Booking.com Scam Sends Up to 20 Tourists a Day to UK Pub

A theatre trip to London turned into a scramble for a hotel room after a Loughborough father discovered the "luxury apartment" he booked online did not exist, according to the BBC. Paul Dawson, 55, paid £73 through Booking.com for a one-night stay at what was listed as The London Crown apartments so his family could see the musical Hamilton in the West End, the BBC reported.

What happened to the Dawson family in Loughborough?

Dawson made the booking in August, the BBC reported. Two days later, he said, he received an email claiming to be from The London Crown that contained a link to a fake Booking.com page asking for his bank details. Suspicious, Dawson contacted Booking.com and discovered the address listed for the apartment was actually The Liberty Bounds, a Wetherspoon pub in Trinity Square near Tower Hill and the Tower of London, according to the BBC.

Dawson told consumer group Which?, as cited by the BBC, that Booking.com support staff told him he would still need to go to the address and wait until after 7 p.m. before the company would relocate him. "I explained to the support staff that I had autistic children and the idea of turning up at a clearly non-existent property at 10.30pm would have been catastrophic," Dawson said, according to the BBC. "This did not change their response, that I needed to go to the property." The family instead booked a room at the Premier Inn on Goodge Street, the BBC reported.

How many tourists are affected at the Wetherspoon pub?

Wetherspoon staff have been turning away as many as 20 tourists a day who show up believing they have booked apartments at the pub's address, Which? found, according to the BBC. The fake listing carried roughly 250 negative reviews posted in August and September, along with a handful of what Which? described as likely fake positive reviews, the BBC reported. When the BBC checked the listing on Thursday, the page was still visible but displayed a message reading, "We're sorry, but this property isn't taking reservations on our site right now."

Wetherspoon told the BBC that Booking.com had removed the listing once already, only for it to reappear, though it now appears the booking function has been blocked. The company said it has again asked Booking.com to permanently remove the page. "It is clearly unacceptable for people to be defrauded in such a flagrant manner," Wetherspoon said, according to the BBC. "This is upsetting for the pub team, as there is little they can do to help, but even more so for the people who have" been misled, the company added.

How did scammers hijack real Booking.com listings?

Booking.com told Which?, as reported by the BBC, that in both cases identified, listings for legitimate properties had been targeted by a "sophisticated phishing attack, allowing criminals to hijack the listings." That means the fraud did not start with a fake listing built from scratch — it started with real, previously trustworthy apartment listings that criminals took over and altered, including the address shown to guests.

Which? also flagged a second hijacked listing to the BBC, advertised as "Apartments near Big Ben," with an address given as Portcullis House — part of the House of Commons estate where hundreds of members of Parliament work.

What did Booking.com and Wetherspoon do about it?

Wetherspoon said it notified Booking.com about the scam "as soon as it came to their attention," according to the BBC. Booking.com has not disputed that the listings were compromised, telling Which? the phishing attack allowed criminals to take over legitimate pages. As of the BBC's Thursday check, the London Crown listing remained on the site but was not accepting new reservations.

What should travelers watch for before their next trip?

The case highlights a phishing method where fraud targets a real listing rather than an obviously fake one, making it harder for travelers to spot in advance. Based on details in the BBC's reporting, travelers booking short-term apartments online may want to:

• Cross-check the listed address on a map before paying, the way the Dawson family's address turned out to be a Wetherspoon pub rather than an apartment block.
• Treat any post-booking email asking for bank details as a red flag, since Dawson said the phishing message arrived after his original payment through Booking.com.
• Read recent reviews closely, not just the star rating — Which? found the fraudulent listing had accumulated roughly 250 negative reviews in a two-month span.
• Ask a booking platform's support line for a same-day address confirmation if a listing looks new, sparsely reviewed, or recently changed.
• Keep a backup payment method on hand in case a same-day relocation, like the Dawsons', becomes necessary.

Booking.com had not, as of the BBC's report, said how many total listings or guests were affected beyond the two properties identified by Which?.