The message to travelers is clear: When booking a hotel online, be extra careful that you’re on the hotel’s official web site or that of a trusted online booking agency, such as Orbitz or hotels.com.
A study released earlier this year by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) estimated that 2.5 million hotel bookings per year were handled by imposters rather than hotels or legitimate booking agencies, and causing travelers (and hotels) to lose around $220 million to online booking scams.
If that sounds bad, a new study by GFK Custom Research and published by AH&LA paints an even bleaker picture. According to the new study, it’s actually 15 million bookings per year that end up being online booking scams, with a price tag of $1.3 billion. That translates to 6 percent of hotel bookings performed online. An additional 20 percent of customers surveyed said they were “not sure” if they had fallen victim to a scam site. (Not all scams are completely false bookings, some simply don’t count toward a hotel’s loyalty program or have cancellation or refund policies that differ from the hotels’.)
Almost a third of respondents—32 percent—said they worry about scams when book, at least partly because they’ve experience d issues with online bookings.
–32 percent got a room that was different than what was expected
–17 percent were charged unexpected or hidden fees
–15 percent did not get their rewards points
–14 percent were charged an extra booking fee
–14 percent could not get a refund for a cancellation
–9 percent had reservations lost or cancelled
–3 percent had their identity or private information stolen
“These findings clearly show that online hotel booking scams have eroded consumer confidence among third-party vendors,” said Katherine Lugar, president and CEO of AH&LA. “Consumers deserve transparency in knowing who they are booking with. That is why we have been actively working with state and national government agencies, including the FTC, as well as consumer advocacy groups, to ensure that consumers are protected and can feel comfortable in the booking process. It’s always safest to book directly with the hotel.”
