Warning of Booking.com holiday home ‘scams’

Travelers say they were forced to pay for new accommodation, or ended up sleeping in their car, after paying for lets on Booking.com that ‘don’t exist’

Aug 27, 2024

Hundreds of Booking.com customers have reported paying for accommodations that turned out to be non-existent, and many have had difficulty securing refunds.

Key takeaways

  • In some cases, these problems appear to be due to outdated listings that should have been removed but remained available for booking;
  • However, other cases appear more dubious, with numerous negative reviews indicating that the advertised properties do not exist, while a few reviews suspiciously praise them with perfect ratings;
  • Booking.com and similar platforms do not physically verify the millions of properties they list. They position themselves as intermediaries, noting that the customer's contract is with the accommodation provider.

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