. “Our goal in business is to maximize profit.”

Guestic told Fournier that his reservation was one of about 60 canceled reservations. He later told Go Public that Guestic is now operating under a different name, but declined to say what it is and which websites its properties are listed on.

Despite what Fournier learned, a Booking.com spokesperson later told Go Public that the company removed the two properties Fournier booked from the site for failing to comply with its terms and conditions. He would not say what specific terms were not respected.

Too little, too late: expert

When Fournier asked Booking.com to help him find similar accommodations at a reasonable price, the company simply sent him a link to similar accommodations that were much more expensive and further away from the concert venue.

The company also says it is “constantly innovating and improving” its security protocols to ensure that the more than 29 million listings on its site are “compliant with local laws and requirements.”

Legal expert Penney says Booking.com’s actions were “far too late.”

“They should do thorough investigations… right from the start before (properties) are allowed on site,” he said.

Booking.com tells Go Public that it has “implemented several measures for reviewing listings,” but only once they are already on the site.

Its terms of service repeatedly state that it is not responsible for resolving problems – that it is the client’s responsibility to manage the properties listed on its site.

But Penney says that even though Booking.com makes “no promises about the services they provide,” under Ontario and Quebec consumer protection laws, the company could still be liable if something goes wrong .

By “acting as agents” for the properties on its site, Penney said Booking.com has a legal responsibility to ensure customers get what is promised.

“There are legal protections for false, misleading or misleading representations that induce consumers to engage in transactions,” he said.

It is unclear whether these requirements were violated in Fournier’s case.

After her concerts were canceled, Fournier says she “had a little bit of depression,” knowing she couldn’t afford to pay much higher rates.

But then a family friend offered the group their place to stay during Taylor Swift’s concert dates.

Fournier says it will be tight and some group members will have to sleep on the floor, but she says she’s grateful to have a spot that won’t be canceled.

As for Booking.com, Fournier says (in true Swiftie style) that they’ll “never get back together.”

“They lost a lot of credibility with my circle of friends, my family,” she said. “I doubt many of them still use Booking.com.”