It’s fair to say that I’m not entirely convinced by apartments when travelling overseas. In many cities they’re doing some damage to the local housing market so that locals can’t afford to live in their community which feels entirely sub-optimal. I always prefer hotels where I can check in without some complex sequence of messages, access instructions and attempts to locate the entrance. However, as Jonathan correctly pointed out, for much of Bosnia and Herzegovina there was a shortage of hotels and so apartments were our only real option. That also proved to be the case in Croatia, where again the number of hotels was often relatively low.
In the main, it all went OK for us, with Jonathan in charge of getting in touch with the property owners. We had a wait or two to get in some places, and one we couldn’t initially find, but it did work out. It was also inexpensive, with an entire apartment often costing less than £30 for the night between us.
Matters did not go well in Split, where we were already short on time because we had only one evening in the city. We had deliberately booked centrally, paid more for the convenience and found the property relatively easily. On arrival, however, we were given a tiny alternative which did not match the more expensive accommodation shown in our reservation. When we raised the discrepancy, the owners refused to provide the accommodation we had booked or offer an acceptable solution, despite having the opportunity to do so. It felt very much like a bait and switch, and I was not prepared to stay there and simply accept the situation.
Booking.com handled the situation very positively. Its customer service team agreed that the accommodation did not match the reservation, arranged a full refund and helped us secure an alternative at short notice. The replacement was not entirely flawless, but it was a substantial improvement and allowed us to continue with our evening in Split rather than spending it engaged in increasingly detailed accommodation negotiations. Indeed, there were nearly no hotels available in the city, so we were quite dependent on Booking.com coming up with some solution.
I subsequently found reviews from other guests describing similar experiences, which suggested that this was not an isolated mistake. The moral of this little story is to reject inadequate accommodation immediately and raise the discrepancy with Booking.com. In my experience, the company has traditionally been effective at protecting customers and its platform when a property does not match the listing. On this occasion, the owners refused to provide what we had paid for, but Booking.com ensured that they did not benefit financially from doing so. With the problem finally resolved, we were able to explore Diocletian’s Palace and enjoy the delights of Split rather than spending our only evening arguing about accommodation.
As for me, I switched to hotels for the rest of my trip and I’m pleased to say that there were no disasters.