1,104.84 euros gone - for services unrendered

Property (I name them in the article) booked via Booking.com ultimately refused to refund me when my flights were cancelled due to closed air space due to war

Here’s my 1,104.84 euro loss story.

At the very least, the world is going to know about this.

1,100 euros is a lot of money to me. I decided to pay this much and book the property that I booked: SeNo6 apartments in Prague, because it had a very high rating on Booking.com (a 9.7 out of a possible 10), and it was around the corner from where Kevin McKernan (yes, the Kevin McKernan) was going to be staying, so it felt safe. He was also scheduled to speak at the BTC conference in Prague.

As you all know, not only did I miss out on delivering my Keynote Lecture at BTC Prague recently (and a much, much, much needed 2 days of rest), but now I am out 1,104.84 euros as well. The reason?

In two words: Amorality and “Policy”.

Israel, the place where I was flying from, was in a “war” at the time when I was meant to be in Prague for BTC Prague. In fact, the air space was closed on order of the government from the 13th of June until the 1st of July, 2025 - perfectly bookending a trip and talk I’d been planning and working on for months. All flights, even El Al flights, were cancelled. We were told not to come to the airport. It was … shut down.

I was, and remain, devastated. But I had damage control to do whilst running back and forth to bunkers every 3 hours! I did get my flight ticket money back very promptly. I had to initiate it, but I got all of the flight costs back.

Not so on SeNo6 apartments in Prague.

The moment I got the notice that my flight was cancelled, I apprised the property that I was trapped in the country and therefore could not get to Prague, and therefore could not stay at their property for the nights of June 16th - June 21st, inclusive. Unfortunately, they “cancelled the air space” only 2 days after the property’s “5 days to get your money back!” window had passed. I had had no intention of not going, so why would I care about a 5-day cancellation policy? It wasn’t like there was going to be a frikkin’ surprise war, right? (Insert dripping sarcasm here.)

I was extremely cordial with the many property representatives that I spoke to over the following days, and sought any kind of solution - from having a colleague stay in my stead, to getting a partial refund, to getting a voucher for a future stay.

After days of communication with both the property via Whatsapp and via Booking.com’s wesbite, and Booking.com via phone calls, I managed to get Booking.com to agree to provide me with a full refund; all that they required from the property was written consent that they agreed to allow Booking.com to do so.

The property refused and seemed to “misunderstand” that Booking.com had offered to refund me. You decide. Here are their replies.

They finally told me that they were cancelling my booking because they wanted to rebook their property.

Booking.com and the property are currently claiming that since I did not cancel the booking myself, that I am not entitled to a refund of any kind, except for a strange 150 breakfast “reward” pending data.

I am absolutely outraged by this. They rebooked the property for at least 5/6 nights that I was meant to stay there (they rebooked: June 17 - June 21st), so not only did they recoup their losses, they made double on 5/6 of the nights! This is very, very bad business. And it is entirely dishonest, insincere and immoral.

Here’s a timeline:

Timeline:

• i booked SeNo6 apartments months ago from June 16th-22 inclusive

• flight ticket 16th june to june 22

• air space closed 13th june and allegedly until closed until July 1 - flights cancelled

• i informed the property on the 14th that I was trapped in the country and won't be able to make it to prague and stay at their property

• they cancelled the reservation and called me a no-show - i was under the impression that since it was cancelled that i didn't need to cancel it from my end and in fact, couldn't

• i begged them for a refund or partial refund or voucher - many times - i informed them without filters how bad the situation is and how i was not in control of the cancellations

• they said i can get 150 euros back for breakfast BUT there was no option for me to do that on booking.com that i could find using a browser. i explained this to them many times

• i called booking.com and found a lovely representative who told me they are going to contest the property's decision

• i called booking.com again when the property refused to budge again and they told me that THEY (Booking.com) would provide me a full refund and all the property had to do was give written permission that it was ok with them

• the property refused

• at this point the property rebooked 5/6 nights thus recovered their losses

• i called booking.com again and this time, the guy basically hung up on me after telling me 'it's up to the property' even though the property is using the booking.com platform and have currently pretty much stolen 1200 USD from me without justification other than ‘it's their policy to do so’

• i am confounded and have no more patience to call booking.com again - i am running back and forth to bunkers and these dis-compassionate people are just screwing me around

• i might call booking.com again but they keep telling me i have to resolve it with the property and the property is ghosting me now

• the property owners took my money - 1200 USD - and ran

Booking.com wrote an email to me today (July 16th, 2025) and said that I can “claim a 150 euro travel reward” as some kind of booby prize pending providing “more [personal] data from you before we can send it to you”.

Here’s the email from Booking.com sent today: June 16, 2025 at 11:54 am - precisely one month since I was meant to start my stay at SeNo6 apartments.

Best regards. Right.

I am going to leave some select screenshots below as proof of everything that I have written here.

…Screenshots of the pleasantries and slow escalation that ended in ghosting and 1,104.84 euros taken, AND KEPT, FOR SERVICES UNRENDERED.

Truly sorry, not sorry. They hid behind policy refusing to even acknowledge Force Majeure which is actually written into the Booking.com policy. You can read about that here.

They cancelled my booking because they wanted to rebook it (understandable if they gave me a refund), and claimed they would refund me by voucher if they rebooked the property.

They rebooked the property from the 17th of June onward. They may have ‘lost’ the night of the 16th but, they may not have. For sure, they rebooked the 17-21st of June inclusive. I checked.

They refused to waive fees for the duration of the time I was solution-ing by going through Booking.com’s cancellation process. I asked twice through Booking.com. Request declined by property.

Booking.com offered to refund me after the property cancelled, and the property had the nerve to call me a “no-show” even though they knew I wasn’t coming and cancelled my reservation on their end.

At some point during these transgressions, they offered me 450 euros for some reason - an offer that was never provided.

They suggested making an insurance claim. So I did. I always buy travel insurance when I travel. My insurance claim was rejected. And the property representative had the nerve to ask: “Even in those circumstances?”

They never delivered on a voucher, or on a partial refund of 450 euros, or 150 euros for breakfast uneaten.

My insurance policy claim reply.

What the hell good is an insurance policy that doesn’t cover acts of war? Do look up “Force Majeure”.

Like I noted, I tried to get a colleague to stay as a solution and the property representative agreed. Never got to that, however.

I have many, many more screenshots, but you get the point. I was more than reasonable, polite and cordial (I never cursed and you guys know how much I love to curse). I was offered what I would call unreasonable “compensation” for the physical inability to be at the property for the scheduled dates, and then ghosted.

They took my money and ran.

During this time, I have spoken to three representatives of Booking.com. I spent a total of about 3 hours talking to them. Two of them were very sympathetic and helpful. Kudos to Booking.com reps. The final one was not. They actually kind of hung up on me.

I have written to Booking.com customer relations and media relations and have finally been offered this 150 euro breakfast booby prize that I can claim if I give them more personal data as shown above.

So this is what I get for being subjected to losing my conference, all those opportunities to tell the Bitcoin peeps about my work and how to decentralize health data, running like an idiot to bunkers and being polite and fair to people who hide behind policy and claim to be sympathetic to a fellow human being in a bad situation of no making of her own.

The problem I have with this isn’t just the money loss for no reason. The problem I have with this is not one of the three agencies, Booking.com, the property SeNo6 apartments, nor my travel insurance company, provided ANY COMPENSATION - or anything other than pats on the head. After being bounced around like some dumb ball for weeks now, all three of them get away with my hard-earned money (I lost the travel insurance money too), because they were legally-entitled to resort to policy appeals.

WHAT ABOUT PEOPLE? Your businesses exist because of US - we don’t exist for you! How bloody backwards is it that this kind of thing can happen - and quite frequently, I hear! No recompense for the people that make them rich because: policy.

It’s time to take back customer service in travel by holding these businesses accountable. One of the best ways to do this is to out-compete them.

Well you know what, I might just try to do that. And if I do, I am going to put PEOPLE before POLICY. You know what would happen next, right?

And that’s my recent story.