The Click That Cost $11,000 and Other Travel Pitfalls

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The Click That Cost $11,000 and Other Travel Pitfalls

Shady hotel booking sites, misleading customer service numbers and hacked airline loyalty accounts have snared travelers. Here’s how to avoid getting scammed.

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Paolo Beghini

By

Seth Kugel

Seth Kugel writes the Tripped Up column for New York Times Travel.

April 9, 2026,

5:00 a.m. ET

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When Elvira Schadlow, 85, of Ridgefield, Conn., was planning a trip to her native Italy in September 2024, she did a Google search for her favorite hotel: the five-star

Grand Hotel Majestic in Bologna

. She clicked on what looked like a link to the hotel’s website.

She called the number on that site, requesting an eight-night stay in a standard room. It should have run her less than $5,000, but instead, she was charged $16,559, including a whopping $4,276 in “taxes and fees,” for a suite.

Ms. Schadlow had fallen into one of the traps that readers of my Tripped Up column regularly complain about.

In two of these pitfalls, intermediaries trick customers into thinking they are dealing directly with a hotel, an airline or another travel provider, then slip in extra fees, tack on nights or unwanted upgrades, or make misleading promises.

In the third, hackers break into airline loyalty accounts, steal miles or cancel flights and then use the resulting credits to book tickets that they sell to other unsuspecting customers.

Here is what you need to know to avoid being taken.

Tricky Links

Ms. Schadlow had landed on a page belonging to a company called Guest Reservations. Its name was right there in the web address, squeezed between the hotel name and the “.com”: grandhotelmajestic.guestreservations.com.

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