I wrote only a few weeks ago about the villa rental scam in Spain. Well today I learnt of another potential scam, but this time with a hotel booking website. For legal reasons I am not going to mention the hotel site, as I have no concrete proof that this is the case.
I want to open up a discussion about the security of credit card deposits because I think we could have a massive problem. It is not difficult for someone to create a website to take deposits from hotel bookings, for the consumer to then find that no booking has taken place.
These scammers do not even need to worry about people finding the website, with Google Adwords you can have potential consumers coming in within minutes. The truth is that it is not difficult to create a fake hotel site, take the deposits, and run off with the money, leaving the consumer out of pocket.
Not that I am suggesting people go away and do this. It’s illegal, and you’ll get caught.
Regulation for accommodation only sites
I do think that accommodation only sites need more regulation, and I have no idea how this could be done but I am concerned that millions of consumers across the world are using online booking and it is open up to abuse, the question is how does the industry do this.
Book with well known brands
From a consumers perspective I really do think that you need to look at booking with well known brands, and I know that’s not going to go down well with smaller independent hotel booking sites, which are above board, but, I would never hand my credit card details over to a site that I did not trust.
It’s like handing your credit card to a complete stranger in the street.
Concerns over credit card security
I have big concerns about the security of credit cards and I have previously written about the lack of security when booking hotels and that the details are sent insecurely through email to anyone managing the hotel’s reservations. As consumers we have no control over who see’s those details.
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