Penthouse Dream Apartments by Wonderful Italy

We booked October 8th to 12th for eight people, two families, including guests flying in from abroad. Just hours before check-in, the hotel told us it was unavailable because of a plumbing problem. Some of our group were already in the air and about to land, while I waited for them in the airport lobby. When we first called, I thought it had to be a joke. Leaving two families without accommodation after a reservation made well in advance, with NO notice, was embarrassing. The operator said she had contacted Booking.com, where we’d booked, and that they would find us similar accommodation in Venice’s historic center for eight people at no notice. Meanwhile, Booking.com told me to contact Booking.com and gave me a phone number with a Rome area code. I found out this process is called “reprotection,” which basically meant they passed the problem to someone else and gave me a number for a quicker do-it-yourself fix. Good luck with that. The irony was that, through their apparently automatic internal chat, they later asked how my stay had gone. At that point, all I could say was “reprotection!” Never again.