Xiaohongshu Cracks Down on Fake Tourism Accounts: What Hotels Need to Know

Last week my phone lit up with the same question from three different clients: “Pedro, is this Xiaohongshu account really us?” It wasn’t. And it turns out we weren’t the only ones asking.

On August 4, Xiaohongshu confirmed a major sweep against criminal networks that build fake “tourism professional” accounts on the platform. Police in Beijing, Shanxi, Hubei and Guangdong worked with the platform to take down four gangs and arrest 14 suspects, according to Sina Finance. The report lays out what these gangs were actually doing, and it is not small.

Here is the pattern. Criminal groups mass-produce fake professional accounts posing as travel agencies, hotels, and licensed guides. Some forge real travel agency licenses to pass verification checks. Once an account looks legitimate, they post cut-rate package deals too cheap to question, or send fake “travel companion” invitations to pull victims into a scam. Some run unregistered guide services on the side, pocketing cash from tourists who think they booked something official.

Xiaohongshu says it removed more than 15,500 posts tied to this activity, shut down over 6,000 unqualified professional accounts, and suspended more than 9,000 personal accounts running unlicensed travel services. That is a lot of fake noise pulled off the platform in one push, and the timing isn’t random. Summer is when demand for last-minute deals peaks, and fraud crews time their pushes to match it.

A Second Signal, Same Season

I don’t like building a story on one article, so I went looking for a second Chinese source. I found one from Guangzhou Daily’s finance desk, Dayoo, published a day after the Sina report. It adds detail I hadn’t seen elsewhere: since July, Xiaohongshu removed over 9,500 rule-breaking posts and 2,000 comments tied to fake travel marketing, on top of the account numbers above. It also names the specific traps the platform is chasing: staged via ferrata climbing videos, cliff swings, unsafe lake swimming spots dressed up as hidden gems, and fake “搭子” travel companion invitations that funnel strangers toward unlicensed operators.

搭子 (dazi) means a companion for a specific activity: a gym buddy, a meal buddy, a travel buddy. It’s a real and popular way young Chinese travelers connect on Xiaohongshu. Scammers hijacked the word because it works. A stranger offering to be your travel 搭子 feels less like an ad and more like a favor. That’s exactly why it made such a good hook for fraud, and exactly why this crackdown matters.

The Client Who Almost Lost Her Season

Let me tell you about Marta. Not her real name, but her story is close enough to three of our actual clients that I could write it with my eyes closed.

Marta runs a 14-room boutique hotel on the Amalfi coast. Family business, third generation. In April, one of our analysts flagged something odd: a Xiaohongshu account with 40,000 followers, posting under a name almost identical to her hotel, offering “exclusive group rates” and asking travelers to pay a deposit through a personal WeChat transfer.

Marta hadn’t opened a Xiaohongshu account yet. That was the problem. The scammer got there first.

Three Chinese travelers had already paid deposits by the time we found the account, about 400 euros each, wired with no invoice. One left a comment asking why nobody answered at the hotel’s front desk when she called to confirm her booking. The comment sat there, unanswered, for two weeks, in front of 40,000 followers.

Here’s the part that used to make my job hard: eighteen months ago, reporting a fake account like this could take a month, if the platform answered at all. Not anymore. We filed the impersonation report with documentation (hotel registration, trademark, photos of Marta at her own front desk), and Xiaohongshu suspended the fake account within nine days.

Then we did the part that actually protects a business long-term: we opened Marta’s real, verified Xiaohongshu account, posted a clear statement about the scam with screenshots, and pinned it. No panic, no legal threats in the caption. Just facts, in Marta’s own voice, translated straight.

Bookings from Xiaohongshu referrals are up 60% since April. Not because the scam story went viral. Because Marta now shows up first when someone searches her hotel’s name, with a verification badge, and the fake account doesn’t show up at all anymore.

Was I happy an impostor stole Marta’s name to take money from tourists? No. Am I happy the platform is finally hunting these gangs at scale? Yes. Every gang Xiaohongshu takes down is one less headache for a hotel owner who already has enough to worry about.

What We Actually Do About This

I get asked a version of the same question after every story like this: “So what do we do, Pedro?” Here is our answer, in plain steps.

First, we get you 认证 (renzheng), official verification, before anyone else claims your name. Xiaohongshu verification for a business account asks for a business license, brand documents, and for hotels or agencies, proof that you operate where you say you operate. We prepare that file and manage the submission ourselves, in Chinese, so it doesn’t stall in translation.

Second, we monitor. Not once a quarter, every week. We search for your hotel or agency name, close spelling variations, and common misspellings across Xiaohongshu, Douyin, and Ctrip. If a fake account pops up with your logo or your address, we usually catch it inside days, not months.

Third, when something does slip through, we respond in public, fast, and calm. A defensive, angry comment section does more damage than the fake account itself. We write the statement, cite the facts, link to the real booking channel, and move on.

Fourth, and this is the one people skip: we build enough real content and real reviews that a copycat account looks obviously thin next to yours. A verified account with two years of posts, real guest photos, and real comments is hard to fake convincingly. An empty account with stock photos and a name almost like yours falls apart the moment someone looks twice. This is the groundwork behind our online reputation management work, and it pairs with the broader marketing strategies to attract Chinese tourists we build for each client.

Five Signs an Account Claiming to Represent You Is Fake

• No verification badge, or a badge name that doesn’t quite match your real business.
• All the posts appeared in the last few weeks, with no history before that.
• It asks for payment by personal WeChat or Alipay transfer instead of a booking platform.
• Prices sit far below anything you’d actually offer.
• Comments from confused travelers go unanswered for days.

Why This Crackdown Is Good News, Not Bad Press

Some hotel owners hear “fraud gangs on Xiaohongshu” and assume the platform is unsafe for their brand. I read it the other way. A platform that arrests 14 people and pulls 15,500 fake posts in one sweep is a platform trying to protect the accounts that play it straight. Every fake guide license Xiaohongshu catches makes a real, verified hotel or agency worth more in a traveler’s eyes.

Trust is exactly what decides where Chinese travelers spend money abroad. We covered this in depth when we looked at Chinese consumer preferences and behaviors: buyers who grew up online in China check for social proof before anything else, and they know exactly what a fake looks like once you show them the difference.

If you run a hotel, a tour operation, or any travel business courting Chinese visitors, don’t wait for a Marta moment. Check whether your name is already taken on Xiaohongshu. If you want a hand with verification, monitoring, or building the kind of lead generation that survives a copycat scare, that’s what our services are built for.

Source: 新浪财经: 小红书严打伪造文旅专业号身份黑产，配合各地警方抓捕4个作案团伙共计14人 (Sina Finance, Chinese-language report on Xiaohongshu’s crackdown on fake tourism account fraud rings).

---