Owners Direct/AirBnB how can you be sure these properties are genuine?

Aubrey_Thicket · 21 January 2019 at 3:33PM

Hi all

My wife and I are looking at renting a Villa/apartement in Tenerife for next Christmas.We have heard a lot about AirBnB and owners abroad etc but I personally was told by a friend that sometimes con artists create fake listings and take your deposit. So, a couple of questions please...
Which is safest AirBnB? Owners Direct? Others?
How do we know the properties exist and how can we make sure we're not being conned into an apartment that doesn't exist?

It definitely is an apartment we want because we are not sure if other family members would be joining us yet so we figured that if we booked the apartment/Villa independently ourselves then it wouldn't be a problem if another family member just jumped on a flight and stayed in the apartment with us.

We went to Tenerife this year but booked through booking.com, just me and the wife. The week before we went my brother said he would have liked to have joined us. However, this was not possible because we had paid for the apartment with booking.com per person/room whereas we are under the impression that if we simply book an apartment its our choice if we invite another guest.

Hope this makes sense?

Thanks in advance all

koalakoala · 21 January 2019 at 4:33PM

I have never used them and wouldn't, but I know people who do.
I actually prefer tripadvisor's holiday rentals. I feel my money is safer.
For sure there are con merchants out there, and places are often not as described.
I wouldn't take anything without reviews

Fen1 · 21 January 2019 at 5:02PM

I use AirBnB a lot.
ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS do everything through the official site.
If you are contacted by the owner asking to pay directly ( so to avoid the AirBnB percentage), report them and walk away. These are the scam artists. The customers who've been scammed usually come out with this story.

The TripAdvisor places are also good. Again, do everything through the official website.

Pay by credit card.

jackomdj · 21 January 2019 at 10:51PM

We have used both and trip advisor. We look to see how long it has been on the site, read through reviews, correspond with owner.

We tend to go for ones with reviews, but one of the companies has an insurance to cover you if the villa/apartment is not available/there etc and we booked a villa without any reviews through them once.

We have never had a bad experience, one villa had a few points we weren't really happy with, but we left our own review so future people know about it.

headpin · 21 January 2019 at 11:29PM

You also need to ensure that where anyone is renting out a property that they are not in an area where short term lets (often anything less than 3 months) are prohibited.

To my knowledge New York is partly covered by this as are parts of Spain. Often the owners conveniently ignore this and the renter can be left without any accommodation if the police or local authority enforce the regulation and either stop you entering or evict you part way through.

The moral is to do due diligence before you commit and pay any money.

Aubrey_Thicket · 22 January 2019 at 3:18PM

Brilliant advice.

Thanks all.

Owners Direct/AirBnB how can you be sure these properties are genuine?

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