OPINION: How can Booking.com clean up its act on scams?
Originally published in The i Paper 13 September 2025. Permission to publish all opinion pieces authored by Rocio Concha, sought and granted on 3 July 2025.
A name that’s difficult to type into a search bar without going straight to their site. A-List celebrities appearing in their television adverts. It’s little wonder, then, that Booking.com has seen its share of the market increase in recent years.
Research from rental market data company Key Data suggests that it has pulled level with its main competitor, Airbnb, as the main site for booking short-term rental stays in the UK. A partnership with train site Trainline means consumers will see places to stay on Booking.com in their trip’s destination unless they untick a box. For trips abroad, the site also performs strongly.
But beneath the surface lies a murkier underbelly. The site seems to have become a breeding ground for scammers intent on trying to hoodwink unwitting consumers. When Which? researchers asked 237 of our members who used Booking.com if they’d seen scam messages on the site, almost one in 10 said they had. If this were to be extrapolated to the millions of users the site hosts every year, that’s a huge number of potential victims.
Which? continues to receive stories from customers who’ve been scammed on the site. There are two main types of scam. The first is when customers are sent messages, often from the email address ‘noreply@booking.com’, telling them they need to confirm their booking by transferring payment to the fraudster. The second type comes in the form of scam listings.
It means customers are losing money, as well as potentially turning up to their accommodation - only for them to realise the hotel never existed, and leaving them stranded and scrambling to find alternative accommodation.
One man Which? spoke to was shocked to receive a message from Booking.com confirming an apartment in Wembley, non-refundable and booked on a credit card he hadn’t used for 18 months, or on Booking.com since 2019. Initially, the site told him to contact the accommodation partner to cancel, and only refunded him once Which? intervened. Booking.com told Which? that cybercriminals gained access to the customer’s Booking.com account to make a reservation and ‘upon receiving proof of the charge from the customer, we are now processing a full refund.’
These findings are already concerning, but when one factors in the rise of artificial intelligence, it’s likely that scam messages and fake listings will become even more believable.
To fight back against the scourge of online fraud, laws under the Online Safety Act were introduced, giving Ofcom, the media regulator, the powers to take enforcement action against sites that don’t do enough to rid their platforms of fraudulent activity. Clearly, Booking.com isn’t doing enough in this regard given the number of scams customers are reporting as seeing on the site, which is why we believe that Ofcom should be investigating the site. If it finds wrongdoing, it should take tough action, sending a message that a failure to protect users will result in consequences.
In the meantime, Which? thinks Booking.com should carry out a range of measures. The first would be to insist that accommodation providers prove their identity as the current checks on this are inadequate. Second, do more to prevent fraudsters being able to request payment through links or messages that are sent through its booking systems. Third, proactively investigate and remove listings where there are numerous, credible allegations that they are scams, or where customers don’t end up in the accommodation they believed they were booking. Finally, it should be taking reports of scams much more seriously, pledging to investigate and remove them within 24 hours of being reported.
Booking a trip away should be something to look forward to. Customers should be able to look forward to staying at the places they’ve booked - not spend the journey there hoping it even exists. Booking.com