Paying for holiday rental via bank transfer

onlyroz

I want to book a week in Bournemouth for Easter. I found this property on the holidaylettings site:

https://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/rentals/bournemouth/94503

It has good reviews on Tripadvisor over the space of the last few years. The owner doesn't accept payments directly via the website and is asking for a bank transfer. As a private individual I expect that they don't have the facility to accept card payments.

So would you go ahead and pay with a bank transfer as requested? Or is there some alternate more secure way that I could pay instead?

You do read about people paying out large sums for what turns out to be a fictitious holiday rental, but this one does seem legit as far as I can tell...

essex_boy

They dont want you paying via the website as they want to use their service but dont want to pay their commission
Question is are they the real people or scammers and also if they are real is this the sort of people you want to do business with, any problems they will go out of their way to give you money too

happyinflorida

Wouldn't trust it in a month of Sunday's - this sort of thing is often featured on BBC 1's show - "Holiday Rip Off's" and basically it means you risk losing your money and holiday.

I wouldn't do it.

[Deleted User]

Whether its a scam or not, if anything goes wrong, you won't be able to get your money back through the website. Normally they offer some guarantees.

An owner who does not allow payments through the website is at best, unprofessional. At worst a scam. I wouldn't want to be involved in either.

Cash-Cows

I!!!8217;ve booked direct before without on line protection and all was fine. If they!!!8217;ve been with the site a while and plenty of reviews then it!!!8217;s fairly reassuring. I wouldn!!!8217;t book this way for a property recently listed but that!!!8217;s not the case here. Any scammers quickly get exposed and details removed so those with history tend to be OK.

You could ask for a draft contract and owners details. If legit they won!!!8217;t have a problem giving you these.

vikingaero

There's even a link on that booking page:

Never pay for your holiday rental by wire transfer. Learn more about paying safely.

https://blog.holidaylettings.co.uk/travellers-can-ensure-booking-safely-holiday-lettings/

It can still be OK. Does the bank details of the owner match the listing on TripAdvisor. She is called S***y T. Does the bank sort code have a Bournemouth/South Coast branch?

Jaymie_kate

I'd say better be cautious about it. Make sure to counter check it's legit. I agree with the other comments that there's little you can do to refund once you made the payment. Cliche as it may sound but better be safe than sorry.

isplumm

Caroline_Parker wrote: »

Its quite fishy that they don't accept any other payment options other than bank transfer in a techy world. What about a draft or something similar?

Hi

Completely disagree - I have a gite in France that I rent out - normally people pay via direct bank transfer - the point is that the OP needs to do their own research to satisfy themselves that this is a valid rental.

Do they have a website? Do they have reviews on TA? Maybe search for some of the photos online. Can you phone them?

Thanks Mark

isplumm

essex_boy wrote: »

They dont want you paying via the website as they want to use their service but dont want to pay their commission
Question is are they the real people or scammers and also if they are real is this the sort of people you want to do business with, any problems they will go out of their way to give you money too

Absolutely - using holidaylettings will cost OP quite a bit more, as well as the owner - BUT the OP will lose the protection if go direct.

For example my gite costs £825 direct, but HL will charge about £905.

Mark

knightstyle

What about PayPal? The owner raises an invoice and the client pays this. So the client is protected.
Yes some fees but worth it.