Holiday lets owner falls victim to Booking.com phishing scam

The owner of a small property management firm says she has received "horrendous" online abuse after thousands of fake property reservations were advertised in her company's name on Booking.com.

Victoria Pollard, who runs a company called Life's 2 Short, told the BBC that she had falled victim to a phishing attack which left her with no access to her accounts in August 2025.

Some of the victims who had made bookings had travelled from overseas and were left with nowhere to stay - Pollard says that she and her employee received abuse from disappointed guests who thought she was responsible for the fake reservations.

The 46-year old says she had to put her phone into airplane mode as she was received "20 to 30 calls a minute" at one point and had spent up to 12 hours a day working to resolve the problem, and was receiving thousands of emails a day related to the scam, meaning she was missing enquiries related to her business.

Pollard says that at one point, Booking.com told her that she would be liable for the refunds, which totalled just over £1 million.

The online accommodation platform has since apologised, saying it would offer its full support to Pollard. It added all impacted listings were removed and affected customers were offered "relocations, refunds or free cancellations".

"We are sorry to hear about this accommodation partner's experience," it said.

"Our investigation indicates the accommodation was likely the victim of a sophisticated phishing attack by cyber criminals, which affected their own computer systems and led to temporary unauthorised access to the accommodation partner's Booking.com account."

It is another horror story related to Booking.com in the last month - Which? reported making a fake listing for 10 Downing Street on the platform and was able to make a reservation, while a House of Commons building was listed for let as holiday apartments, causing conned travellers to be sent on their way by armed security.

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