Business Travellers Warned as Holiday‑Let Fraud Hits £11m in Losses

Business travellers booking summer stays are being urged to take extra care after new research revealed a sharp rise in holiday‑let fraud across major booking platforms. According to Action Fraud, UK travellers lost more than £11 million to holiday scams in 2024, with new analysis showing significant differences in consumer protection between platforms.

The Holiday Let Safety Index, compiled by Schofields Insurance, analysed more than 430,000 Trustpilot reviews across seven leading booking sites. It found that Airbnb’s fraud‑mention rate is 75 times higher than top‑ranked Sykes Holiday Cottages, while Booking.com scored just 25/100, rated “Poor” for consumer protection.

Facebook Marketplace — still used by many travellers for holiday‑let searches — scored 12/100 and was rated “Dangerous”, with zero marks for identity verification, property checks or payment protection.

Schofields warns that over half of all reported holiday fraud last year originated on social media platforms, where scammers frequently push travellers to pay by bank transfer — a method that is almost always unrecoverable once sent.

Marketing Director Phil Schofield said many travellers wrongly assume that big-name platforms guarantee safety. “Our research shows that isn’t the case,” he said, adding that the safest platforms are those that physically inspect properties before listing them.

The report also highlights a growing wave of AI‑generated fake listings, with testing showing that over 60% of UK adults could not identify an AI‑created property image as fake.

Five Ways Business Travellers Can Avoid Holiday‑Let Fraud

1. Book through verified agencies
Specialist cottage agencies such as Sykes, Classic Cottages and cottages.com physically inspect properties before they go live — open marketplaces do not.

2. Never pay by bank transfer
Always pay by credit card through the platform’s own system. Bank transfers are the preferred method for scammers and are rarely recoverable.

3. Reverse‑search listing photos
Right‑click and run a Google Images search. Duplicate photos across different locations or prices are a major red flag.

4. Check reviews and their dates
Clusters of reviews posted within days of each other, or listings with no reviews at all, warrant caution.

5. Reject any request to pay outside the platform
Legitimate hosts never ask for payment via WhatsApp, private bank accounts or external links.