The search for a summer rental has never been so complicated. Confinement and concerns related to the coronavirus oblige, the French, foresighted as laggards, find themselves this year in "last minute" mode. Good plans less. Instead of spanning the first six months of the year, the hunt for vacation rentals is concentrated over a few weeks. With new criteria: relaxation must now rhyme with security.
"Since May 28, and again this week despite the announcement of the opening of European borders, 90% of searches on our site concern France, observes Pierre Bonelli, the founder of the French search engine specializing in tourist accommodation Cozycozy . In general, there is a distrust of hotels and guesthouses and a craze for rentals. "
Secure, conducive to reunion with family or friends, apartments and vacation homes are popular. This year even more, it is the hunt for the pretty villa, with or without swimming pool. But beware of scams. If Leboncoin, Airbnb and Abritel refuse to communicate to us the number of fraudulent ads removed each year, thanks to the algorithms of their site and to reports from travelers, the scammers take advantage of the notoriety and the size of these digital platforms to slide their traps among millions of offers.
The villa on the Ile de Ré hid a crook
Élise and her family paid the price. These inhabitants of Giroflay (Yvelines) thought they were spending a dream vacation in a pretty villa on the Ile de Ré (Charente-Maritime), but the 5,600 euros paid went away.
“This villa, it was beautiful, large, with six bedrooms, a garden and a swimming pool, remember Élise and Julien Murat, their voices still vibrant. After this difficult period of confinement, we told ourselves that we were going to be able to spend two weeks with the family all together, with our two-year-old son, his grandparents… ”Immediately the ad spotted on Abritel, Élise got in touch by email with the owner, a certain “Claire Dourdin”. "She said in the ad that she should write to her directly," explains the mother. Given the standing of the villa, I thought it wanted to screen the tenants. "
Élise fills in the questionnaire requested and accompanies her with a word emphasizing their desire to be able to rest in this pleasant house for the first two weeks of August. "The owner told us that it was good, that we were going to receive the payment request from Abritel," says Élise. She arrives in her email box the next day. Topped with the blue logo of the firm, this "invitation to book" recalls "the guarantee of a reservation with confidence" and urges to "book safely by bank transfer, covered up to 10,000 euros in case of cancellation Within 24 hours. The logo and formulas seem to be mistaken for those used by Abritel…
Élise's mother-in-law transfers 5600 euros to an HSBC account. Two days later, despite reminders, the family has no more news from the pseudo-owner. A phone call to Abritel reduces their summer project to nothing: no reservation is registered. The email was a fake. And Abritel-Homeaway will not reimburse.
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"Any reservation made and paid for by a vacationer online on our site benefits from a full refund and, if necessary, assistance in relocating," emphasizes the platform of the Expedia group. But in this case, the traveler has contacted the false owner via a private email address, and not via the secure messaging on our site. He made a transfer directly to the fraudster and did not pay via our payment system. If vacationers go outside the system (sometimes to avoid paying service fees), then they cannot be covered. "
Élise complained, but the police gave her little hope. "We are in disarray, we will probably not go on vacation," regrets the young woman of 36 who wants to alert so that other travelers are not in turn victims. Afterwards, Élise found the villa, which exists on the Ile de Ré. Same ad, same photos, it is rented in August on another site at ... 7,500 euros per week.
This year, prices soar
A price that does not surprise professionals in the tourism sector. "Houses with swimming pools currently represent half of the research on our site," notes Aurélien Jemma, head of Likibu, the leading comparator of vacation rentals. If we add the pool to the other criteria, the median prices (note: as many rentals above and below this price) can double. "
The impact on the price is all the more important in regions where swimming pools are rare such as Ain (+ 93% compared to a house without swimming pool, at 1701 euros per week), Aveyron (+ 92% at 1,666 euros), Orne (+ 87% to 1,750 euros), Loiret (+ 78% to 2,044 euros) or Haute-Savoie (+ 70% to 3,297 euros).
In the coastal departments, the direct impact of the swimming pool is less obvious, but prices are still soaring. Compared to the same period last year, Likibu notes an increase in the median price of vacation rentals of + 15% in the Alpes-Maritimes, + 12% in the Var, + 11% in Finistère or + 10% in Gironde.
On the Channel coasts, Granville and Étretat increased by 13%. On the Atlantic coast, it is at Saint-Lunaire (+ 18%) and La Trinité-Sur-Mer (+ 15%) that it soars the most. In the Mediterranean, the price of upscale resorts continues to increase: + 21% in Saint-Tropez, + 18% in Cannes and + 15% in Menton. It is in Hauts-de-France that we will find the most accessible coastal rates. "The Aude or the Pyrénées-Orientales also offer low prices," notes Aurélien Jemma.
According to several observers, only Corsica, penalized by transport constraints, and large cities like Paris, shunned by foreign tourists, see the price of their rentals drop.
"The 9 million French who used to go abroad save the price of transport and can afford to put more money in accommodation, analyzes Pierre Bonelli of the Cozycozy site. But others, worried about the economic context, will be led to spend less and fragment their vacation. Thus, according to the search engine, the average length of stay decreases markedly: stays of one week (37% of searches) increase by 7 points while those of two weeks (19% of searches) decrease by 5 points.