Booking.com pressed to act as fake listings rise

UK consumer watchdog says 1 in 10 users report fraud attempts and is urging Ofcom to step in

A 12-bedroom Surrey manor house was fraudulently listed on Booking.com for a fraction of its true rental cost, sparking renewed scrutiny of the platform’s ability to prevent scams. The property’s owner, photographer Glyn Powell-Evans, only discovered the fake listing after receiving calls from would-be guests. Consumer group Which? and fraud authorities say the incident reflects a wider problem of inadequate verification and weak responses to fraud reports on Booking.com.

Key takeaways

• Fake manor listing: Great Tangley Manor, worth £4.9m, was advertised on Booking.com at just a few hundred pounds per weekend instead of the real £2,000–£3,000 price.
• Owner blindsided: 76-year-old owner Glyn Powell-Evans, who never listed the property on the site, was contacted by multiple misled customers, one of whom had already paid a deposit.
• Wider fraud trend: Action Fraud recorded more than 530 reports of Booking.com scams between June 2023 and September 2024, with £370,000 in losses.
• Consumer watchdog warning: Which? found around 1 in 10 Booking.com users believe they’ve been targeted by fraudsters; it has called on Ofcom to investigate.
• Slow response from platform: Despite Powell-Evans’s repeated calls, the fake listing stayed up for nearly a month until Which? intervened. Promised compensation for unauthorized photo use has not been paid.
• Booking.com’s stance: The company insists it takes verification seriously, with “multiple controls and checks” in place, but critics argue stronger ID requirements and faster scam removal are needed.

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