Masseria Asciano

I had to cancel my stay for personal reasons and fly back before arriving. I cancelled on Booking.com and called Masseria to let them know. The next day I realized they had taken the full reservation amount, more than 500€, even though Booking.com clearly said I would get half back. Booking.com confirmed this after I sent them a request. Since Masseria had not given me an invoice, I got proof of the transaction from my bank to forward to customer service. But Masseria had registered under a company name on Booking.com that did not match the name on its bank account, so Booking.com said it could not accept the proof. I emailed Masseria Asciano and called after a week without a reply to make sure they had received my messages. The person I spoke to, Maria I guess, could not speak English, so I was told to call again when the person responsible for commercial matters was available. That was my last phone call. After that, they kept ignoring me. Over the following months, I sent plenty of emails, kept in touch with Booking.com, copied Masseria, and attached a lot of personal information. Five months later, I finally got an English reply saying Masseria.com would arrange the refund. They said information had been lost because of staff turnover and asked for the same document I had sent months earlier. I sent it again, including on WhatsApp, and then nothing happened. I kept pushing Booking.com to act and said I would not give up. I was even able to see the internal communication protocol, which showed how much time customer service had spent dealing with Masseria, which was incompetent, or better said, unfair. Booking.com had also been in contact with Masseria, which had been making the same promise five months earlier without following through. Fortunately, I reached an agreement with Booking.com: they would hold money from Masseria's next Booking.com reservations as a penalty and use that amount to pay me back partially. The problems started after I booked through Booking.com. A few days later, a staff member contacted me on WhatsApp asking for my personal email address, bypassing Booking.com's messaging system and compromising my privacy. They offered me a better price if I cancelled and paid them directly, but the details showed lots of extra charges for things like towels and air conditioning, as well as a higher charge for arriving late to check in. It was all drawbacks, and I would have lost the insurance. Ignore this. As a foreigner, think twice. Masseria wants to operate by its own rules, so be aware. There are many other masserias around, some cheaper too, and I would skip this place for a better holiday.