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Booking.com users angry at firm's response to hacks

bbc.com

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Re: Booking.com users angry at firm's response to hacks

#11

Post by beezlewax »

wombat-man wrote: post #6
ghostpepper wrote: post #3

Unless they stop using the service then the company won't care that they're angry. What alternatives are people using?

I prefer hotels, and dislike how booking mixes in airbnb type places. I've been using google maps to find hotels and then just book directly with them.

Agreed hotels are far better for most types of trips. Everything is catered for and you're not taking away from local housing.

That said I've stayed in some really downtrodden "hotels" I'd booked on booking.com that looked OK in photos but were not up to scratch in reality.

Re: Booking.com users angry at firm's response to hacks

#12

Post by matwood »

ghostpepper wrote: post #3

Unless they stop using the service then the company won't care that they're angry. What alternatives are people using?

Go to the hotels website directly. Booking.com is terrible. They don’t even mediate any payments and simply pass all your CC details to the room provider. For a chain hotel, not great, but for some random B&B provider in another country - you might as well just hand your CC to scammers.

Re: Booking.com users angry at firm's response to hacks

#14

Post by traceroute66 »

ghostpepper wrote: post #3

Unless they stop using the service then the company won't care that they're angry. What alternatives are people using?

> What alternatives are people using?

Book online directly. The hotels hate OTAs (Online Travel Agents). You can typically find better terms direct on the hotel website (e.g. breakfast included or more flexible cancellation).

If you are in a financial position where you need to watch every penny, then take the extra time and effort to book by phone or email, because in some jurisdictions the hotels have rate-parity clause which means the hotels can't advertise a lower rate on their website than you can find on the OTA website. This probably mostly applies in North America, this sort of thing is likely illegal (or verging on ) in Europe so you're unlikely to get a better deal than a European hotel offers on its website already.

If you like the big US chain hotels (Hilton, Marriott etc.) and you travel reasonably frequently then pony up for an AMEX premium-tier card which gets you access to AMEX rates, and also some perks (e.g. premium WiFi for free, late-checkout etc.).

Re: Booking.com users angry at firm's response to hacks

#15

Post by danielodievich »

My mother (against my strong advice) booked something on booking.com for ~$6.5K and then couldn't find any evidence of in their "My Trips" interface. I advised her to call the credit card and file fraud. Instead, the customer support agent of the credit card gave her some 1-800 number for booking.com customer support (Booking.com doesn't offer 1-800 number) and when she called it, someone with strong Indian accent wound up resetting her google account and tried to take over her Gmail. Fortunately I made sure she was 2FAd there, so between her calling me panicking because her mail was blocked and us recovering it only took ~20 minutes. The credit card company refunded her money, and the hotel she was trying to use gave her a great deal and she's out there right now skiing. So all is well. But never more booking.com for her I am pretty sure.

Re: Booking.com users angry at firm's response to hacks

#16

Post by lol768 »

These media reports are REALLY misleading, and I would be fuming if I worked at Booking.com at how much damage these media reports have done to the brand.

> The company, which is one of the biggest hotel and holiday websites in the world, has not itself been hacked.

>

> Instead, criminals have tricked their way into the administration portals of individual hotels that use the service.

>

> This enables them to send messages and fool customers into paying them instead of the hotel.

Previous headlines from the BBC have been even worse:

- Booking.com users angry at firm's response to hacks

- Booking.com hackers increase attacks on customers

How is this not libel?

Genuinely: What do people here think that are Booking.com supposed to be doing about this? Any sophisticated phishing group aren't going to be making rookie errors like hotlinking images when they set-up a phishing siter impersonating Booking.com. They're already doing DKIM signing, DMARC and SPF.

It's unclear to me if the phishing groups are sending emails out directly using the stolen personal details, or using some sort of in-app messaging functionality. If it's the latter I don't think booking.com even supports linking URLs in messages sent out via this mechanism.

Re: Booking.com users angry at firm's response to hacks

#17

Post by wepple »

arecurrence wrote: post #8

Is this not fraud? Why have users not been able to recoup their funds?

I imagine everyone is finger-pointing.

Booking.com says the hotel is at fault for having their credentials leaked; the hotel says booking.com failed to protect their account, the bank says the user was phished so it’s not their fault.

IMO if booking.com offers a messaging service which lends far more authority than “just a random person SMSing you” then they’re on the hook for this.

Re: Booking.com users angry at firm's response to hacks

#18

Post by daveoc64 »

lol768 wrote: post #16

These media reports are REALLY misleading, and I would be fuming if I worked at Booking.com at how much damage these media reports have done to the brand. > The company, which is one of the biggest hotel and holiday websites in the world, has not itself been hacked. > > Instead, criminals have tricked their way into the administration portals of individual hotels that use the service. > > This enables them to send me…

As others have said, requiring two-factor authentication would go a long way to stopping this.

Nothing in the report or what you have quoted is misleading.

Re: Booking.com users angry at firm's response to hacks

#19

Post by soco »

Hacks or not, Booking site answer to your issues is "whatever". I got an apartment once turning out to be infested with roaches, and when I complained to the owner they kicked me out and marked me "no show" in Booking. Thus I was unable to ask for refunds, or even to leave a review. Booking answered my calls quickly but did absolutely nothing about them, positive or negative, the different operators just listened and oohed and "we will come back to you". My bank was understanding enough to refund my payment (all discussions and apartment pictures were documented) but honestly I have no idea whether they just swallowed the CC risk or blocked the payment.

Re: Booking.com users angry at firm's response to hacks

#20

Post by dragonwriter »

lol768 wrote: post #16

These media reports are REALLY misleading, and I would be fuming if I worked at Booking.com at how much damage these media reports have done to the brand. > The company, which is one of the biggest hotel and holiday websites in the world, has not itself been hacked. > > Instead, criminals have tricked their way into the administration portals of individual hotels that use the service. > > This enables them to send me…

> Genuinely: What do people here think that are Booking.com supposed to be doing about this?

Not having a messaging system that lends authority to messages if they aren't able to secure it (including assuring that partners with access secure their ends) adequately for the appearance of authority that is created.

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