Travel and holiday accommodation website Booking.com is in the news for all the wrong reasons as host property owners claim they have been left waiting months for money from holiday rentals.
Some claim they are due thousands of pounds, paid to the firm by guests but never passed on to the owner.
The firm has blamed an upgrade to its IT systems and promised that the money will be forthcoming.
But it looks as though it could be snowballing with others across the UK complaining of the same issue.
How does Booking.com work?
The online travel agent acts as a platform for hotel chains to sell rooms and small-town homeowners to rent out their own properties.
Similar to Air BNB, homeowners can sign up to advertise their property for short rents to holidaymakers, with the company taking a percentage of the fee and passing the rest on.
But it also advertises itsels as a one-stop shop for holidaymakers, offering flights and connections as well as accommodation.
What is the row over unpaid hosts?
For several weeks there have been growing complainst across the UK that fees which should have been passed on have not materialised.
Previously, It told customers that no payments would be processed between July 1 and July 11, but a month later the problem is still rumbling on.
There have also been cases where hosts have been invoiced by the company for its share of the rental – something which should be done automatically.
Emma Audain, who rents out a flat in Glasgow, told BBC Scotlande is owed £3,000 by Booking.com having not received any payments since June.
READ MORE: Seafront hotel in Fife seeking new owner
She said: "We have a situation where the company is accepting money from customers, and in one case we had been able to issue refunds to them, but somehow is unable to issue payments to the host.
"It doesn't add up. They last paid me in June and have been consistently offering conflicting messages such as we will receive a payment in x days, only not to receive it.
"Guests have paid and I'm not sure they will be entirely comfortable to find out this money has been swallowed by Booking.com.”
She added: "This is money we use to pay our bills, the cleaners, management fees and the like. We don't want to pass the impact of this on to guests."
Last month, 60-year-old Candy Harrison from West Yorkshire said she was last paid on June 19 and was owed £2,287 from recent bookings.
She told The Sun: "Booking.com usually charges 15% commission when guests choose to stay in my cottage in Pickering, North Yorkshire.
"This is usually deducted from the guest fee before the money is paid out to me, but I've received an invoice requesting that I pay Booking.com these fees directly.
"I've never had to do this before and they owe me over £2,000 so something is clearly not right."
What are the hosts threatening to do – how will this impact on bookings?
Host have been left hanging waiting on fees, but short of legal action to reclaim the money they say they are owed – a difficult prospect as Booking.com is based in Amsterdam – there's little they can do but wait.
READ MORE: Highlands MPs label booking.com 'irresponsible' for allowing reservations
Some have already said they will cancel bookings made by the company, and remove their properties from its lists in future.
How is this likely to be resolved?
Booking.com insists that it is "urgently working to resume payments, which were delayed as a result of a planned system maintenance".
The company told the BBC that the "majority of our partners have now received payment" but "in a small number of cases, there have been unforeseen technical issues that are being quickly resolved by our team".
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