I recently booked an apartment on Booking.com for an upcoming family trip. It looked perfect for what we needed, had about 10 reviews, and the price was surprisingly affordable. In hindsight, maybe a bit too good to be true.
A few hours after booking, the host contacted me through Booking.com messages asking for payment via bank transfer within 24 hours or the reservation would be canceled. I didn’t send the money and instead contacted Booking.com support.
What surprised me was their response. They said my caution was understandable, but that this type of request isn’t necessarily unusual because some listings use something called “Payment by Accommodation,” where the host collects payment directly, sometimes even by bank transfer. They told me not to pay until they contacted the host to clarify.
Still, that doesn’t feel right to me. Platforms like Booking.com should simply prohibit payment requests via bank transfer and immediately flag or suspend hosts who ask for it. At the very least, customer support should clearly warn users never to send money directly like that.
Later I actually found the same property listed on Airbnb for a much higher price. I contacted the host there and he told me he already knew about the scam listing on Booking.com and had reported it to both the police and Booking.com. Yet the fake listing is still up.
It also made me wonder why Booking.com doesn’t have an easy “report this listing” button like Airbnb does.
Why doesn’t Booking.com do more to protect users from situations like this?
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