I'm about to cancel arrivals...would you?

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alexia s.
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Post by alexia s. »

I'm not going to cancel, I'm just not going to take this booking:
"The Olive mill seems so wonderful and beautiful.
My husband, two kids (two and four yrds old) and I plus our three dogs
Are currently living in Orlando, Fl USA WE would like to rent a property
Like yours for three months preferable from May 15 thru August 15, 2006
To try out and see if we like living in the area so that we can possibly
Purchase something on our own to go to for vacation etc.

Your property seems nicer then anyofth eother properties we have seen
On line and we would like to rent the entire units so that our family from
Holland and Belgium can come over and stay with aqs well if they please
This could vary up to 10 or 12 people The Olive mill seems so wonderful and beautiful.
My husband, two kids (two and four yrds old) and I plus our three dogs
Are currently living in Orlando, Fl USA WE would like to rent a property
Like yours for three months preferable from May 15 thru August 15, 2006
To try out and see if we like living in the area so that we can possibly
Purchase something on our own to go to for vacation etc.

Your property seems nicer then anyofth eother properties we have seen
On line and we would like to rent the entire units so that our family from
Holland and Belgium can come over and stay with aqs well if they please
This could vary up to 10 or 12 people depending of course what you have
avaible and how we then will plan around that"
The potential for damage, as Brooke says, is higher with a long let; in this case I wouldn't have any control over who stays & when they stay. As for "renting the entire units" (i.e. the 3 lodgings which sleep a total of 12) but having visitors "depending of course what I have available " - they haven't thought this through (or they have & they're not saying).
I realise that they could be a delightful family but I don't want the hassle.
Best,
Alexia.
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Alan Knighting
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Post by Alan Knighting »

Alexia,

I would be very nervous about this enquiry. People with children and dogs plus other members of the family drifting in and out. Could be fine, could be a nightmare. Also, it has the flavour of a scam although written in much better English than most.

Alan
Fraise
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Post by Fraise »

I don't think I would take it either ,it seems too risky to have all of your properties tied up when there is any doubt as to the veracity of what has been written.As Alan says,there seems some whiff about it...doesn't seem to ring true? A scam? Maybe,but probably too risky to touch with an extremely long barge pole :roll:

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cromercrabholiday
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Post by cromercrabholiday »

I agree with the others, it sounds too good to be true and I've found over the years that if it does sound too good, it usually is. We had a strange enquiry about a month ago, but the english was very poor so we ignored it.

John
Fraise
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Post by Fraise »

John- I love your nom -de-cyber- plume!! It always makes me laugh,but then I am a very simple strawberry :lol:
ps- I have a vision of lots of little crabs ,all with suitcases,lined up ready to go on holiday! :roll: I said I was simple!!!
cromercrabholiday
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Post by cromercrabholiday »

Cromer crabs are famous in the UK and for good reason as they are delicious. They tend to be quite small - enough for one person for a main course. We are lucky as two doors away is a crab/lobster fishing family - son gets them, husband cooks them and wife dresses them. We get village rates when we are there, which is cheap.

They are lovely people and also act as keyholders and refuse any money for that service. We give regular flowers, chocolates and Bacardi, which they are happy with.

John
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

Alexia,

That looks like a scam, apart from the fact that they name your property. Is it a poem? Was it my imagination or did it start repeating itself halfway through? Maybe it's a psalm. Very peculiar.
Last edited by paolo on Wed Oct 05, 2005 12:26 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Paolo
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

Fraise wrote:I have a vision of lots of little crabs ,all with suitcases,lined up ready to go on holiday!!!
:lol:
Paolo
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vrooje
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Post by vrooje »

I'll cast my vote for scam on that one. Good choice to ignore it, Alexia!
Brooke
A-two
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Post by A-two »

cromercrabholiday wrote:Cromer crabs are famous in the UK and for good reason as they are delicious. They tend to be quite small - enough for one person for a main course.
I'm not sure I know the difference between Cromer Crabs and any other English crab, or perhaps I never had one. I can remember as a young child standing on the jetty in Filey waiting for the fishing boats to come in so we could get a fresh crab for supper. If we were lucky, they would dress it for us right there on the quayside. Yummy. I miss English crabs a lot and think they are the best in the world and vastly underrated. I have the most brilliant recipe for a crab souffle from the Carved Angel in Dartmouth that I have been unable to cook ever since I left England.... :cry:

There is a fascination here with local blue claw/soft shell crabs, which I have never understood. There's no dark meat on them, hardly any white either and anyway, who wants a crab sandwich with legs hanging out. We have a superb supply of local fish and shellfish, but the best I can get in the crab department is frozen cakes from Maryland. Sad, really sad. Can't wait to visit Cromer. Do you export?

Regarding the potential scam, it would be unusual for me to get an inquiry for dates so far ahead. Usually, they ask at short notice, so they can create a reason to ask for a refund before there is time to discover their check is fake. Also, I have yet to receive one that refers to my property by name, usually calling it an apartment or cottage, when all our marketing clearly states it's a beach house, repeatedly. However, Paolo is never wrong, so if he says this is a fake, you can take it to the bank, although I'm not quite sure if he is saying that definitively.

Sometimes, I too find it really hard to tell. For example, only today I had an inquiry for a 3 month booking from a person with the same name as that famous rastafarian singer with the initial B and last name Marley. It was from a freebie email address. That's 3 red flags right there, so naturally, I was immediately suspicious. I looked for a phone number and found three, so I used one of them. The guy was genuine. We had a lovely chat. The inquiry dates were a slip of the mouse and he's just emailed to confirm a one week booking, which I'm going to take.

All of the above paragraph means to say that if I'm not sure about the content of the first inquiry message, these days I tend to rely on phone numbers. Some people deliberately register a fake phone number with the listing sites for reasons of privacy, so if the first attempt fails, I ask them to confirm their number is correct before making a final decision.

Today's experience is not the first time that my initial concerns have been proved groundless, so I'm beating that drum again about picking up the phone. In my opinion, for what it's worth, a genuine person who is serious about renting the place will always give out a real phone number when asked, so for me, it's the litmus test..... :)
Waves from America
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

Joanna wrote:Paolo is never wrong, so if he says this is a fake, you can take it to the bank, although I'm not quite sure if he is saying that definitively.
:lol: If only that were so! Re-reading this enquiry I can't say it is a scam at all - they have just copied and pasted the same text twice. It is not the most literate composition, but if I only rented to A-grade students of the language, I would have an awful lot of availability.
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alexia s.
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Post by alexia s. »

I've had another request from this family - "we would like to rent the entire units so that our family from
Holland and Belgium can come over and stay with aqs well if they please
This could vary up to 10 or 12 people depending of course what you have
avaible and how we then will plan around that""
so I googled them (no, I don't systematically do this - does anyone? Not a rhetorical question.)
The enquirer is president of a tour company in Orlando, offering an amazing range of holidays - rocket launches, dinner with an astronaut, you name it......
They would still love to stay at our place for the max 2 weeks that I offered - am I crazy to take them? I can't see any risk over anybody else for this length of time (I certainly wouldn't hand over the 3 months that they requested). Please, don't tell me that a rocket launch from our place would be fun....
Best,
Alexia.
Fraise
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Post by Fraise »

Yes, I Google. I have found some really interesting things about some of our visitors and it gives one a bit more confidence in what to expect- or at least you know some of them can actually afford to rebuild the place if the worst comes to the worst!! :lol: Anyway,what's wrong with a space launch from your garden?? :twisted: 2 weeks sounds much safer :wink:

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paolo
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Post by paolo »

It's odd that their new request is just a copy and paste of the old one, typos and all, and that their plans have changed from 3 months to 2 weeks, but if you're sure they are bona fide then why not. (Can you really buy dinner with an astronaut? What tarts!)
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A-two
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Post by A-two »

They really wanted 3 months, but 2 weeks will do? There's something wrong with that picture Alexia. Now I hear they are tour operators, it makes me even more suspicious. People don't leave a successful business in Florida to move to France so they can get together with family from another country for 3 months, or do they? A bit of a wild shot, but could there be a tour event connected with this inquiry and they intend to run it from your place with their staff who happen to be distant relatives?
Waves from America
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