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Here’s a bizarre story that is currently developing in London. Moreover, this is happening to my partner’s parents in London: There’s a new Booking.com house scam in town. Strangers are showing up at their house, claiming to have booked a stay via Booking.com.
In This Post
The Booking.com scam story:
Here’s some context: My partner’s parents bought a new house in London City last year. Over the past few days, people have been turning up to their home saying they booked this house on Booking.com for a stay.
So far, five families have turned up at their house at all hours of the day:
- A family of four from Dubai arrived at their front door in the middle of the night with all their suitcases and luggage.
- There was a couple from Dublin.
- They have been getting more and more families knocking on their front door, showing them a confirmed reservation from booking.com.
It’s important to note that the people showing up at their door are not scammers. They are genuine customers who booked a stay. Unfortunately, someone has posted their house on Booking.com, leading to this situation.
How did this scam happen?
The strange thing about this is to post a house listing on Booking.com, you need to show proof of ownership, which can only mean one thing: this is clearly a scam since no one in her family has put up the listing on the website.
Conclusion:
After contacting Booking.com themselves, they said, “We can’t help you, and you need to show proof of ownership”, to which they responded by saying, we’re not showing you anything as we didn’t post our house on your website, so take it down before we take legal action”. The house is no longer available to book on Booking.com as it has been taken down. And here’s the kicker: Booking.com didn’t even bother telling the people the listing was taken down, so their reservation no longer exists. However, the house is fully booked till mid-July (so we are sorry if you want to book a room with us…)
Have you ever experienced such a scam?
Let us know in the comments section below.
2 comments
I avoid Airbnb LIke the plague for reasons like this. now i suppose i’d best do the same with booking.com since they show an equal dedication to customer service. Thanks for the heads up.
I’ve booked a number of booking.com locations now that don’t exist. Booking.com customer service doesn’t care and is unable to help. All they can do is read from a script.