Look out for scams when choosing vacation rental
A recent blog post recounts the tribulations of a traveler who rented a place to stay in Chicago through Airbnb. Actually, I should have said, “Thought she rented” a place. At the last minute, the nominal property owner told her she couldn’t get into the original place because a toilet had overflowed, but the owner offered a “much bigger” substitute place. By now, you can figure what came next: The substitute place was a dump. And in trying to fix the problem, the traveler was unable to contact the nominal owner or get any immediate relief from Airbnb.
Sadly, this is not a new scam. Several decades ago, before Airbnb was a thing, a website offering Paris rentals played the same game: Promise a great rental, tell the tenants on arrival that their property has suffered some sort of emergency, and place them in an “alternative” that ranged from dismal to uninhabitable.
These experiences show a glaring weakness with vacation rentals, generally: Many of the largest vacation rental websites, including the HomeAway and TripAdvisor families, are basically bulletin boards. They post deals and may handle some of the arrangements, but your legal deal is with the property owner or manager, not the online vacation rental outfit. Here are my suggestions to limit your risks:
Arrange your rental through one of the giants, such as the HomeAway family, including VRBO, and the TripAdvisor family, including Flipkey. Both outfits offer at least some recourse in the event of a scam. HomeAway offers a “Book with Confidence” option providing protections against internet fraud, wrongful denial of entry and material misrepresentation, provided you book and pay through the host website with a credit card. FlipKey’s TripAdvisor Payment Protection offers similar assurance. Just be sure to follow the rules each outfit lists to qualify for its consumer protections. As far as I can tell, Airbnb protections are less robust.
Avoid pure bulletin board sites such as Craigslist — they provide no protection at all.
Always pay by credit card. The HomeAway and TripAdvisor sites specifically require that you pay by credit card, and you should always use a credit card wherever you make the arrangements. Credit cards provide financial protection that no other system of payment does.
Arrange your rental through a curated vacation rental agency located in the United States (or wherever else you live). They provide two important protections: They list only rentals that they or their agents have personally inspected, and they are accessible to you for legal action if the problem escalates that far. The main problem with curated agencies is that they tend to concentrate on expensive — and mostly large — accommodations. A couple looking for an inexpensive one-bedroom rental will find few choices.
At your destination, if you encounter a problem — and if the local owner/manager/representative can’t fix it quickly — bail out immediately, and contact the rental agency you used to book the accommodations at once. Even agencies that offer some protections require that you contact them quickly. If you dawdle in the hope of a future fix, and especially if you agree to remain in an unacceptable substitute accommodation, you lose a lot of leverage.
Beyond those recommendations, I haven’t seen any third-party travel insurance policies that specifically cover the problems that arise with a vacation rental scam.
Vacation rentals are a great way to experience a new city, region or country. I’ve rented apartments and cottages from the Oregon coast to downtown London and Paris and Florence, and I’ve never encountered a problem more severe than a need to jury-rig a shower in a bathtub that had none. But vacation rentals are, inherently, a bit riskier than hotels, and their scam potential is higher. My take: Enjoy, but be careful.