Take your time, favor an intermediary such as a platform and avoid overly suspicious deals… here are some tips to follow before booking your summer rental, to limit the risk of unpleasant surprises for your vacation.
1. Be wary of overly enticing offers. "If you are offered a super villa on the Côte d'Azur at 300 euros per week, it is better to be wary," warns Julia Leroux, lawyer for the consumer association UFC-Que Choisir. The too good deal often hides a scam. "If a good in principle above your budget is suddenly accessible, it must arouse suspicion," adds Aurélien Jemma, founder of Likibu, French comparator of vacation rentals.
2. Check and cross all information. To avoid reserving an apartment in Biarritz that does not exist or a villa in Croatia in a vacant lot, the Internet is a good ally. "I recommend copying and pasting the ad text into a search engine and checking if the same offer appears on other sites," says Julia Leroux. The same must be done for the address of the property and the photos. Even if that's not all, spelling mistakes can also alert.
3. Take your time. "You have to beware of the urgency," says Pierre Bonelli, creator of the Cozycozy tourist accommodation search engine. Posts like more than just one room available or so many people are currently viewing this accommodation are lies. Proof of this is these Florence hotels, which, in the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy, posted only one room available online when… they were empty.
5. Go through a booking platform. Admittedly, they charge comfortable commissions in passing, but booking platforms such as Airbnb, Abritel or Booking, to name only the most important, are also a safeguard. As a trusted third party, most of them offer a guarantee to travelers: a refund or rehousing in the event of a problem. "You have to worry if an owner offers a payment outside the platform, because then you are no longer covered by the guarantee," warns Julia Leroux of the UFC. Paying by bank transfer, especially abroad, is often a very bad idea.
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5. Read the reviews. “You have to be very careful with offers that have no opinion, warns Aurélien Jemma of Likibu. Even if it is not completely impossible to bias the opinions, it is still complicated, because it is necessary to have booked, paid and stayed in the places to be able to deposit one. "
