The Mayor’s Office of Medellin has just detected an irregular practice in the tourism activity that the city has already been experiencing. It involves the cancellation of already confirmed reservations by those who offer lodging services in order to resell the same accommodations at higher prices. They are taking advantage of the increase in tourist demand during the Holy Week season.
At the beginning of this year, the capital of Antioquia had already experienced a similar situation. At that time, there was a wave of unilateral cancellations of accommodations (especially from Airbnb and Booking) that affected tourists who traveled to that city for the Bad Bunny concert. The situation went so far as to replace reservations with new offers at prices up to 10–20 times higher.
Faced with the economic dynamism generated by the concert, hosts alleged false “structural damage,” “gas leaks,” or duplicate reservations. What was serious was that the reservations had been made many months in advance, but were canceled within a few days, leaving users without lodging.
The situation is repeating itself during the most important holiday week of the year in Colombia. According to the Mayor’s Office of Medellin, the cancellation situations were identified during inspection, surveillance, and control operations carried out on different actors in the sector, including tourist homes, hotels, hostels, and real estate agencies.
Cancellation of reservations to sell them at higher prices
It has become clear that this type of behavior by some hosts intensifies during high seasons, when some operators seek to maximize profits at the expense of users. The serious issue is that these practices cause harm to travelers and leave them without accommodation at the last minute. In addition, they cause significant reputational damage to the city, one of the most important tourist destinations in Colombia.
“We have identified cancellations of reservations to resell at a higher price,” said Sebastian Acosta Moncada, Operational Deputy Secretary of Medellin, quoted by Semana magazine, and he warned of consequences for those who engage in these behaviors, such as sanctions for noncompliance with regulations. “We are acting with full force against those who break the law. In Medellin, anyone who deceives, scams, or abuses citizens will be sanctioned,” he added.
Inspection visits focused on 26 tourist homes and 29 lodging establishments, where irregularities such as inconsistencies in operations and lack of legal documentation were also found. In addition, since December 2025, authorities have assisted 153 users affected by this type of situation, which shows that these are not isolated incidents, but a recurring problem in the sector.
For this reason, the Mayor’s Office of Medellin reiterated its call to travelers to verify the legality of services before hiring them and to use formal channels to make reservations, as well as to report any irregularity to the competent authorities.
As these irregular practices by some hosts have been detected again during Holy Week, the authorities of Medellin will maintain their actions, taking into account that there will be a high flow of visitors.