A groom-to-be found himself thousands of pounds out of pocket following a nightmare trip to the Amalfi Coast that he had booked to propose to his girlfriend.
Alfie Learmouth, 27, had arranged to take his partner of nine years, Jordan Bland, 27, on a romantic holiday to Positano, Italy last month.
The sales project manager booked a villa via Booking.com for five days, and prior to the trip, claims he received a message from the host saying he needed to transfer the full balance over.
Concerned that the request might be a scam, Mr Learmouth contacted the booking platform's AI Trip Support chat called Dot and asked if it was legitimate.
Dot, which introduced itself as 'still learning', confirmed: 'Yes, the property requires full payment via bank transfer before your arrival.'
As such, the holidaymaker went ahead and transferred the money.
However on the morning of the trip, he received a message from the host claiming that a burst pipe had caused the property to flood – meaning that the couple would not be able to stay.
British couple Alfie Learmouth and Jordan Bland, both 27, jetted off to the Amalfi Coast last month for a romantic getaway
Before the trip, Mr Learmouth received a message from the host saying he needed to bank transfer the full balance over
The east Londoner said: 'It was absolutely horrendous and one of the most stressful things you could ever go through.
'I looked on Booking.com and I found this really nice private villa and it had verified reviews, all looked really good so I went ahead and booked it.
'An hour before we left home bags packed, ready to go and just about to call a cab to head to the airport, I get an email from the property saying 'we can't host you anymore due to a burst water pipe'.
'It was then when I was like "this is a scam".'
He contacted Booking.com and 'frantically' tried to find alternative accommodation.
'I'm on the phone to Booking.com saying exactly what's happened and they lead with "Oh no, you've just cancelled it",' Mr Learmouth explained.
'We were frantically trying to book somewhere just before we leave.'
The booking platform agreed to pay for the alternative accommodation but the couple were hit with more issues when they landed in Italy.
Mr Learmouth said: 'We landed on a full BA flight and there's an announcement from the captain to say a few bags haven't made it and I just knew it was going to be us with all the luck we had.
'We get off the plane and five bags come out of a 300-person flight.'
Mr Learmouth contacted the booking platform's AI Trip Support chat called Dot and asked if it was legitimate
The host contacted Mr Learmouth on the morning of the trip claiming the property was flooded from a burst pipe and they couldn't stay. He then had to find alternative accommodation
The pair paid hundreds of pounds to replace their belongings, including an expensive taxi fee to a shopping centre.
'We went to Pompei mall, that was another £75 in a cab, and spent around £500 trying to replace a suitcase-worth of clothes, which was all of Jordan's make-up, all of her clothes and all of my clothes,' he recalled.
'Luckily I had the engagement ring in my hand luggage. We essentially wasted our whole first day going back and forth to the airport and buying clothes.'
To top things off, the villa they had originally booked didn't even seem to exist when the couple tried to look for it.
Mr Learmouth revealed: 'We had dinner at the restaurant opposite where it should be and spoke to the owner of the restaurant.
'We showed him pictures and he said to us "someone was here a month ago with the exact same photos in your same situation".'
Fortunately, he still managed to get down on one knee after a romantic boat trip.
Mr Learmouth said: 'I'd booked a boat to go on as a surprise.
'I popped the question and that was amazing for the rest of the evening, the rest of the holiday was really, really good.
'This just put a massive dampener on the whole holiday. I'm not asking for compensation, I'm asking for the bare minimum of my money back.
'It's not a couple hundred quid, it's thousands and thousands of pounds that they owe me not because of any fault of my own.'
After also dealing with lost suitcases, Mr Learmouth managed to get down on one knee and pop the question
A Booking.com spokesman said: 'We were sorry to hear about this customer's experience.
'On the day of the cancellation, we worked with the customer to help resolve the situation, with the trip beginning on the same day, as planned.
'Should a customer have any concerns about a payment message, we encourage them to review the payment policy in their booking confirmation.
'In this case, the confirmation explained that payment would be taken by card rather than by bank transfer.
'We can confirm that we are processing a full refund, and the property is no longer listed on our platform.'
A British Airways spokesman said: 'We've apologised to our customer for their experience and were in touch to swiftly resolve the issue to ensure they were not left out of pocket.'