18/10/2026
This is why you should always book with a personal travel agent!
When you book your holidays with me, you have complete peace of mind that you’re fully ABTA and ATOL protected. You know you’re booking with confidence, with a real human’s support from start to finish taking care of everything for you.
I don’t charge a service fee, so you get my personal service at no extra cost!
It’s so important to know exactly who you’re booking with, and to feel confident that your hard earned money is in safe hands. When you book with a trusted travel agent backed by an established, reputable company, you have real people behind your booking who genuinely care about you and always put their clients first.
It’s really awful seeing things like this happen when it’s so easily avoidable. With online booking websites being so accessible, it’s easier than ever for something like this to happen.
Please be careful and book with confidence using a personal travel agent.
Let me take care of you and travel with peace of mind❤️
A 27-year-old groom-to-be thought he was planning the perfect romantic proposal, only to discover his £1,500 holiday villa did not even exist.
Alfie Learmouth, 27, had booked a romantic five-day getaway to Positano in Italy to propose to his partner of nine years, Jordan Bland.
Before travelling, the sales project manager received a message from the host demanding he pay the full £1,500 balance upfront via a direct bank transfer.
Worried it might be a scam, Alfie checked with Booking.com's AI support chatbot 'Dot', which told him the property did indeed require payment by bank transfer before arrival.
He transferred the cash, only to receive a message on the morning of their flight claiming the villa was flooded from a burst pipe and they could no longer stay.
"It was absolutely horrendous and one of the most stressful things you could ever go through," Alfie said.
Matters got worse when British Airways failed to load their luggage onto the plane, forcing the couple to spend hundreds of pounds buying replacement clothes.
When they later tracked down the supposed address in Positano, they discovered the villa did not exist at all.
A restaurant owner opposite the spot told them another holidaymaker had turned up a month earlier with the exact same pictures.
Alfie still managed to propose on a surprise boat trip two days later, but says the ordeal cast a massive shadow over the entire holiday.
Booking.com said they have removed the listing and are processing a full refund, while British Airways apologised and said they were resolving the luggage issue.
Back home in Bexley, Alfie says he is still waiting to recover the thousands of pounds he lost through no fault of his own.
