Is Spain Holiday going too far?

[Marks]

Just received an enquiry from SH, guest contact details clearly visible

[joddle]

Just received an enquiry from SH, guest contact details clearly visible

Ah but are you on the new system? Its being rolled out gradually to property owners - I had thought it was for everyone at the start but apparently this is not so. You should get an email explaining the new system the day before it goes live for you.

[Marks]

Just received an enquiry from SH, guest contact details clearly visible

Ah but are you on the new system? Its being rolled out gradually to property owners - I had thought it was for everyone at the start but apparently this is not so. You should get an email explaining the new system the day before it goes live for you.

Newer than the new dashboard this year? When that went live I did think encrypted email addresses wouldn't be far away. What next, commission? I had hoped SH would not go down this route, after 15 years with them this could be a sad farewell.

[joddle]

Yes this is a very recent change only over the last few days or so. From talking to Helena earlier I get the feeling they are pretty keen not to become like the other sites so I can't see them going down the commission route - at least I hope not - I think such a move could spell the end for them as they would then be no different but a lot smaller than the giants in this industry!

[volcano]

I find this very sad. Had two enquiries and all I've seen is a first name and a telephone number. Who the f....k is Roberto? How can I check him? I want more details about my future guests BEFORE
I give any answer.

[Clauss]

Hey guys,

I appreciate reading through your communication here. It helps us to see things from your side.

We've spent thousands of euros building the Secure Inbox and you need to adapt your way of working - I could not agree more when you say it's an unproductive path we've chosen. But if you knew the number of phishing cases we had and the damage they did, I think would agree that we've taken a necessary action. Every week we see bulk attaks with victims as a result. With our new initiative the stream of victims has stopped and that was our no.1 priority.
We have no other agenda with the Secure Inbox than improving the security for owners and guests on Spain-Holiday.com.

The first phishing attempts we saw where easy for owners to spot but this has changed to an extend where far from all can spot the smart fraudsters before it's too late. Most owners have limited tech knowledge which makes them an easy target and we can't help because it's all happening on the outside of our systems. We blamed the owners in the beginning for being too careless with their email security and we warned all of our owners via articles, videos, web notifications and newsletters. But we just saw the number of victims kept growing so our warnings had little effect. Finally, us and many more in the industry saw that this was a battle we could only win if we took some control.

Our Secure Inbox is built to look and feel like a normal webmail inbox such as Gmail. You can attach documents and work like you are used to. We even made it mobil friendly.
We've already received feedback from many owners who appreciate the Secure Inbox because they feel they now communicate in a safer environment. And we have seen the number of victims down to 0 on the owner accounts communicating via the Secure Inbox.
We are rolling it out slowly so our customer support can keep up with your questions. We notify each owner before making the switch.

So I kindly ask you to join in on making Spain-Holiday.com a safer platform even it means changing your working procedures slightly. From a development point of a view, our goal is that you will prefer our Secure Inbox over your email account. Please send us your feedback so we can learn and adapt to improve your experience working with the Secure Inbox.

Have a wonderful day

[joddle]

Its good to see that Claus has taken interest in this - and that alone gives me a little more confidence in the new system. I also appreciate his concerns on fraud and welcome his commitment to doing something about it. However he has not so far indicated how he intends making direct contact with clients more available which seems to be our greatest concern. Providing that information just a week before an occupancy is simply not good enough. That information should be provided as soon as a rental or deposit payment has been made. Owners too need to check out their clients and require as much protection as the tenants.

[Marks]

Providing that information just a week before an occupancy is simply not good enough. That information should be provided as soon as a rental or deposit payment has been made. Owners too need to check out their clients and require as much protection as the tenants.

+1 from me.

[Simon123]

I have been using SH quite happily since the debacle of an 'upgrade' at Owners Direct.

I was rather surprised when I was not provided details and forced to reply to a prospect via SH having received no notification of any changes - despite the assertion made by Clauss on this forum.

I also objected to having all communication forced through this site as by it's very nature it becomes a centralised point with personal information including bank account details making it much more appealing to hackers.

I was even more disgruntled with the email exchange with Jimmy Pedersen who just patently does not understand security and astoundingly boasted 'it is not possible to hack our inbox' Hackers take these types of statements as a challenge so cannot believe this is the official line from Clauss.

I would be interested in his response as at the moment I have the fealing they are headed for a fall.

[Casscat]

I did not renew my Spain Holiday listing - not because of any dissatisfaction with SH but because I am unlikely to advertise my place after this season. If I was to change my mind I would pretty much definitely advertise with them. I recently had a marketing email reminding me that, unlike many others who shall remain nameless, they ONLY offer subscription listing and do not charge guests for the privilege of arranging their holiday via their site. The secure inbox I have no experience of, but presumably after the initial contact you can exchange information and communicate outside of this framework?

I did not get many spam/scam enquiries during my time listing with SH - hardly anything in comparison with the HA group where to this day I am continually bombarded with fake enquiries from scammers. HA's attempts to persuade advertisers that all this buttoning down of communication is to minimise the fraud risk is baloney and I think everyone knows that. With regard to SH, I did receive two fake 'new enquiry' emails purporting to be from SH quite recently. The interface was very, very convincing and obviously wanted me to inspect the enquiry via the email, which would have led me to a fake SH web site and a request for my log in details no doubt. Not having an active listing on SH it was very easy for me to spot, but perhaps not everyone would see it as bogus. So what I'm saying is that the secure inbox approach only addresses the tip of the iceberg.

In the final analysis I am more inclined to believe Spain Holiday when they say that these features are intended to protect advertiser and guest whereas with HA/OD/HL/TA etc. there is no doubt whatsoever that their 'improvements' are wholly and exclusively to their own advantage.

[French Cricket]

Well, if Clauss is still following this thread, here's a bit of feedback from a guest.

I've used Spain Holiday to find accommodation three times now, but if in future I really can't communicate with the owner directly until a week before my stay ... well, then I'm out.

Which is incredibly sad, as I like the site, I like (have liked) the ethos, and I've appreciated the direct contact in these days of interference. I would accept (just, and reluctantly) the first contact going through a secure platform, but after that I expect to be able to communicate directly.

[Casscat]

I'm really confused now. I had a quick look at a random search and the direct contact details of the owners are still there for all the world to see

[roxytoo]

Its being rolled in. I have been with them since 2002. I won't be renewing

[kevsboredagain]

I don't see any major issue. In a response to any enquiry you can add a link to your online booking form or send attachments for a booking. You'll receive full details through your own booking procedure and can continue normally. I made a quick test to ensure this was the case.

Communication through a dashboard to start with is a slight inconvenience but sadly too many owners fall for phishing attempts, which then gives the listing site a bad name and negatively affects all of us. It's fairly similar to other listing sites and certainly no show stopper.

The scammers will still keep trying though and today I had a sms asking about my SH advert and wanting contact to a hotmail address.

[Vera]

I don't think we are in the new system yet but I also had a sms asking about my SH advert and wanting contact to a hotmail address which I checked in a "verify email address program" and it was flagged as fake.
The phone number provided was in USA and we were already booked for the 1st night.