Taylor Swift fan had concert tickets and a place to stay. Then Booking.com pulled the rug out from under her

A Taylor Swift fan says she's got "bad blood" with Booking.com after the trav‐ el booking giant left her with no accommodations for the upcoming T-Swizzle concert in Toronto.

"I was kind of freaking out," Sarah Fournier told Go Public after the accommoda‐ tions she'd secured early, and at a good price, for the dates around the concert were can‐ celled - and then at least one of them was relisted at a higher price.

"I just knew something was not right," she said.

After cancelling her reser‐ vations, Booking.com refused to help Fournier find a simi‐ lar place at a similar price.

A legal expert in tech‐ nology says her experience shows consumers can't trust that what they book on travel sites is locked in - and that they'll actually get what's being offered.

"Often consumers believe that the platforms, in this case like Booking.com, have their back," said Jonathan Penney, a law professor at

York University who re‐ searches legal and ethical im‐ pacts of technology.

"[Instead] they've wiped their hands of it. Walk away and say 'you're on your own'. That's a real problem," he said, referring to Fournier's situation.

Booking.com was the most visited travel website in the world last month, with 556 million visits, far ahead of Trip Advisor, Airbnb and Expedia, according to Sta‐ tista.com.

Prices were up to 8x higher

When the mega music star announced she was coming to Toronto last August, Fournier immediately started making plans with her broth‐ er and friends to travel from Montreal for the November 2024 show.

The concert was more than a year away at that point, and Fournier had no idea if she'd score hard-to-get concert tickets - but she knew accommodations would be in high demand, too.

"My first thought was to go to Booking.com," the 22year-old said.

At the beginning of Au‐ gust, she secured the two va‐ cation rentals on Book‐ ing.com for her group of four to stay in Toronto from Nov. 21-24. She paid about $1,100 and $1,500 for the three nights.

Soon after, they scored the concert tickets.

Just when Fournier thought everything was set, Booking.com pulled the rug out from under her - email‐ ing her to say her reserva‐ tions had been cancelled.

By then, prices and de‐ mand had skyrocketed and the site was listing similar properties for between $3,000 and $8,000 - almost eight times higher than when she booked.

In an email, Booking.com told Go Public it doesn't set the prices, which are "deter‐ mined by our accommoda‐ tion partners." The company also wouldn't say how much money it makes from reser‐ vations on its site.

Booking.com said what happened to Fournier is "ex‐ tremely rare," and apologized that her "experience was not as seamless as usual given the situation."

Mixed messages

When Fournier tried to find out why her bookings were cancelled, she got mixed

messages, with Booking.com and the properties blaming each other.

The online travel booking company told her the reser‐ vations were cancelled be‐ cause the properties were "not operating" anymore.

But when Fournier called the properties directly, she got different answers.

One of them, Downtown Suites, said her booking was cancelled because of a "glitch" on Booking.com's end. That property told Fournier she could rebook the same place directly through them - but when they repeatedly asked for more money upfront than she'd agreed to, she says she decided against it.

Fournier called the other property, Guestic Front Street, and recorded the con‐ versation.

In the recording, which Fournier provided to Go Pub‐ lic, a company representative admitted that property had been relisted at a higher price after her reservation was cancelled.

LISTEN | Customer calls rental company over can‐ cellation:

"You don't see an issue with that?" Fournier asked the company representative.

"Absolutely not," said the representative. "Our goal in business is to maximize profit."

Guestic told Fournier hers was one of about 60 reserva‐ tions that were cancelled. It later told Go Public that Guestic is now operating un‐ der a different name, but re‐ fused to say what that is and on which websites its proper‐ ties are listed.

Despite what Fournier was told, a spokesperson for Booking.com later told Go Public the company removed both of the properties Fournier booked from the site for failing to meet its ter‐ ms and conditions. It would‐ n't say which specific terms and conditions weren't met.

Too little, too late: ex‐ pert

When Fournier asked Book‐ ing.com for help securing similar accommodations at a reasonable price, the com‐ pany only sent her a link to similar listings that were much more expensive and further from the concert venue.

The company also says it is "constantly innovating and enhancing" its security proto‐ cols to help ensure the more than 29 million listings on its site are in "compliance with local laws and requirements."

WATCH | What to know when booking travel on‐ line:

Legal expert Penney says whatever action Booking.com took was "far too late."

"They should be doing robust investigations … early on before [properties] are ever allowed onto the site," he said.

Booking.com tells Go Pub‐ lic it has "several measures in place for the review of list‐ ings," but only once they're already on the site.

Its Terms of Service re‐ peatedly state it is not re‐ sponsible for fixing problems - that it's up to the customer to deal with the properties that list on its site.

But Penney says even though Booking.com makes "no promises about the ser‐ vices that they're providing," under Ontario and Quebec consumer protection laws, the company could still be re‐ sponsible when things go wrong.

By "acting as agents" for the properties on its site, Penney said Booking.com has a legal responsibility to make sure customers get what's being promised.

"There are legal protec‐ tions for representations that are false, misleading or de‐ ceptive that induce con‐ sumers into transactions," he said.

It's not clear whether those requirements were breached in Fournier's case.

After her concert stays were cancelled, Fournier says she "had a bit of a break‐ down" knowing she couldn't afford to pay the much high‐ er rates.

But then a family friend offered up his place for the group to stay during the Tay‐ lor Swift concert dates.

Fournier says it will be tight and some of the group will have to sleep on the floor, but she says she's grateful to have a place that won't cancel.

As for Booking.com, Fournier says (in true Swiftie style) they are "never ever getting back together."

"They've lost a lot of credi‐ bility for my circle of friends, my family," she said. "I doubt many of them are going to use Booking.com anymore." Submit your story ideas Go Public is an investiga‐ tive news segment on CBCTV, radio and the web.

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