Hello, I am writing to make a formal consumer complaint regarding a holiday accommodation property in Sardinia called Seaview House No. 5, in 6 Via Levante, 07026 Olbia, Italy, Olbia, IT (Licence no.F3437, IT090047B4000F3437)concerning what I believe may amount to misleading and unfair commercial practices in connection with the cancellation of my confirmed and fully paid booking. I booked the property through Booking.com about five months before our planned holiday and paid for the accommodation in full. Approximately one week before we were due to travel, I was contacted by the property and informed that there was a problem/damage affecting the utilities at the accommodation. On this basis, I was encouraged to cancel my booking. This caused me a significant amount of stress. Our holiday had been planned well in advance, our travel arrangements were already in place and I was suddenly left, only a few days before arriving in Sardinia, without the accommodation we had booked and paid for months earlier. I had to spend days searching for another suitable property at very short notice, when availability was already extremely limited and prices considerably higher. When I contacted Booking.com regarding the situation, I was informed that the actual issue reported to them was overbooking. This was completely different from the explanation that had been given directly to me. I then discovered that the same property was being advertised again for the same period at a significantly higher price – approximately £6,500 as soon as I cancelled the booking. I have screenshots and correspondence supporting the above, including the information provided to me regarding the alleged problem with the property, my communications with Booking.com and evidence showing the property being advertised at the substantially higher price. I feel that the explanation given to me for the cancellation may not have been genuine and that my existing confirmed booking may have been cancelled, or I may have been encouraged to cancel it myself, in circumstances where the property could be sold to another customer at a considerably higher price. I appreciate that overbooking or genuine problems with holiday accommodation can occur. My complaint is therefore not simply that my booking could not be honoured. My concern is the apparent discrepancy between the reason communicated to me and the reason provided to Booking.com, together with the fact that the same property was being advertised for the same period at a significantly higher price. The has been misleading information provided to me to induce me to give up a confirmed booking which had been made and paid well in advance. I am asking that this matter be considered in relation to the fairness and transparency of the commercial practices involved and, where appropriate, investigated further. In addition to this, I have been disadvantaged by the refund which I have already raised without success due to different exchange rate since the booking was made at completely different time. I therefore lost £50 for the booking of the property that I didn’t stay even one minute. I can provide screenshots of the relevant advertisements, booking confirmation, payment information and correspondence with both the property and Booking.com in support of my complaint. Katarzyna Fitula De Morais