After writing my lengthy and detailed rant on the Private Unit, Berjaya Times Square's very own in-house dump, which I had booked through none other than booking.com, the following came to my inbox lately (10th December) from none other than – well, booking.com of course.It sort of ignores the issues I really had a problem with but was an unusual case of someone actually getting back to you from a website.

I don't know if they mind or not, so I'm going to presume they don't (as it's sort of good customer service in a way) – this'll take you a while by the way, so might be wise to grab a coffee first;

Dear Mr. Andrew Mcfarlane

With reference to your reservation at Private Unit – Times Square Kuala Lumpur, I am contacting you from the Customer Relations Department at Booking.com, Amsterdam.

Concerning the reservation 282.959.866 please accept our sincere apologies for the dissatisfaction you have experienced whilst using our services, as we had the opportunity to read your comments on the blog: windowseatpreferred.com

Due to the nature of the issue at hand, your message has reached the attention of the  designated department (Customer Satisfaction) which specializes in formally escalated consumer matters.

Today, I would like to address the concerns you have raised and provide you with a detailed response. Please allow us also the opportunity to explain our role and position in this matter.

The Booking.com service is based on information provided by each Hotel which uses the service. Booking.com merely provides a platform through which Hotels can be advertised and reservations can be made. In order for Hotels to be advertised through Booking.com, the Hotel must provide all the information relating to their Hotel that they wish to display to prospective guests including, but not exclusively, their rates and availability, their policies (including their cancellation policy), photos and any other relevant material. In order to give Hotels the responsibility of maintaining this information, Booking.com provides each Hotel with access to an online extranet through which they can do this. Therefore, each Hotel remains at all times fully responsible for the accuracy of the displayed material, and for the extent to which this authentically represents the offered accommodation.

When a consumer makes a reservation through the Booking.com service, a direct contract is created between that consumer and the Hotel in question. From the point of reservation onwards, the relationship lies solely between the Hotel and the consumer, and the Hotel remains responsible for providing the accommodation in accordance with the details provided at the time of the reservation.

We are sorry to hear that on this occasion, the accommodation and hotel service did not meet your expectations.

I would like to point out that our customer service department is opened 7 days a week 24 hrs daily. In case a guest has a problem with a reservation, we always suggest to call our customer service. In this case it would have been possible to assist you in a prompt way. We would have contacted the property to see if would have been possible to solve this issue or eventually we would have proposed a relocation.

Unfortunately, we never received an official complaint from your side during your stay.

I am aware and recognize that this explanation might not be sufficient to restore your trust in our services, but I do believe you were owed one.

Please note that with the help of feedback such as yours, we are striving to make the necessary improvements, with the aim of providing an increased quality Customer experience.

We do hope that despite this experience you will give Booking.com a second chance to be of service to you in the future. All complaints we receive are filed in a database for future reference, in case we receive more complaints the previous ones always serve as reference to assess our future business. Your feedback is highly valued.

Kind regards,

—

Faust D'Agata

Your thoughts?