Fake hotel bookings worse than reported

Many of you are probably making hotel reservations online and on your smartphone.

However, you should always be careful when booking online because the problem of "rogue" hotel booking websites could be bigger than previously known.

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A recent survey for the American Hotel & Lodging Association found 6 percent of travelers that booked a room online found out they had used a fake site.

The group estimates 15 million hotel bookings were done on rogue websites. That figure is much larger than an earlier estimate of 2.5 million hotel bookings.

Based on the new numbers, scammers may have taken $1.3 billion dollars from consumers.

The impostors can be difficult to spot. Scammers will steal logos to make the fake sites look very real and the URL can even include the hotel's name. The Better Business Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission have released warnings about the problem in the past few months.

Experts say smartphones have made the problem worse because it can be more difficult to spot the fake sites on the smaller screen. The results from these bogus sites can vary. In some cases, the reservations are totally fake, the hotel didn't get the money, you won't get a room, and the hotel cannot give you a refund because they didn't take your reservations in the first place.

Or, some sites might actually make the reservation, but they charge you extra fees and you might not get the exact room you ordered.

How To Protect Yourself

As we said, it's hard to spot the impostor websites. Do your best to closely analyze the URL and any language on the website. If there's any bad grammar or misspellings that can be a red flag.

It's probably better to call the hotel directly or do a search for the hotel's specific web address. You're much more likely to run into trouble if you do a search for a phrase like "Cleveland hotels" or "Hilton in Chicago."

If the price seems too good to be true, consider that a warning sign.

Always use a credit card to book your reservation. You can dispute the charge later and credit cards have much better fraud protection than debit cards. Also, remember any transaction using a debit card actually takes you cash out of your account, and the scammers could have access to the account again.

The words "Buyer Beware" are becoming more important than ever when booking online, so be careful!