Safely book a holiday home

Brief facts on the subject

• A noticeably low price, time pressure and missing provider information are warning signs.
• Address, imprint, accessibility, contract and payment data should fit together.
• Do not transfer before the booking documents and the identity of the contractual partner are traceable.

Every year they are on the road, the scammers who imagine holiday home offers and in truth are not looking for the rental of a holiday property, but rather for the bona fide holidaymaker to transfer the rental price to them.

The fraudsters disappear after the transfer of deposit or full rental price, the holidaymaker goes empty – his money is gone. In case of doubt, the holidaymaker is even at the door of the supposedly rented object and must find that the right owner knows nothing about the rental.

Forward:Most of the offers for holiday apartments and holiday homes on the Internet are from reputable providers– whether from tour operators, brokerage agencies or private providers. The risk of encountering a fraudster is overall quite low. Cheating at Holiday Home Rentals Is Thankfully All Over Holiday home market is the exception.

Enticing offers of fraudsters

The holiday home offers of the fraudsters read temptingly– Top properties in prime locations at a rental price that is often well below that of the surrounding holiday properties.

Often there are even the objects – photos and descriptions come from real existing objects of the large holiday home portals or are stolen from print catalogues. However, the fraudsters do not have access to these objects - and certainly not the intention to rent them out.

Fast, anonymous money transfers

The advertisements of the fraudsters can be found in free holiday home portals, the classified advertisements on the Internet, in newspapers or even flutter unsolicited by e-mail into the house.

The fraudsters at the holiday home market are looking for a quick deposit or the entire rental price of as many interested parties as possible. The fraudsters urge to quickly pay – in part they promise more price reductions. Only rarely are real account details given – usually the payment should be made by cash transfers such as Western Union.

After receiving the deposit or the entire rental price, the fraudsters disappear.Risky for holidaymakers is above all the booking of a holiday home from Privat (a holiday apartment from Privat) abroad. Criminals can be more easily removed here.

Now down payments for holiday homes up to about 30% of the rental price are industry-standard and many reputable private landlords abroad work with methods of money transfer that are unusual for Germans. So it needs to be other indications as to whether one is facing a fraud or not.

Book safely - do not fall for supposed bargains

If you have found a holiday home offer on other holiday home portals or in the classified section of your newspaper or even by e-mail, it is not always easy for you to find out whether the offer is reputable or not. However, with a simple checklist "Safe Booking" you can greatly reduce the risk of falling for a fraudster. Unfortunately, many of the warning lights also apply to some serious private landlords.

Checklist "Safe Booking"

1. Where did I find the offer?
Anyone who has received an extremely favorable offer by email without having first started a request to the sender should be careful. Is the advertisement on a free of charge Holiday home portal or a classified ad portal, you can ask the portal operator whether the addresses of the advertiser are verified. Email offers or holiday home portals on which the provider is free of charge If you can advertise, you naturally have a higher risk. Few of the fraudsters spend money on your advertising. On Ferien-netz.de and the other portals in the travel guide network are also private landlords checked.

2. Who is a landlord or intermediary?
It is certain who bookes through a German holiday home agency or a German organizer. Tour operators, for example, issue security certificates. The more anoymous a display is displayed and the fewer details of a private landlords are available, the more precisely the customer must pay attention to the processing conditions.

Serious holiday home intermediaries and private landlords of holiday homes and apartments send offers and booking confirmations with complete, verifiable address details – before payments by the customer.

Anyone who wants to book a holiday home from a foreign landlord must make sure that the provider exists at all. Providing a mobile phone number alone or a free, anonymous Email addresses such as hotmail or yahoo without further address details are rather suspicious.

In Western Europe, virtually everyone has a bank account – if transfers via Western Union or other variants of cash transfer are urged here, you should exercise caution.

3. Which property do I want to rent?
Are there photos of the same holiday object elsewhere on the Internet – maybe even with completely different key data and prices? Here, for example, a "Google image search" helps. Two objects that are identical look, there are rarely – and if private landlords also often use different portals for their advertising or have double entries – High price differences are unusual.

4. Are unusual conditions offered?
Top properties in the season with high price reduction – who gets offered something like this should listen. Properties that are in high demand are not rented cheaply by anyone – why would the landlord do this? In principle: Hands off holiday home offers that are too good to be true ...

What to do if you fell for a fraudster?

If, after paying your down payment or the entire rental price to a supposed landlord abroad, you suddenly can no longer reach it, you may be on the receiving end of a fraud in the area. Holiday rental fell in. Your contact is the police. Report the fraud!

Recommendation for safe booking of a holiday property

Booking a holiday home in Germany via tour operators or holiday home agents and also from private landlords is safe. Ferien-netz.de publishes, for example, exclusively advertisements of tour operators, travel agents and private individuals whose existence has been checked. Here, fake ads from fraudsters have no chance.

Search for your holiday home on the secure sites on the Internet. Organizer offers and the offers of the German holiday home owners are safe. Be careful with offers of “private” from the Foreign countries that are too good to be true. You will find guaranteed existing holiday properties and landlords also underApartmentsOffers from Ferien-netz.de.

Look closely before the transfer

The Consumer centre Provides up-to-date consumer information. In the case of an offer, check in particular whether the object photos and information are plausible, whether the contractual partner can be reached and whether the payment method fits the provider. Screenshots, contract, emails and payment receipts should be kept. If suspected of fraud help bank, platform and police; A chargeback is not guaranteed.

Suitable for further planning Family leave, Holiday parks, which Holiday Park Silbersee, Holidays with a dog, Holidays with cat, New Year's Eve in the Holiday Home, Buying Holiday Properties and Renting holiday properties. Also included Sustainable Holidays on Usedom, Pilgrimage holidays and Flight problems are about theHomepagereachable.

Renting safely step by step

Before payment helps a Safe Booking Checklist to check the main information about provider, accommodation, price and contract in the correct order. If photos, texts or contacts seem contradictory, compare image source, address and Providers independent of the Information about AI and image fraud. For the decision between platform, card, bank transfer or cash payment compare the Secure payment channels and check recipients, conditions and receipt.

In addition, before booking, the Accommodation information, Total costs, Contract and cancellation terms and the Special features of private rental Compare. Thus, open questions remain visible before a booking becomes binding.

Frequent questions

Is a very cheap holiday home automatically fraud?

No, but an unusually low price should be explained and checked with comparable offers. Other warning signs can change the assessment.

What to do if no one is reachable after payment?

Document contact attempts, inform the bank and platform immediately, secure documents and report a concrete suspicion of fraud.

How do I recognize a dubious holiday home offer?

A single warning sign does not prove fraud. However, if a very low price, time pressure, unclear provider details or conflicting payment data are combined, the booking should be suspended until independent clarification.

Should I check the contract before the deposit?

Yes. Read contractors, travel dates, total price, deposit, cancellation and payment terms before each payment and have open points clarified in writing.

Which payment methods are particularly risky?

Coupon cards, cryptocurrencies, cash transfers and unexpected payments to new accounts are especially problematic. A transfer is not automatically insecure with a traceable contractual partner, must But they're being scrutinized.

What should I do for eye-catching holiday home pictures?

Secure advertisements and messages, compare images and addresses independently and pay only when contradictions are clearly clarified.