Book accommodation through Booking.com

Booking.com is originally a Dutch site. In 1996 Geert-Jan Bruinsma founded the website Bookings.nl. Since 2005 the site is called Booking.com. Today, the site is active worldwide in mediating between hotels and visitors. Consumers find and reserve an accommodation via the site. Hotels pay commission for this per reservation. Booking.com is the market leader and almost all hotels are connected to it.

The range of hotels on Booking.com is dizzyingly large. It is impossible to make a choice if you do not have a clear idea of ​​what you are looking for. So where do you want to go and in what period? You search most accurately when you have a place or region and a date in mind. A broader search by country or region, or without a date, is also possible. But that is very time consuming. In this article we assume a stay of two nights in Maastricht at the end of the summer. Of course you search for other places and days yourself, but the actions are similar.

You do not need an account to search for hotels. The moment you make a reservation, you create an account. Most hotels require a credit card. Unfortunately, it is often not possible to book without a credit card, even if you only pay at the hotel itself.

• Open the website www.booking.com
• The site opens automatically in Dutch. Isn’t that happening? Click on the flag at the top and click Dutch.
• Also check for the euro sign at the top. Isn’t this there? Then click on the currency sign that is there and click on Euro.

If the language and currency are correct, it’s time to start looking.

• In the ‘Where are you going’ box, type the city name.
• Suggestions for the place you mean appear as you type. Click on the correct suggestion.
• Click on the box Check in check out.
• A calendar appears. The months can be adjusted with the triangle arrows at the top of the calendar. Click on the arrows to open the month in which you want to travel.
• Click on the desired arrival day. The box next to the date turns blue.
• Click on the desired departure day. The calendar disappears and the two dates are entered in the box.
• Click on the box 2 adults – 0 children – 1 room.
• Click on the plus or minus sign to adjust the number of travelers and the number of rooms you want.
• click on Search.

A list of results will appear.

It looks a bit messy. In the image above, numbers are next to the red boxes. See below which information belongs to the figures.

1. Overview of your search, so location, dates and number of people.
2. The available filters to refine the result.
3. A photo and short description of the hotels.
4. The total price for the desired trip. This is the price for the cheapest available room. Usually there are several options available.
5. The rating of other guests in a number from 0 to 10.
6. Choices for sorting the results. Here ‘Top Picks’ is active. It is not stated how Booking.com arrives at this selection.

To cancel or not to cancel?

The accommodations found can offer rooms in all kinds of variants. For example without breakfast, or slightly more expensive with breakfast. Free cancellation up to a few days before departure is often possible. This is useful if you want to be flexible. For example, to go somewhere else in bad weather.

Booking.com sometimes lists a lot of accommodations for you to choose from. In our example, 72 options come out. It’s too time consuming to look at them all. That’s why we’re going to filter. This means that we click on things that we find important about the hotel. The hotels that do not comply with this will disappear from the list. This is done with the help of the ‘Filter on’ section, in the lower left corner of the screen (number 2 in the image above). We wish that breakfast is included, that there is free internet and we want to sleep in two separate beds. In addition, we are looking for a hotel that other people love and with a rating higher than an 8.

• Click on ‘Filter on’ on Breakfast included.
• Click further down on Free WIFI.
• click on Double bed.
• click on Very good. 8+.

Of course you click here on the parts that you find important. A smaller number of accommodations remain, in our example 18. This is still a large number to look at piece by piece. We see that the first hit is quite pricey. We prefer a cheaper hotel. That is why we sort the results by price.

• Click above the hits in the narrow bar (number 6 in the image) Price (lowest first).

The hotels are listed in a different order, with the lowest price first.

One of the hotels shown seems like something to us. We want to know more about the hotel and the rooms.

• Click on the name of the hotel.
• An overview appears. Here is a large photo, with the other photos below at number 2. Click on a small photo to enlarge it. Above the photo at 1 are the different tabs where you can read more about the hotel. We would like to know what other guests have to say about this hotel.

• Click at the top Guest reviews to read comments from previous guests.
• A box opens on the right with other people’s reviews. After reading, click an empty space outside the box to close the reviews.
• This appeals to us. We are going to see which rooms are available. Click in the tab bar on Info and prices.
• Our example hotel has only one room type available. That’s a shame, because we like to have the choice. We decide to look at another hotel. The hotel was opened in a new tab in our internet program. Close this tab and click on the tab with the overview of all hotels found in Maastricht.

Every time you click on the name of an accommodation in the overview, the information opens in a new tab. Handy if you have several places in mind and want to compare them. Finally you have found the hotel you want to book. With the hotel’s page open, it goes like this:

• Click above the large photo of the hotel Book now.
• The page scrolls to show the rooms and prices. Click on the room types to read more about them.
• Click on the room type that appeals to you.
• To the right of the selected offer, click on the drop-down menu of the desired option.
• The total amount is shown on the right of the table. Check whether you have clicked on the correct room and whether the offer corresponds to the price you expected. Also check whether options such as free breakfast and free cancellation belong to the chosen room. If you do not opt ​​for free cancellation, you are obliged to pay the amount, even if your trip cannot take place.
• Everything fine? click on I’m going to book.

In this article, we assume that you have never booked a room through Booking.com before. So you don’t have an account yet. If you have been active on Booking.com before, you have an account and you can log in with your email address and password. A lot of data is already filled in, such as payment information.

• Now Booking.com wants to know everything about you. You will see an overview of your booking and a questionnaire. On the left it says that you don’t have to pay anything yet:

• Enter the desired information. The boxes with an asterisk are mandatory.
• Additional options are listed under your personal data, such as whether you want a taxi and the like. Be careful not to click on options that you don’t really want.
• click on Next step: the latest data.
• On the new page you also fill in some information. Here too, the boxes with an asterisk are mandatory.
• At ‘How would you like to pay’ you must enter credit card information. Most hotels want this information to have some sort of guarantee that you will come. You usually don’t have to pay anything in advance, but if you don’t show up, the hotel can recover the costs via the credit card. Select your card type, enter the number and expiry date.
• Below the colored box it says “Access member-exclusive deals like millions of other email subscribers” with a check mark in front of it. Sign up for email newsletters. If you do not want this, click on the check mark so that it disappears.
• click on Complete booking.
• The progress of the reservation is shown in a blue window. When this is done, you will be returned to the Booking.com website. In a window you will be asked to create a password. This is intended for logging in to view and manage your booking. Enter a password and click Create my password.
• You will arrive at an overview page. You can close the website.
• You will receive a confirmation by e-mail. The first email contains a link that you must click. Only then can you log in and further manage your booking. You will also receive an email about this reservation.

You do not need to bring any papers to the hotel, your reservation can be found on the basis of your last name.

Have you booked a hotel where you can cancel free of charge? The reservation states until when that is possible. Can’t go through your trip and are you in time to cancel? Then proceed as follows to cancel the booking. Make sure you have confirmed your account via the email from Booking.com.

• Open the email with your booking confirmation.
• click on Change your booking.
• An overview of your reservation will appear. click on Cancel your booking.
• Click on one of the reasons for cancellation. Without this, the booking cannot be canceled.
• Click in the window on Yes, cancel this booking.
• click on OK.

This is currently the most convenient way to cancel a booking.