Firms listed on 'weird' website with wrong information fear reputation hit

Business owners are fearful of having their firms' reputations damaged after BBC News NI learned they are being unknowingly listed on an online booking website, often with incorrect information.

A salon owner in Belfast said she had not signed up to Salonify.co.uk - yet a listing for her business containing inaccurate information and inflated prices was created.

Sharlene, of Kintsugi Beauty, said she is worried it could hurt her business's reputation if people try to book her services through it, while a Belfast-based makeup artist, Debbie McKibbin, said she was listed despite never agreeing to go on the website.

Salonify.co.uk has been approached for comment.

The firm says on its website it is a platform that creates ready-to-use booking pages and websites for salons who sign up to its service.

Apart from the two businesses in Belfast, BBC News NI also spoke to four others across the UK - two in England, one in Scotland and another in Wales - that are all listed on Salonify.co.uk.

Each confirmed they have never signed up.

Sharlene, who spoke to BBC News NI but did not want her last name used in this report, said she was doing marketing for her salon business when she found it listed on Salonify.co.uk.

The listing was highly ranked on Google when searching for her business.

However, while it included the correct name and address for Kintsugi Beauty, it advertised services she does not offer at inflated prices and included an incorrect phone number.

"I was shocked, I didn't know how to react," she said.

"The more and more I kept looking into this website, I basically had so much adrenaline going through my body. I did not know what to do."

She then discovered other local businesses in Belfast being listed with the same description, services and prices - so issued a warning on social media.

"I do not want anyone's reputation tied to a website which may be misleading people," she said.

Debbie McKibbin said she was contacted by someone who said they worked for Salonify.co.uk.

"I just thought: 'Oh it's another cold call sales pitch that's going to offer me something that's going to cost me money later down the line.' And didn't really put much thought into it," she said.

The representative offered to list Ms McKibbin's business for free and without taking any commission for bookings.

The representative also said they offer domain and web hosting for £20 a month.

Booking platforms typically charge businesses for their services. Booksy, starts at about £40 per month, while Treatwell takes a 35% commission on first-time customer bookings.

The representative sent multiple messages over the course of two weeks but Ms McKibbin did not agree to anything and stopped replying.

She later found out they listed her on the platform regardless.

"It was really weird," she said.

"What gain would they get from actually having it up because it's not even correct information."

There are about 3,000 listings on the website for salons, barber shops and various other small businesses across the UK.

It is understood some businesses have agreed to sign up, but it is unclear how many.

On some business listings on the website, there is a section that says: "This page was created by our community. If you are the owner, please contact us to update the information."

Prof Kevin Curran, an expert in cyber security at Ulster University, examined the website and said booking and payment functions appear to be broken.

"It's kind of strange, it's like a test bed really, as if someone was trying to start a business online, but the buttons don't work," he said.

He added that the page listings for businesses may have been created by scraping data from a business directory.

"There is an unethical aspect because they really shouldn't be doing that without the permission of businesses."

Prof Curran said the first step for anyone who wants a web page removed is to contact the website directly, using any contact form or email address provided.

If that does not work, the next option is to contact the site's domain registrar - the company that manages the domain name - and request its removal.

A website's registrar can be found by using an online lookup tool known as WHOIS.

Prof Curran said people can also approach search engines as most major platforms, like Google, have forms to request content removal on legal or reputational grounds.

There is a separate website, Salonify.in, which is based in India and uses the same branding but has a different colour scheme.

Its co-founder, Sunil Gopal Reddy, told BBC News NI his website is not affiliated with Salonify.co.uk.

He said Salonify is a salon and spa management software which was trademarked in India by his company Sini Labs Technologies in 2015.

BBC News NI has tried contacting the owner of Salonify.co.uk, through the email on their website, their domain registrar and a message passed on to an employee. They have yet to respond.

Meanwhile, Sharlene has spent the last month trying to get the listing for her business taken down from Salonify.co.uk.

No one from the website contacted her before the listing went up and they have not responded to her emails asking that it be removed.

She has now reported the site to its registrar One.com; to Cloudflare, the company that provides it with online protection; and to Citizen's Advice.

She said the advice charity told her to report it to Action Fraud UK, who informed her the circumstances of her report "cannot be classified as a police-recorded crime".

"Trying to figure this all out has been really frustrating," she said.