Hi everyone, has anyone gotten this message from booking.com before? I think this is a scam but I'm not sure, and am starting to get a little nervous about losing my reservation if I don't click on the link.
Dear Guest,
One final step remains — it's available below. LINK. Please act within the next 6 hours.
Otherwise, the status might not remain active.
Thanks for following through.
That's 100% a scam.
Phishers try to guess what companies you might do business with - Booking.com, Facebook, PayPal etc - and send you emails with urgency and deadlines to get you to click the link. When they guess wrong and you get an email from a bank you don't use or a company you don't deal with it seems immediately fake but this is just as fake they just guessed correctly.
If you check the link it probably goes to something like "booking-reservation-now.com" or something else fake that is designed to sound Booking.com affiliated but is not..
If you do deal with Booking,com just go to their site and check to see if there is a message for you and I bet there's not.
It has nothing to do with Booking just scummy people being scummy. Be safe you there everyone.
=Tod
Any email which has a message saying you only have so many hours to respond are always scams.
I keep getting one about a parking ticket and I only have a few hours before fines are added. Scam.
Total scam. As Tod said, go directly to booking.com to check the status of your reservation.
To add to the replies above the "Dear Guest" is another scam giveaway. A genuine e-mail from a company you have been dealing with will always address you by your name.
The alarm bell rings loud and clear.
Thanks so much for sharing this possible scam. I'll watch out for this one. I am to the point I feel uncomfortable clicking on anything anymre.
Yes, a scam. It’s been going around at least 2 years and you will find other mentions if you search the forum. But it’s a really good scam and I know people who have acted too quickly and fallen for it. So good for you for checking!
Edit to add: Sometimes the message actually shows up in my list of messages from the hotel when I check my booking.com app. It’s much more sophisticated than phishing. So just because you see it there, don’t fall for it. Booking.com has your chosen payment method and will not ask you to confirm or change. And will never send you a link.
Ok, great. They sent another message just now through the app. The above message earlier was also sent through the Booking.com app:
Dear Guest,
This is a quick reminder that the next step is necessary to fully confirm your booking. As part of this process, a temporary hold for the full amount will be placed on your payment method. Please note — this is not a charge, and it will be automatically released shortly after completion.
It’s important that this step is completed without delay. Until it's done, your reservation remains unconfirmed, and your selected date may be released to other guests — something we’d very much like to avoid.
To prevent any disruption to your plans, we kindly ask you to complete this step as soon as possible.
Thank you for your time and cooperation.
Kind regards.
sounds just like the scam described in https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/jun/29/your-reservation-is-at-risk-beware-the-bookingcom-scam
Yes that’s what I’m thinking as well. I just got 4 new messages from the hotel all sent 1-2 hours apart. If it was legitimate I don’t think the hotel would be that desperate? I also checked the Funny Farm Bsckpackers policy and I don’t see anything about payment through another link.
Hotel reservations and "unpaid highway tolls" appear to be the scams du jour.
I got one for my up coming trip to Paris the message was also was in my booking account. I called emailed the hotel and it was definitely not legit. It would seem to me that booking could do something with its software to stop this nonsense.
Please know that yes, this is a scam. You don’t need to ask further from the hotel to be sure. . And you certainly should not click any links or make any payments.
In the past, I have notified the hotel that I received something like this - but I doubt it helps. My thought was to simply let them know that it had happened. Mostly it has been going on so long that I don’t bother doing anything.
Having to reconfirm restaurant reservations is pretty standard in Europe now as so many have been left with people who reserve and don't show so i can imagine falling for this one. I would email the hotel directly to be sure. I nearly fell for the highway toll one because it is plausible I might have gone through a toll site and I don't have an easypass -- I am now getting frequent messages from 'bureau of traffic' in Tennessee for my unpaid tickets with the threat to revoke my driver's license and car registration yadda yadda. I haven't lived in Tennessee for 15 years nor traveled there, but my phone number is a Nashville area code. The grifters get better and better.
but I know I'd be nervous if I got an email about a hotel booking and would want to double check with the hotel -- but never ever click on the link if it involves money.
