Brum is glum

 Readers of these pages - all one of them - will know I get very upset when things do not go right.  I think systems will and should work and then I go into a pout when they do not and then I beg the organisations concerned to do the right thing and they consistently and repeatedly do the wrong thing. 

I have had many holidays with Booking.com like most of their customers I am at Genius Three level to thank me for the custom I have sent in their direction. I cannot claim, with the small amount I usually pay, to have lined the pockets of all those involved, too much, but the company is doing something "right" as in theory its CEO G Fogel earned $54 million in 2021. despite many of us being unable to travel    On the whole I have been satisfied with their services.  There was that time in France, when our booking did not exist,  but luckily my then  87 year old step-father had efficiently brought all the evidence required and the hotel backed down and accommodated us, so we never had to push booking. com to resolve the issue.  And there was that time in India, where I was staying in a place, that was a fire hazard.  Booking.com operatives handled that so badly it made the rest of my stay in the place very unpleasant.  But given that all of the dealings are dealt with automatically online and I have been to loads of places with them, on the whole, one could say things have been okay with them.  

But it is when the shit hits the fan, that you can judge a business, do they help you or do they complicate things so much they hope you will go away?  Do they promise you good service, apologise when it fails to arrive and then make sure that everything they do is up to the mark, or do they aggravate an already difficult situation?   Based on these two comments,  Booking.com is failing to deliver.  in fact it has added to the stress and distress of a balls up holiday.  

 My health, my phone and booking.com have conspired to give me either really the worse holiday
experience ever, but one that has been very cheap, or they have conspired to give me a horrid holiday and charged me a fortune in the process.    At the moment it is the latter, as all attempts to get some money they promised me has failed to appear.  

It is a shame as the holiday started so nicely.  I had a brilliant day at Cambridge Folk Festival catching up with music and friends. I successfully navigated my way back into town at the end and had a really enjoyable stay at Christ's Cambridge. I felt it was worth pushing the boat out to experience staying there.  It was a pleasure,  and cost £50, plus £12 for breakfast.  I state the amounts as they will offer a contrast for later.    

Christ's vegetable garden in the courtyard. 

On the train I did not rest as much as I could or should have,  I also failed to find anywhere to plug in my phone.    By the time I had got lost on my way to my accommodation, I was desperate to have a sleep.    I could already feel my health and stamina slipping away, and I just knew I needed to lay down.  So imagine my despair, when I was informed by the pub I was staying in, that my accommodation had been cancelled. 

Originally,  I had booked to stay in Birmingham back in October 21 and was delighted to see the prices hadn't been hiked, so then fixed my weekend around that.  Because of my M.E I had built in rest times and travel times, and I felt I could handle the mix of Cambridge for the Festival, Birmingham for the Commonwealth Games and Worcester for a catch up with my friend.  But by the time I hit Birmingham I was already shattered and having to manage a situation where the accommodation had been cancelled, my phone was out of power and the staff at the bar,  without a bed, did not know how to access the internet was very difficult  With my dying power,  I was surprised when the man at Booking.com said that if I paid to stay for three nights at a sports bar for the price of £324,  I could get the balance back afterwards from Booking.com. I was amazed, we had a whole conversation about gosh, Booking.com takes the hit, and so although I was uncomfortable, both with the idea of another sports bar and that price, as I would never spend that money,  at the time that seemed the only choice, so I asked him to hold the bed for me, whilst I tried to find a place to power up my phone and get the internet, and double check the place or decide whether to just go back home.   So I headed back into Birmingham, where in theory I could get power and the internet at the station, but I just could not get anything to work, I just felt more and more ill and could not decide what to do.  So in the end I felt I had no choice but to navigate my way through Birmingham and up to the pub as that was the only thing that had been fixed.  People en route were very kind, so about 10 I found myself wondering down a desolate road, past wasteland, an industrial estate and then into a Peaky Blinders pub on the corner, where I was greeted by a very friendly woman who told me that Booking.com had not been in touch and that they did not have any bed for me. 

To make a long story short, they eventually moved people around and I was put into a room with three beds, a TV that did not work and where the toilet seemed likely to fall of the wall imminently.

The toilet that felt like it might fall off the wall any minute. 

  I was shattered but sleep eluded me, as the late night drinkers outside chatted and smoked the night away, outside my window and up above heaven knows what was happening as it sounded like people moving furniture and drumming and bouncing about.   As I said the next day, if I had known there were having a party I would have joined them.  Eventually I did sleep but I was awake again before 6 as the refuse van seemed to be round. I decided to get up in time for the 7 start to the marathon.  Wending my way round Brum, only getting lost a couple of times, I eventually found the starting point at 7.17, so I had missed the start, but a chance word from one of the officials revealed I had missed the start of the wheelchair race but the men's was starting at 9 and the women's at 9.30.    I headed back to the market open around the corner and got myself a cup of tea and enjoyed the build up to the race. I stood next to David Weir as he manoeuvred his punctured wheelchair round the course,  I chatted to photographers, and even spotted Hugh Jones, the marathon runner and embarrassed myself by talking to him, because years before his wife and sometimes he would come to the community centre I used to run.  He did not remember of course, but I had recognised him some 25 years later.  I stupidly asked if he was still interested in sport as he was there, only to be told he was the course measurer!    Anyhow for about an hour it was fine and it was fun, but as soon as the men had started exhaustion hit me and I toddled back to the pub, and again tried to sleep, but kept getting woken up by what turned out to be the scrapyard next door.  When I feel ill I just do not know what to do with myself and I usually toss and turn sleep and listen to the radio and just potter, so that is what I did as best as possible within this b and b. 

By late afternoon, I felt okay enough to at least try and go to get a coffee and some food or go the art gallery, but the art gallery was shut and I did not feel well enough for a restaurant so just came back to the b and b and fell into a deep sleep, until awoken by the rain outside my window, and then by the rain dripping onto the other bed in the room.  It was 5 am when I contacted Booking.com to let them know.  Only for them to reply we are sorry to hear you feel it is raining in your room, I was not feeling, it was raining IN my room..  Luckily nothing fazes the staff at this B and B,  they are used to rain coming in - only when it is heavy - and moved me to their prize suite, with a built in motion sensor, that came on every time I moved in the bed, but which turned off when I needed it on, whilst in the shower or on the toilet. It was like Fawlty Towers meets Peaky Blinders.    And all of that would have been fine, it they had charged the normal say £40 a night rent and we had had a nice laugh.  And all of that would have been fine, if I had not felt so ill, but of course I had to spend another morning sleeping so did not get to do the things I had hoped to in Birmingham, but I did at least get to the Badminton and onto Worcester the next day. 

Collecting rain water in the bin so that it was quiet enough for me to sleep and to protect the facilities. 

  I have survived is how it felt, but now Booking. com are saying the paper work I have sent them is not correct so they will not consider refunding me the money. At this point I am still hoping that this can be resolved but it is not looking good.  That room cost me half a month's salary. In the long run, it is only money, only 29 hours work, but it is more than that it is the lost trust in a system that had been working well.  I never want to go to Birmingham again. These games were supposed to show the world an exciting place, well, it showed the world poverty, broken bottles and dirt but jolly people.  The people in the end are probably the most important,  and if it had not been for them I do not think I would have coped, but it is unnecessary for pubs to be that broken down,  or that greedy.   It could and should have been a fun weekend but between the cancellee and booking.com and my phone, it was not.  In the long run that might save me money as I might stop going on holiday, so sod my Genius 3 status.  

In the reviews I notice that the staff at the B and B have promised to deal with the things raised immediately, but they were still an issue by the time I came - so lovely though the staff are there is an attitude of we takes your money and the piss.  The pub that first cancelled is also charging three times more for people to stay there.  I would have preferred to stay in another town and popped into Birmingham to see an event, had I had the full information to hand.  And my insurers will not cough up either for the difference in the two bookings so what is the point in having All Clear Insurance if they too will not help in an emergency.