hiring a private caravan

burnleymik

Just looking for a little advice to try and protect ourselves from rogues.


We have found a very nice caravan we would like to book for the week through a private caravan rental website. The owner prefers payment through bank transfer and we deal with them directly.

I know chances are everything is legitimate, but if I make payment through bank transfer would i have any recourse if it turns out to be a scammer?

Is there any way to protect ourselves in this scenario?

wealdroam

burnleymik wrote: »

Just looking for a little advice to try and protect ourselves from rogues.


We have found a very nice caravan we would like to book for the week through a private caravan rental website. The owner prefers payment through bank transfer and we deal with them directly.

I know chances are everything is legitimate, but if I make payment through bank transfer would i have any recourse if it turns out to be a scammer?

Is there any way to protect ourselves in this scenario?

The most sensible way is to not pay by bank transfer.
Sorry, but I cannot think of any way of protecting yourself if paying by bank transfer or cheque.

If you can pay by card, preferably a credit card, you are much better protected.

forgotmyname

No comebacks with a bank transfer, its like posting money. They maybe a scammer and and you will get a crime number at best.

The bank wont divulge their details and the police wont be that interested unless they stumble across it from another crime.

Protect yourself by only using people recommended by friends and family. Even then there is a risk, but probably a smaller risk if people have used them before.

Through a private rental website and offering to trade outside of it? That would not give me much confidence to trust them.

13Kent

Most private owners who rent the van out for a few weeks a year to help cover their costs won't have a credit card facility. Some will take paypal but might charge you more as paypal add a charge on for payments. Some will accept cheques, but bank transfers are the easiest types of payment for both parties, but unfortunately it's not the safest payment method.

You may be able to check with the holiday park if the person named as the owner does actually own that particular caravan, genuine owners should be happy to give you their name and the caravan pitch number and instruct the site to give you that information - obviously find the site's number yourself, don't rely on a number given to you by the caravan owner.

Use a website like this one https://www.directholidayhomes.co.uk/ rather than a stand alone ad like a facebook page or ebay advert. They may be able to tell you how long the owner has been a member on the site - people that have been advertising with them for years are more likely to be genuine or the website owners would have had complaints about them!

Or this one http://www.caravanholidayssw.co.uk/ where an agent takes the payment on behalf of the caravan owner.

Scrutinise the advert's photos carefully, look out of the caravan windows, does the van look like it's on a pitch or is it on a showground? Is the van 'dressed' too perfectly? Are there any personal items around - photos, toys, things on shelves? teatowel hanging on the oven door or towels in bathrooms? If so it's more likely to be genuine. People have been known to photograph a van which is up for sale and use the photos to sell non existent holidays.

Good Luck!

rjlarke

Just found this site that connects you directly with private caravan owners in Wales. There's not a lot on it at the moment but i'd assume it would grow and the ones that are on there are likely to be cheaper that booking through the actual holiday park.
http://walescaravanholiday.co.uk/