I recently booked a room in Wellington via Booking.com after having clicked through from ShopBack on one of their 10% cashback deals. The booking included a free taxi from Wellington Airport to the hotel provided by Booking.com.
When I went to book the taxi transfer there was no mention of it on the Booking.com website despite my having screenshots of the booking process clearly stating a taxi transfer was included.
After a lot of back and forth with Booking.com on their chat they then dropped this bombshell:
"Upon checking, you made your reservation in partnership with Shopback. This is a partnership promotion with Booking.com, hence, resulting in your booking not being eligible for the free taxi offer. Your reservation should not be in partnership with any promotion and should only be booked directly through Booking.com website or app."
Nowhere in the Booking.com T&Cs for the promotion nor on ShopBack is this restriction explained. I lost a taxi transfer worth $70 to gain a $30 cashback.
Does this sound legit or are Booking.com being slippery? Hopefully the Shopback rep sees this post and comments too.
Finally, to add insult to injury the Booking.com rep suggested cancelling my booking made via Shopback and rebooking directly to receive the free taxi transfer but when I went to do that the offer was no longer available at my selected hotel.
If you had the energy to, I would push back on that a bit more with your screenshot proof from throughout the booking process. You could state that the restriction they are referring to, was not disclosed to you at any point in your booking process and not included within any of the terms and conditions at the time of booking. Therefore, the deal should be honoured. You made the booking on the basis of the offers presented to you, so for them to deny this down the line without having provided for that restriction within the terms provided to you at the time you booked, is a misrepresentation of the contract you entered into with booking.com when you placed your booking. Just depends if you want to try and fight it further.