Ahhhh...that would explain why you do not get many US errors on booking.com.

However I have bookings in double figures going back many months that have not been contested in Europe and look like they will be honoured.

We shall see.

I only get persistent if a booking has been confirmed for some time, usually months and suddenly out of the blue the hotel decide not to honour, and then the reservation still gets cancelled. So it really is down to the luck of the draw. Whatever, it is not down to booking.com whether the rate is honoured, but rather the hotel who used the intranet on booking.com and entered incorrect rates. Booking.com will try and act as the ombudsman in such incidences, but no more. Sometimes in this role they seem to get things right and sometimes not....same as every other OTA...Agoda being a prime example.