Booking.com's Vulnerabilities are Harming Hosts and They Don't Care About it. My first experience as a host (referred to by Booking.com as partners) has been the worst experience I’ve had with any business in my entire life. In mid-March of 2024, I had a guest who took advantage of Booking.com’s many inadequacies to make an unpaid booking using someone else’s identity. These criminals partied and ransacked my house over a period of 2 days, even going as far as to try backing a Budget Rental Car into my backyard to try cleaning out my entire house. The only reason they didn’t succeed is because they ran it into my deck railing and the side of my house. We found crack cocaine on the coffee table, burnt spoons, blood in the kitchen, and rubbing alcohol for needle injections. The total cost of theft & damages from this nightmare have worked out to $5683. I had to call Booking.com more than 10 times before I received helpful information from one of the Booking.com managers on the existence of a damage request option for dire situations like this. I was told by a Booking.com Manager that I would be entitled to almost the entire damage/theft amount if I provided a list of the damages with images and the police report. I provided all of this information and have received nothing. I have a police report with the Ontario Provincial Police (E240317269), time and dates of my call with Booking.com management, audio recordings of my call with Booking.com management, and a comprehensive document outlining images of the theft & damage images taken immediately on the morning of the theft (I have time stamps for these photos available upon request as well). Booking.com underplayed the guests’ lack of history on Booking.com. Booking.com noted that the guest joined within the last year and “completed 1-2 trips”. After weeks of trying to get more information on the guest, an employee advised that the guest had only created their account a few days prior to their booking at my property and had only commenced their first trip 1 day prior to their booking with me. Their first booking was not even completed by the time of their reservation at my property. They did not specify any of this on the guest profile, and I simply would not have accepted this request or would have cancelled the booking if I knew that the guest had just created their account 1 day before making their same-day booking. Booking.com also has their default setting for new listings set to Instant Book instead of Request to Book, which is extremely dangerous for new Booking.com hosts. This eliminated the opportunity for me to properly review the guest profile before accepting the request They also did not verify this person’s identity like some other travel platforms (Airbnb etc.) do, and this allowed this criminal to use another person’s identity. This is another poor practice that puts their hosts at risk. In the following weeks, I also was advised by other employees that this same guest has 2 other misconducts at other local booking.com stays within 90-minute drive from me. It is clear that this organized crime ring has specifically targeted new Booking.com properties because of the vulnerabilities that they know the Booking.com platform has. Booking.com should absolutely be responsible for these losses as their poor guest vetting, misleading guest insights and default Instant Book setting is what allowed this criminal to create a fake account, target new Booking.com listings and book instantly without a chance for hosts to approve or decline the guest. I have already left a review on TrustPilot and plan on taking this to other platforms and news outlets if I’m not reimbursed for the losses I’ve incurred. The total referenced above also does not include the $320 in rent that was never paid to me by the guest. Given that we’re now in contact with the police and the other targeted booking.com owners, this has potential to become a much bigger problem for Booking.com if not resolved. It would be appalling not to take responsibility for the people you call your “partners’. Booking.com is clearly not doing enough to vet their guests and it’s costing their “Partners”. This whole situation has given me a stronger appreciation for platforms like Airbnb and VRBO that care more about their hosts. If they don’t prove that they care about their “Partners” by taking financial responsibility for this, then I strongly caution any prospective host to avoid using Booking.com. Anthony