The telltale signs of a fake travel website
By Darren Cronian on Thursday, August 20th, 2009

Millions of consumers plan their own short-break by booking flights and accommodation separately and as I wrote recently consumers need to keep a look out for fake websites. Book your accommodation through a personal recommendation or a company that you have used before.

The telltale signs of a fake travel website

Taking advantage of inexperience

You have to bear in mind that a high percentage of consumers are either using the internet for the first time, or are not very internet savvy and the target for online scammers. So, in this post I wanted to highlight ways you can protect yourself and look out for the tell-tale signs.

Taking advantage of consumers focused on price

On a quick search of Bing for ‘Prague hotels’ I received 20 million search results. Who knows if within these results if any of the sites are out to scam consumers? The majority of consumers will chose a company based on the price of the accommodation, and scammers know that.

Check the location and age of the website

The best way to check the age of the website is to use a site like DNS stuff, where you can enter the website address and it tells you when it was purchased. A lot of the scam sites in the past have been only a few months old, so this is a good check.

You might be able to find the owner of the website, including, name, address and telephone number. A lot of the non-travel scam sites this year have been hosted in China, but have a co.uk website address, so it’s worth checking for the location.

Check for poor grammar and strange payment methods

Check for poor spelling and grammar within the content on the website and within emails. Under no circumstances should you pay with a method of payment that is not traceable. Make sure that the web address starts with https:// and the padlock appears on your browser.

Look for contact details

The website might have a telephone number, but, this could be made up, so give the number a call, if someone answers then trust your gut instinct. You can tell a lot about how people speak to you when you’re asking them questions, and putting them under pressure.

Search for negative mentions

Enter in the website name into Google, Bing or travel forums like Holiday Truths. Search for any negative mentions, read what people are saying about the website. Be open minded, one or two complaints might not necessarily mean that it is a scam website.

Check with the accommodation provider

You could check with the hotel if they have heard of the site, and if not, then I would be a suspicious.

It seems an awful lot of messing around to check a website, but, most consumers will go on price, and this tempts them to book the accommodation with that site because they save the most amount of money. Remember that if the price is too good to be true, it probably is.

Feel free to add your own tips or tell me about your experiences.


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17 responses to “The telltale signs of a fake travel website”

Tim | 20 August, 2009 at 6:18 am

Darren – nice topic. I always suggest looking for actual names and people mentioned in the About us section

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Bob | 20 August, 2009 at 6:32 am

“Book your accommodation through a personal recommendation or a company that you have used before.”

Obviously this wouldn’t apply if booking direct with the owner (say, holiday rental or B&B or independent hotel). It’s also too limiting. I would be happy to use companies I have heard of and that give full contact details (company address, phone numbers, email etc.).

A google search also can turn up dirt on possible scammers.

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Graham | 20 August, 2009 at 6:41 am

I think you have to be careful when jumping to conclusions as a consumer. For example, due to a late deferral date a hotel may not have a booking until 2-3 days away from check in (Confirmed from allotment). The online wholesaler may also go through a third party reservations system/company and the hotel will not have the booking under the same name as the company you booked it through online.
All very confusing but like you said, Darren, good reviews are usually a fairly good sign of a trustworthy OTA.

Graham

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Nick | 20 August, 2009 at 9:33 am

Darren

VAT numbers are very safe thing, most if not all UK travel companies need to be registered for VAT and these are carefully watched. (This also applies to European companies and you can check them on line)

To check whether a UK VAT number is valid you can call HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) VAT Helpline on 0845 010 9000. Lines are open 8.00 am to 8.00 pm Monday to Friday.

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Zach Everson | 20 August, 2009 at 10:06 pm

And if you’re still unsure after checking all of that info and the website has travel articles too, copy some of the text from one and paste it into Google to see if the site is stealing copy from other sites.

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Philip Schofield | 21 August, 2009 at 12:03 pm

Hi Darren

The age of a domain can be a sign of how established sites are. Those under a year old should be investigated further, as above, as most ecommerce sites should have an online footprint – marketing, press releases etc.

Simply speaking to someone can be a reassuring.

Regarding payment, I would be wary of anything except credit card.

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Dave | 23 August, 2009 at 11:03 am

Nick makes a great point about VAT and Companies house. If they are UK based make sure you check their VAT registration and also their limited company status. http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/

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Sarah Barwick | 23 August, 2009 at 1:00 pm

Thanks for the tips Darren.

We are about to book a hotel room with a website and we have a few concerns since reading your post. Do you mind if I email you the details of the site for you to have a look at for us?

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Rohan | 23 August, 2009 at 1:02 pm

It is worth bearing in mind that if the hotel site is local then the spelling and grammar might not be very good. We booked our hotel direct with them in Sri Lanka, and the website was not professional and if you followed your tips, we wouldn’t have booked.

The hotel was recommended so we knew it wasn’t a scam.

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Darren Cronian | 23 August, 2009 at 1:06 pm

@ Nick / Dave

Thanks for adding that information. I am surprised that I did not include it in the original post.

@ Rohan

This post is more of a reminder, you have to make up your own judgement on the authenticity of the website. I think its worth highlighting those tell-tale signs though just so people are aware

@ Sarah

Sure, drop me an email and I’ll take a quick look.

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Pingback - Fly Away Cafe | 23 August, 2009 at 5:21 pm

[...] Travel Rants points out how to spot a fake travel site.  Sad, but true, travelers continue to get hoodwinked by unscrupulous vendors.  Ignore this advice at your own peril. [...]

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Pingback - Smart Traveller | 24 August, 2009 at 9:24 am

[...] Cronian provides information to help you to spot fake travel websites at Travel [...]

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Andrew | 27 August, 2009 at 3:09 pm

Great tips! Ive seen some dodgy sites trying to get credit card bookings without the https security. I think thats a tell-tale sign of crappiness. (not sure if they were legit, but dont ever put your credit card details on a web site that doesnt have proper SSL certificates!)

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Pingback - Villa Parade | 14 September, 2009 at 10:06 am

[...] you’re booking with a reputable company.   Travel Rants did a great post a few weeks ago about spotting fake websites which sheds some light on those tell-tale signs of websites to steer clear from.  But I’d like [...]

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Pingback - Flexholidays | 23 September, 2009 at 3:03 pm

[...] Cronian from Travel Rants, the very popular consumer issues travel blog has done an article on how to spot a fake holiday booking website. An example of how some scammers are able to con the travelling public out of thousands of pounds [...]

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Donna | 22 February, 2010 at 10:02 pm

I want to book a hotel in Italy but the hotel has two different websites, using the same pictures but different layout and text the sites are powered by by two different reputable companies but online reservations prices are very different from each other. Is this normal ? Thanks x

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Darren Cronian | 22 February, 2010 at 10:05 pm

@ Donna

I am just about to send you an email, will let you know what I think.

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