Almost lost $300 on a fake hostel booking in Barcelona

I booked a place on a sketchy booking site I'd never heard of because it was $20 cheaper than Hostelworld. Showed up at 11 PM after a delayed flight and the address was just a locked apartment building with no signs. Had to scramble and find a last minute room through a local tourism booth, cost me twice what I originally planned. Anyone else run into fake listings on those smaller booking aggregators?

2 comments

2 Comments

shah.ben1mo ago

Yo @rosep87 are you seriously defending these random booking sites that pop up and disappear? I mean sure you can do your homework but sometimes a deal looks too good and you jump on it. I get that the guy messed up by not triple checking, but who's really expecting a fully fake listing on a site that's been around for a bit? It's not like he booked through a shady Craigslist ad, it was a booking site that looked semi-legit. People act like everyone has hours to research every hostel, sometimes you just want to save a few bucks and move on.

rosep871mo ago

Was it really the site's fault though or did you just not do your homework? Those smaller aggregators have been around for years and tons of people use them without issues. I always check google maps and reviews before I book anything, saved me from plenty of scams.