Travel agencies warn of rise in accommodation booking platform scams, including on Airbnb

There has been an increase in the number of scams on online tourist apartment booking platforms, such as Airbnb, the travel agency association ACAVE warns. The group claims some of these ads show non-existent lodgings, but that regulators "cannot identify them as fake."

In a written statement shared on Friday, ACAVE is urging tourism authorities to carry out more inspections into this kind of housing as the number of fake ads reported has been growing in recent months.

Due to these scams, customers lose their upfront payments and must go through "an arduous process with the booking platform to ask for a reimbursement, which in some cases does not happen."

"It is becoming more frequent to see customers coming to travel agencies to book their holiday accommodation as they do not want to risk booking the wrong place," ACAVE president Jordi Martí said.

7.9M visitors

Catalonia welcomed 7.9 million visitors during the first six months of 2023, up 30.5% compared to last year.

While the Balearic Islands was the autonomous community that received the most visitors in Spain in June (24.7% of visitors), overall, Catalonia (21.9%) saw a higher number of tourists from January to the end of June.

As the Spanish National Statistics Institute revealed on Wednesday, one out of five travelers to Spain (21%) chose Catalonia as their main destination.