- Sarah Fournier, 22, has Bad Blood with the online travel marketplace
- The Montreal native organized her trip 15 months in advance, but was still smitten
- Booking.com pulled her hotels, leaving them without accommodation
A Taylor Swift fan was furious after Booking.com canceled the hotel room she booked to attend a concert before relisting it at eight times the price.
Sarah Fournier, 22, has Bad Blood with the online travel marketplace after it almost derailed her dream of attending an Eras Tour concert in November 2024 in Toronto.
The Montreal native began organizing the trip with three friends 15 months in advance – but even the best-laid plans can turn into a brutal summer.
Knowing full well that hotel prices would soar in the run-up to the Eras Tour, Fournier quickly booked rooms in August 2023 – before he even had tickets.
“My first thought was to go to Booking.com,” Fournier told CBC’s Go Public.
Fournier’s friends thought their wildest dreams were coming true after they booked three nights at two venues for $1,500 and secured their tickets soon after.
But Booking.com became the anti-hero when the agency sent an email saying its bookings had been cancelled.
By then, Swiftie-inspired searches had skyrocketed, and the site was listing similar hotel rooms for as much as $8,000.
With prices nearly eight times higher than when Fournier first booked, she knew it he couldn’t just shake it off.
Fournier decided to investigate why her reservations had been canceled.
Her agency said the bookings were canceled because the properties she had booked – Downtown Suites and Guestic Front Street – were no longer “operating”.
However, the first hotel told her that the booking was canceled due to a “bug” on the Booking.com website.
Downtown Suites offered her the option to book directly through them, but Fournier saw red and declined when they quoted a higher fee than before.
Fournier suspected the offer was a problem — and decided to record the conversation when he called Guestic Front Street.
After detailing what had happened to her reservation, she asked the representative, “You don’t see a problem with that?”
“Definitely not,” they replied. “Our goal in business is to maximize profit.”
Gestic told Fournier that her reservation was one of about 60 reservations that had been canceled. The hotel has since gone on to operate under a different name, but has not disclosed what it is.
Booking.com told Go Public it had removed both hotels booked by Fournier from its website due to non-compliance with its terms and conditions, but gave no further details.
Fournier said the company also failed to help her find alternative accommodation — only providing her with much more expensive options that were further away from Swift’s concert hall.
Booking.com said Fournier’s experience was “extremely rare” and “constantly updates and improves” its security protocols so that its 29 million listings “comply with local laws and requirements.”
Eventually, Fournier managed to find free lodging with a family friend.
