How to get spikes with premium accommodations

Dozens of ads for accommodation in holiday homes, guesthouses and isolated cabins in Romania have flooded social networks in recent days. The coronavirus pandemic has helped this niche, especially since this year most tourists preferred to rent a place of their own to avoid crowding into hotels. Some of the offers are so attractive that they make you ignore many question marks and fall into the trap of scammers.

"We have been notified that there is a duplicate ad"

Mihaela Smeu manages Green Cottage, one of the most spectacular cottages in the Râșnov area. It's hard to find free seats in this place, and photos taken by tourists from the terrace of the lodge have flooded social media.

A few days ago, Mihaela was notified that someone had simply copied her cabin details and photos posted on the travlocals.com website and created a new destination, of course fake. “We were notified by someone that there was a duplicate ad on airbnb. That person managed to get past the airbnb filters to leave us a message with their phone number. We contacted them and that's how the whole story began. They managed to talk to the host of the duplicate ad, recorded the entire conversation and tried to get through to the account so they could file a complaint with the police for fraud. They didn't manage to get the account because the person trying to commit the fraud probably got caught/panicked. We wrote the whole story on Facebook and asked everyone who saw the ad to report it to both the property and the host on airbnb,” says Mihaela Smeu. The dispute between the real owners of the cottage and the website airbnb.com is now in the hands of lawyers.

Here is the fake message posted on the airbnb.com platform and the capture belongs to the person who discovered the scam attempt.

The person who created the fake ad used this picture taken in the Green Cottage in Râșnov.

"The displayed price was very low compared to my actual price"

Do not think that what happened to Mihaela Smeu is an isolated incident, but, unfortunately, it has become a national practice, especially around the winter holidays or the summer season.

Here is the story of Bogdan, the manager of King's Rock Cabin. "It all started with phone calls from so-called customers trying to find more information about the cabin. They told me that they found me on Airbnb and wanted more information or to confirm their reservations. Initially, I thought it was a confusion between travlocals and Airbnb. At some point, I was called by a person who asked me directly if the Airbnb account was really real and that's when I realized that there was really a problem. The guy was a tour operator and had encountered this problem before! I also searched Airbnb and indeed I found my cabin posted there, also by a Bogdan, but with a different phone number. I tried to call, the phone worked but no one answered. In the meantime, phone calls started coming from people who had already paid in full for vacations in my cabin. Some of them paid to Airbnb, and others to the person's private account. Of course, those who paid to Airbnb got their money back, the others did not," says Bogdan.

The real Bogdan, the manager of the King's Rock Cabin, investigated how these people manage to get past all the airbnb.com filters, but how they manage to get money from tourists eager for extremely cheap vacations in premium places. “This Bogdan only responded to messages. I made an Airbnb account, asked for some information on the chat and from word to word I ended up getting the phone number written in letters so that it would not be “detected” by Airbnb. I asked for details directly on the phone and of course, very soon I received the offer that if I paid him directly, bypassing the platform, I would receive a substantial discount. The price displayed was already very low compared to my real price, this way the cabin became very attractive. I reported this whole story to Airbnb, but it seemed like I was talking to myself, at first no one answered, and when they answered they tried to convince me that something like this could not happen and that I should leave the “poor man” alone. It was only when I sent them the property documents and told them about the steps taken with the police that they blocked the post. Shortly after, it appeared again, with the name of the cabin slightly changed and the “cover” image changed to one taken from the internet. After several ads that "We did it, with your help and on Facebook, they gave up, but without Airbnb contributing anything. So far, the police haven't done anything concrete even though they have enough data (bank account, phone number, etc.) " concludes the manager of King's Rock Cabin.

"Samsars of premium tourist services have appeared, which sell them second hand"

The room rate is the main indicator in choosing an accommodation for tourists from all over the world, not only for Romanians. How do you manage to avoid such spikes! Is simple! Check the property on multiple booking channels, on google (we're just in the internet age) and the real one will stand out. It has contact numbers that are actually answered, email addresses, reviews from customers, and if the low price that caught your attention is extremely different from what you can find on the internet, then I GUARANTEE that the mega offer on which you saw is a big spike. Second, all accommodation platforms charge commissions or subscriptions from customers or listed properties. Why did you think that these platforms pay their employees???? When you try to avoid the guarantee offered by an accommodation platform, then you also have to take on ÇEAPA.

Worse is that the managers of accommodation units, as well as those who manage booking platforms, have noticed an alarming increase in fake ads. And with the premium segment experiencing its best period, helped by the coronavirus pandemic, it was expected to become a favorite target of scammers.

"Practically, in this sector we observe a massive influx of people attracted by overnight enrichment, not knowing that it is just a chimera. The trust of people, whether we are talking about tourism service providers or tourists, is speculated, so maximum vigilance is needed. Samsars of premium tourist services have appeared, which sell them second-hand, possibly changing the name of the location so that potential customers do not see the real price.

"Also, clones of accommodations have appeared on various international platforms, so it is very difficult to realize that you are dealing with a scam, especially since the respective platforms display the message that the host has been verified. It is practically impossible for these platforms to do a real verification for such a volume of promoted services," claims Radu Fusea, manager of the travlocals.com platform.