Holidays ruined by a single click: the pitfalls of online bookings

Sometimes it’s the most unexpected email, just a few hours before you’re due to set off: ‘Congratulations, your cancellation has been successfully processed’, when, of course, it had never even crossed your mind to ruin your holiday yourself – and, what’s more, without any warning.

At other times, the surprise is delayed and therefore all the more bitter: the property you’ve booked (and paid for well in advance) is occupied by strangers, or, as soon as you step through the door, the interior turns out to be very different from the promotional photos that had piqued your interest – and prompted you to pay immediately by credit card – and from which you’d be better off making a swift getaway.

In this age of the internet, holidays often turn out to be a source of disappointment and frustration, especially when holidaymakers realise their concerns fall on deaf ears: chatbots that redirect you to offshore call centres, which simply hide behind watertight company policies. The hours tick by, frustration mounts, and the holiday – assuming it can even begin or continue – is already consigned to the album of worst memories.

Whether these ‘misunderstandings’ involving ‘Tourists 2.0’ stem from shady practices of speculative overbooking (where the last to book pays more and thus supersedes the earlier booking, sold at a lower price) or poorly trained algorithms, it ultimately matters little. Because the underlying problem is another, much more general one: digital intermediation platforms have revolutionised the way contracts are concluded – indeed, the contract itself – rendering the concept of reliance meaningless and, even more so, the idea that there might be a judge in Berlin or Turin, Lampedusa or Reykjavík, Amsterdam or Düsseldorf who would listen to and grant redress to the disappointed or quasi-deceived holidaymaker.

In reality, those offering digital intermediary services have already mapped out a step-by-step process in which the user has no choice but to accept everything that happens within it, without having any say in the matter. Do you ask to be re-accommodated (i.e. to receive a service equivalent to or better than the one that has been lost)? There’s no provision for this; you have to sort it out yourself by finding alternative accommodation, making a second payment in advance and waiting patiently for a refund of the money you paid out months earlier.