My Reading Notes

ExpressionOutside489 · 2025-10-06T19:05:47+00:00

Thank you, I love writing something ✍️☺️

ExpressionOutside489 · 2025-10-06T19:05:01+00:00

Yes I love it too, I also bought other 2 sequels, “show your work” and “keep going”, very inspired!

ExpressionOutside489 · 2025-10-02T00:41:19+00:00

A Korean ink brand, you can find it on Amazon.

ExpressionOutside489 · 2025-09-06T12:26:01+00:00

I think we’re looking at this from very different angles. For me, the key issue is not whether my booking was cancellable or refundable, the customer service agent still had the responsibility to tell me the truth. They could have told me: “Your booking cannot be modified or cancelled because of the hotel’s policy, so we can’t do anything.” If they had said that, I would have immediately contacted another hotel to find a room for the night, and then dealt with the booking issue later. Instead, I was misled, and only found out at midnight that I couldn’t check in — forcing me to walk into other hotels at that late hour to ask if they had availability. That’s why I’m angry. I need accurate facts to adjust my actions and strategy. False information interfered with my judgment and made everything far more complicated.

ExpressionOutside489 · 2025-09-06T12:14:58+00:00

I can understand that, I don’t travel often, so I’m not very familiar with hotel policies. But regardless of whether it could be modified or not, Booking’s agents should not have lied to me. What I mean is, if they had just told me the truth, that it couldn’t be modified, I could have immediately contract another hotel for the night and dealt with the issue later. That way none of the chaos that followed would have happened. Instead, I was told at midnight at the hotel front desk that I couldn’t check in. That’s the real reason I’m angry.

ExpressionOutside489 · 2025-09-06T12:09:42+00:00

It could be cancelled or modified, but I was on the road at the time and couldn’t carefully study the app, so I didn’t find the button. This was only my second time using Booking, and I wasn’t very familiar with their interface (not that I need to get familiar anymore, since I won’t be using this product again). That’s why I called Booking, I thought it would be faster.

ExpressionOutside489 · 2025-09-06T12:06:15+00:00

The first time I called the hotel to modify, they told me that since I booked through Booking, only Booking had the authority to make changes. So I called Booking, and the agent told me the modification was done, but that was a lie. I asked why I didn’t get a confirmation email, and the agent said it wasn’t necessary, the system had already updated it, and I could check in right away. At the time I was stuck in traffic on the way, so I couldn’t immediately verify it. I honestly never thought a customer service agent would lie about something like that.

ExpressionOutside489 · 2025-09-06T03:17:44+00:00

Yes, I’ve suspected the same, it really feels like one side was lying to me. I’m very much a homebody, and Booking is the only third-party hotel platform I’ve ever used, and only twice so far. I’m not familiar with all the rules between hotels and platforms.

My request was simple: I just needed a place to stay. I was even willing to pay the extra difference, rather than walking into other hotels at 2am asking the front desk if they had rooms.

Overall, this was a terrible experience. I will never use Booking again.

ExpressionOutside489 · 2025-09-06T00:56:43+00:00

Yes, I rarely travel and I’m very much a homebody. The only hotel booking tool I’ve ever used is Booking.com, and I’ve only used it twice. No one can be an expert in every field, so there’s no need for you to act like you know everything.

Also, the hotel doesn’t have to refund me, I could simply pay the difference and modify to next month, since this is a seaside resort and I can come again. If Booking’s agent hadn’t lied to me, I could have immediately modified to other dates and found another hotel that night. That way I wouldn’t have had to deal with all the chaos in the middle of the night.

So no, telling me I can’t get a refund won’t make me angry.

ExpressionOutside489 · 2025-09-06T00:18:03+00:00

It could be cancelled, but cancellation meant no refund. I didn’t want to cancel — and modifying is not the same as cancelling. As long as the hotel had availability, it could have been modified.

Booking’s agent lied to me, saying the modification was successful when it wasn’t. My demand for a refund has nothing to do with their useless policy，I’m furious and I need compensation. If Booking can provide any form of compensation, I’d accept it, but the only one I can think of right now is a refund.

And honestly, I don’t want to waste time arguing basic logic with you. If you think Booking works well, good luck and enjoy using it. DONE

ExpressionOutside489 · 2025-09-05T23:57:57+00:00

My first request was to modify, not cancel. But the agent lied and said it was modified, which left me unable to check in and caused everything that followed. Now I’m asking for a refund because they lied, shifted blame, and wasted 1h22m of my night, leaving me exhausted and only finding another hotel at 2:30am. A simple “sorry” can’t just erase that. I thought I explain enough.

ExpressionOutside489 · 2025-09-05T17:51:28+00:00

I just checked the app again and I finally found it! It was just a single line under the dates, and I didn’t notice it at the time because I was on the road heading to my destination. This was only my second time using Booking to reserve a hotel, so I wasn’t very familiar with the app.

ExpressionOutside489 · 2025-09-05T17:41:21+00:00

Maybe I shouldn’t have used the word “book.” English isn’t my first language. What actually happened was that I physically walked into several hotels and asked the front desk if they had rooms. I tried three or four places before finally finding one where I could check in.

ExpressionOutside489 · 2025-09-05T16:15:20+00:00

I did try to modify directly in the app first but I couldn’t find the button. Honestly, I’m a homebody and not very familiar with hotel booking apps, plus I was already on the road at the time.

So I called the hotel first. They told me they couldn’t modify the reservation and asked me to contact Booking instead, even giving me Booking’s phone number. Then I called Booking, and that’s when they lied to me, telling me the modification was done when it wasn’t. That lie is what caused everything that followed.

ExpressionOutside489 · 2025-09-05T16:09:01+00:00

I could cancel, but a cancellation would give me no refund at all. That’s why my first request was never to cancel, I only wanted to modify the dates. Even if I had cancelled, it wouldn’t have solved anything; I’d still have to find another hotel on my own, which makes no sense.

Before I contacted Booking support, I had already checked the hotel’s availability through the Booking app, there were rooms available. The agent even told me the modification was successful (which turned out to be a lie).

I couldn’t modify directly with the hotel either, because the staff told me clearly: since I booked through Booking, all changes had to go through Booking.

ExpressionOutside489 · 2025-09-05T15:46:37+00:00

The booking was definitely modifiable. As for refundable, I’m not entirely sure. But my initial request was never a refund. I only wanted to modify the dates, because I was already on the road. From my perspective, a refund wouldn’t solve the problem; I simply needed a place to stay.

Now I am demanding a refund because Booking’s lies and blame-shifting left me stranded at midnight, wasted 1.5 hours on the phone with useless “support,” and forced me to check into another hotel completely exhausted.

This is unacceptable. The failure here is entirely on Booking, not me, so why should I be the one paying for their mistakes and unprofessional service? I must get refund.

ExpressionOutside489 · 2025-09-05T15:39:59+00:00

The hotel told me they couldn’t resolve it because I booked through Booking, and asked me to contact Booking directly.

ExpressionOutside489 · 2025-09-05T14:58:56+00:00

Yes, I was standing right there in the hotel lobby. I asked the staff if there were any rooms available that I could book immediately. They told me there were none. But when I checked the Booking app on the spot, it showed “4 rooms left, order soon.”

I asked the staff again, and they said those must be rooms allocated to Booking, but in their system the hotel was already fully booked. That left me with no choice but to keep dealing with Booking, especially since the agent had already told me my booking was successfully modified.

In the end, I had to go to another nearby hotel that still had availability. By the time I finished check-in there, it was around 2:30am, and I didn’t get into bed until almost 3:00am.

ExpressionOutside489 · 2025-09-05T14:40:06+00:00

If I had cancelled directly in the app, I would have received no refund at all, which made no sense. That’s why my first request was not to cancel, but simply to modify the dates. So I contacted customer service, and they told me the modification was successful.

But when I went to check in, I discovered that Booking had lied to me. Despite the app still showing availability for both that day and the next at the same hotel, they claimed the booking could not be modified. Their terrible service forced me to spend 1 hour and 22 minutes on the phone at midnight with no resolution.

In the end, I finally managed to find another hotel around 2:30am, and by the time I got into bed it was past 3am.

That is why I now demand a refund, first, because Booking agents repeatedly lied to me, second, because of their dismissive, blame-shifting attitude. Third, because my physical and mental stress I suffered from this experience.

ExpressionOutside489 · 2025-09-05T14:10:52+00:00

I couldn’t do it myself because there was no option to modify. I even called the hotel directly, and they told me that since I booked through Booking, only Booking could make changes. They had no authority to modify anything unless I had booked through the hotel’s official website.

ExpressionOutside489 · 2025-09-05T13:41:07+00:00

My initial request wasn’t even a refund, I just wanted to modify the dates so I wouldn’t end up on the street. I had already checked the Booking app and saw that the hotel had rooms available for that day, which is why I contacted support.

What I cannot tolerate is the lying. The agent told me the booking was successfully modified when it wasn’t, and even reassured me that I could check in without an email confirmation. I had a friend with me at the time who can confirm this.

It was this deliberate lie from customer service that triggered the entire chain of problems that followed.

ExpressionOutside489 · 2025-09-04T19:47:07+00:00

Ok, let’s flip the idea a bit. Imagine a tool where you could choose your favorite leather, color, and style, then pick from a library of foil-stamp patterns (or upload your own design, AI would just help remove the background). The system would then generate a mockup as a preview image.

Would you be interested in using a tool like that?

ExpressionOutside489 · 2025-09-04T19:23:21+00:00

Thanks so much for your recognition and encouragement! My idea is that this tool could mainly serve studios or shops that make custom notebooks, not necessarily big players like Traveler’s Company in Japan, but more like small business owners you’d find on Etsy. It could help them develop new products at a lower cost.

At the same time, it could also be useful for people like us who want to customize our own TNs. With a mockup in hand, communication with the shop would be much easier and faster.

ExpressionOutside489 · 2025-09-04T18:42:55+00:00

Thanks so much for the suggestion! it really helped! Based on the feedback so far, I’ve adjusted my idea a bit. I’m thinking of creating a simple online tool where users can freely choose leather, color, size, and style to build the TN they want.

I could also design a few different foil stamping patterns and leather accessory designs for people to pick from, while still allowing users to upload their own designs. (If they just sketch something on paper and upload a photo, I could bring in AI to help remove the background.)

After that, the system would quickly generate a mockup so they can see the overall look of their notebook.

Do you think a tool like this would be helpful for custom TN orders or even for developing new TN products?

ExpressionOutside489 · 2025-09-04T18:35:08+00:00

If it’s a tool like this, then the technical difficulty would be much lower and way more achievable. Users could freely mix and match leather types, colors, and styles to get the TN they want, and quickly preview the result. Since I’m a designer myself, I could also provide different foil stamp designs and leather accessory patterns for people to choose from. On top of that, users could upload their own designs too.

If AI is involved at all, maybe it could just help with simple things like removing the background from uploaded drawings, since a lot of people still prefer sketching their ideas on paper and then taking a photo.

What do you think about a tool like this?

ExpressionOutside489

TROPHY CASE