Booking.com guests turning up at family's home in Plumstead

Karin says she has had over 20 visitors in the past month

Tourists who booked accommodation on Booking.com have been turning up on the doorstep of a family in south-east London instead.

About 20 unexpected travellers arrived at Karin Arsenius' property in Plumstead with some guests searching for a key safe inside her home.

"We just need it to stop somehow," said Ms Arsenius, who is now considering legal action. "It is very frustrating."

Booking.com said it has apologised to those affected and removed the listing.

The 37-year-old told the BBC that in the past month people had turned up from countries including Algeria, Canada, India and the US.

She said it seemed the street's postcode had been used for the bookings on the travel website, and her house was beneath the pin drop.

Users had booked accommodation which listed the address as a flat in Greenwich.

Students Jessica, Natalia and Sabrina (right) from Argentina had to spend more money booking another property

Karin made beds in her living room for three women from Argentina after they were unable to arrange suitable accommodation that night.

The students turned up at 20:00 BST on 27 May, and Karin's partner took them to the pub to try and resolve the matter with the online booking site, but by midnight, they had not been successful, something she described as "shocking".

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"They had nowhere to go and we tried all the the local hotels but everything was booked out," Karin said.

"There was nothing free so in the end we said 'we're not comfortable with just letting you go out in the night so let's just make up some beds in the living room and you can just stay here'.

"But it shouldn't ever have got that far. It should have been taken care of, even if Booking.com is put out."

Neighbours have also reported strangers turning up on their street

Sabrina Salomé Schneider, 31, told the BBC it was a "nightmare" turning up at the family's home.

"The family tried to help us, but we are still waiting for money from Booking.com as we still have to spend money to find new accommodation", Ms Schneider said.

"They're a big corporation. They should be able to afford putting a few people up."

Lisa Webb, a consumer law expert for consumer group Which?, described it as "really horrifying" for all parties.

She said: "Booking.com needs to take every step it has in its arsenal to make sure that first of all, if it does happen, people are protected, people are given compensation, but secondly that these scams cannot appear on their platform at all in the first place.

"[Scammers] will target individuals in any way that they can and they are very unscrupulous people doing this. There needs to be checks and balances in place though to make sure that it cannot happen."

Last year, a woman in north London reported tourists descending on her private home which led to Booking.com removing the listing.

In response Booking.com said "scams are a battle many industries are facing against unscrupulous fraudsters" and that it was tackling [them] head on.

In a statement, the company added: "We have a number of robust security measures in place, but in the very rare instance there may be an issue with a specific property we always investigate immediately.

"We can confirm this property has been completely removed from our site and all customers affected were contacted by a member of our customer service team to apologise and offer any support required in relation to refunds, relocations and additional fees, and we of course extend our sincere apologies to the homeowner."

Additional reporting by Rozina Sini and Lauren Stanley

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