A man who scammed booking.com
One owner of the apartment on Booking has an average rating close to ten, and has surprisingly many positive reviews (over 400!), most of them with the highest rating. Heaven on earth you would think.
In practice, his apartments are nothing special, and there are many things to complain about. What is the secret of his "success"?
First of all, buying votes, that old skill of many politicians in the Balkans. Massive opening of fake accounts, which then book a room with him and leave a maximum positive review. Since the property owner has to pay Booking a percentage for each night, most of the positive reviews come from people who stayed only one night.
Second, bypassing official procedures. Immediately after scheduling the accommodation, the owner called us and asked us to cancel the booking and pay him without an intermediary. In this way, real guests lose the right to leave reviews, which fictitious guests leave en masse. Some of the guests do not agree to that, so among the several hundred maximum ratings there are also a few realistic ones.
I hope that booking will find a way to deal with these challenges in the future, since I really use and rely on that platform regularly.