Hidden Exchange Rate Costs Increase Booking.com Hotel Charge

I made a reservation through Booking.com for Samama Ajyad Hotel in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, for the dates March 13–20, 2026. In the site settings, the currency was set to Turkish Lira, and all prices were displayed in that currency. Under these conditions, I saw the total amount as $3,890 USD, approved it, and proceeded to the payment step, where I made a one-time payment using my DenizBank credit card.

After completing this transaction on January 7, 2026, around 11:30 PM, I checked my credit card statement and noticed that $4,110 USD had been charged to my card. When I reviewed the payment details, I saw a note stating that the transaction had actually been processed as 14,723.25 SAR, and that the bank converted it to USD at a high overnight exchange rate. Had I made the transaction during business hours, it is clear that I would have paid at a much lower exchange rate; as a result, I was forced to pay an extra amount of approximately $220 USD.

When I contacted my bank, they informed me that exchange rates outside business hours are determined by the Central Bank and that there was nothing they could do. I considered canceling the reservation to reverse the payment, but I did not proceed because I was concerned about losing the hotel availability. Despite sending three messages to Booking.com through the system, I have not received any response so far. In addition, the currency amount on which the room price was calculated was not clearly displayed on the USD pricing screen; the foreign currency amount only became visible after the payment was processed, which came as a complete surprise to me.

I believe that when Booking.com displays prices in USD, it should clearly and transparently show the reference foreign currency amount or the exact foreign currency charge before payment. I consider it unfair and misleading to expose customers to overnight exchange-rate differences that result in a higher actual charge. For this reason, I request a refund of the difference between the $3,890 USD amount shown to me and the $4,110 USD charged to my card, and a clear explanation of this process.

My Booking confirmation code is 6568780**.