A groom-to-be claims his romantic Amalfi Coast engagement trip was ruined when his £1,500 villa turned out to be a "scam" that Booking.com backed. Alfie Learmouth booked a five-day trip to Positano, Italy, for his girlfriend of nine years, Jordan Bland, 27, last month [September 3].
Before the trip, the sales project manager says he received a message from their villa host saying he needed to make a bank transfer for the full balance. Wary that it could be a scam, the 27-year-old decided to check with Booking.com's AI Trip Support chat 'Dot' and asked if this was correct.
Dot, which introduced itself as "still learning", replied: "Yes, the property requires full payment via bank transfer before your arrival." Reassured it was legitimate, Alfie transferred the cash over only to receive a message on the morning of the trip claiming the property was flooded from a burst pipe, and they couldn't stay.
Believing he'd been scammed
Believing he'd been scammed, Alfie tried contacting Booking.com and started 'frantically' finding alternative accommodation for them both. Alfie said Booking.com agreed to pay for the alternative accommodation but after landing a catalogue of errors continued.
At Naples Airport, Alfie says British Airways staff revealed their cases didn't make the flight, so he claims they were forced to cough up £600 in clothes and essentials for the trip. Despite the stressful start, Alfie managed to pop the question as planned, but he claims the digital travel company "ruined" the trip, and he's "still thousands of pounds out of pocket".
Booking.com said they are processing a full refund, and the property is no longer listed on the site.
Alfie's account
Alfie, from Bexley, South-east London, said: "It was absolutely horrendous and one of the most stressful things you could ever go through. I looked on Booking.com, and I found this really nice private villa, and it had verified reviews; all looked really good, so I went ahead and booked it."
"An hour before we left home, bags packed, ready to go and just about to call a cab to head to the airport, I got an email from the property saying, 'We can't host you anymore due to a burst water pipe'. It was then when I was like 'this is a scam'. I'm on the phone to Booking.com saying exactly what's happened, and they lead with 'oh no, you've just cancelled it'. We were frantically trying to book somewhere just before we leave."
"We landed on a full BA flight, and there's an announcement from the captain to say a few bags haven't made it, and I just knew it was going to be us with all the luck we had. We get off the plane, and five bags come out of a 300-person flight."
Aftermath and response
After spending loads of money to replace the contents of their suitcase, Alfie claims he and marketing manager Jordan tried to find their original accommodation. Alfie said: "We went to Pompei Mall, that was another £75 in a cab, and spent around £500 trying to replace a suitcase-worth of clothes, which was all of Jordan's make-up, all of her clothes and all of my clothes. Luckily, I had the engagement ring in my hand luggage. We essentially wasted our whole first day going back and forth to the airport and buying clothes. We actually tried to find the accommodation because we were staying in Positano and it doesn't exist."
"We had dinner at the restaurant opposite where it should be and spoke to the owner of the restaurant. We showed him pictures, and he said to us, 'Someone was here a month ago with the exact same photos in your same situation.'"
Despite the dampener on the holiday, Alfie and Jordan got engaged on September 5 after a romantic boat trip and now home, Alfie says he just wants his money back. Alfie said: "I'd booked a boat to go on as a surprise. I popped the question and that was amazing for the rest of the evening, the rest of the holiday was really, really good. This just put a massive dampener on the whole holiday. I'm not asking for compensation, I'm asking for the bare minimum of my money back. It's not a couple hundred quid, it's thousands and thousands of pounds that they owe me not because of any fault of my own."
A Booking.com spokesperson said: "We were sorry to hear about this customer's experience. On the day of the cancellation, we worked with the customer to help resolve the situation, with the trip beginning on the same day, as planned. Should a customer have any concerns about a payment message, we encourage them to review the payment policy in their booking confirmation. In this case, the confirmation explained that payment would be taken by card rather than by bank transfer. We can confirm that we are processing a full refund, and the property is no longer listed on our platform."
A British Airways spokesperson said: "We've apologised to our customer for their experience and were in touch to swiftly resolve the issue to ensure they were not left out of pocket."
