Bookabach Reviews 101

Stay away from Bookabach / HomeAway. I booked a cottage over Easter but had to cancel due to Covid 19. I cancelled on 23 March but still haven't received any refund, despite many emails. Every email from them has said something quite different as to the amount to be refunded and there seems to be no contact phone number. I asked the owner to help and while they acknowledged they received contact from her, they still haven't refunded a cent. She also said she hasn't received anything. AirBnB may be more pricey but they are way more transparent and refund pretty quickly if you have to cancel. I will never use Bookabach again.

Bookabach had confirmation of my cancellation with full refund on 18/03/2020, now they have told me that it will be the end of April before I am refunded. That is way too long. They are no longer processing bookings so surely they can process refunds in a more timely fashion. What's going on bookabach?

Bookabach website has probelms with booking interface and regardless of availability doesn't allow to complete booking. However payments are deducted. This could be minor technical issue , but their Customer Support is absolutely useless. Takes ages to get answers and usually those are generic sentences asking to address complaints to property owner. About Corona virus those guys didn't hear yet (despite their site announcement). So if you cancelled due to the virus risk, good luck getting your refund .
If you want to keep your holiday mood, better book with somebody else !

Their response to COVID-19 has been abysmal.
Now I have travellers complaining because their refunds are taking too long.
I really enjoyed their comment about my rating going down because I processed cancellations.
When this shut sandwich is over I am taking my property off their website.
Website was bl**Dy awful anyway

From what I see.... your reviews are about the new HomeAway x BookaBach website.
This company takes & holds your money, even before the owner or property manager receives your enquiry/booking request.
Even though your booking is not confirmed.

HomeAway only payout for your stay afterwards - so any criticisms re holding your payment (taken by them before your booking has been confirmed) really should be directed at HomeAway.
I hope this helps...

Yep. Totally agree with the negative reviews here. Properties show available until, after paying, they're not.
Stuffed us around twice in this manner. Left in the lurch trying to find somewhere to stay.
Airbnb is a ripoff, but there is transparency, accountability and ethics. Plus, you get to communicate direct with the owner prior to booking, so you know who you're dealing with.
As an Aussie, I like NZ, and have traveled here lots. But guess what Kiwis, not coming back. Leave you to your Chinese, billionaire Yanks and Euro backpackers

Cancelled and told us of a double booking just 6 business days out from our booking. Seven adults have booked holiday leave and booked pets in for a peak time. Refund will take 5 business days. I WON'T book here again or recommend!!

If you're thinking about booking a bach through Bookabach, don't! The owner can cancel at any time, and also keep the money you've already paid. Then it's up to YOU to chase Bookabach for a full refund.

Was disappointed that they take a bond of $500 on the day of your booking to only get it back 7 days after check out. This is ridiculous. Can't they take the bond on the day of check in? This is interest on my account that I'm loosing out of and their gaining interest. Also, we arrived at the house at 3pm, an hour after check in and I had to Google the number of the Company to get the key lock code. Thank goodness we didn't arrive at our destination after hours, as they (the owner and bookabach) couldn't be bothered to send me the code. I've emailed them twice asking for the address and the code and still had to call. Lucky managed to sign into my bookabach account after forgetting the password to see the address on the app. Our holiday could have been a disaster with no accommodation on arrival. Quick to take your money, but no service or communication on how to access or where to find the property.

We booked a bach for April 2020 in the Marlborough Sounds. We made the booking in August 2019 some 8 months prior to our intended ten day holiday. The calendar on bookabach showed the property was vacant. We put in a formal request for the property and the next day we received confirmation our application had been accepted. We paid a $500+ deposit with the alleged guarantee from bookabach giving us a false sense of security. A few days later the property owner contacted us and said the website had failed to apply Easter rates for 4 of the 10 day stay. The owner requested we pay the "shortfall" of $40 to her privately. This was on top of the $1700+ for the 10 days. We reluctantly paid the extra $40 to avoid any hassles. The owner advised us to contact her privately for any future bookings so bookabach fees can be avoided. Money is obviously extremely important to this owner. All four of us booked time off work and also booked and paid for the $700+ rail ferry crossing with our vehicle etc. A month after we paid the deposit the owner contacted us again and stated she was canceling our booking as she had double booked. She claimed to have accepted a booking privately from Australia for April 2020 back in January 2019 and had overlooked that. We didn't believe that for a moment. She had numerous opportunities to sight the alleged double booking at the time. I would also think someone booking your property 15 months ahead of time would be unusual and not something you'd forget in a hurry. We believe a valued customer who had stayed previously had made the booking with her privately in the weeks after our booking. Their booking attracts no bookabach fees and she didn't want to risk losing them long term by saying no so she threw us under the bus. The owner made a perfunctory attempt to book us in elsewhere but that property was unsuitable. We contacted bookabach about what had unfolded to seek their input. They were astonishingly useless. They informed us the property owner was permitted to cancel a booking at any time for any reason. Their guarantee is little more than a charade. Our much anticipated holiday was turned into a farcical nightmare by a greedy inept property owner and the utterly useless bookabach website.

These people are untrustworthy. They withdraw unfavorable reviews and thus mislead prospective renters. Buyer beware!!

Avoid using this company the home owners can just change their mind when ever they want even after a hold has been placed on your credit card, the home owners never respond to emails, it is a very poor system, they also have terrible customer service it is just a philipino call center and the staff lie to you and avoid answering questions or fixing problems. companies like this should not be allowed to operate.

We were looking forward to going on our holiday and it was the first time we had been out the country together as a family.
We arrived at the airport and we did not have any airport transfers waiting like the property manager said we would with a 5year old child after a 4 hour flight at 8:50pm.
After he finally arrived he proceeded to tell us that he has people staying in the the accommodation and Bookabach did not C'C him in on the CONFIRMED email for the dates we requested, we then had no accommodation and Bookabach think they have no responsibility at fixing this mess.
I must say your staff are very incompetent if thats all it would have taken for us to get our BOOKED accommodation.

Stay away from this
Awful customer service, the website has no responsibility for property owners at all. They decline your offer, change their mind, demand you to pay more than what was pointed on website and you as a renter have no rights at all. Lucky to have your money back, time and nerves wasted. Total disappointment :(

Booked 3 times, including credit card details and never got a confirmation, just a "pending" notification. Website impossible to find contact details.

I tried to book 2 places for Easter, one declined with no reason and the other never responded. We were booking a week out and it seemed like the owners were holding out for longer rentals which bookabach says is not allowed but seems to go on. I wasted hours looking for accommodation. Eventually I went to Airbnb and booked straight away.

Terrible customer service. I used to list a couple of properties on the site but when Expedia brought it they didn't care at all. Will never use again

On arriving back in NZ after 20 years in Australia I found bookabatch to use for batch accommodation and although it seemed very behind in its business systems and website was quite non user friendly. I continued to use it after having an issue with the length of time bonds THEN full amounts were asked for long in advance and got a reply from someone with no skills in positive communication or conflict management.
After 7 years of choosing Book a Batch we will NEVER use them again.
We got in to book a full year in advance on a property unexpected circumstances changed those plans. We have now lost $159 deposit. That’s ridiculous. 12 months notice.
I understand deposits and booking fees are there to deter last minute cancellations to protect the business of book a batch and it’s batch owners. However, after 7 years, clearly not a valued client. A years warning to change. You both have ample opportunity to rebook the space.
In the meantime you have lost us.
We don’t drink or smoke, ive always left properties as found OR in a few cases much cleaner which gave me excellent reviews and made me eligible for 10% discount with some properties given i had more than 5 (9 reviews). Which is used a couple of times.
So now treated like a number.
I will never use bookabatch again, I will never refer or promote bookabatch to anyone.

Booked an Apartment in Russell New Zealand. I incorrectly booked the wrong dates 10 weeks in advance then when I asked the owner if I could change the dates (as payment had already been made) they said no as family & friends were staying at the property. The owner refused to acknowledge my attempt to change the dates (even though my email confirmed my request). I had no other option but to contact bookabach.

I had success in contacting Bookabach online, and they responded quickly.

After several attempts of trying to contact the owner to gain a satisfactory outcome Bookabach contacted the owner with no success, and yes the owner still has my money!

Would not recommend book a batch!

If it was possible I would give Bookabach a rating of negative 1. I used the website to book a cottage in Oamaru New Zealand. The owner cancelled the booking 10 days prior to us checking in.We had booked the cottage 6 weeks earlier and I did a bank transfer. Not knowing that money would go straight to the owners bank account. The owner refused to acknowledge the funds (even after my bank confirmed that it had gone to their account). The next option was to contact bookabach..I understood that there was buyer protection..... though this is only activated if you use a credit card..

I tried to contact Bookabach via their on line form .. they never replied.. Eventually I found a phone number and spoke to Bookabach representative.

Bookabach contacted the owner then rang me back and said the contract was between myself and the owner and we had to resolve.... the upshot is the owner still has my money for a service that they did not provide.

So ... if you do use use Bookbach ( I would suggest that you don't) please do not do a direct payment.