I’m not going to try and convince you to use Booking.com but I’ll just explain why I use it to book hotels and why I believe someone should use it based on my experience.
1. Incredible choice
Whether you want to stay in a chic city apartment, a luxury beach resort or a cosy B&B in the countryside, Booking.com provides you a diversity of amazing and breadth of choice options to select from, all in one place.
2.Great look and feel
The look and feel of the website is stunning, providing users the best experience in finding easy what they need. The search form provides you a variety of creative filters, interactive maps and an optimized search engine that will assist you in finding the best accommodation based on your needs. You can filter your search by Budget, popularity, star rating, things to do, beach access, property type, bed preference, facilities, room facilities, neighborhood etc. Have a look at this search to see what options you may have.
3. Secure bookings
Booking.com facilitates hundreds of thousands of transactions every day through their secure platform, and work to the highest standards to guarantee your privacy. I can guarantee you that I’ve never had any issues with them during the last 10 years I’ve been using them.
4. Faster booking process
If you’re a registered customer they already have your details on file so you don’t have to enter them everytime you make a booking.
5. Best possible prices
Booking.com aims to provide its customers the highest customer satisfaction rate mainly due to the competitiveness of pricing, providing the best possible prices.
6. Secret Promotions
As a Booking.com member you’ll get access to secret promotions and discounts e.g. you’ll get an extra 10% off at thousands of popular properties worldwide. Just look out for the Genius logo when you search. Genius accounts also get free travel perks such as late check-out and free airport shuttle.
7. Book now, pay later
Booking.com allows you to book your hotel now and pay it upon check-in or check-out without charging any extra fees before a certain time. When you make a reservation, there may be instances where the hotel will contact your credit/debit card company to confirm that the card you have used is valid and hasn’t been reported lost or stolen. At this time, they may also check to see if the card has enough money to cover the transaction. This is communicated in the form of a pre-authorisation of the full amount of your reservation. The hotel will not proceed with charging your card. The time at which your card will be charged will depend on the terms and conditions linked to your booking.
8. Free Cancellation in most cases
Booking.com allows you to cancel your booking upon a specific date. So if you’ve booked a hotel but your plans have changed, you can cancel the reservation, in most cases, without having to pay any fees. If you have a free cancellation booking, you won’t pay a cancellation fee. If your booking isn’t free to cancel anymore or is non-refundable, you may incur a cancellation fee. Any cancellation fees are determined by the property, and you’ll pay any additional costs to the property. In the example below, I have up to the 12th of April to cancel my booking for free, otherwise, if I decide to cancel it after I will have to pay half the amount of the total booking.
9. Personalised travel guides
When you book your accommodation, Booking.com will generate a personalised travel guide for your destination which includes the top things to do, top attractions, city secrets etc.
10. Excellent Customer Support
You can access their 24/7 customer support team for any assistance you may require in over 40 languages, any time of the day or night.