Booking.com and a scam. Beware
 

Booked non existent apartment
We have used Booking.com many times but we have been scammed.
In May we booked an apartment through them for a week in London in October. A few days after booking we received an official looking booking and introduction letter from the Apartment owners. That asked if we needed airport transfers etc. Two days letter we received another email from the owners asking for early payment. As we had b ooked through Booking.com I thought all was legit. We paid. A month later I decided to check our accommodation. I could not find it on Booking.com. I checked the website and email address from our welcoming email and found it did not exist. The address given on Bookin.com exists but it is for a private apartment. I rang Booking.com and alerted them to the fact that I have booked a non existent apartment. Later that week I received a cancellation letter saying I have cancelled the booking but they had waived the cancellation fee which we should have been billed for. I rang again and said how could there be a cancellation fee when there is no apartment. I requested full repayment of monies that I had paid. I forwarded a copy of the letter from my bank stating that the money is not traceable or retrievable. Booking.com then said they have sent off my letter to their accounts department for possible refund. 3 weeks later and more phone calls still nothing. Booking.com should have checked the apartment out before allowing them to be on their site. Here's hoping for refund.

I am so terribly sorry to hear about the scam. I guess there must be a way to be protected like not paying ahead of time, or if doing so, using a credit card . Both solutions do not seem very realistic.
The larger question is, how can booking com list such a place . /? Obviously without due checking.
Thank you for let us know and I do hope you are duly refunded by booking com.

"we received another email from the owners asking for early payment."

That should have been a very large red flag. If you are booking through booking.com either you pay through booking.com or you pay on site. Did you try contacting booking.com when you received the email?

Paying with a credit card is in fact a quite realistic way of avoiding such scams. If you pay and do not receive what you paid for the credit card company will usually refund your money. If an individual or a business you do not know asks for payment and refuse to accept a credit card, that also is a very large red flag.

I does seem from the limited information given that booking.com has some responsibility here. Be persistent and good luck with the refund.

I use booking.com a lot and on the few occasions I have had problems, have found them very helpful. However, I would hesitate to use them or any other agent when booking an apartment. At least with a hotel you can generally check that it actually exists by other means.

If, as you say the apartment was removed from the site then it seems likely that the property was just listed there and then removed once money had been collected from you and , presumably others. Booking.com , one would hope would accept some of the responsibitity for accepting the listing but can hardly be held accountable if you decide to make a payment on the basis of an email.

I find it difficult to understand how/why you would make payment to these people. Did you email them your cc details (very dangerous) or did you wire them the money ( just as bad). At least with a cc you should be covered under their joint and several liability for the transaction.

A salutory lesson for others!

So bad. The booking.com really needs to improve their customer service.

I've used booking.com a lot and never had any problem.
One of the reasons I like them is that everything is reserved via their site and paid via credit card to them.

If I pay early, I pay to booking.com and they arrange for paying the hotel. In case of problem before arrival then I contact them, not the hotel.You ahve a deal with booking.com, not the particular hotel/appt.

It seems to me that the owner of the appt is the scammer and you should have contacted Booking.com when the owners asked for money - this is not how it works and booking explains it.

I hope they do something for you, but it would be a commercial gesture they are not imho obliged to do.

In the meantime I hope they don't read this forum - I wouldn't refund you anything if I were them and was reading this thread.