Following a report on Good Morning Britain, the UK’s biggest holiday rental site has assured all of their customers that they will receive a phone call to confirm their booking. With the holiday season among us, Snaptrip issued the pledge as a report highlighted the number of holidaymakers being conned.
Failsafe tactics
After launching just 12 months ago, Snaptrip now has 28,000 properties available to rent in Britain and Ireland. The firm’s CEO Matt Fox said that they wanted to implement failsafe features in order to make sure that their customers were put at ease and removed from risk. He believes that by simply phoning a property owner and confirming a booking removes risk when combined with additional security measures.
‘We’ve taken the measure to only list properties that have been personally vetted and verified by a property management company-therefore we partner with trusted brands such as Cottages4you and Blue Chip Holidays,’ explained Fox. Additionally, he said that Snaptrip, ‘contact all renters by phone once they’ve made an enquiry through the site. All payments are taken by phone so a customer never parts with any money until they’ve spoken to someone.’[1]
Conning for cash
Snaptrip believe that one of the most important features of its site’s functionality is ensuring that email communications are not intercepted and spam listings are not added to the site. These are the two main features that holiday markers are ultimately conned by, parting with money which goes directly to fraudulent groups.
As a result of manually listing properties on the site and restricting access for third parties, these risks are manageably removed. By telephoning each holidaymaker individually, they are assured of peace of mind and reassured that none of their hard-earned income is to be lost to criminals.
[1] http://www.sourcewire.com/news/87341/there-are-failsafe-ways-to-avoid-holiday-rental-scams-this#.VW24OVxVhBc