HomeAway.co.uk scam warning

smjxm09

There is an interesting article in the Guardian about HomeAway, which is a sister company to Owners direct. Customers have been scammed for £1000’s for UK and foreign holidays which did not exist yet the booking website's owners deny any responsibility.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/apr/27/booking-cottage-summer-holiday-let

Schofields

Although unfortunate, fraud is rare;

A spokeswoman for HomeAway told Money less than 0.1% of bookings are affected by fraud

Diligence on the part of travellers reduces the risk of fraud, see
http://www.schofields.ltd.uk/blog/416/how-to-check-for-bogus-holiday-rentals/
and
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-holiday-rentals#step1

However, rental sites should take steps to protect those booking via their sites. Many are moving to online bookings which will hopefully reduce such losses.

craigsmith_2

Could not of put it better