In June of this year, I made a reservation through Booking.com for a three bedroom apartment in New York City for the period 26 September – 4 October 2017. The name of the apartment corporation was listed as Bloc Away From Central Park.
The total cost of the apartment was listed as $5227.
Two days prior to our arrival in New York, I contacted the person named in the emails I had received from Bloc Away and let him know our airline flight arrived late on the evening of 26 September. He told me he would leave the apartment unlocked and the keys on the kitchen counter.
We arrived at the apartment building about 9:30 pm on 26 September. It was evident this was a residential apartment building, and the lobby guard seemed unfamiliar with the side business which the apartment management had going with booking.com, and it took some time for us to be allowed to enter the building.
As we finally were allowed in, and exited the elevator on the 8th floor where the apartment we rented is located, we could see the whole floor was under renovation. The hallway carpet still had plastic covering it.
The apartment is a three bedroom apartment, with a living room and kitchen.
We entered our apartment and found the kitchen and one of the bedrooms were completely dark. Nothing was working in either of these rooms.
Two bedrooms and the kitchen had window air conditioner units. The darkened bedroom had a portable air conditioner unit and a halogen lamp.
I immediately went down to the lobby to inform the guard there was no electricity in half the apartment. She contacted maintenance, and a man came and showed me the circuit breaker box by the front door. He showed me where the tripped circuit breaker was and then left.
A minute or so after the maintenance man left, the lights went out again. And this time, they also went out in the master bedroom, as well as one of the kid’s bedrooms and the kitchen.
I opened the circuit breaker panel and found SEVERAL breakers had tripped. As I reset them, the surrounding metal frame of the circuit breaker panel swung down. Three of the four screws which are supposed to secure the panel were missing! It was barely attached to the wall and a major safety hazard.
I reset several circuit breakers, and they immediately tripped again. So I went around the darkened rooms and shut off all light switches, and unplugged all the lamps and air conditioners, and tried again.
The circuit breakers all tripped again.
I contacted the lobby again, and they informed me the maintenance people had left for the night, and they informed me the apartment manager would not be back until 9 o’clock the following morning.
So I called booking.com and expressed my outrage to them they had booked us into a firetrap, and demanded they immediately relocate us. They told me there was nothing they could do until the apartment manager returned in the morning.
We spent the evening in a darkened, hot apartment. The temperature approached 100 degrees.
I also noticed the air conditioner in the kitchen had a power cord which could not reach any outlet in the kitchen. It was too far away!
This whole deal was an obvious sham from the start.
The following morning, I contacted booking.com at 9 sharp. They contacted the apartment manager while I was put on hold, and then booking.com informed me the apartment manager would respond to our situation in TWO OR THREE DAYS!
We were booked for eight nights. They wanted us to live in the dark in a firetrap for three out of those eight nights.
This apartment was clearly not completed with its renovations, and there was something seriously wrong with the wiring. I absolutely was not going to live for three days in a $5227 firetrap with no electricity, and put the safety of my wife and children at risk.
Booking.com refused to relocate us, so we were forced to pack up and leave and find a place in New York City on our own with no notice. It was at this point I contacted my bank to cancel the $5227 charges to my credit card.
Avoid Booking.com at all costs when planning a trip.
