Unusual Scam

Post scam emails to warn other rental owners, or if you are not sure if an enquiry is genuine, put it up here and see what others think.
Giuliano
Posts: 73
Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2016 2:41 pm
Location: Umbria
Contact:

Unusual Scam

Post by Giuliano »

I just received the mail below (twice).
This all points to a scam; poor English, generic terms, sender's mail is a gmail account (plus my name is not Valentina).
However, I had a look at the site, and it is well designed and apparently legitimate; since registration is free, I am wondering how this scam may work.

Hello Valentina,
Hope you are doing well. I am writing this email to you only to just know about, have you received our email that I sent to you and the subject was 13% Commission over the booking. If you have received my email so please go through it. We have been working in French market for the last eight years and we are doing it all across the world. I hope you will like our proposal.
• We do not charge any amount from you for Marketing & advertising of your properties on our website. It is free of cost
• We will provide high quality guests for your properties which we do have.
• We charge only 13% commission over the booking and it's not from your pocket; we will just upgrade your prices on our website and charge commission from the upgraded amount.
• As you will not need to worry about listing your property on our website this work we can do for you.
• The amount of the reservation (less the Luxtop360 commission of 13%) is automatically transferred to the owner's account 7 days after the payment of your guest which is done at the time of the reservation. The mean is that you will get a full booking or your net price before arriving guests.
• You just need to only sign up your account and rest of the work we will do for you.
Hope so we will be waiting for your positive response and have a good business relationship.
AndrewH
Posts: 1499
Joined: Thu Sep 12, 2013 1:17 pm
Location: Kefalonia, Greece
Contact:

Unusual Scam

Post by AndrewH »

I can see nothing there which shouts "scam". I don't think that English is the writer's first language, which would concern me if they are going to write one's property description. Unlike the VRBOs of this world and their "service fee", it is the owner and not the guest who pays the commission of 13%, and in my view that is the way it should be.

I certainly do not like the idea of upping the rates for the next guest to cover one's commission payable on the previous guest. There is something a bit Ponzi about doing that. I mean where would these price hikes end and what would potential guests think as they watched the prices going upwards on the website?

My guess is that they are probably genuine, but not an online booking agent which I would choose to join.
RichardHenshall
Posts: 414
Joined: Sat Sep 05, 2009 4:06 pm
Location: Luz, Algarve

Re: Unusual Scam

Post by RichardHenshall »

AndrewH wrote:I... I certainly do not like the idea of upping the rates for the next guest to cover one's commission payable on the previous guest. ...
Are they not saying that they increase the prices they charge to all the people who book through their site, so their listed prices will be approx 15% higher than your 'normal' prices? If they get a booking, you still receive your normal rate.
AndrewH
Posts: 1499
Joined: Thu Sep 12, 2013 1:17 pm
Location: Kefalonia, Greece
Contact:

Re: Unusual Scam

Post by AndrewH »

RichardHenshall wrote:
AndrewH wrote:I... I certainly do not like the idea of upping the rates for the next guest to cover one's commission payable on the previous guest. ...
Are they not saying that they increase the prices they charge to all the people who book through their site, so their listed prices will be approx 15% higher than your 'normal' prices? If they get a booking, you still receive your normal rate.
If that's the case, Richard, and it probably is what they are meaning, it puts them in the same bracket as TripAdvisor, VRBO and others, who take their commission from the guest. However, they are a bit more subtle (or sneaky if one prefers), by not letting on to the potential guest what is really going on. They don't have to mention a "service fee" or anything like that on their website.
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