Booking.com Nightmare: Homeowner's $27K Loss

0:00It's March 28th. This is Sydney News today, AI-powered stories from your city. I'm Cory with the story. A homeowner in southwest Sydney named Joyce Zhang is dealing with the nightmare after renters trashed her short-day property bookthroughbooking.com. Right before Christmas, these folks pretended to be a small group vacationing from Cairns, but one lived nearby and used a fake name. CCTV showed them kicking fences, fighting residents, and one even falling into a neighbor's pool, leaving holes in walls and $15,000. In damage, plus loss rent, pushing the total past $27,000. Booking.com first denied her $500 damage claim without explanation and skipped verifying guest IDs despite her strict house rules. But after media reached out, they flipped, paid the claim, banned the account, and offered more help. John's now filing a civil suit, complaining to fair trading, and swears off the platform forever. Meanwhile, complaints against booking.com are exploding in New South Wales, with fair

1:02trading assigning a full-time officer just for them. Customers describe getting stuck in responsibility loops, bounce between the company and providers like hotels. One woman slept in her car after a double-boot spot during summer nats, and another lost nearly $2,000 on Tokyo rooms after breaking. Her leg in Japan, hitting chat-bought walls instead of real help. Fair trading commissioner Natasha Mann says giants like booking.com, which dominates over 30% of Aussie online bookings, need to step up. Their game on complaints and not make regulators the cleanup crew. Scams mentioning the site jumped from 416 to 515 reports last year amid travel chaos from global tensions. So as folks cramble with bookings during this mess, officials urge double-checking those terms and conditions, especially war clauses, to avoid. Being burned by the fine print on these massive platforms.