A lot of you will have heard of the recent scandal in Spain where someone had advertised villas for holiday rental which didn’t really exist. They took the bookings on the non-existent properties then disappeared with the money.
This makes everyone nervous – people booking vacation rentals, for obvious reasons, but also owners because if the public become nervous about booking with private owners then the number of bookings they receive could be at risk.
It’s important not to over-exaggerate the problem, since it represents only a tiny minority of villas, but it is a good idea to be extra vigilant before handing across hundreds or thousands of pounds to a stranger. It’s hard to be 100% sure in any online transaction – but there are some things you can do to gain some extra comfort. Here are some suggestions:
1) Ask the owner if they accept credit cards. Many credit card companies include insurance against fraudulent transactions with their cards. If yours does this, pay by credit card if at all possible. I realise that some owners don’t take credit cards – but all could, if necessary through paypal which is simple and relatively low cost to use.
2) Actually speak to the owner on the phone. Yes, they could maintain the pretence of a real property, but the existence of a phone number and the ability to speak to the owner directly provides quite a lot of extra comfort that the property is ‘for real’. (It doesn’t much matter what you ask – how deep is the pool, can we walk to the nearest restaurant, are the stairs suitable for children etc., it is the rapport that you have with the owner that is more important than the questions.)
3) Look at the owner’s website. Many private owners will have a property they are proud of and want to promote, and this personal touch should show through in their own website. It would also be much harder to construct a fraud which required setting up a website for each property, and most fraudsters wouldn’t bother. As above, still possible to fake but gives you extra comfort.
4) Independent verification. Some companies that list holiday rental properties have visited every single one, others have put owners through a validation process (eg sawdays.co.uk / yourholidaymatters.com). Restricting your choice to properties on these types of listing sites will increase your confidence that the property exists – but will very much reduce your choice. Likewise you could book only properties from the large companies such as Hoseasons, with the same potential disadvantage of restricting your choice.
5) Private verification. If in doubt you could ask the owner to send you a copy of a recent utilities bill ‘electricity etc) that relates to the property. Again be aware that while most fraudsters wouldn’t go to the lengths of faking this, it would be relatively simple to do in a computer graphics program (using a scan of a real bill and adding a fake address at the top).
6) Ask your friends and family for recommendations – there is nowhere more real than somewhere that is personally recommended!
7) Reviews. Some listing sites now include reviews by people who have previously stayed in the property. Another good sign, but there is not always good control over how these reviews are posted. That is, you need to be confident the owner hasn’t posted a few ‘glowing reviews’ of his own property if you are to give any credibility to the reviews.
There is always a risk in any holiday booking – even your high street travel agent or airline broker can disappear overnight – but if you take the steps above, especially paying with a credit card that includes insurance, you can be pretty confident of having a great time.
And if you do find yourself at any stage in the process feeling slightly uncertain - can’t get through on the phone or don’t get email answers that sound as if they are coming fom a real owner etc. – then don’t worry about it and spend the next few months wondering if your holiday exists, just find somewhere else instead!
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