paying for private villa

rayofsunshine_2

found a lovely villa and all looks above board, the lady is asking for £200 deposit and then 8 weeks before departure(£2,200 in total)


she has asked to be paid into her bank account, as much as she sounds genuiene i want to know the best way to protect myself.

thanks for any advice

thumperrabbit

You could offer to pay by Paypal and use your credit card but there is about a 4% charge for this.

Which country is the villa in? If its the States for example you can check ownership and check taxes etc are paid and up to date online. Not sure about other countries.

budgetflyer

You cant really protect yourself doing a bank transfer.
All you can do is look at reviews of other people who have booked same villa and judge it from there.
Personally I wouldn't risk it.
It just seems so lazy or dodgy for a business not to accept CC payments either thru Paypal or Google Checkout these days.They are so easy to set up.

http://www.villaplus.com
http://www.villarenters.com/
both offer secure payment methods

rayofsunshine_2

thanks the villa is based in Egypt, reviews are very good
am going to speak direct to owner monday and she if she will accept either mastercard or paypal.