How We Work

1. What Book Funduq is

Book Funduq is an online platform where you can discover hotels and other stays in Damascus and across Syria, compare real prices and availability, and book instantly in your own language and currency. The properties on the platform are independent businesses: they manage their own listings, prices, availability and policies through a partner panel, and they provide your accommodation. Your accommodation contract is with the property; the booking service is ours. The legal framework is in our Terms of Service — this page is the plain-language version of how it all works.

2. How we make money

Our revenue is a commission that properties pay us for confirmed bookings — a percentage (or fixed amount) agreed with each property. For transparency, that commission is exactly what you pay online as your booking deposit: it is collected from you at checkout, counts fully toward your total price, and the property receives the remaining balance from you directly at the property.

• Guests pay no service fee, no card fee, no markup — the total price you see is the property's price.
• The deposit is not an extra cost: total price = deposit paid online + balance paid at the property.
• Because our commission is fixed per property, we have no incentive to steer you to more expensive rooms.

Exact amounts for every booking — deposit, balance, total — are always itemised before you pay; the mechanics are described in the Payment Terms.

3. How booking works, end to end

• Search — enter dates and party size; we show real availability and real prices from each property's own inventory.
• Choose — compare rooms, photos, amenities and each property's cancellation window, all shown before you commit.
• Pay the deposit — a secure card payment processed by our payment service provider; see Payment Terms.
• Get confirmed — instantly, or within 24 hours for request-based properties (declined requests are automatically refunded in full).
• Stay — show your confirmation code or QR document and ID at check-in, and pay the balance in cash (USD) at the property.
• Change of plans? — cancel within the free window for an automatic full refund of the deposit; see the Cancellation & Refund Policy.

4. How search results are ordered

By default, results are sorted by a quality score computed the same way for every property. The score combines the property's publicly available guest rating and the number of ratings behind it (a statistical average that prevents a single 5-star review from outranking hundreds of consistent reviews), with the property's official star class as a minor tiebreaker.

Two things the ranking is not influenced by: the commission a property pays us, and any form of paid placement — we sell no advertising positions. When you search with dates, properties without availability for your stay are moved to the end of the list and clearly marked as unavailable rather than hidden, so you always see the honest state of the market. You can override the default order at any time by sorting by price (low to high, high to low) or guest rating.

5. Where ratings come from

The guest ratings you see on Book Funduq today come from publicly available Google ratings for each property, shown with their review counts. We do not yet operate our own review system, and we do not edit, filter or reorder these third-party scores. When we introduce reviews collected on our own platform, they will be from verified stays only, and this page will be updated to describe how they are collected and moderated.

6. Our relationship with properties

Properties join Book Funduq through an application we review, and manage their presence through a self-service partner panel: listings, photos, room types, prices, availability calendars, cancellation windows and booking mode (instant confirmation or on-request). They are required to keep information accurate, honour confirmed bookings, and not to request any payment beyond the confirmed total price. Properties that repeatedly fall short can be suspended or removed from the platform.

7. What we do for guests

• Price transparency — one total price in USD, itemised into online deposit and at-property balance before you pay; displayed currency conversions are clearly indicative.
• Secure payment — card processing by a licensed, PCI-DSS-compliant provider; your card details never touch our servers.
• Honest content — no fake urgency banners, no invented discounts, no hidden unavailable rooms.
• Real cancellation terms — the free-cancellation deadline is shown before you book, and refunds within the window are automatic.
• Human support — reachable by email and WhatsApp in multiple languages via our contact page.

8. Complaints and dispute handling

If something goes wrong — with a booking, a payment, a property or the platform itself — email info@bookfunduq.com with your confirmation code. Complaints are logged, investigated and answered; we aim to acknowledge within 24 hours and resolve most issues within a few days. Where a complaint concerns a property, we take it up with the property on your behalf. Your statutory consumer rights and the dispute options in the Terms of Service remain available at all times.