We booked a holiday home which was listed as having air conditioning in two locations on the listing. This was a must have for us due to small children and older family with breathing issues (therefore air conditioning was necessary due to heat conditions in August). Upon arriving there was no air conditioning and we immediately called the property management group who confirmed the listing was inaccurate and contacted booking.com on our behalf (and apologized for the error and were helpful) but booking.com made the process of resolution difficult from the start. While the property management group was willing to cancel, reimburse, and assist in trying to find a new location - booking.com initially said no to a cancellation and refund. When we finally spoke to them the representative said that we were not meeting our contracted reservation agreement (essentially staying at the property even though the listing was wrong) and air conditioning meant fans (or some sort of rotating air source). We explained that the property managment company was willing to refund and cancel but they still initially said no until finally after multiple back and forth b/w the property management company, owner of the property, and booking.com, they agreed to it. But also requested that we take pictures of the house to confirm no air conditioning which was odd as they had all the pictures on their site and the property managment company confirmed to them there was no air conditioning. The problem with this was that it took time and more back and forth and submission of photos to finally get a cancellation, waving of cancellation fee and refund. So now the issue was not having a place to stay for 6 people and it was late in the afternoon going into night (the complete process took from around 5pm to after 9pm). Initially they said they couldn't relocate us, then another representative said they may have a hotel option for 7 nights (or trip length) which was not what we wanted as our needs were a holiday home with a pool. But after suggesting a listing we saw (that we ended up booking ourselves later in the night) as a replacement they said it was not possible as check in had passed but they were going to contact the listing for us. We were put on hold and the representative did not return and the call was dropped after a while this creating more issues. We called back again and the next representative said they could not relocate us and we would have to find a place on our own. In addition to that, we noticed that the price of the listing we had suggested as a replacement had jumped about roughly €300 euros between when we initallt found and suggested it and when they told us we would have to book it ourselves if we wanted - this was odd and suspicious. So in the end we had to book the new property ourselves at an increased price and it was one night less so we were not able to check in that night and now had to find a one night hotel to stay in. Given the late hour, after 9pm and needing two rooms, and only having one car so we needed to get a taxi for 2 family members - we had to book a relatively close (20 minutes away) hotel for over €300 euros per room and taxi fee to get there. So we did not arrive at the hotel until after 10 or 11pm, having not been able to eat or adequately rest either due to the long process and stress. Given that booking.com suggested and offered relocation, we believe that we should not have had to pay for a hotel for a night and if they had resolved it quicker we may have been able to move to the new location we found (and booked ourselves) the same day and thus mitigated the need for a hotel for a night. We believe we should be compensated for the taxi expenses and hotel expenses incurred for the issues given this was no fault of our own. We have documentation, emails, and invoices for our expenses incurred and can provide as evidence.
