How to be safe when booking a holiday online.
Our amazing Explore Eat Stay community is thoroughly checked before businesses can share on our website, but we still want to make you aware of the possible scams out  there when booking your dream holiday.
If it is too good to be true... it probably is.
You’ve found the perfect accommodation … at a bargain price, but it seems too good to be true. Scammers are known for duplicating listings  and advertising them in different locations but don’t fear there is a way of checking before you part with any money. Using Google you can search with an image (for instance an image of the property you have found) and all websites featuring the image will appear, you can verify the property and check the location and the website you found it with. To find out how to search with an image click here
Look out for dodgy email addresses or unknown numbers.
I know we all have a funny email address from our teenage years, but that’s not what we mean. If the accommodation owner is emailing you from an email address that does not match their display name, it’s more than likely its not the person they are claiming to be. A good way to verify the person you are speaking to is on the phone, look out for with-held numbers, international phone numbers, and landlines from other area codes. Â Scammers hide behind email and text, so if they are unwilling to talk on the phone be cautious.
Always think before sending money.
Look out for owners asking for unreasonably large damage deposits, requests to send money through friends & family channels (such as PayPal) or international bank accounts. Banks are often able to recover your money, but not always, so it’s always best not to take the risk. A good way of carrying out due diligence before making a payment is verifying the bank details with an individual over the phone, as text and email can be intercepted by scammers.Â
Check their website.
Look out for websites with a padlock by their URL, and start with  ‘https’ – these are secure sites, meaning the connection is encrypted, preventing hackers from intercepting your connection with the site.Â
Those reviews might be fake!
For years, reviews were a safe and reliable way of identifying items for sale online. Scammers have gotten smart to this, and fake reviews are everywhere, don’t make your decision based entirely on business reviews, carry out your own due diligence checks (like some of the above) first.Â
It's not all doom and gloom!
For every scam there are hundreds of legitimate tourism businesses looking to offer you a five star holiday experience, we are advocates for booking direct, and the risk of being scammed should not deter you.Â
