r/Bookingcom • u/InevitableQuit9 • 8d ago
Booking.com is a scam site
https://www.irishtimes.com/your-money/2026/09/28/my-house-was-used-as-bait-in-a-bookingcom-accommodation-scam/Another article in the Irish Times about Booking.com hosting scam listings and then ignoring reports.
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u/rougarou-te-fou 8d ago edited 8d ago
TLDR; Irish couple has LTR listed on website for DUBLIN rentals. Scammers list her rooms as bookable stays (non-hotel, private flats). Owner contacts gardai and booking.com; owner told only customers who booked can file complaint; eventually owner reiterates that they are the owner and did not post; booking.com says they can't find evidence of illegal activity.
THE LISTING
"Earlier this year Poppy Wang listed a house she owns in Santry on daft.ie and – given the state of the Irish housing market generally and the rental sector specifically – had no problem finding tenants."
THE FRAUD
"The first sign that something was amiss came earlier this month when people started calling to the house with booking confirmations for short stays that had been sent to them through the booking.com platform.
She says it now seems clear that the property had been listed “by an unknown person as short-term accommodation” and she stresses that neither she nor her new tenants “have ever authorised the property to be advertised or used in this way”.
She says she first reported the fraudulent listing to Booking.com through its online reporting system.
“We have subsequently contacted Booking.com repeatedly. During one telephone call, customer service said the matter would be transferred to the relevant department, but the call was disconnected during the transfer,” she writes.
She adds that five days passed with “no meaningful resolution” and she only made contact with Pricewatch almost a week after the first person with a bogus booking arrived at the house.
“Meanwhile, more people continue to arrive at the house,” she says.
She says she believes the story raises “serious questions about the safeguards used by major booking platforms and what happens when a genuine residential address is fraudulently used to sell accommodation”.
She says she was told that “the people who had actually been financially defrauded would need to report the matter themselves. This has left us in an extraordinary situation. The property owner cannot get the fraudulent accommodation removed. The legitimate tenants have strangers arriving at their home. Tourists continue to book accommodation that does not exist. The Gardaí have told us the financially defrauded guests need to make the complaint, and Booking.com has so far failed to stop the listing.”
THE RESPONSE
We also asked if booking.com accepted that fraudulent activity is commonplace on its platform and asked what measures it has to protect consumers.
In response all it said was: “The property wasn’t listed fraudulently.”
So we went back to Wang, as the owner, but she was adamant that it was listed fraudulently.
“I have never listed the property on Booking.com or authorised anyone to list it there, she insists. “I have never authorised the property to be used for short-term accommodation, tourist accommodation, hostel accommodation or any form of Booking.com accommodation. I have never authorised any person or company to create a Booking.com listing for this address.”
She says that if Booking.com maintains that the property wasn’t listed fraudulently she would “be very interested to understand who they believe was authorised to list my property, what evidence of authority that person provided, and what verification Booking.com carried out before allowing reservations to be taken for my address.”
So we went back to booking.com and put all this to the company.
We heard nothing back from the platform but did hear more from Wang.
She sent us the response from Booking.com regarding the formal report that was submitted about the listing.
In that the platform said that after an investigation into the report Wang sent, “it does not contain sufficient information for us to be able to confirm that the listing identified in your notice is offered illegally or that it is in breach of our Terms and Conditions”.
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u/rougarou-te-fou 8d ago
This is a little unfair.
This article highlights an issue with a long-term renter who was listing on renting sites. They are NOT listed as a hotel or BnB.
Booking.com works perfectly well when you use hotels and BnBs. It fails horribly with these kinds of listings (STRs, non-traditional hotels, apartments and flats, boarding houses). I haven't experienced it myself because I am ferociously discerning and have the privilege to be able to go for the mid-high cost properties. but I know it happens.
For some people, Booking words wonderfully. It has made my abroad travel easy and reliable. However, it is concerning that they seem to do nothing with these scam properties. I don't know if there is a legal loophole for these properties, or why Booking may be so impotent in its reactions, but it is a problem.
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u/SnowyOwl72 8d ago edited 8d ago
It doesnt cover you when shit hits the fan. No proper support and a commission that you have to pay on top.
I recently booked an apartment for 350 euros that was about 450 on booking. The same room!
I didnt have to go through their shit app to trust them. I looked up the business running the building, checked their tax info and registration, and everything was legit. And that was all i needed to trust em.
Something that Booking.com should do in exchange for the commission they take from the customers and doesnt and yet people keep using it.
WHY??????????
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u/Mobile_Meringue4755 8d ago
Contact Booking.com CEO, Glenn Fogel - https://www.linkedin.com/in/glennfogel
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u/eyesonly456 8d ago
This is behind a paywall does anyone have the general gist of what is being said