If you’ve spent the majority of this year saving as much of your hard earned cash as your bills would allow, you may well now be in a position to start looking into possible locations for your perfect 2013 holiday. This is great! Although we’ve well and truly reached the end of our summer in the UK, many other countries still have amazing weather for the next few months – so don’t worry, you’ve still got plenty of time to do some sunbathing before the year is through.
However, recently anyone who watches the news will have seen a stark increase in the number of stories relating to fraudulent holiday rentals, and the effects they cause on the plans of UK travellers. This is a major problem at the moment so you should definitely research the company or website you’re considering booking with before parting with any cash. That said, you don’t need to worry too much so long as you opt for a well known, reputable provider.
Still, I thought it might be worth me writing this article to draw your attentions to the most useful and successful ways to avoid getting caught out.
How To Check If A Deal Is Genuine
Whether you’re booking a log cabin in Canada, a cottage in Denmark, or even looking for villas to rent in Albufeira, you need to ensure you spend some time thoroughly researching whichever company you’re considering booking with. This can be done by simply performing a Google search and reading other people’s reviews. Also, make sure they’re underwritten by a credible brand and you should be fine.
Just ensure you always get a booking contract from the holiday provider – this should be emailed to you within a few hours of making payment, if it doesn’t, get on the phone quick.
Popular Scams
Some scam websites simply list properties that aren’t even theirs to rent out. Others double book travelers on purpose to create an increased income stream. For example, if you turned up at your cheap holiday accommodation to find another family already inside, what are you likely to do? You can’t kick the other occupants out if they too have valid documents, so you end up shelling out even more money to pay for a different villa or apartment – and guess who rents it to you? That’s right – the same company.
How To Protect Your Payments
As most of us now use electronic means of payment like debit and credit cards, we are covered in the event of falling victim to a scam so long as we realise quickly enough. All major card providers will happily cancel and return any payments you make to anyone for anything within 3 days. After that, you’ll need to convince them that you have been duped by a scam to get your money back.
Still, this does mean that you will have an official record of every penny you gave to the dodgy firm, so you’ll be in the best position to take them to court if something goes wrong.
So there you have it my friends. Hopefully now you should be able to avoid losing out to any internet holiday rental scams. Just remember that it’s not all doom and gloom, if you do your research you’ll never have any problems.
