For a few months, in replies to enquiries on one of our properties, I've included an extra paragraph on scam-avoidance. I've done this, aware that even mentioning the word "scam" might send guests running to booking.com, but hoping that they would take heed and become more savvy and resistant to the common scams aimed at renters of holiday properties.
The good news is that it doesn't seem to have put people off: I've had at least as good a conversion rate after as before.
But the advice needs to be longer and to cover more than just the most common type of scam. So, I thought I should do a blog page about it and suggest to folks that they read it.
So, this evening, I've been writing about holiday property scams and how to avoid them (a sort of antidote to the Daily Fail).
So far, I've got:
- The hacked email account
The cloned property
The agent posing as owner (substitute property)