A horrified family drove eight hours only to discover that the 'cosy' holiday apartment had gone up in flames and been a 'burnt out' shell for weeks - but was still being advertised on booking.com.
Samantha and George Morris, from Daventry, Northamptonshire, claim they were confronted with what looked like a 'burnt out crack den' when they arrived at their apartment at 9pm on June, 16.
The disgusted couple only stepped inside to take photos for evidence and said it was clear that the property in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, had suffered a serious fire.
It had taken Samantha, 43, and George, 33, eight hours by car to get to the accommodation with children Abbi Grainger, 15, Charlie Grainger, 12, and six-month-old Nancy Morris in tow.
Service technician Samantha claims she immediately contacted the owner of the apartment who said that the property shouldn't have been made available as 'there has been a fire'.
After calling Booking.com, Samantha claims she was reassured that they had a 'duty of care' to help the family and they would get back to her in half an hour.
She says that she never received a phone call but was sent a full £225 refund 30 minutes later and instead the family were left scrambling to find last minute accommodation. They claim they forked out £209 for a hotel 40 minutes away but the 'disastrous weekend was completely ruined'.
Samantha says she made a complaint to Booking.com and was left enraged when they offered her just £18 in credit - which didn't even cover the £60-worth of food they had bought to cook there, which they had to bin.
Where To Stay, the company that owns the apartment, said they 'deeply regretted the inconvenience caused to the family' and they had thought Booking.com would relocate all of those booked in after the blaze.
Booking.com apologised and admitted a 'a number of opportunities were missed', including in relocating Samantha and her family. Samantha said: "We drove eight hours to find it wasn't even there, it looked like they'd had a fire, the door was broken in. It was horrendous.
"It was completely burnt out. It looked like a crack den. I was absolutely devastated. I was trying to hold it together because of the kids.
"I didn't want to cry. It looked like a squatter's den. You could see there had been a fire, the carpet had been pulled up. It's a shame because it looked like it could be a nice place.
"I spoke to the owner and they said Booking.com should never have booked it out.
"I called Booking.com and he sounded sincere. He said he'd speak to the apartment owners and call us back and they had a duty of care to look after us.
"They didn't phone us. I got a refund half an hour later. It's like they don't even care. They just left us there.
"I frantically tried to find somewhere to stay. It was 9pm and there was nowhere to book but we managed to get a Premier Inn about 40 minutes away.#
"It was supposed to be a really nice weekend but it ended up being disastrous. It ruined the whole weekend."
Samantha claims that she booked the one-bedroom apartment two weeks before she was due to stay. She says she was receiving updates from Booking.com on the journey to Scotland and they even sent her a code to access the key.
Samantha said: "We had booking confirmation and they took the money. They looked like beautiful, brand-new apartments.
"We had messages to and fro when we were driving there. It's the fact they'd been messaging us even all the way up there.
"We spent £60 on food that we were going to cook. That went to waste and we had to eat out. They should pay for the hotel and reimburse the food money that we spent. I want some compensation.
"If it was just me and George, it would have been ok, we would have dealt with it. We had a six-month-old in tow. I'll never use Booking.com again."
The apartment is described on Booking.com as an 'entire, cosy, modern flat' with free Wi-Fi and a garden. The website claims that the property 'comes with one bedroom, a kitchen with a fridge, oven, flat screen TV, a seating area and one bathroom equipped with a shower'.
It's rated as 'pleasant' and scores 6.3 out of 10 with one reviewer in May this year describing turning up at the accommodation to find that it was 'inhabitable' because there had been a 'substantial fire' earlier that day. They wrote: "On arrival after a three and a half hour drive there was a Police Scotland notice on the door stating the keys were at the police station.
"On speaking to a neighbour, we discovered that the property had in fact had a substantial fire earlier that day and was inhabitable. As this was the Edinburgh marathon weekend, Harry Styles was playing Murray Field and a festival in Dalkeith, there was absolutely no other accommodation available. Awaiting refund."
Ondrej Liska, director of Where To Stay, said: "We deeply regret the inconvenience and distress that this situation has caused the family in question. We understand that they embarked on their trip with expectations of a comfortable stay, and we regret that we were unable to fulfill this due to circumstances beyond our control.
"As soon as the fire incident occurred at our property in Kirkcaldy, we immediately contacted Booking.com and asked them to either cancel or relocate all our guests including the family you mentioned. We have had to deal with multiple cancellations this month due to this unfortunate event.
"The fire was devastating and has had a huge impact on our business. We have been working diligently to communicate with our customers, explain the situation, and provide them with as much support as possible during this challenging time.
"It was our understanding that Booking.com would handle the cancellation or relocation of all upcoming reservations, but it seems there was an oversight in this case. We acknowledge the inconvenience this has caused to the family and empathize with their situation.
"As a family-run business ourselves, we understand the importance of holidays and the memories associated with them, and we deeply regret that their experience was marred by this incident.
"We are currently in the process of refurbishing the property, and the costs associated with this are significant. We are doing everything we can to restore the property to its former condition so that we can continue providing our customers with the high-quality accommodation they expect from us.
"In light of this situation, we would like to extend an offer to the affected family. Once our properties are fully operational again, we would be more than happy to accommodate them for a night, free of charge, at any of our apartments. We hope this gesture will, in some small way, help to make amends for the inconvenience they have experienced.
"Once again, we deeply regret the inconvenience caused to the family and other customers affected by this situation. We appreciate your understanding as we work through this difficult period."
A Booking.com spokesperson said: "As this is clearly not the sort of experience we would want for any of our customers, we would like to apologise for the service this customer received. Having investigated, we can see that we missed a number of opportunities to help and support the customer, including with relocation prior to their arrival at the property which was damaged by a fire. As such, we will be refunding the customer in full."
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