You want to get away and take a short vacation that will include a hotel stay or spend a long weekend at a fancy resort. Easy right? Just hop on your laptop, phone or iPad and make the reservation. Your arrive at your destination and find that you have no reservation nor does the hotel have any record that you contacted them for a reservation.

Now the hard facts start to set in on your easy online hotel reservation. Nearly one in four consumers are deceived by online booking scams and dishonest marketing practices by fraudulent and misleading travel websites. According to the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), in 2016 there were 55 million hotel booking scams that took place that resulted in $4 billion in fraudulent bookings. This represents a three-fold increase from 2015. In 2018 the number jumped even more with consumers who reported being misled in some way by third-party booking sites. This equated to $5.7 billion in fraudulent bookings.

So how do these frauds start and get infiltrated online. Fraudulent third-party websites are created that mimic hotel websites and call centers, but are not actually affiliated with a hotel. Online consumers are duped by misleading websites designed to look like a hotel and travel booking websites. It has the look and interactions of a legitimate site and one thinks they’re booking direct, but it’s all bogus.

People will spend a considerable amount of time going to various online legitimate sites like Trivago, Kayak, Expedia, Orbitz, Hotels.com, Travelocity, Booking.com to compare prices on each site. But if they only knew that all of these booking middle-men are controlled by two companies, Expedia and Priceline which accounts for 95% of the third-party online booking sites.

So how can you protect yourself against any online scam. Well there are several ways that you can make things easier on you and still get a great deal.

Using an advisor for any aspect of travel, trip planning, all bookings for your trip just makes your job so much easier. It will also put your mind at ease that you have a person you can contact 24/7 with any problems you incur on your trip. They will take care of it. A Travel Advisor also has a vast amount of experience that you can use to make sure everything goes smoothly.

The majority of agents I know will call to book reservations for any part of your trip rather than booking online. Travel Advisors have access to all of the booking sites for any aspect of travel. Many of which are not made available to the public. Travel Advisors also have the ability to take a clients service claims to a higher level. If a client is unhappy with a hotel for putting them in a room that is not acceptable to them, the Travel Advisor can be the clients advocate to contact the proper channels to resolve any client dissatisfaction. They take this burden off of the client's shoulders and the advisor does all of that work.

Yes you can still do your research online of the place you intend to stay, but when it gets to when you want to say yes and book the room, call the hotel. You can speak to a live person 24 hours per day. You can ask many questions about the site; amenities included; what extra charges will be part of our stay; recommendations for activities; places to eat outside the hotel. So much more can be accomplished with a simple phone call rather than relying on what you see on your computer screen. This is the only way I book hotel accommodations and the safest.

**Make sure you are on a secure line of the hotel**

If you still want to book online look at the URL and make sure the beginning of the URL address has an https:/ as part of its address. The “s” represents a secure site, one that many scammers do not participate in doing. Also an icon of a closed lock symbol may appear to the left of the site name on the URL. This is also a sign of a secure system. Remember you are putting personal information on the website like a passport and credit card number. It’s imperative that you’re booking on a secure site.

**Book a reservation with a credit card not a debit card**

The credit card provides more security than any debit card. I have found the major credit card companies will start an investigation on any fraud you claim and provide you with a credit to your account until they finish with the fraud investigation. Once at the hotel you can still change and pay with your debit card.

**When booking online check out the name in the URL**

All legitimate sites usually have very simple addresses of their name.com. Fraudulent sites will have a vague name in front of the site they are scamming, eg. thenationalreservationcenter + the hotels name.

**Beware of sites that charge you immediately for a hotel reservation**

Legitimate hotel sites don’t usually charge in advance. You should not be charged until after your stay is completed. So if a site is charging you in advance, this should send up a red flag to you that something is not right. The only exception to that is if a room rate is connected with a special promotion or discount offer, but even that is very rare in the hotel business.

With all of the many scams that take place in today’s world the majority of Americans want Congress to set out tougher penalties and preventions that will provide for more consumer protection in the future. The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) said it will continue to work with Congress to pass the Stop Online Bookings Scam Act (https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/hr3956/text) introduced in 2019. If passed this act would protect consumers by increasing the transparency and security of the online booking process.

The number of people who travel for that special vacation, cruise, luxury resort is increasing each year. We all work hard and want to get away for a rewarding trip that is relaxing. A trip that is filled with memories, photos, special times with good friends, that cover the beautiful wonders of the world. Just make sure all of your plans go smoothly and aren’t ruined by third party online scammers. Now you have the tools to keep traveling!