Halalbooking Confirmed My Hotel Reservation but the Hotel Had No Booking
I made reservation No. 1876438 through Halalbooking at Concordia Celes Beach Hotel for two adults, with check-in scheduled for Saturday, September 12. My payment was collected, and the reservation was clearly marked as confirmed in the app.
When we arrived in Antalya and tried to check in, the hotel told us that the reservation had been canceled on its end several days earlier and that no booking under our names appeared in its system. Despite this, the reservation was still showing as confirmed in the Halalbooking app. Because we had not received timely notification that the booking had been canceled, we traveled relying on the confirmed reservation and faced a serious problem when we arrived at the hotel.
One of the biggest issues at that point was our inability to contact Halalbooking. Since it was the weekend, Turkish-language phone support was unavailable. However, even after calling the English-language support line repeatedly, our calls went unanswered, and we were unable to reach anyone despite waiting for a long time. We then sent a message through the app, but we did not receive a timely response there either.
By the time Halalbooking eventually got back to us, it was already quite late. We were offered some alternative hotels, but the availability of these options was uncertain. We no longer had time to wait for the suggestions to be confirmed, so we had no choice but to find another hotel ourselves and make our own accommodation arrangements.
After the incident, we continued corresponding with Halalbooking by email. I received a full refund, and a Platinum membership was added to my account. However, the Platinum membership did not adequately compensate for the loss of trust or the distress and inconvenience we experienced.
The issue is not simply about getting the reservation fee refunded. We traveled in reliance on a booking that appeared to be confirmed, only to discover that no reservation existed when we arrived at the hotel. We were unable to reach customer support for an extended period during an urgent situation, received a delayed response to our in-app message, and were ultimately left to deal with uncertain alternative arrangements on our own. All of this caused significant wasted time, stress, and inconvenience. I also do not believe that our subsequent email correspondence brought the matter to a satisfactory conclusion from our perspective.
I request that this experience not be treated as resolved merely by issuing a refund and providing a symbolic membership upgrade. As a customer, I expect reasonable and genuinely satisfactory compensation for what we went through. I also expect Halalbooking to review and improve both its hotel system integration and, in particular, its customer support procedures for weekends and emergencies, so that other customers do not experience the same situation.