Booking.com ignored scam alerts as up to 20 tourists a day were sent to a Wetherspoons pub instead of their 'luxury apartments'

From the Newshound archive · first published 25 September 2026 · last updated 26 September 2026.

Paul Dawson, 55, from Loughborough, paid £73 for a one-night stay at The London Crown apartments via Booking.com for a West End trip to watch Hamilton with his family, only to find the address was The Liberty Bounds Wetherspoons pub near Tower Bridge. Consumer watchdog Which? says staff at the pub have been turning away up to 20 duped tourists a day, and the fraudulent listing was still active on 23 September with over 250 negative reviews. Booking.com told Dawson to physically visit the non-existent property and wait until after 7pm before it would offer alternative accommodation — even after he explained the address was a pub.

Dawson warned Booking.com he had autistic children and arriving at a fake address at 10.30pm 'would have been CATASTROPHIC' — the platform refused to budge.

Which? exposed the platform's wider failures by successfully creating its own fake listing for 10 Downing Street, accepting payments on the site.

Scammers also listed an address for Portcullis House — part of the House of Commons estate — as 'Apartments near Big Ben', Which? revealed.