Safest way to pay for holiday villa

Jlo31

Hi,

We are about to rent a holiday villa in Italy which we found via holiday lettings. Deposit required 15%.

Options are:

1)Bank transfer (I'm not keen to do this)

2)PayPal request 3% surcharge (would be covered by PayPal buyer protection only if I pay for full amount..does not cover split payments) . This makes me nervous as if I need to cancel then I've got to try and get my money back from vendor.

3) use PayPal for deposit and then final payment 8 weeks before going next year but use credit card as source of payment (empty PayPal account first) and then rely that MasterCard chargeback would cover me (although section 75 won't as it going via PayPal)

Option 3 seems the most preferable way to me but wondered if anyone else had any advice on best ways to pay safety.

Many thanks.

Jlo31 (James)

benjus

I don't see why chargeback would cover you for option 3, for the same reasons that Section 75 wouldn't cover you.

Jlo31

Hi what I've managed to read on the web section 75 is legally binding that the credit card company has to help but if transaction is under £100 or where section 75 does not apply visa and MasterCard run there own charge back scheme.

Apparently you have to have an empty PayPal account so when transaction is done it's taken direct from credit card. Google PayPal chargeback credit card.

Thanks for your reply

zagfles

Personally I'd never pay in advance for accomodation by any method other than credit card, unless I knew and trusted the owner or I had reliable information they were trustworthy. If they don't trust you enough to let you pay when there, then they should take credit cards.

Keep_pedalling

zagfles wrote: »

Personally I'd never pay in advance for accomodation by any method other than credit card, unless I knew and trusted the owner or I had reliable information they were trustworthy. If they don't trust you enough to let you pay when there, then they should take credit cards.

Lots of villas in places like Italy and France are privately owned, and it is difficult to find many of those who will take CC payments. You could of cause avoid those owners but they own some of the best places going so you cut your choice down somewhat.

I paid over €6000 for a French Villa last year all of which I paid upfront by BT which is a little scary but the owner had been renting for several years and had reviews to back that up. I found the villa though HomeAway, and they do have a compensation scheme that will cover you in the event of fraud. You can also take out supplementary holiday insurance that will cover you for fraud if the site you go through does not have such a scheme.

[Deleted User]

Jlo31 wrote: »

Hi,

We are about to rent a holiday villa in Italy which we found via holiday lettings. Deposit required 15%.

Options are:

1)Bank transfer (I'm not keen to do this)

2)PayPal request 3% surcharge (would be covered by PayPal buyer protection only if I pay for full amount..does not cover split payments) . This makes me nervous as if I need to cancel then I've got to try and get my money back from vendor.

3) use PayPal for deposit and then final payment 8 weeks before going next year but use credit card as source of payment (empty PayPal account first) and then rely that MasterCard chargeback would cover me (although section 75 won't as it going via PayPal)

Option 3 seems the most preferable way to me but wondered if anyone else had any advice on best ways to pay safety.

Many thanks.

Jlo31 (James)

You may not be aware that when you book a property through Holiday Lettings ( or indeed Homeaway both of which we use to market our holiday rental ) the owner doesn't receive any of the money you pay until after you are in the property.
It is held in escrow by the booking agency - in our case it's often by more than a year in advance.
This is designed to prevent fraud but also ensures we get paid as well !
You should check the t&cs for how much notice you need to give for cancellation and refund as owners and not the booking agency get to choose how strict or relaxed the terms are.
Fyi Holiday Lettings are owned by Tripadvisor and have a very good reputation.
Every booking we have ever taken through both agencies from visitors from all over the world has been made by credit card.

Jlo31

Deleted_User wrote: »

You may not be aware that when you book a property through Holiday Lettings ( or indeed Homeaway both of which we use to market our holiday rental ) the owner doesn't receive any of the money you pay until after you are in the property.
It is held in escrow by the booking agency - in our case it's often by more than a year in advance.
This is designed to prevent fraud but also ensures we get paid as well !
You should check the t&cs for how much notice you need to give for cancellation and refund as owners and not the booking agency get to choose how strict or relaxed the terms are.
Fyi Holiday Lettings are owned by Tripadvisor and have a very good reputation.
Every booking we have ever taken through both agencies from visitors from all over the world has been made by credit card.

Thanks for the info. The way I read it was some properties offer the holiday letting payment system. I found the property and enquirey via holiday lettings (trip advisor) and this was the following reply from the owner when I asked for payment terms.

'Yes, the property is still available but we are unable to use the holiday lettings payment system. We opted out of it last year since the cost is 3.9% of the booking plus a flat fee of £35 plus vat for us to use this system and we would have had to have increased our prices for everyone, when most guests are happy to make payment by a bank transfer which is free of charge. We therefore offer either payment by bank transfer (free) or using credit card via Paypal for which there is a 3% surcharge towards transaction costs.

We realised when we were using the Holiday Lettings payment system, that it was in fact exactly the same as Paypal in terms of the protection it offers payers/guests and was therefore giving the same advantage for higher cost.

If you wish the protection of paying via credit card therefore, we can arrange to send a paypal payment request if you let us know this is your preference.'

They gave me link for booking forms and it's a 15% deposit which seems fair. The main inaccuracy though is that PayPal buyer protection won't protect unless I pay the full amount (according to pay pal) but as stated I've read that as long as payment is funded direct from credit card you can make a charge back claim via credit card so this is the safest option I think for me.

I think if I was being scammed I would be being pressured to make a full payment via bacs or Western union but I think I will take out additional insurance as well.

Jlo31

In the help section under Holiday lettings it says,

'If there’s no book online button

This means the owner of this home doesn’t offer online booking. They may still be able to offer a secure form of payment, but you won’t be covered by Payment Protection. You’ll need to contact them directly to book using the form above.

The owner may ask you to pay by bank transfer or cheque when you arrive. We advise against transferring money via Western Union or MoneyGram as these methods are not traceable.'

So if there is not a 'book now' button then there is no holiday letting protection.

I'm learning lots at the moment.

Thanks for all the opinions and info all.

[Deleted User]

Jlo31 wrote: »

Thanks for the info. The way I read it was some properties offer the holiday letting payment system. I found the property and enquirey via holiday lettings (trip advisor) and this was the following reply from the owner when I asked for payment terms.

'Yes, the property is still available but we are unable to use the holiday lettings payment system. We opted out of it last year since the cost is 3.9% of the booking plus a flat fee of £35 plus vat for us to use this system and we would have had to have increased our prices for everyone, when most guests are happy to make payment by a bank transfer which is free of charge. We therefore offer either payment by bank transfer (free) or using credit card via Paypal for which there is a 3% surcharge towards transaction costs.

We realised when we were using the Holiday Lettings payment system, that it was in fact exactly the same as Paypal in terms of the protection it offers payers/guests and was therefore giving the same advantage for higher cost.

If you wish the protection of paying via credit card therefore, we can arrange to send a paypal payment request if you let us know this is your preference.'

They gave me link for booking forms and it's a 15% deposit which seems fair. The main inaccuracy though is that PayPal buyer protection won't protect unless I pay the full amount (according to pay pal) but as stated I've read that as long as payment is funded direct from credit card you can make a charge back claim via credit card so this is the safest option I think for me.

I think if I was being scammed I would be being pressured to make a full payment via bacs or Western union but I think I will take out additional insurance as well.

Personally I'd say that if they're worried about a 3.9% fee for arranging the booking what else are they going to nickel and dime you on ?

As owners we have never had any problems with Holiday Lettings\Tripadvisor and feel the charges they apply are very reasonable considering the massive marketing power they have and the fact we don't pay an annual subscription.

Look elsewhere for peace of mind.

Jlo31

Thanks for the advice. I agree with you and would happily pay that for the extra peace of mind.

EssexExile

Just to clarify, bookings through HomeAway do not necessarily go through the Homeaway/VRBO booking system. I have booked three homes through them & only used their system once. And that one was an effort because it didn't work properly.