Owners' Direct

[Siobhan]

Has anyone booked with Owners' Direct? I am making a booking for 1st August and to secure the apartment at this stage I must pay the rental in full. How can I be sure the advertiser is genuine? Does the Company carry out any checks?

[Gommar Goffer]

Hi Siobhan - because it is less that 6 or 8 weeks to the rental date I am not surprised as that is when many companies/owners require full payment

[animagic21]

Owners Direct is a huge world wide organisation. Have used them loads of times over the last 8/10 years! So far all has been ok. Good Luck! The accommodation on this site is brilliant too.

[littlebird]

Siobhan, I've just paid in full to an owner who advertised on Owners Direct and I had similar concerns to you. OD do offer a basic rental guarantee to prevent you getting defrauded although based on my reading of the small print it's not exactly iron-clad - quite a lot of hoops to jump through etc.

On a more practical level, they suggest on the site that you call the owner before you pay to check they are a real person etc. I also had a sneaky peek at our owners on Facebook. At least that way you know who they are in case you get ripped off. Beyond that, I suppose there's a bit of risk in any private transaction but hopefully it will be fine...

[eleanor]

As has been said before it is normal procedure for payment in full prior to arrival. Most holiday rental sites operate on a similar basis and will provide phone number and details of the owner. Many owners accept paypal (ok some people don't like paypal) or cards with the majority asking for transfer into their bank. Should this transfer be to a bank such as Western Union or the like then of course alarm bells should ring. 99% of owners are totally above board and go out of their way to ensure good contact is built between them and the renter - after all it is their home they are risking. I am happy to provide references or any other detail as necessary as I'm sure many owners are. I am so pleased I have a closed account on Facebook - not that I have anything to hide but thank you for the idea as it may be worth a check to ensure renters look suitable and trustworthy!

[gers1873]

S, we have used OD and advertisers on here for many many years and never had a problem tbh

although we have never paid in full up front even with people we have used before even at short notice 6-8 weeks prior to arrival etc

have always offered to pay a small deposit to renters with balance on arrival

we would never shell out 1k 2k or whatever until we were fully happy with accommodation etc

we lost a lot of money during the recession of the early 90's when moving house paying up front for a kitchen, furniture and double glazing prior to work being carried out with major companies advertising nationally all who went bust and left us high and dry

we vowed then and to this date we would never be caught out again

as always I advise in business as personally buyer beware at all times

[eleanor]

I thought we had been here before and I have found another recent thread along the same lines as this with various comments under owners direct apartment.

[Sparky]

Originally Posted by eleanor

I thought we had been here before and I have found another recent thread along the same lines as this with various comments under owners direct apartment.

Yes this has already been covered very recently, here is the link to the other thread :- http://www.forum.puertopollensa.com/...apartment.html

[Mark]

As it is only 8 weeks until your holiday the owner asking for full payment is fairly normal.

Originally Posted by Siobhan

. How can I be sure the advertiser is genuine?

Unfortunately there is a risk with paying in full on owners direct upfront.

August is peak season so it is surprising that there is availability which makes me slightly wary.

Rule number 1 is dont send money to anyone using a free anonymous email address such as hotmail, yahoo, gmail etc, they are the ones the scammers use by tricking/phishing the genuine account owner into revealing the email password and then pretending to be the owner to resell the same peak season weeks to lots of people.

Do all the usual checks, make sure you have the owners name and address and check this out and the property location so you can see if that can be checked.

Do a google search for the contact telephone number that is on owners direct, some of the same telephone numbers appear on many sites on many different properties. If that's the case ask the 'owner' about it and see how they respond.

If it goes wrong and you paid by bank transfer there is not much you can do really.

Ideally pay on a credit card or paypal as paypal now gives 180 days buyer protection.(check any conditions though)
PayPal shake-up protects buyers of 'intangibles' | Money | The Guardian

https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mp...n-improvements

There are a few websites with advice but I doubt posting links is allowed as many are businesses..
A google search:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ow...AsuI5AatrYHQCA