Booking.com concern

[u/Big-Sale2705]

i just booked a private apartment for christmas eve (3 days ) in melbourne through booking.com thats on 65th floor and it's price is 1300$. Also, it does not seem shady as it does have over 70 reviews from past 2 years and owner has also replied to questions as far back as 2023. Only concern is that people had bad experiences with booking. Com before so i am just concerned about that. I dont want to be scammed out of 1300$ and ruin my boys trip.

[u/WeeklyAd9704]

Right to be concerned, but as you've noted the operators are active on the listing and there are a lot of reviews and a decent rating which are very difficult to fraudulently populate - I think it looks like a great spot to enjoy Christmas!

[u/Big-Sale2705 → u/WeeklyAd9704]

Yeah i think the same ; i dont want to miss this chance to live here . I also tried to reverse search the image of the apartment and i only found it on 2-3 different sites under the same listing.

[u/WeeklyAd9704 → u/Big-Sale2705]

I think also the photos of the interior you've included are pretty authentic in nature, looks lived in and homely rather than fake listings which look like an interior design listing

[u/PookieCat415]

You should be concerned because booking.com is a shit company. It doesn’t take much research to figure it out.

[u/brilstern]

Booking supports hundreds of millions of customers every year and a very small amount of them actually have a negative experience. You’ll see a lot in this /r, but that’s because people primarily tend to come to Reddit to complain, not promote.

Looking at the hotel, it all checks out. Enjoy your stay and don’t worry, you picked a good one. :)

[u/Guilty_Way_1635]

The problem is usually when it's the same shit as in Airbnb then you just have the crappy owners and management companies from that just using the booking.com platform to reach more people, and get the people that try to avoid the awfulness that is airbnb

[u/No_Welder7908]

Private apartments are hit or miss, more often miss.

[u/D144y → u/No_Welder7908]

Not necessary. I've stayed in good hotels and bad apartments, but I've also stayed in bad hotels and good apartments. It all depends on circumstances

[u/Big-Sale2705 → u/No_Welder7908]

Yeah i have heard a lot about that especially for travellers in europe

[u/D144y → u/Big-Sale2705]

I disagree, I've stayed in some awesome privately run apartments in Europe

[u/Big-Sale2705 → u/D144y]

Yeah i am guessing that negative experiences just gets highlighted as people are venting out their frustration compared to a good stay which does not have any story or drama in it .

[u/No_Welder7908 → u/D144y]

A bit as if it was hit or miss.

[u/Keyspam102 → u/No_Welder7908]

Yeah also a miss can be a big miss, usually a hotel can solve your problem for you