Brussels Is Asking Booking.com About the Rooms That Don’t Exist

The European Commission opened an investigation on October 21 into how Booking.com handles fraudulent accommodation listings and phishing scams. Regulators will also examine whether paid, boosted listings are clearly labeled as advertising. The probe sits under the Digital Services Act, which requires very large online platforms to do more about illegal and harmful content, and it follows a review of risk assessment reports the company submitted this year and over the previous three.

On fake listings, the Commission will check whether Booking.com properly identified and reduced systemic risks, including ads for properties that do not exist, impersonation fraud and offers that fail to meet applicable requirements. On phishing, investigators will look at scams that exploit reservation details and guest data shared with accommodation providers, the kind of message that arrives in your inbox moments after you book and asks you to confirm payment on a lookalike page.

Henna Virkkunen, the EU’s technology chief, said Europeans should be able to book holidays without fear of being scammed. Booking.com said it is engaging constructively with the Commission and that security, trust and the protection of personal information are top priorities. Violations of the Digital Services Act can carry fines of up to six percent of a company’s global annual turnover, though the Commission gave no timeline for conclusions.

Hotel trade body HOTREC welcomed the proceedings. Meanwhile, travelers can protect themselves today: pay only through the platform’s official checkout, treat any message asking you to move payment elsewhere as suspect, and contact the property through the booking app rather than links in an email or text. If a rate looks implausibly low for the location and dates, that alone is worth a second look.

Sources: Travel Daily News, Travel Daily News (HOTREC)