Arnie Weissmann
Using Federal Trade Commission data, the travel inspiration site LocalsInsider.com tallied up some rather sobering results: reported travel fraud has nearly tripled since 2021, going from $99 million to $297 million.
Note that's "reported" travel fraud.
About 35% of respondents to a survey that the website fielded this summer disclosed that scam concerns made them more hesitant to book a leisure trip this year. Although 87% believed they could spot a travel scam, 22% admit to having responded to a fake travel ad or sponsored search result. More than 35% aren't sure they could identify a fake travel review generated by AI.
Airline booking sites retain the trust of about 38% of respondents; hotel sites fare poorer, with only 14% considering them trustworthy. Expedia, at 12%, ranks third.
Right about now you're thinking, "Travel advisors should benefit from this enormous trust gap." The site, however, didn't indicate whether it offered "travel advisor" as a choice among trusted options.
While it's unquestionably true that clients of advisors are far safer than others, they are not completely immune to scam attempts.
I speak from experience.
I wanted to stay at a specific hotel in Lima, Peru, and asked my advisor to book it for me. The hotel told her it only took bookings through Booking.com, so she went there to make the reservation.
The week before I was to arrive in Lima, I received a WhatsApp that appeared to be from Booking.com. It spelled my name correctly, had the dates of my stay and even the room rate. It asked to confirm my stay with a credit card.
While I thought it unusual, I was reassured by all the correct details of the stay and filled out the payment form. A chat box opened while I was waiting for the confirmation and asked that I go to my credit card's app to verify the transaction.
My antennae went up immediately. Sure enough, the credit card app asked whether I would verify a charge, in United Arab Emirates dinars, that converted to $3,000. I declined.
And canceled my credit card.
The sad truth is that if the amount to verify had converted to my actual room rate, I might have approved it, particularly given the global nature of hotel ownership. The scammers were too greedy this time, but I suspect they'll eventually figure that out.
I still don't know who was hacked to get my details: the hotel, the corporate travel agency, Booking.com or me.
The takeaway? Travel advisors should always remind clients that if they receive anything from anyone related to any part of a booking, they should check in with the advisor before clicking anything. And should a scammer actually come along somewhere between booking and departure, that small advice can only deepen advisor-client trust.
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Since the 1990s, the hospitality industry has been considering the danger of "amenity creep." If every hotel tried to one-up every move a competitor made, costs would spiral.
The danger, however, was only to the hotel's bottom line; as far as guests were concerned, the nicer the amenities, the better. And over time, it turned out that guests staying at luxury properties were just fine with both amenity creep and associated rising costs.
But I have a complaint. There's one amenity that needs more attention: the turndown offering on the pillow or bedside table.
True, I've received more than chocolate. I've gotten inspirational messages (sometimes attached to trinkets). I've received rubber ducks, retro candy bars, lavender sachets.
And while I sometimes saw wisdom in the messages, brought the rubber ducks home to children and gratefully consumed anything edible, I couldn't shake the thought that this is an area that needs a little more creep.
Not cost creep, but imagination creep.
While staying recently at the Capella Sydney, however, I found something relatively inexpensive on the bedside table that made me look twice, open a small case and read a printed message. I was touched by something simple and unexpected.
It was a set of playing cards with a note headlined "Shuffle." Below, it read: "In a world defined by constant connection, we invite you to embrace a moment of quiet respite. Set aside the noise, shuffle the deck and rediscover the simple pleasure of a timeless game."
The message hit the moment.
I later reached out to Florence Rocca, the hotel's director of marketing and communications, and she said the cards were one of nine themed turndown amenities, among them a journal ("Reflect") and passport holder ("Voyage").
"They're designed as small, thoughtful moments, inspired by the idea of creating meaningful rituals that encourage our guests to pause, unwind and reconnect," she said.
Indeed, I had used the cards to play solitaire before turning in and found myself staying up much later than I had intended, enjoying a welcome break from a world that sometimes feels beset by peril -- real and imagined, analog and digital.