I did however run into an even worse bug on their platform once where my card got billed, but right after the website crashed and a confirmation never was sent. Naturally, this happened when I had little funds myself.

I called customer support and without a booking number they couldn’t do anything, which I naturally never received…

Thankfully, the money was refunded within 24 hours.

Still I use booking.com, I consider it a great service.

I have resorted to making most reservations by phone, rather than Internet, because it’s the only way to be sure. I don’t like it, it wastes my time, but I have a specific person I can call out who flat-out lied to me if I get there and the room has no bathtub. That is usually enough to get the manager to upgrade me to a room that has the one amenity I specifically requested as a condition of booking.

I’m not draining an aquifer. Other than the cost of the treated water, there is no practical limit to use (the city is nowhere nearly large enough to stress the supply). There are golf courses near the river that just filter out the silt and pump it directly onto the courses.