By Birgit Bürkner
Old cobblestone streets, lively squares, quaint cafés… Monique P. (34) was looking forward to her vacation in Malmö. But then the trip became the most expensive of her life.
At the beginning of July, the Berlin administrative employee booked a six-day stay in a hotel in the Swedish coastal town for her partner and herself on the online portal booking.com. “We wanted to enjoy the sun, country and culture,” she says.
She paid the costs of 604.60 euros in local currency: 6898.48 SEK (Swedish kronor) via payment service provider Paypal.
The next morning the surprise: 4914.45 euros had been debited from her account!
“I’m really excited to go to my bank,” she reports. “The branch manager discovered that the amount had not been collected in Swedish Krona, SEK, but in Singapore Dollars, SGD.” Cancellation!
Now she was in debt with Paypal. Paypal told her she had no reason to get the money back. Because: “The payment was authorized.” So she transferred the sum back to Paypal. From there she went to booking.com…
Two months of phone calls and chats with booking.com. New employees kept demanding the same evidence (“…official letter from your bank…”, letter from Paypal that the dispute had been resolved).
In between Malmö. “We couldn’t relax,” says Monique P.
Despite setting a deadline by a lawyer and initiating a European payment order procedure – no reaction from the Dutch company!
Only upon BZ request does booking.com announce the “refund of the additional accommodation costs that were incorrectly charged to the customer”. Monique P. grateful, but still angry: “Who knows how many customers still have to fight for their money.”