Holiday let scams put open booking platforms under scrutiny

Anyone booking a cottage for a team offsite, or a flat for a few weeks on a client project, should check where the listing sits before paying, after research into holiday let scams found wide gaps in how well the major booking platforms protect guests.

The Holiday Let Safety Index, published by Schofields Insurance in June 2026, examined more than 430,000 Trustpilot reviews across seven booking sites. Mentions of fraud were 75 times more common in reviews of Airbnb than in those of Sykes Holiday Cottages, the top-ranked site. Booking.com scored 25 out of 100 for consumer protection, a rating of Poor, while Facebook Marketplace scored 12 and was rated Dangerous, with no marks at all for identity verification, property checks or payment protection.

Figures from Action Fraud, the national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime, show that UK travellers lost more than £11 million to holiday fraud in 2024. Schofields says more than half of the holiday fraud reported that year involved social media, where criminals typically push victims to pay by bank transfer, money that is almost never recovered once it has left the account.

Why the platform matters more than the brand

Phil Schofield, marketing director at Schofields Insurance, said many travellers wrongly assume that a big-name platform guarantees a safe booking. “Our research shows that isn’t the case,” he said, adding that the safest platforms are those that physically inspect a property before listing it.

The overall scores are more nuanced. Airbnb scored 60 out of 100 in the index and was rated Good for its protections, yet its fraud-mention rate was the highest of any platform studied. Specialist cottage agencies, which check properties before they go live, recorded the lowest rates.

The report also flags a rise in fake listings illustrated with images generated by artificial intelligence. In testing, more than 60% of UK adults could not identify an AI-created property photograph as fake.

What holiday let scams mean for work trips

Self-catering has become a routine part of business travel. Companies use holiday lets for offsites where a hotel would split the group, and staff on longer assignments often prefer a kitchen and a separate living space to a standard room. That brings holiday let scams inside the corporate travel programme, and a deposit lost on a booking made for work raises an awkward question over who absorbs the cost.

Travel managers can narrow the risk by setting out in the travel policy which platforms staff may use for self-catering stays, requiring payment by credit card through the platform’s own checkout, and ruling out marketplace and social media listings altogether. The same caution applies to messages that arrive after a booking is confirmed, as our advice on the so-called 4-tap scam targeting business travellers explains.

The timing matters. Winter offsites and festive stays are being booked now, and the heaviest discounting of the year is on its way. Last November the UK Civil Aviation Authority warned travellers to stay alert to fraud around Black Friday and Travel Tuesday deals, pointing to fake adverts on social media and online marketplaces.

How can you avoid holiday let scams?

Book through an agency that inspects its properties and pay by credit card inside the platform. A bank transfer is the method fraudsters prefer, precisely because it is so rarely recoverable.

Schofields also recommends running a reverse image search on listing photos, since the same pictures appearing under different locations or prices is a clear warning sign. A listing with no reviews at all, or with a cluster posted within a few days of each other, deserves a closer look, and our earlier piece on why travellers should not blindly trust holiday rental reviews sets out how fake feedback is produced. Finally, any request to pay outside the platform, whether through WhatsApp, a private bank account or an external link, should end the conversation, because legitimate hosts do not make it.

Readers who saw our first report on the Holiday Let Safety Index in June will know the headline numbers. The practical point for employers is simpler: decide which booking channels are acceptable before staff start searching, not after a deposit has gone.