Hi all, have you come across a travel or accommodation scam people should know about?
With Easter approaching, we want to give some updated advice to consumers on the travel and accommodation scams to look out for when booking time away. For example, reports of scams mentioning Booking.com have recently increased significantly.
Have you seen something? It might’ve been suspicious messages from a booking site, a deal too good to be true or an unexpected travel prize.
We are just about to book accommodation in North Qld. What or who can we get in touch with to ensure it is a authentic B&B before we pay the money?
Call the hosts, but, unfortunately most booking sites don’t give contact details as they don’t want to be bypassed and lose commissions.
Try googling the accommodation provider’s name. Reputable accommodation providers will have websites or contact details online such as in Google Maps or their Facebook page.
Contacting and booking directly can also be better as they might give a discount/lower pricing than the bookings platforms as they don’t pay up to 15% commissions (which disappears tax free to overseas multinationals) on the value of the booking. If they don’t give a discount, they might be willing to do a ‘free upgrade’ or other something in lieu of a discount.
