'This is not a hotel:' Fake listings confuse customers, confound business owners
What do a Raleigh hair salon and a personal injury law firm have in common? They were both recently impersonated by scammers. After innocent customers lost money, the legitimate businesses called 5 On Your Side to warn consumers.
You've made your booking, your bags are packed, and you are about to walk into your hotel in Raleigh, North Carolina, but instead of seeing the friendly face of a concierge, you see this sign:
'This is not a hotel.'
Despite promises of free breakfast, cozy rooms and 24/7 front desk service, the reality was very different for those who booked at the North Carolina Hotel & Motel. Dozens of people arrived at 3105 Charles B Root Wynd, expecting a hotel, only to find a personal injury and wrongful death law firm.
"I was like, we have valet? We have turn down service? What?" said Von Weston, a paralegal at White and Stradley. "We probably turned away 10 people in one day."
It turned out the fictitious North Carolina Hotel & Motel was listed on several booking sites, including Hotels.com, Travelocity.com and Expedia.com. When Weston called to have the postings removed, she tells WRAL 5 On Your Side that she was met with resistance.
"They were not equipped to handle this at all. They said, 'We need your itinerary number,' and we said, 'We don't have one. We're telling you it's a scam,’“ Weston said.
In a similar situation, scammers targeted Taji Natural Hairstyling hair salon online, taking down payments from unsuspecting customers. When she tried to report the incident, the salon owner, Taji Jones, faced bureaucratic roadblocks.
"Raleigh police asked me if I was getting money taken from me, and when I said no, they told me that since I wasn't the one losing money, they couldn't file a report," Jones said.
"They told me they are only able to help in cases where a person or business is losing money directly. But this negatively affects my business, so I wish they were able to help."
Asked what they were doing to eliminate and prevent fake listings, Expedia group said, "We will be double-checking with our internal team to confirm that our existing protocols were followed during the listing removal.” They added that they have a team dedicated to finding fraudulent behavior.
Expedia Group statement
At Expedia Group, we take the well-being and safety of our travelers seriously. When we receive any reports of fraudulent hotel listings, we escalate the report to the appropriate teams to remove the property from our platform, issue necessary refunds, and ensure that future guests are relocated appropriately. For the property you mentioned specifically, we will be double-checking with our internal team to confirm that our existing protocols were followed during the listing removal.
For additional background, we have a dedicated team that checks for fraudulent or suspicious properties. Listings Expedia determines to be fraudulent after review can be blocked and removed from our site. If guests come across a suspicious property via Expedia, we encourage them to share their experience and feedback directly with our Customer Support team.
