Oh dear, more holiday rental scams
Monday, August 9th 2010
- comments (3)
The Daily Mail, the newspaper of middle England, splashed a story last week about a family who were scammed via Holiday Rentals UK.
It's an old scam that involved guests handing over money (via international bank transfer) for a fake villa which was somehow being advertised on a trusted rentals website. The family were left considerably out of pocket with no real prospect of getting their money back.
The European Consumer Centre - a continent-wide trading standards organisation - has reported a spate of these scams and whilst they've been going on for years, as holiday rentals become more popular you can expect to see these stories getting wider exposure.
We're all at fault and it is high time we admitted what is going on.
Holiday rental scams DO happen
These scams are well established but the rental industry's approach is to keep them quiet. Unfortunately, now that the likes of HomeAway is getting mainstream exposure, sweeping the issue under the carpet may no longer be an option.
Whilst scams only occur in a very small minority of cases, the bad publicity they generate could destroy the public's regard for rentals as an alternative to hotels.
It's time to learn from eBay
The holiday rentals business is still a dinosaur when it comes to establishing trust between vendors and buyers online. Should holidaymakers really trust an owner when all they've seen is an advert on the Internet? They probably shouldn't - thankfully they do but the trust is fragile enough to be easily torpedoed.
Instead we should learn from the world's largest car boot sale: eBay.
Who could ever have thought buying second hand novelty socks online from somebody you've never met could ever have been a trustworthy business? But it is.
The reasons are two-fold: first is PayPal - a strong, trustworthy payment mechanism for all concerned. The second is a community ratings system that allows users to self-police and grade the honesty of buyers and sellers.
The big listings sites need to replicate this success if the growth of holiday rentals as an alternative to hotels isn't to be slowed by increasingly public scams.
Until then, there are a couple of ways for owners to respond to the threat:
Step 1: Help guests pay by credit card
We know from bitter experience that there are still huge numbers of owners who only accept payment by bank transfer. They don't care about protecting their guests - they just can't stomach the transaction fees for services like PayPal.
This is maddening and our response is simply: grow up!
Every business has to swallow banking fees and the adult approach is to build the cost into your prices. Mainstream business has also learnt that making payments safe and secure actually increases their sales volumes. Your prize is more bookings.
So for all those owners who already allow people to pay by card (e.g. via PayPal) - well done you! For those who still resist it, just remember the poor suckers who are getting fleeced in bank transfer scams. Get a grip and be professional.
Step 2: Allow uncontrolled reviews
None of the big rental websites have any kind of community policing allowing renters and owners to grade one another. Instead we are left with biased review systems that really aren't fair on anyone - they lean towards "good" reviews and allow complaints to get filtered out.
For those owners who know they provide great service get yourself listed on TripAdvisor. This shows your commitment to service by allowing un-edited reviews of your property; renters are sophisticated enough to see this as the best possible endorsement.
They are just as quick to smell a rat when they see property owners who only publish 5-star reviews. A recent discussion at rentals forum LayMyHat.com highlighted the protectionist instincts of many owners in this regard. It's a mistake and serves only to patronise our guests.
HomeAway ahead of the game?
The US behemouth of rentals recently hired an executive from PayPal and we're still wondering whether HomeAway is already way ahead of the curve on this issue. Can we expect some major moves to tackle the trust issue?
We can only hope so. Rental scams aren't going away anytime soon.
comments (3)
Frankie wrote...
Jenny Hunt wrote...
wilson k wrote...
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