In some cases it appears that, rather than deliberate scams, they were caught out by listings that should have been deactivated but were still available to book.
However, other listings seem much more suspicious with numerous angry reviews saying that the holiday let doesn’t exist, while one or two reviewers give them glowing 10-out-of-10 ratings.
Using an advanced Google search, we found 52 listings on Booking.com where multiple recent reviews said that the property didn’t exist, with hundreds of reviewers warning of what they describe as ‘scams’. Of the 52 listings, 35 were still set as available to book when we checked, while the others had been active in the last year but now said they were ‘not currently available’.
Some guests said they still hadn’t received a refund, weeks after their stay was supposed to have taken place.
‘Stranded’ Booking.com guests sleep in the car
One person, who booked a static caravan, warned other users: ‘Don’t fall for it like I did and end up stranded in Skegness with three small children.’ Another said: ‘it was horrible turning up to find out it was a scam’. The most recent 15 reviewers all either said that it was a ‘scam’ or that they couldn’t get access, or simply gave it one star.
However, the caravan still had a review score of 4.6 out of 10. It appears that it used to be available but has closed, and hasn't been removed from the site. Despite all the furious reviews over a period of months, it was still available to book until we brought it to Booking.com’s attention.
Another user, who couldn’t access a flat in South Africa, said they had to sleep in their car after not being able to pay for new accommodation. The flat had ten reviews, eight of which said that it didn’t exist or just gave it one star. Only the first two reviews said it was ‘exceptional’ or ‘good’.
Online booking sites ‘do not check their properties’
One reviewer who travelled for hours to a Booking.com listing in Margate that had closed the month before, said: ‘Do not trust this website as they do not check their properties that are advertised to ensure that they’re legitimate. They just take your money and hope you’ll go away quietly if you get ripped off.’
It is true that online booking sites such as Booking.com and its competitors do not physically verify the millions of properties they host. They describe themselves as platforms and say that customers’ contract is with the accommodation provider. They check that the address is real and the owner has provided an official form of ID.
The reviews system should make guests safer. However, one reviewer tried to alert future guests to a non-existent let by saying: ‘DO NOT BOOK HERE. TRYING TO GET THEM TO REMOVE THE LISTING’ – but four more people booked before it was finally removed.
Booking.com ‘most relevant’ reviews fail to reveal property ‘doesn’t exist’
Travellers won’t necessarily see previous ‘scam’ warnings from reviewers, even if they click on the reviews.
This is because Booking.com’s default system is to show users what it calls the ‘most relevant’ reviews first. If users want to guarantee they’re seeing reviews from the last few months, they have to click ‘most recent’.
For one listing of a let in London, we found that 10 out of 11 reviewers gave it one star out of 10, with most describing it as a ‘scam’ or simply saying they weren’t able to stay. Just one reviewer gave it a score of 10 out of 10 and described it as ‘exceptional’.
This latter was the review that Booking.com displayed as the ‘most relevant’.
For another listing, for a flat in Birmingham, the top two reviews shown as ‘most relevant’ were both from June 2023, and both described it as ‘exceptional’. One was also described by Booking.com as a ‘Reviewers Choice’, which appeared to us to be offering credibility to the listing. Another review from the same month also described it as ‘exceptional’.
But the remaining reviews all said that the property did not exist. Only by changing the reviews display from ‘most relevant’ to ‘most recent’ could travellers see that the eight most recent people to pay said they’d been unable to access the property, including some from just last month.
‘Nightmare’ getting a refund from Booking.com
One reviewer said that they were shouted at, threatened and turned away when they turned up at a holiday let in Portsmouth. They claim that Booking.com then turned them down for a refund, despite the fact that 17 other reviewers said the listing was not available. We asked Booking.com about this issue but were not provided with any more detail about why this reviewer was refused a refund.
While at least one reviewer said they’d quickly been able to get a refund, many others said they weren’t so lucky. It's not clear if or when those people were eventually refunded. Booking.com told us that they require some documentary evidence from customers as part of their own processes, so it's possible that this may slow down the refund process.
One traveller complained of ‘unbelievably poor customer service from Booking.com when I tried to get my money back’.
Another, who’d booked a flat in Birmingham, complained: ‘Booking.com has asked the host to waive our fees and cancel the booking, as the host is responsible for refunding us. They are treating it as a cancellation, rather than a complete and utter scam. To say I’m shocked is an understatement. I didn’t think that kind of thing happened on Booking.com.’
Booking.com fails to remove listings that dozens of reviewers say are ‘scams’.
After we alerted Booking.com to the existence of the 52 listings, it removed 32 of them entirely, while most of the rest were set to 'unavailable'. However, two listings are still available to book – one received a one-star review on 11 August, 10 days after we reported it.
One of the listings that hasn’t been removed was first accused of being a scam in October 2022. The most recent 10 reviews all say it doesn’t exist, with the two most recent from July 2024 both saying it’s a 'scam'.
We went back to Booking.com to ask again if it thinks the two listings are genuine but it hasn’t responded to this point (see its full response, below).
Are the listings really ‘scams’ or just mistakes?
It’s impossible to verify whether the listings are really scams. Some look highly suspicious but others seem to be failures of communication.
One owner who’d repeatedly been accused of scamming Booking.com users at a flat in Dublin responded: ‘It’s not a scam, we are just not operating anymore. We requested Booking.com to cancel all the reservations.’
Despite this, the five most recent reviewers all said they’d paid and not been able to stay.
The most suspicious listings are those where almost all reviewers agree that a property isn’t available, but one or two give it a glowing review.
Booking.com responds
Booking.com told us that some of the listings we found were not scams. It said that they were ‘contract terminations where the correct procedures may not have been followed’. It added that other listings required further verification, as part of its safety and security measures.
It also said: ‘When a property owner signs up to list with Booking.com, they must agree to our terms and conditions, which includes that they will agree to take responsibility for keeping their availability up to date.
‘If a partner wants to terminate their contract or remove their listing, then we have robust processes in place, with clear guidance available online to all our partners on what is expected.
As a booking platform, whether it is a host with one property or a large chain, we rely on these businesses to follow this guidance, to ensure smooth travel experiences for our mutual customers.’
Will Booking.com change ‘most relevant’ criteria?
The fact that Booking.com’s default setting is to show what it calls the ‘most relevant’ reviews means that it’s easy for users to miss a recent deluge of reviews warning that a listing is a scam or not available.
It told us: ‘We are constantly exploring ways that we can surface the right information at the right time, and this can mean enabling customers to switch to view the latest reviews at just one click of a button, or selecting to view lowest scores – for example, depending on what criteria within the review is the most relevant to help them make their own decision on a property.’
We’ve gone back to Booking.com to ask it again to change this system and make the ‘most relevant’ reviews more helpful to users.
How Booking.com compares to Hotels.com, Expedia, Airbnb and other sites
We tried searching for dubious listings on Hotels.com, Expedia, AirBnb and Vrbo as well, but did not find the same numbers of reviewers reporting ‘scams’.
We found four listings on Hotels.com (owned by Expedia) with credible complaints. Hotels.com said that they were not fraudulent but three were not currently bookable because of ‘lack of traveller communication, change of ownership and not honouring bookings.’ It said the fourth is genuine, despite the three most recent reviewers all saying they paid but didn’t get to stay.
Each site has its own method of displaying reviews and of handling payments. For Airbnb and Vrbo, accommodation owners do not receive payment until the day after the guest stays, so scams using the official booking system are unlikely. Most scams we’ve seen in the past have involved fraudsters tricking guests into paying outside of the sites’ booking systems, by bank transfer or credit card.
How to avoid being scammed on booking sites
You’re very unlikely to be scammed when booking accommodation on a legitimate booking site such as Booking.com while paying through the platform. The ‘scam’ listings we found are just a tiny proportion of the huge numbers of hotels and other accommodation on Booking.com.
However, you do need to be careful. In the first couple of months of this year, Which? had 40 scam emails reported to us from Booking.com customers, but they were usually from fraudsters trying to fool people into paying them directly.
The most dangerous of these are the emails that are convincing because they appear to come from Booking.com itself. This is because hackers have accessed the booking systems of hotels or other accommodation providers and then been able to contact guests directly, pretending to be from Booking.com.
Typically, messages claim there’s a problem with your payment before asking you to ‘verify’ or ‘update’ your card details on phishing sites designed to look like Booking.com. Never click on any links that you’re sent, and don't pay outside of official systems or by bank transfer.
When booking accommodation, always choose the ‘most recent’ reviews setting, and check that the listing is still active and that guests are having a positive experience.
source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/warning-of-booking.com-holiday-home-scams-aR2yY0i0qcBS