Matt Delventhal
Google
I booked an apartment with ApartEasy through Booking.com weeks in advance, but when I arrived they told me it was not available. They said it was because reforms in the apartment above had uncovered structural problems in the building. I cannot verify this story, but I know one thing for sure: I was not notified until I was actually in their office, with my family and all the luggage waiting in the street.
The remedy ApartEasy offered was to let Booking.com take care of me. Not surprisingly, this did not work out well, as there was practically zero availability of anything suitable in Barcelona at 5pm on for the same day, and Booking.com is mostly interested in controlling their own costs.
I believe ApartEasy acted very carelessly, at least, in not informing me of the problem until the very last possible moment, thus maximizing the stress and inconvenience to my family and making it impossible for us to make suitable alternative arrangements. As for the booked apartment being unavailable in the first place, they have a cover story (sudden discovery of structural problems) and I don't have any evidence it isn't true. But I know that double-bookings are relatively common in this industry (i.e., selling the apartment twice), and it seems at least possible that this was what really happened in our case.