As the holiday season approaches, many people are starting to make plans for vacations. Booking.com is naturally a top choice for many when it comes to searching for hotels, but some have revealed that they have been scammed when booking through the website.
One young British woman fell victim to a scam on Booking.com during her trip to Thailand in October 2023, resulting in a loss of £900.
She had made a one-night hotel reservation in Bangkok, planning to stay for a night before flying back home the next day. On her way to the hotel late at night, she received a message via the Booking.com app that appeared to be from a hotel staff member. The message asked her to make a payment in local currency and threatened that if she didn’t pay, her reservation would be canceled.
She said, “I should have realized the amount was higher than what I had paid for the hotel, but due to the different currency, and rushing in the middle of the night worrying about the reservation being canceled, I didn’t react.”
After realizing she had been scammed, she tried to reclaim the money from her bank but was refused.
Banks may decide to compensate victims of scams, but their policies vary and whether compensation is provided ultimately depends on the bank’s own judgment.
Later, with the intervention of the media, Booking.com agreed to refund her £900.
Another woman was also scammed while using Booking.com.
She recently booked a two-night stay at a hotel in Blackburn for a friend’s wedding this summer.
Having previously communicated with the hotel about early check-in arrangements, when a message appeared in the chat history of the Booking.com app, she thought it was legitimate.
The message claimed that the hotel was undergoing a system upgrade and needed her to provide credit card information again to secure the booking. She was told that the hotel would first deduct a small amount from her account and then quickly refund it.
She provided her credit card information, initially being charged £4, but then an additional £144.72 was deducted.
She said, “I contacted Booking.com, and they directed me to communicate directly with the hotel. The hotel then confirmed that they did not make any charges, indicating it sounded like a scam.”
Luckily, she contacted her bank, explained the situation, and the bank refunded her money. She said, “Booking.com seemed not very concerned about what had happened, which makes me hesitant to use their services in the future.”
A third woman suspected that scammers logged into her account and canceled her reservation, forcing her to rebook the hotel room at a higher price.
She had booked nine hotel rooms for an event in London at the end of March, where guests were supposed to pay for their own rooms upon check-in.
In February, she unexpectedly received an email from Booking.com confirming the cancellation of these reservations, which she had not initiated. She had also booked a holiday at another hotel later in the year, which was also canceled.
She said, “I did not request the reservation cancellation, but the hotel claimed it was done through my Booking.com account. I had previously received emails stating that someone tried to hack into my account and change the password, I suspect they may have succeeded.”
She expressed frustration over the situation and after reading an article online about scammers using Booking.com for fraud, she changed her password.
She tried to restore the booking by contacting Booking.com, but they were unable to help as the reservation had been canceled. She then reached out to the hotel, which was also unable to assist as the booking was completed through a partner platform.
In the end, she had to rebook the same room, paying an additional £800.
She was unsure of the scammers’ intentions with her account, but they later reset the account and deleted her personal information, causing her to lose the rewards she had accumulated as a frequent user of Booking.com.
Regarding the two cases of receiving fake hotel messages and reservations seemingly being canceled by scammers, Booking.com stated they would not provide compensation as they believe their system did not have any security vulnerabilities.
A spokesperson for Booking.com told British media, “Some of our partnered accommodations were directly targeted by carefully planned phishing attacks by professional cybercriminals where they were tricked into clicking on links or attachments that resulted in malicious software infiltrating their systems and, in some cases, accessed their Booking.com accounts without authorization. This allowed these scammers to impersonate the accommodations and communicate with guests via email or messages.”
The spokesperson added that while such incidents are rare, Booking.com has invested significant resources to mitigate the impact and has taken new measures to protect customers and support partners. Users affected or with concerns can report suspicious information to Booking.com through their customer service team or click on “Report Issues” within the chat function.
Lloyds Bank recently stated that holiday fraud cases have increased by 7% in the past year, with the 35 to 44 age group being the most vulnerable. On average, customers of the bank lost £765 in holiday fraud.
Lloyds Bank revealed that nearly half (49%) of holiday fraud cases originated from Facebook Marketplace, where scammers post fake holiday home advertisements and disappear after receiving payments from customers.
However, the bank also mentioned that scammers are increasingly turning to more legitimate booking websites to target victims. “Scammers have also successfully infiltrated Booking.com’s mobile app, sending messages to vacationers pretending to be real hotels through the app. They impersonate hotel staff, requesting victims to make payments in a way different from the original method or ask for credit card, bank account, or other personal information. This scam technique is sophisticated and multi-layered, as victims receive messages that seem to come from a genuine hotel via the Booking.com app.”
One Lloyds Bank customer lost £534 in a scam on Booking.com.
After booking a hotel on Booking.com and paying a deposit, this woman received a message from someone claiming to be a hotel staff member, asking her to make another deposit.
The new phone number provided was consistent with the hotel’s number listed on Booking.com.
Despite her doubts about making a second deposit, she proceeded with the payment after being informed that she would lose the room if she didn’t pay. She also agreed to pay additional fees because the hotel claimed her partner would be joining her.
Unfortunately, the defrauded woman ultimately discovered that the entire accommodation was fake. It was only when she was ready to check in with her luggage that she realized the hotel didn’t exist.
She searched online for the company’s name but found nothing, and then she realized she had been transferring funds to the personal account of the scammers.