Scam hotel booking sent family to Wetherspoon pub

A theatre-goer fell victim to a "sophisticated phishing attack" after booking a "luxury" London apartment, only to discover the address was a Wetherspoon pub.

Paul Dawson, from Loughborough in Leicestershire, paid £73 for a one-night stay for his family via Booking.com at The London Crown apartments to watch the musical Hamilton in the West End.

Days later, he said, he discovered the address shown in the listing was actually The Liberty Bounds pub, a Wetherspoon near Tower Bridge.

Consumer protection organisation Which? said Wetherspoon staff had been turning away up to 20 tourists a day after scammers used the pub's address as a listing for a "block of luxury apartments".

Which? said it was also made aware of a property listed as "Apartments near Big Ben", with the address given as Portcullis House, part of the House of Commons estate, where hundreds of MPs work.

Booking.com told Which? that in both cases, listings for legitimate properties had been targeted by a "sophisticated phishing attack, allowing criminals to hijack the listings".

Wetherspoon said it had informed Booking.com about this scam "as soon as it came to their attention".

The listing for the London Crown apartments had 250 negative reviews from August and September along with a handful of, likely fake, positive reviews, Which? said.

The BBC checked the listing on Thursday. The information was still visible but the page carried the message: "We're sorry, but this property isn't taking reservations on our site right now".

Wetherspoon said the listing was removed only for it to reappear, "though it now appears that the ability to book has been blocked".

"We have again notified them [Booking.com], asking for the listing to be permanently removed.

"It is clearly unacceptable for people to be defrauded in such a flagrant manner.

"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 and have lost money as a result.

"Booking.com urgently needs to adopt more robust procedures to prevent fraudulent listings like this appearing in the first place."

Many of the reviews from customers said they told Booking.com that it was a scam but had been ignored.

One customer said: "I reported it to Booking.com three days before check-in but they refused to do anything."

Another customer, from Spain, complained that she and her friend had been left stranded, writing: "Two girls alone in London at two o'clock in the morning with no accommodation."

Booking.com also has an AI trip planner called Dot, which allows users to ask questions. On The London Crown listing page a Which? researcher asked: "Is this a real property, or is it a scam?".

It replied: "The London Crown is a legitimate property located in the centre of London. It offers various amenities such as free wifi, free bikes, and free private parking. It is conveniently located near Longleat Safari Park and Longleat House, with London City Airport just 10km away. Based on the detailed description and amenities listed, the London Crown appears to be a real and well-equipped property."

Dot failed to recognise that Longleat Safari Park was more than 100 miles (160km) from London, in Wiltshire.

"Apartments near Big Ben" and The London Crown apartments were both targeted by the phishing attack, said Booking.com.

"The attack affected the properties' own computer systems and gave cybercriminals temporary, unauthorised access to the accommodation's Booking.com account," a spokesperson said.

"We take incidents like this extremely seriously, and suspended bookings at both properties, as well as supporting affected customers."

An Ofcom spokesperson said: "Fraud online can have serious consequences for victims and platforms have clear legal duties to take down illegal content generated by users once they become aware of it.

"More broadly, we've shown that we'll use our enforcement powers against platforms that fail to comply with the Online Safety Act, and have already launched investigations into over 100 sites."