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🇬🇷 Greece /Crime & Justice

Booking Listed Downing Street for Rent, and the Ad Stayed Live for 20 Months

From Ta Nea · () Greek

Translated from Greek and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Outcome reported
  • Consumer group Which? listed 10 Downing Street as a one-bedroom London apartment and completed a booking using real money during a test of Booking.com’s controls.
  • The listing remained active for 20 months before Booking.com removed it after Which? failed to provide requested identity and insurance details.
  • Booking.com said ordinary users could access the listing only during a 20-minute test window and said its systems remove most fraudulent listings within 24 hours.

Could Britain’s most famous front door really be booked as a holiday rental? Which? put that question to Booking.com by listing 10 Downing Street as a one-bedroom apartment in central London, complete with a photograph of the prime minister’s residence.

The consumer rights group did more than upload the listing. Within the first 20 minutes, its editors asked questions about the supposed accommodation, posted fabricated reviews and completed a reservation using real money. One fake review claimed it was “10/10, it was incredible that Booking.com allowed us to stay at Downing Street, the home of the British prime minister,” adding that the highlight was spending time with Larry, the residence’s official cat.

10/10, it was incredible that Booking.com allowed us to stay at Downing Street, the home of the British prime minister.

· Which? fabricated reviewerA fake review used in the consumer group’s test of Booking.com’s listing controls.

According to Which?, the listing went online in October 2024. Booking.com did not request additional information, including identification and insurance numbers, until the following summer. The platform removed the listing two months after Which? failed to provide the requested details. It had remained active for 20 months.

This limited test does not reflect the real experience of millions of listings or reviews published on our platform.

· Booking.com spokespersonThe company’s response to the Which? experiment.

The test drew attention in Britain, with the BBC and other major media outlets reporting on it. Booking.com said the listing had never been genuinely available to ordinary users. The company said users could view it and request a booking only during a 20-minute period opened by Which? for the experiment. A company representative told the BBC: “This limited test does not reflect the real experience of millions of listings or reviews published on our platform.”

The representative added that Booking.com uses “a range of checks and verification measures” to protect users, while artificial intelligence helps identify and remove most fraudulent listings within 24 hours. The experiment comes as fake accommodation scams increasingly affect Booking.com, Airbnb and other short-term rental platforms, including in Greece, where some tourists arrive to find that their booked room does not exist.

a range of checks and verification measures

· Booking.com spokespersonThe company’s description of measures intended to protect users from fraudulent listings.
About this summary

Originally published by Ta Nea in Greek. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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