I finally figured out why my hostel bookings kept getting canceled

I overheard a front desk worker in a Berlin hostel tell a guest that Booking.com automatically cancels if you use a virtual card number. I always used privacy.com cards to avoid fees, and got canceled on three trips last year. Anyone else run into this with virtual cards and hostels?

2 comments

2 Comments

barbara_baker5721d ago

Wait, did they actually tell you that or did you just assume that's why yours got canceled? Because I've used virtual cards at hostels in a few different countries and never had an issue, but maybe I got lucky. Were they able to rebook you or did you just lose the room entirely? That's a pretty harsh rule if it's true, since half the people booking hostels are trying to save money and privacy.com is a common hack for that. I'd be curious to know if the hostel itself canceled it or if Booking.com did it automatically without even telling you.

olivia_allen21d ago

Yeah they straight up told me it was because the virtual card flagged as a prepaid or temp card in their system. I only know because I called support after the cancellation email came through. I lost the room entirely, couldn't rebook cause it was sold out by then. Best advice I can give is just use a regular debit or credit card for the booking, then switch to a virtual one closer to check-in if you're worried about security.