One click in the interface of Booking com can ruin a vacation or why a working rating system is important.

So, the intermediary service has rules and most clients follow them. It would seem that if you break them, you are waiting for a ban, hunger and bankruptcy. So only in theory, there is a certain percentage of users of the service who thrive and prosper, “pumps” their rating in all possible ways and avoids negative ratings with dirty game methods.



It seems that I have an idea why the service intermediary will not fight with such players - life on the commission from successful “freeloaders”, a large number of transactions, additional payment of rating and disclaimers for the situation is very good. This is a definite niche in which the “worms” have no equal, where you can earn good money from the “manure”. A very convenient business is to block the ability to leave feedback and manage the reservation, survive noise and unsanitary stuffiness from the mold and not only, do not return the money in any way, and pass the released numbers again - PROFIT.
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Honest methods of the game are only for those who value reputation - higher costs, longer payback periods and less profit. Freedom of users depends on the desires of several large owners of services, faceless moderators and support services. For the reputation of the service and the word of mouth, they fight only at the very beginning of entering the market, then it all turns into consumable in exchange for money.

I will divide the publication into parts - a theoretical one about the state of the industry and practical examples from the user experience on the basis of which this theory appeared. First of all, I wish the readers that none of the described situations happened to you. But if suddenly it happened, then forewarned - it means it is armed.

I have, for the most part, prepared several publications on the AWS stack emulation in the JVM, comparing big data solutions for analytic processing of large volumes of biomedical information and on the transformation of poorly structured data in the ETL process memory. I’ll soon come back to github and share my experience, but I'll start with a more real-life situation for using online services - the topic of customer support.

User Support Theory

In fairness, there are areas in which the support service brings the main profit of the company and it does not save so much - this is paid support for open source programs. If you also “cure” clients in this area, then they will run to competitors or buy alternative proprietary software. And here, as nowhere else, ideally organized work processes, preventive monitoring, maintaining a knowledge base on incidents, and work on the pre-emption of quality control are important to prevent the problem and minimize its possible consequences.

But with the support service supporting role, it is more important to minimize the time of working with each client - these are costs, you don’t even have to solve the situation, you can simply postpone the problem “on the back burner”, create a situation in all possible ways so that the client stops spending his valuable staff time. The most persistent can be eliminated with the help of ten minutes of playing music on the phone for their own money. Whatsapp, web chat, internet telephony and other ways to minimize the cost of asking for help? No, did not hear, suffer!

Only the weakest in this food chain is obliged to comply with the rules - a client who has only the right to dial in to the service of “psychological help” in which the support service has actually degenerated. Where, instead of solving the problem, you will be exhausted for ten minutes of waiting in roaming for each call “very important for us”, explaining the situation again and again to each new service operator.

And as the cherry on the cake - poorly understanding your speech, especially in the conditions of interference on the line, an employee who, at the slightest distortion of communication, answers “I don’t understand you”, breaks the line and again tens of minutes of waiting for another operator. With the hope of luck that the call center software connects with a well-understood employee. And the operators of the support service, in fact, are not to blame for the fact that they have such a load, why many are trying to play pin-pong with customers. In my opinion, this is more a consequence of the savings strategy, the approved corporate rules and the KPI management and personnel aligned with them.

Is the result of the work of supporting the money you paid for roaming worth the time and effort spent if problems are not solved, but only the appearance of a solution process is created?

The system of reputation, ratings and reviews of real users of the service in the online space is very important. To someone who suffered from malicious actions, warned the others and other people did not get into the same trouble. Apparently, so in nature there were cries of victims, when predators attacked, as a way to survive or avoid damage to other individuals of the pack. And it seems that there is still no universal solution to this problem on the Internet. Too much still needs to be done so that the ratings are not like in China - totalitarian-governmental and centralized. It is possible to use the blockchain and trust in information that has been studied in the field of a decentralized semantic web.

More on the appearance of problems about which I tell, is affected by the law of large numbers. I often used the online service booking com. And at the very beginning everything went smoothly, without any problems. But as time goes on, the online service dominates the market and the service in my experience gradually deteriorates. A heartless, formal consideration of applications for “ticks” is capable of destroying overnight all the positive experience that this service provides.

Only the appearance of a decentralized service of comparable scale with a well-designed rating system can save the situation? I think the situation described is more general and conceptual, applies to all major online services, not only to booking accommodation for traveling.

“Your call is very important to us” many heard this phrase hanging on the phone line for minutes. And received in response to the "application is registered" "we are working on it."

Why do we need a customer support service - to quickly respond to requests and help the regime close to "real time" in solving problems. This is a kind of service from the user.

And from the business side, the support service minimizes the risks to its existence. This division in many companies does not bring immediate profits and therefore one of the first candidates for savings, tightening the belts. Each region has its own list of problems to be solved, but the company's reputation depends on the work of the first support lines, minimizing possible legal costs.

Ideal for owners, if the service is just an intermediary and almost not responsible for anything, but receives 20-30% percent from each transaction. The ideal model that is now seen in the online taxi services, booking real estate, insurance, trade. And in any controversial situation, “bribes are smooth” - solve the problems yourself. And the root of evil, in my opinion, is in the centralization and monopolization of the industry, in the absence of any responsibility. You can further save on support and create a thousand and one ways, well known in bureaucratic circles, to make it easier to ignore the problem than to actually solve it.

No one even considers the malicious intent of actions if you look at the options for choosing answers in the online claim forms.

Life examples

What is NoShow I first learned when I developed an aviation security system. It turns out that you can also make a reservation for a client in the interface of the hotel on booking.com. Even if the client checked into the hotel on time, paid for the stay, the hotel can mark it as “not showing up for accommodation”. And you do not have the opportunity to regain the legal and standard service rights - to manage the reservation, leave a review about the stay. And they will not help you with this, the support service will not perform

update client_booking set no_show=false where conformation_no=***666***; 

And if the hotel staff deliberately deprived the client of rights, they will not voluntarily return your reservation and accommodation status and the hotel will have solid advantages - you do not have to pay a commission to the mediator.

Just the hotel employee clicks in the booking interface that


In my opinion, their model is simple - for the average market value for a given location, they rent the numbers.


, converted into a "four star hotel" MayaFair Design Hotel with a positive rating on booking.com.

I checked in an hour before the check in and paid for the room where I stayed overnight for 2 nights, in the stuffiness without ventilation, with the smell of mold, with almost no insulation, no insolation by sanitary rules and a toilet in the room, without isolation of the bathroom, the atmosphere from which is communicated with the recreation area and bed!


If they didn’t wind up the rating and don’t mark the real customers of a no-show, I’m sure that their rating would quickly fall to zero and they would be renamed the doss-house with a price tag corresponding to the conditions of living. If you live in such conditions for 11 nights, I am not sure that even people with healthy lungs would not have any health problems. I started to cough, musty air in the room and the smell of mold did their job almost instantly. Fortunately, the smell of mold has not yet been learned to transmit over the Internet and there is no Smells blaster PCIe card.

I started communicating with customer support by trying to restore the active status of my booking. I sent photos of the check for payment, photos of the hotel, reception, rooms that I really live there. A couple of hours later, an employee came to meet me and showed me a room, with the same lack of ventilation, with a strong smell of disinfectants in the air and a smaller area, without a bathroom, only with a shower and exactly the same glass wall and door to the common corridor. The problems are the same, but the number is not better under the conditions. I refused. She began to draw me a blank check on the hotel's letterhead, so that I put my signature on it, which I also refused.


I consulted with a friend who worked in hotels, with education in this area and she has excellent English. She asked a few questions about the reservation, whether there was a deposit and whether the money was debited from me before arrival. Her advice helped most of all, although she believed that booking was on the client’s side and in such a situation, with obvious violations of the hotel, that the situation would be decided by a full refund. She just worked in an international network of hotels that value their reputation.

A few more times I called the support service regarding the departure and refund for the days that had not been lived there. I sent the photos of the worst option that I was offered instead of the original terrible number.

Employee Irina from booking offered to talk with the hotel staff and hint to them that once they said that I “didn’t stop by” to them, I could pay a $ 59 fine, get the money back and go to that. Of those who tried to do something in the support service, I would highlight Irina, Timur and Alexander. There was no result, but at least they suggested that you need to send in support of booking com in the mail. Although who reads it there and why they need it, in the end I did not understand.

When she saw me, the hotel employee turned on the “I’m not deciding anything here on the return” mode that the hotel manager decides that she will come after 2:30 PM and that she doesn’t have her phone and cannot say anything definite without her. After that, I turned on the tourist Russo mode - that this is not my problem, but its that time passes and we are not going to pay for one more day due to the fact that it is incompetent and does not solve anything. I learned that a certain Janet Castillo is leading them.

When she came and began to communicate with her and like what she demagogue one hundred first level. She began to convince us that we have no problems, that booking of booking is not important for us, and feedback on accommodation also, that there will not be a refund, do not “take a rest”, why do you need these showdowns? Still, she would only give us a refund if they charged us a double payment. By switching the discussion to this imaginary situation,


Not a single paper that we live there on letterhead from the hotel staff, we have not received. What can occupy us in another hotel (apparently Green16, located 3 km from the beach area), and in this all the rooms are occupied. I refused and demanded a refund, as we were not offered anything safe to stay at the MayaFair Design hotel paid at check-in. Then Janet Castillo began to talk about her vast experience and concepts in a separate business, here I could not stand it, I told her in the face that she was lying and focused on her


As you might guess, it disappeared at the first opportunity, when other customers approached the reception. At this moment, my girlfriend looked into the computer of the “boy” from the reception and showed him my emails to the hotel with questions that no one answered and our reservation canceled by them.

I rented other apartments for 9 nights, the benefit was a reserve of funds just in case. In the evening, we went to the reception desk and the “boy” who inhabited us, began to advise in order to “help us,” saying that he could be fired for it. In an atmosphere of secrecy, hiding from the cameras, he handed a hotel registration form with my data and a non-refundable booking clause. And he said that if I sign it, and on the back of the questionnaire I will describe the problem by hand, he will send this paper to the booking and this will solve “our problems”. I refused to refuse a refund. All conversations with the staff always recorded their video surveillance camera. It is also very difficult in English to discuss such situations, since my vocabulary is mainly in the field of IT, and not in the tourism business and jurisprudence.

After another letter to the booking that no one does anything and left us abroad, one on one with this hotel in our problems, I received a letter from Irina that the refund process was launched from their side and that we did not spend strength on communication with the hotel staff who do not cooperate and do not respond to their letters too. After that, we passed the electronic keys, although we had been living in other apartments for a day, with normal ventilation, comfortable and safe living conditions. There is hope for a return.

The keys were also returned by the show - the employee at the front desk refused to give any papers that we lived there, said she would not give invoice. there is a check for payment by credit card (and in this the hotel is called differently). I also intrusively tried to give me a signature on their signature, where there is an item on non-refundable booking. The only thing I managed to officially get her permission to videotape the fact that she accepts the keys and that forces to sign the questionnaire. In response, she also recorded a video with us on her phone. A similar situation was when booking the same wonderful booking service in Anapa, when in fact we were not settled, but simply tried to hand over the room twice as expensive. And in this case, too, can not leave a review hotel. The answer from the booking has already been received in the Russian Federation - the hotel does not want to return the money, we apologize and are ready to throw you a “handout”, less than half of the booking profit from


There is also an assumption that booking covers MayaFair Design not only because of the money, but because of the fact that this resort area is filled with hotels operating on the "all inclusive" system and not wanting to share their profits with the booking. Or, indeed, this participation in the privileged program is paid for by this “hotel” in full. Then this is the price for any anti-service and booking turn a blind eye to almost all the problems there.

There were also a couple of cases when booking on the booking canceled the hotel because of the exotic methods of payment by bank transfer, which could not be carried out in the online bank alpha click. It’s good that these problems didn’t deprive them of a visa (when applied to which I made these reservations). And the support service could not do anything - payment to the hotel directly. Then I just booked on AirBnB and paid through this service, which gave guarantees against such problems with payment. But prices there are often higher and offers less.

Not by booking alone. Another example of a service is online insurance for those traveling abroad in Ingosstrakh, which was bought by a girl in the month of January. Health insurance included risks associated with skiing and snowboarding. Unfortunately, the insured event has come - she injured a rib in the fall. With her tears, slowly, but we were lucky to get to the shelter from the slopes on our own without calling the rescue service. In order not to spend on roaming, turned to e-mail. The only option that we were offered on New Year's holidays was to get to the hospital on our own, 70 km from the place where we were in the mountains. Although it is a ski resort and emergency facilities at every corner. With the help of painkillers, they reached the Russian hospital and X-ray, on their return from the mountains. It is good that in fact there was a bruise, not a fracture! Did we like the service? Has the problem addressed to the insurer's service been resolved? Only in vain spent money on insurance.

Another example is the futility of a dispute with RESO during treatment with voluntary medical insurance, “the tooth is more than half damaged” . The doctor does not inform that the second admission will be paid and treatment with a dubious prospect. Insurance draws rubber and brings down the decision on the doctors, the clinic also claims that the insurance will not pay in any case, such a decision and they are forced to make such decisions. As a result, I do CT gums for my money and at the institute of the ZNIIS PML the doctor removes this tooth according to indications. In my current job, with access to a modern high-resolution interoral 3D scanner, I had objective ways to measure almost all possible indices of tooth decay with high accuracy.

Many people were burned by the actions of Google's algorithms in the Play market and even in Google Safe Browsing . I have not yet come across this, but it is clear that any small business based on online services or mobile applications can suddenly become a victim with low chances for an objective consideration of a complaint by a living person. Also, heuristics block accounts in instagram, with almost zero chances for recovery.

And about the emotions when communicating with the support or security of the bank and their online client in the Internet forums are legends. On my own skin I felt when blocking access in a trip with two-factor authentication, which is almost all the money available. Before that, I simply changed the SIM card from sim to micro sim while maintaining the phone number and the operator.

How to defend their rights?

According to the experience of communication with the customer service, the only advice to yourself in the past is “Understand the nuances yourself, look for friends who can advise and hope in the decision only on your own strength. Try to understand the motives of the parties to the conflict. ”And also, if the problem can be solved by the least resistance: the one who has less rights and opportunities will lose. Those to whom you ask for help will do so quickly, eliminating your complaints, simply hiding them as the main source of problems. You may be lucky in disputes, if you have received a legal education and experience in its application. But the user agreement of the service (EULA) is made in such a way that the intermediary cannot be its goal, although the accuracy of the participants rating system depends on it.

To summarize, in the current state of the online services there is no decentralized solution to verify the reputations of the participants, a system that can be trusted. So that part of your money and data in the hands of the owners of these services and in case of problems, you can hardly count on a prompt and constructive solution to the problems arising from their mediation. And from their point of view, you only have the right to pay them.