Perfect Visit Blog What we have to say about it

Don’t give scammers the chance!

Renting serviced apartments has become more and more popular throughout Europe in the last couple of years. Unfortunately, it is not only companies and travellers looking for a bargain who have discovered this, but also people wanting to make easy money. Throughout the whole year – and especially during the high seasons – people with low morals try to trick innocent travelers into deals which are too good to be true.

The thing is that most travelers find out that the deal was indeed too good to be true when they are actually standing in front of the apartment, where they expected to have a nice – and especially a cheap – vacation. To make it even worse, at that moment the vacation is not as cheap as expected, because of the lost money paid to the scammers and because you still have to look for new accommodation, which will probably be an expensive hotel. Plus there is the chance that you will have to pay for another taxi, what can be quite expensive in some cities!

But the question that than is in everyone's head: how can I be sure that the apartment that I want to rent is not part of a scam?

The hard truth is that you can never be 100% sure if you don't book your apartment through a website like Perfect Visit. A website can be easily made by anyone these days with a computer and a web-design program downloaded from the internet without any problem. So you might think that you are safe when you book through one the major players offering hundreds of apartments, hotel-rooms, etc. and are known worldwide. Unfortunately nothing could be further from the truth. As an example, check out this blog. Scammers are also publishing "their" apartments through these websites, even using these websites as a major source of apartment pictures, adding a different address and publishing the same apartment on the same website under another name!

Unfortunately, we have also found out that scammers have used our apartment pictures or addresses and published them on other websites where people think that they are getting a good deal. In the end, they are standing in front of our apartment or someone else's and seeing a totally different building in front of them than what they saw in the pictures. That is the moment when they find out that they have been scammed! In unfortunate cases like this, we always try to arrange new accommodation, but it can happen that all our apartments are fully booked or out of budget. So if you are not booking through Perfect Visit, how can you make sure that the apartment you want to book is legit?

Trust your instincts
Do not pay by cashier's checks, if they say that it is the only way to fulfill the payment, than it is probably a scammer
Check if the availability calendar is up to date. It could be that it is not the case on their partner's site, but should be on their own.
Look for reviews of previous customers and try to contact them
Scammers most of the time don't want to meet in person. For example; they want to send the keys by mail
Look for home and holiday addresses. Perhaps you won't be show it in an early stage due to scammers, but it should be visible at some point during the booking process
We can see the whole world through Google maps! See if the pictures match the address.
What do we do when we want to find information? Search the company on Google and see if they are widely known. A normal holiday/serviced apartment agency is connected with social media and has some followers.
Pay with PayPal or credit card. This will not help to get you a legit booking, but PayPal payments are covered till 45 days and most credit cards cover payments in general. If you get scammed, this is at least a good salve for the wound.
Finally: if it sounds too good to be true, IT PROBABLY IS!!!

Hopefully when everyone reads this blog and follows these steps, there won't be any business anymore for these kinds of scammers and that they will be pushed out of business! This will enable the honest short stay agencies to run a fair business and ensure that all (international) travelers can have a pleasant stay, the way they envisioned and deserve.