The owner of a small property management firm said she was "devastated and exhausted" after thousands of fake property reservations were advertised in her company's name on Booking.com.

Victoria Pollard, who runs Exeter-based Life's 2 Short, said some of those who made the bookings had travelled from overseas and were left with nowhere to stay.

The 46-year-old said the phishing attack had left her with no access to her accounts in August, causing genuine reservations to be missed.

Booking.com has apologised, saying it was offering its "full support" to Pollard. It added all impacted listings were removed and customers offered "relocations, refunds or free cancellations".

"We are sorry to hear about this accommodation partner's experience," it said.

"Our investigation indicates the accommodation was likely the victim of a sophisticated phishing attack by cyber criminals, which affected their own computer systems and led to temporary unauthorised access to the accommodation partner's Booking.com account."

Pollard, whose business only employs one other person, said she had received "horrendous" abuse online from disappointed guests who thought she was responsible for the fake reservations for properties that did not exist.

She explained they were "calling us all the names under the sun, saying we have ruined their life and their holiday, as they have booked their flights and have nowhere to stay".

She said she had been forced to put her phone into airplane mode because she was receiving "20 to 30 calls a minute" at one point and had spent up to 12 hours a day working to resolve the problem.

"I cannot continue as a business with 10,000 emails a day that are not concerned with my legitimate business," she added.

"We are missing actual calls that are for our actual business."

At one point, she said Booking.com had told her she would be liable for the refunds, which totalled just over £1m.

She said employees at Booking.com had not communicated with each other, describing the situation as "carnage".

"Something that could've been dealt with and shut down within 24 hours has taken weeks, and we are still no further forward," she said.

Pollard added she was now at her "wits' end" and "devastated and exhausted by it all".

Booking.com did not respond to Pollard's criticisms when approached for further comment.

Kat Cereda, from consumer expert Which?, said: "You'd like to think that situations like this are incredibly rare, but sadly we hear accounts like this all too often...

"We listed 10 Downing Street as a holiday rental but the platform failed to spot that this was clearly a spoof, so it's no wonder that... scam listing and phishing attacks are slipping through the net, when such obvious examples failed to raise red flags.

"It's time for the prime minister to call on Ofcom to use the online safety act to crack down."

In response to the 10 Downing Street listing, Booking.com said: "This limited test is not a true reflection of the experience of millions of listings or reviews published on our platform."

They said because the listing by Which? was not "live" on its site across the two months it was present, "some of our automatic fraud controls were not triggered to completely remove the closed listing".

People could only see the listing and request to book the property during a 20-minute window opened by Which? so its researchers could try to book it.

A government spokesperson said: "The law is crystal clear. Online platforms that fall under the Online Safety Act, including Booking.com, have a legal duty to ensure their sites are not providing a forum for material intended to scam the public and they must remove it where it is found on their sites.

"If platforms fail to protect users from illegal fraudulent content they can face consequences, including fines, and the regulator has all our backing to take action."

In response, Booking.com reiterated: "All of the impacted listings were removed and customers with future stays contacted and supported, which, depending on their individual circumstances, could mean relocations, refunds or free cancellations."

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