If you, like every Dutchie, love a korting and the chance to snag a good deal, just remember that if it’s on Booking.com, you need to second guess it. The number of people getting scammed on the site is shooting up.
According to NOS, the Fraudehelpdesk has seen the number of reports of scams skyrocket over the previous months.
How are they scamming people?
What makes these scams so effective is that they’re using actual photos of real listings from other booking platforms. There’s no AI-looking couch to make you raise an eyebrow.
They even copy over the information given on the real listing, making the whole scam look very legit.
However, the red flag comes when it’s time to pay. Instead of paying on Booking.com, you will be contacted by the scammers who will send you to an external site to complete your payment. This is all part of a phishing scheme.
Then, once you’ve endured the queues at Schiphol, the screaming baby on your flight, and the two-hour drive from the airport, you’ll arrive outside your planned accommodation only to be told by neighbours that it’s a scam.
And it’s working
Speaking with NOS, this is exactly what some Dutch holidaymakers experienced.
Hans Hooijer tells the NOS of his ordeal when booking an apartment in Cape Town:
“The booking was confirmed and I received a regular email via Booking.com. At that time, there were no signs that anything was wrong. I received a call from someone posing as the owner of the apartment, requesting me to transfer €355. After that, I would receive the access code for the front door.”
And guess whether the code actually worked…
Hooijer was told by neighbours of the apartment that it was a scam, and he was the third person that week to fall for it.
Not just holidaymakers are affected
One woman, Elisa, tells NOS that in her case, people were arriving at her home in Portugal thinking they had booked it on Booking.com.
“On Booking.com, there was exactly the same information and photos that I had posted on the other platforms, and our personal details were also listed. Only the name of the accommodation had changed,” she tells the outlet.
In one day, she had two families show up at the same time. They thought she had scammed them and became angry towards her.
What’s Booking.com doing about it?
According to Booking.com, every listing “is checked for potential fraudulent activity, both during and after registration. In rare cases where a malicious party nevertheless manages to circumvent our security measures, we remove the accommodation immediately as soon as this is discovered or reported. We regret any situation in which a traveler and/or partner is affected by cybercrime and take this extremely seriously.”
In spite of the platform’s regrets, the damage caused by fraud on the site has risen significantly over the past year, with NOS reporting a jump from €75,000 in damages in 2025, to €82,000 in just the first half of 2026.
Do you use Booking.com? Will you continue to? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.
