DEAR TRAVEL TROUBLESHOOTER: I have a reservation with a hotel in Cancun, Mexico, through Booking.com. It is during the high season, and I was concerned that the hotel might be full and that my reservation would not be honored.

So, I reached out to Booking.com and the hotel. The hotel hasn’t responded to my messages, emails or phone calls. I contacted Booking.com, and it promised to attempt further contact by email and phone but carefully avoided mentioning a proposed action if the hotel fails to respond.

Booking.com has insisted that the booking is valid, but that I must wait until my arrival at the hotel to discover if my reservation will be honored. If the hotel doesn’t honor the reservation, Booking.com suggests that I call it for help.

I’m concerned that if I have to call Booking.com, it will be an expensive international call. If another hotel is available during the peak season, there will certainly be significant additional costs. If there are no vacancies, am I to sleep in the street?

Booking.com says I must endure this uncertainty. I would like to cancel my reservation, but the booking is nonrefundable. My impression of their customer service is that there is a concern for protocols and a complete disregard for guests. Will you please assist?

— David Marsh, West Midlands, England

ANSWER: Strictly speaking, your Booking.com reservation is nonrefundable, so the platform is entitled to keep your money. But it should also respond to your messages, and if you’re not hearing anything, this is a sign of trouble.

There’s no rule that a hotel has to be responsive to a guest after a reservation is made. But common sense tells you that if a hotel accepts your reservation, it should be able to answer a few questions about the room and also independently confirm your reservation.

Now, to be fair, Booking.com did send you a confirmation, and in a follow-up email, it confirmed that the reservation was a contract. But reading between the lines of your paper trail, it looks as if even Booking.com was starting to get worried. What if the hotel had no intention of honoring your reservation? Would you have to sleep on the sidewalk?

You followed all the steps to a resolution. You reached out to the hotel by email, phone and text message. Then you contacted Booking.com. (You could have also escalated your case to one of the Booking.com customer service executives. I publish their names, numbers and email addresses on my consumer advocacy site, Elliott.org.)

I think it’s absolutely reasonable to expect a hotel to answer your questions after you’ve made a reservation, especially if it’s completely nonrefundable. The hotel should have offered you written assurance that it had a room for you.

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Reading between the lines, I can see why you were concerned. You had found an excellent room rate on Booking.com — almost too good to be true. When I reached out to Booking.com on your behalf, a representative confirmed your story. She said Booking.com had verified your reservation and reached out to the property on your behalf. Booking.com also promised to cancel your nonrefundable reservation for free if contact was not made. And after receiving no response from the hotel, Booking.com did as it promised.

“We can confirm the reservation has been canceled, and our team is working to process a refund,” the Booking.com representative told me. You reviewed your credit card records and found that the hotel had not charged you yet, so you were in the clear.

Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy, a nonprofit organization that helps consumers solve their problems. Email him at [email protected] or get help by contacting him at elliottadvocacy.org/help/.
(c) 2025 Christopher Elliott
Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

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