5 Steps To Avoid A Vacation Rental Nightmare
There are many advantages in choosing a vacation rental over a hotel room, cost-benefit springs to mind as one of the most important factors, as nightly rates for an entire vacation rental home can cost you less than a room at decent quality hotel. However, more and more travelers are choosing vacation rentals over hotels for reasons that go beyond the financial benefits. A vacation rental can provide a unique experience otherwise not be available to hotel guests. For instance, one can experience what living in a true Caribbean luxury beach villa feels like. A beachfront vacation villa would almost certainly provide a closer-to-reality-experience
However, with the recent growth in interest for vacation rentals amongst both independent and family travelers, combined with the on-line readily availability of a wide range of rental homes, a new category of internet scammers has also emerged. Sailing on the success of companies such as Airbnb and VRBO, fake vacation rentals have proliferated on the web and these scammers will try all they can to cash in on the new trend. Although scammers can be very creative, often times they are not very original. Stories of legitimate vacation homes “cloned” on-line are not unheard of, as legitimate websites are hacked by scammers.
A recent article on an online British paper reported that villa fraud has hit numerous British families. It is thought hackers may have stolen more than £25 million from holidaymakers through fraudulent websites. Thus, just as with any other purchase, when considering to book a vacation home rental it is extremely relevant to put to good use the principle of caveat emptor (buyer beware).
Here a 5 actions to help you avoid becoming victim of a scammer:
1- Don’t be impulsive. Don’t let yourself be seduced by glossy photographs of fabulous homes without ensuring that the images correspond to the real property. Although some private lessors will invest some extra cash hiring a professional photographer to produce their website, the majority of owners will not do so. If you suspect that the listing your are considering looks “too good to be true”, there is a good way of finding out if your are right. A good advice I tend to give is to always request for a regular, “home-made” image of the place, of both interior and exterior shots, preferably taken by the owner, where you can see either the owner himself/herself or a family member or a guest while staying in the rental property.
2- Be Cautious. If you are requested to make the full upfront cash payment upfront. It is common practice amongst legitimate vacation rental owners to take deposit. Fraudulent “owners” will always prefer wire transfers or other transfer methods such as Western Union payments for the whole amount. Instead, a cautious traveller should always favour credit card payments or PayPal. Like most big credit card companies, PayPal is a reputable company that also offers buyer protection measures even in the event, for instance, that product description does not correspond to the real product.
3- Cross check all information. Most private vacation homes that have their own webiste will also be listed on well-known online booking platforms such as Booking.com or Airbnb. Booking.com has a very strict verification procedure to accept listings on its portal, a general telephone interview with the owner is also required as part of the process so fraudulent owners are less likely to attempt using their site. Airbnb, also provides steps to protect travellers, acting as a middleman and withholding payment until after check-in. This ensures that travelers will always be able to keep their money should there be a problem with the listing. Thus, if you really like a particular listing but you do not want to pay the additional cost (due to commissions and service fees) of using one of these channels, it is nevertheless wise take the time to browse other reputable sites and search for the property you have picked and study its listing carefully. Even small description discrepancies may indicate that something is not right with the property. Most importantly, take the time to read actual reviews posted by real travelers on booking portals and find out what other people have said about the listing you are considering.
4- Rely verified reviews, on word of mouth and referrals. Specially for popular destinations this can be a real life-saver. If you know of a friend or a friend-of-a-friend that has actually rented a vacation house or villa in the destination you intend to go, you might be just a phone call away from the perfect holiday! Talk to people you trust and do your own research the old fashioned way. As much as online review such as Craigslist can be very useful, internet is not as personal and reliable as the opinion of a someone you know in real life!
5- Don’t be fooled by tempting deals. If you have done your research properly, chances are you have acquired a good understanding of the market value for a vacation property in your destination area. If you don’t have a feel for what a reasonable rate is in the area, get one. Although short term rentals tend to be cheaper than hotels, be careful of the cheapest properties. Scammers have nothing to lose. If they are too quick to strike a bargain, you may want to investigate it further before you celebrate getting a great deal.
