Booking.com B.V.

I booked a Lake House on BOOKING.COM 1 week ago for 8 people for $3200, and immediately upon booking called the contact number of the Property Manager. The Manager let me know that he would not accept the booking because it was under his minimum stay length, and would call me the next morning to let me know he had canceled it. However, he didn’t call the next morning, and when I tried calling him again, his phone had been turned off. The phone has remained turned off since that time. I have called Booking.com every day since, and the customer service has been ABYSMAL! All I want to do is cancel the booking, but BOOKING.COM is stating that I would have to pay a cancellation fee of $2500!? Why should I have to pay if BOOKING.COM put up a false booking? Every time I call BOOKING.COM customer service, they ask me to wait 24 hours for them to contact the manager. This has occurred 5 times, and he has still not responded, other than once to ask what the cancellation fee is! He still has not contacted me, despite several emails from myself and booking.com for him to do so. At a certain point, BOOKING.COM has to cancel this reservation for me without a fee, but their policy states that they can’t do so unless the manager gives them approval. BUT WHAT HAPPENS IF THE MANAGER DOESN’T RESPOND AT ALL??? Additionally, I have asked to speak with a manager from BOOKING.COM on every call, and despite this being common practice in every customer service I have contacted, they are completely unwilling to do so. Given that the Property Manager is completely unresponsive, BOOKING.COM should clearly cancel this reservation for me free of charge. The fact that they are unwilling to do so shows that no one should EVER use this HORRIFIC company with HORRIFIC customer service. .