An Apartment Booking Scam In Hanoi
Our trip to Hanoi was supposed to be simple: arrive, check into our apartment, relax, and catch up on laundry after days of travel. But what happened instead was a storm of stress and frustration that left us exhausted and with a hole in our pockets. This isn’t just about the hassle we faced that night. It’s about the weeks of trying to get answers after our trust in Booking.com completely fell apart.
Booking No. 1: Plumbing Problems And The Start Of Our Nightmare
After an amazing day exploring Ha Long Bay, we were excited to check into Sumitomo19 Serviced Apartments in Hanoi. But just around lunchtime on check-in day, we received a concerning message about “plumbing issues”. They offered a few alternatives, but none met our needs, particularly our preference for natural light. When we requested a cancellation, they promised to handle it “the next day,” which immediately raised red flags. So, we started looking up potential scams in Hanoi and through research, we found out that this “plumbing issues” story is often a scam as hosts say they’ll cancel but then report a “no-show,” leaving you responsible for the full payment, which is part of the cancellation/ no-show policy. Having no luck resolving directly with the host as they were hostile (pun intended) and to avoid losing our money, we called Booking.com’s priority team, who assured us they’d handle the cancellation within 30–45 minutes if the property didn’t respond. We waited… and waited — but the cancellation never came.
Booking No. 2: The Luxe Paradise That Was Anything But Luxe
After 60 minutes with no response, we had to find another place quickly. We secured an apartment at Luxe Paradise Residence on 535 Kim Ma, with confirmation and directions from the host. But when we arrived, we realised the listing was deceptive (pictures to follow). Instead of the bright one-bedroom apartment we’d booked, we were walking into a dark, windowless stuffy and mouldy ground-floor studio. There was even a back door that didn’t close properly, and our “view” was the pavement. Contacting the host didn’t help as they insisted that the ground-floor studio was our only option, so we had no choice but to leave and sit on the curb whilst dialling Booking.com’s support — again.
Luxe Kim’s Bold Claims And Unanswered Questions
The situation with Luxe Paradise got even more frustrating not only because we could only communicate with the host by WhatsApp as they would not bother showing up to try and resolve the situation, but also when the host had the audacity to claim they made a mistake with our booking. If they had warned us that the apartment we booked was unavailable we would have looked for an alternative, instead we arrived to the place and it wasn’t until we complained that they admitted to the apartment not being available. Yet, while we were waiting for Booking.com to return our calls, we checked their platform and saw that the one-bedroom apartment we had booked still showed three available, which clearly was impossible. Despite providing screenshots as proof, Booking.com didn’t hold Luxe Kim accountable for this blatantly false advertisement.
The first 7 images below show what we were provided with when we arrived, and you can compare them with the remaining pictures of the 1-bedroom apartment we booked. Pretty hard to make a mistake and get the bookings confused, let’s be honest.
The Never-Ending Booking.com “30-Minute Waits”
At around 9 p.m., we called Booking.com’s priority support. The team tried calling the host, who strangely enough was unresponsive despite active WhatsApp messages to us. Booking.com said they’d email the host, giving them another 30–45 minutes to respond, otherwise they’d face consequences. So, we waited in the street — in the dark, dodging mosquitoes, and still, no resolution came. The so-called “priority support” felt like a revolving door of agents asking the same questions over and over. There was no dedicated email for our issue, no assigned agent — just a new rep each time who seemed completely clueless. After an hour and a half of waiting on the street, we were still without a solution.
Waiting In The Dark: Our Night Of Frustration With Booking.com
At 10:17 p.m., after yet another dead-end conversation, we were exhausted and pretty angry. The latest agent promised they’d send one last email, and call us back within 30 minutes. In the meantime as we discussed with the agent we would look for an alternative place to stay and that’s when we found Marigold Hotel, which met our standards — it was clean, with breakfast included, and rated over 8 stars by guests, so we called Booking.com back since we hadn’t received any updates. We spoke with an agent who guaranteed that after another 30 minutes — where they would try ONE LAST TIME to contact Luxe Paradise — we could go ahead and book another hotel and submit receipts after our stay at Marigold to be compensated for our financial troubles and the huge inconvenience caused by the false advertisement (we have this conversation recorded). The agent even mentioned that after those 30 minutes, Booking.com would cancel the reservation from their end. You can probably guess how this turned out—absolutely nothing happened.
With the clock ticking, we decided to book the hotel and taxi and stop getting played around by Booking and the host. It was already midnight, and we just wanted to sleep. We were lucky to check in at Marigold, because when we arrived, the gates were shut and locked tight with a chain! Thankfully, the security guard woke up and let us in.
Ghosted By Booking.com: The Ongoing Battle For Compensation
Weeks later, we are still waiting for a resolution. We sent countless messages to Booking.com, asking for the promised compensation for our new hotel booking, taxi fare, and even our laundry. But all we get are automated, generic responses from random agents. Despite explaining our situation multiple times, there’s been zero accountability from Booking.com.
It feels like they’re intentionally disregarding us. As frequent users of their service for almost all our bookings, we’ve never faced such a headache before. This time, it feels like they’re actively ignoring our issue and failing to provide even basic support. With no other option, we’re now seriously considering legal action — Even though we did not get charged the cancellation fee for either of the properties, we are not only fighting for our promised compensation but to hold Booking.com accountable for allowing shady practices on their platform.
At this point, it’s not even about the money. It’s about the fact that we’re stuck dealing with the consequences of Booking.com not properly vetting the companies and individuals who host on their platform. Owners like Luxe Kim seem to get away with this stuff while we’re left to deal with the fallout.
Booking.com Support: A Disappointing Experience
Booking.com’s support system is a mess — every message goes to a different agent, every phone call leads to someone new, and no one seems to read the notes in full. There’s a complete lack of ownership; it feels like no one is truly assigned to our case, making us start from scratch each time. The absurdity of having to explain this whole story repeatedly has been beyond frustrating. In addition, we noticed that on the phone, the Booking agents will sweet talk you into feeling like they are on the case and will help you no matter what, but as soon as you hang up, it’s like the conversation never happened and you will never speak to the same person again. The messages on the app are even worse, no true support and they ended up deleting our chat where we explained everything multiple times.
What This Accommodation Nightmare Really Cost Us
After we moved, we ended up with extra charges, like taxi fares and laundry costs. We were looking to get reimbursed for a total of VND 3,908,419 (~£120.28). We sent over all the invoices for these added expenses as requested, expecting that Booking.com would fulfil their guarantee and take responsibility for the misleading listings that caused this mess. Honestly, if we hadn’t been promised compensation by the booking agent, we might’ve just stayed the night in that falsely advertised place. The host claimed we could switch to the one-bedroom apartment the next day. I would’ve loved to see that, but who knows—maybe that apartment was another huge letdown, or it didn’t even exist at all. I guess we’ll never know! If we hadn’t been forced into wasting over three hours waiting around for the so-called support team, we wouldn’t have been penalised with a last-minute booking for a new hotel, which obviously came with surged prices at that time.
For all our troubles, we’re seeking a reimbursement of VND 3,908,419 (~£120.28) to cover:
Last minute booking of 4 nights at Marigold Hotel
Taxi fare from Luxe Paradise to Marigold
Laundry costs since we needed the apartment to wash our clothes in the first place and laundry at hotels are way more expensive
Do you think this is fair? We'd be interested to hear your opinion in the comments!
Things We’ve Learnt From This Nightmare
Skip the Apartments in Hanoi: Honestly, just avoid them. They can end up being a bigger headache than they’re worth, and you’ll probably be left wishing you’d chosen a different spot.
Don’t Get Fooled by High Ratings: Just because a place has a bunch of stars doesn’t mean it’s all that great. Some listings look fab but end up being major letdowns in reality.
Word of Caution on Ratings: We are travelling full-time now and noticed that some people can be super picky with their reviews. We’ve seen people give low ratings just because it rained during their stay! Seriously, how is that fair? So, make sure you read the reasons behind any low ratings— context is key.
Low Reviews Are Your New Best Friend: When searching for somewhere to stay, try filtering by the lowest reviews. Those lower scores can give you a clue on what to expect, the more recent the more helpful it will be.
No Reviews? Red Flag!: If a place has zero reviews, that’s usually not a good sign. You probably don’t want to be the first one to test the waters.
Can’t Find It on the Map?: If you’re struggling to find a place on Google Maps, that’s usually a big warning sign. It might not be as great as it looks, or it could be hiding something.
Big Cities Are Scam Central: We learned the hard way that scams tend to pop up more in busy cities like Hanoi compared to smaller towns.
Check for Recent Reviews: Look for the latest guest reviews—they’ll give you the freshest perspective on what to expect.
Share the Love (or the Horror Stories): Finally, don’t keep your travel narratives to yourself! Share your experiences with other travellers here so they can learn from your ups and downs.
A Message To Booking.com And Fellow Travellers
As full-time travellers and affiliates, we’ve always relied on Booking.com for our trips. But after this experience, we’re left questioning that trust. It’s not just about getting our money back, it’s about the principle. We feel let down by a platform that allows these types of misleading listings and scams to thrive without proper vetting of properties or accountability for their owners.
Our experience really shows how badly we need better processes and protections for customers. Booking.com has a responsibility to vet the properties they promote and they need to step up and take a closer look at how they manage their listings and support their users. False advertising shouldn’t be allowed, and it’s frustrating to see places like Luxe Paradise getting away with it while travellers like us end up suffering.
To all our fellow travellers, take our story as a heads-up! Always double-check those reviews, keep records and evidence, and be cautious about last-minute changes. Don’t get caught out by a few shiny reviews — do your homework before hitting that “book now” button. And if you ever find yourself in a similar situation, don’t hesitate to push for what you deserve.
We’re not just standing up for ourselves; we’re advocating for everyone who deserves better treatment while exploring the world. This is not the kind of service we should be accepting from a company we’ve put our faith in. Let’s hold them accountable together!
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