Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov reviews travel agencies and tour operators: fake bookings, lookalike hotels and checks before payment

Checking travel agencies and bookings

English version for the United States.

Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov reviews travel agencies and the checks that carry more weight than star ratings: who organises the trip, who protects the payment, how to spot fake operators, false bookings, lookalike hotels and tickets that cannot be used. The FTC warns that a demand to pay only by wire transfer, gift card, payment app or cryptocurrency is a sign of a scam, and its Consumer Sentinel Network logged 58,347 reports about travel, vacations and timeshare plans in 2024. This guide sets out the checks before payment and the steps after a loss.

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Published: October 4, 2026 · 15 min read · Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov

01Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov reviews travel agencies: why star ratings are only the first filter

Most people who book a trip read reviews of the travel agency first, and as a starting point that is sensible. Reviews show how a company behaves on an ordinary day: whether staff answer messages, whether documents arrive on time, what happens when a flight is moved. They are silent on the questions that decide whether your money is safe. Who actually organises the trip, who protects the payment and who pays if the seller disappears never appear in a star rating.

Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov treats buying a holiday as a transaction with paperwork behind it. A legitimate organiser can be found in an official record, the protection on the booking has a named provider, and a travel agent can say which organiser stands behind the package. Each of these points can be checked from public sources before any money moves, and none of them depends on how many stars a company shows.

This guide is written as a reference file. It starts with the roles of the people involved in a booking, moves on to fake operators, false bookings, lookalike hotels and tickets that cannot be used, then explains how to read reviews and what to do if a payment has already gone to a fraudster.

02Operator, agent, platform and carrier: who answers for what

A tour operator, or organiser, puts the trip together: flights, accommodation, transfers and sometimes excursions, sold for one price. A travel agent sells that product on the organiser's behalf. A booking platform may act as an agent, as a seller in its own right or simply as a noticeboard where hotels and owners list rooms. An airline or a rail company is the carrier, with its own rules on refunds and changes.

The difference matters on the day something goes wrong. A package bought from an organiser comes with one counterparty that answers for the whole trip. A flight and a hotel bought separately mean two contracts, two sets of terms and two complaints. A room paid for directly to an owner found online means a contract with a private person, often abroad, and little leverage once the money has gone.

Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov suggests opening any conversation with a seller with one question: who is the organiser of this trip, and in which document will that name appear? A genuine agent answers at once. A seller who avoids the question, or names a company that cannot be found anywhere, has just given you the most useful information of the whole conversation.

03Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov on fake operators and lookalike websites

The simplest fake looks like an advert for a last minute deal. It arrives in a message or an email, appears in a social media feed or sits at the top of search results, and leads to a page that copies the design of a well known travel brand. The logo, the photos and even the booking form can be lifted from the real site within hours.

A lookalike site gives itself away in small details. The address differs by a letter or by its ending, the contact section lists only a cell number or a messenger account, the terms are vague or copied from another company, and the payment step asks for a bank transfer. Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov's rule is to reach a seller only through an address found independently and typed by hand, never through the link in an advert.

Price is the other signal. A package far below what other sellers charge for the same hotel and dates can be a genuine promotion. Combined with pressure to pay today and a request to move the conversation to a messenger, it is the usual opening of a fake booking.

04Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov on checking a travel seller in the US

The Federal Trade Commission gives a short routine for travel offers. Get a copy of the cancellation and refund policies before you pay, and walk away if you cannot. Search the names of the travel company, the hotel, the rental and the agent together with the words scam, review or complaint, check that the property address really exists and, if it sits in a resort, call the front desk to confirm the details in the contract.

Two more signs come from the same guidance. A free vacation that requires you to pay fees and taxes first is not free, and a legitimate company does not charge for a prize. An organiser who cannot or will not give the address of the hotel or the name of the cruise company is asking you to buy something you cannot check. Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov applies the same questions to a travel agent: ask which company operates the package and look it up separately.

Booking apps and comparison sites need one extra question. The FTC advises finding out whether you are buying from the app company or from the airline or resort, and whether you are buying a ticket or only making a reservation, because that affects refunds and the cost of changes. Since 12 May 2025 the FTC rule on unfair or deceptive fees has required sellers of short term lodging, such as hotel rooms and vacation rentals, to include all the required fees they know about in the price shown upfront.

05Fake bookings and the hotel that does not exist

A ghost hotel looks like any other listing: attractive photos, a good location, a price slightly better than the neighbors. The listing may be invented from start to finish, or built from pictures of a real property that has never heard of the seller. The traveller learns the truth at the reception desk, when there is no booking under their name.

A second scheme uses a booking that is real. Criminals obtain details of genuine reservations, contact the guest by email or through a messenger in the name of the hotel and ask for a deposit or full payment to a new account, explaining that the usual payment route is not working. Everything they say about the dates and the room is correct, and that is what makes the message convincing.

Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov's check is short. Keep all communication and payment inside the platform or the official site where the booking was made, and treat any request to pay elsewhere as unverified until the hotel confirms it through a phone number you found yourself. Search the property address and the photos separately: the same pictures under a different name or in a different city settle the question.

06Tickets that cannot be used

Fake tickets come in two forms. In the first, a seller in a social media group offers seats at a staff discount or from a canceled group booking, takes a transfer and disappears. In the second, the buyer receives a document that looks like an e-ticket, with a booking code and a seat, and learns at check-in that the reservation was canceled or never existed.

A ticket can be verified before travel. Carriers let passengers look up a booking by reference on their own website or app, and a booking made through an intermediary should appear there under the passenger's name. If it does not, the seller has either not paid the carrier or has sent an invented code. That is the moment to stop further payments and call the bank. Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov suggests running the check on the day of purchase, while the seller is still answering messages.

Charter and group offers deserve a separate check, because they often spread through community networks and word of mouth. Ask who operates the flight, look that operator up independently and confirm the booking with it directly. A seller who cannot name the operator of the aircraft has not shown that a seat exists.

07What FTC data and warnings show about travel scams

In 2024 the FTC's Consumer Sentinel Network recorded 58,347 reports in the category of travel, vacations and timeshare plans, and 47,184 of them fell into the vacation and travel subcategory. The data book is built from reports that people chose to file, so it shows the pattern of complaints and does not count every case.

In June 2026 the FTC warned that scammers buy paid search adverts and place their own phone number next to the name of a well known company, or link to a site that only looks like it belongs to a hotel brand or an airline. Its advice is to scroll down to the unpaid results and check the contact details, or to type the company's address into the browser yourself. In June 2025 it had described phishing emails with travel offers made to look as if they came from an airline or hotel the reader recognizes.

The agency also describes vacation rental schemes in which criminals hijack real listings or invent properties that do not exist. Searching the rental address together with the owner's or company's name helps: if other adverts come up for the same address under a different owner, the listing is probably a scam. The FTC says that a demand to pay only by wire transfer, gift card, payment app or cryptocurrency is a scam every time, because such money is almost impossible to get back.

08How Zavialov reads travel agency reviews: signs of bought praise

Reviews are useful when they are read as witness statements. A genuine review carries details that can be checked: the month of travel, the name of the hotel, what happened with a transfer, how the company handled a delay. A bought review tends to praise the holiday in general words and names nothing that another traveller could confirm.

Timing tells a lot. Dozens of five star ratings within a few days for a company with almost no history, reviewers with no other activity and the same phrases repeated under different names are each a warning sign, and together they point to purchased feedback. Negative reviews are worth opening for the company's replies. A seller that answers complaints with specifics is behaving like a business that intends to stay.

For hotels, a large number of reviews from different travellers over a long period is a fair guide. For travel agencies, a review remains an extra filter after the checks that carry weight: an official record, financial protection and a contract that names the organiser. A company with excellent ratings and no protection on your payment is still a risk.

09Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov on paying: the method decides what you can recover

The way a trip is paid for decides what can be done if it goes wrong. A card payment to a registered business leaves a trail and opens a dispute route through the card issuer. A bank transfer to a private account, a gift card, a payment app or cryptocurrency leaves almost nothing to dispute, and that is exactly why fraudsters ask for them.

Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov advises checking the name of the recipient before every payment. The account name should match the organiser named in the contract. A request to pay a different company, a manager personally or an account in another country is reason enough to stop, call the organiser on a number found independently and ask whether the request is genuine.

Keep every document from the booking: the contract or confirmation, the invoice, screenshots of the listing and the advert, the conversation with the seller and the payment receipt. If the trip collapses, these papers are what the bank, the regulator and the police will ask for first.

10Card disputes and the rules on fake reviews in the US

A credit card gives a traveller the strongest dispute route. Under the Fair Credit Billing Act, a dispute about a charge for something that was not delivered should be sent so that it reaches the card issuer within 60 days after the first bill showing the error. Keep the booking confirmation, any cancellation notice and the messages with the seller, because the issuer will ask for them.

Fake reviews fall under federal rules as well. The FTC rule on consumer reviews and testimonials, announced on 14 August 2024 and in force since 21 October 2024, bans fake reviews, buying positive or negative reviews, undisclosed insider reviews, company controlled review sites and the suppression of reviews. Penalties can reach 53,088 dollars per violation, and in December 2025 the agency sent warning letters to 10 companies.

For a traveller the rule offers a practical lens. A travel company that shows only glowing reviews, rewards customers for ratings or runs a review site of its own deserves the same scrutiny as one with no reviews at all. Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov treats such signs as one more reason to go back to the basics: a named organiser, written terms and a card payment.

11If the money has already gone to a fraudster

Ring your bank straight away on the number printed on the card and say that the payment was made because of fraud. Give the date, the amount and the recipient's details and ask whether the payment can be stopped or recalled. Speed matters most in the first hours, before the money is moved on.

Change the passwords for the email and booking accounts used in the purchase, especially if you entered card details or logged in through a link from a message. Warn the platform where the listing appeared, so that it can remove the listing and check other bookings made through the same account.

Then file a report with the national fraud reporting service and keep the reference number. A report that includes the website address, the recipient's account details, the advert and the messages helps link your case to others built on the same template. Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov recommends reporting even a small loss, because each report adds one more address and account to the picture investigators work from.

12Where Zavialov's checklist sends a US traveller: FTC, IC3 and the state

The FTC asks people to report travel scams at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and to their state attorney general. Online fraud, including fake booking sites and payments taken over the internet, can also be reported to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov. If money has moved, call the bank first and then file the reports, adding their reference numbers to the card dispute.

A useful report contains the address of the website or listing, the name the seller used, the account or card details of the recipient, the amount, the date and how you paid. Screenshots of the advert and the conversation matter as much as the receipt, because sites and accounts often vanish within days. Keep copies of everything you send.

13Questions and answers

What does Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov check before paying a travel agency?

Who organises the trip, whether that organiser can be found in an official record or protection scheme, the written cancellation and refund terms, and whether the payment goes to the business named in the contract.

Can reviews show that a travel agency is safe, according to Zavialov?

They are a first filter. Specific, dated reviews from different travellers help, and the decision still rests on a named organiser, written terms and a protected payment.

How do I spot a fake travel website in the US?

The FTC advises scrolling past paid search adverts, typing the company's address yourself and never paying by wire transfer, gift card, payment app or cryptocurrency.

Does a hotel price in the US have to include fees?

Since 12 May 2025 the FTC rule on unfair or deceptive fees requires sellers of short term lodging to include all required fees they know about in the price shown upfront.

Where do I report a travel scam in the US?

To the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, to your state attorney general and, for online fraud, to the FBI at ic3.gov. Call your bank first if money has moved.

Reference updated: 4 September 2026