Oh man, that’s a heck of a moniker!! I’d think it was my brother with that name! It would be an issue for me, because I rent out a room, and I’m on-site, sharing my home. The cat might enjoy playing with the bunnies, though… I’ve added the ID at confirmation clause to my listing. CS told me I could call myself anything on the site after verification. smh
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Check their ID and hope it is not a fake?
I’ve had many requests to contact outside of the system or pay off the books on HomeAway /VRBO. It’s very regular.
Obviously the scam is when they want YOUR bank account, credit card or whatever personal details or if they try to age old scam of sending a check asking for some kind of reimbursement and then the check bounces.
In my experience people want to save the fees and think they are smart by contacting you through your website. But then when you ask them to actually pay, to your paypal account in country A for an apartment in country B and the guest is in country C, they have a think about it and decide it’s not such a good idea.
The only time this has worked is when we could more or less get some comfort on the identity of the people who knew the area and who knew some of our neighbors.
In any case if you do that, make a contract and get the full payment up front with no cancellation policy!
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Maybe think about a Stripe account, enables you to take credit card payments?
JF
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All you need is a paypal account, to take credit card payments and not divulge your banking and personal info…
Yes, you’re right, but some folks are a bit wary about using PayPal, especially when you may have a case of tri-currency confusion!
In my opinion, using a payment processor like Stripe comes across as a bit more professional, and in turn creates that bit more confidence and trust in the customer/guest. I’m in the process of setting it up for our apartments, I’ll report back on how the process goes eventually.
JF
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I’m amazed at how many European guests do not have Paypal.
Why is it a scam when they want my bank account number? 99% of my direct bookings are paid by bank transfers.
My bank account number is posted open on my website.
Only if a guest is outside the EU, I will accept something else. Then I will take CC trough stripe.
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And Paypal is an American company so people in other countries tend to use others rather than the US. Paypal has arrangements with similar companies throughout the world such as Baidu Wallet in China. (100 million users). For hosts who use Paypal it’s not a problem as the guest can use their credit card via the service.
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My American/New Zealand friend who has lived in the US, Brazil, Israel, China and New Zealand and traveled in countless countries unequivocally states that the most distinct features that one can apply to Americans everywhere (i.e., stereotype) and which foreigners find annoying about Americans everywhere is how they really are so completely ethno-national-centric. [stereotypes for amusement purposes only; not to be applied to individuals]
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I book both direct and on Air. Someone who is asking on platform doesn’t understand the basics, and in turn isn’t likely to respect your rules either.
Sometimes frequent guests will book direct, but more often than not it stays on Air, particularly if they are coming in from far away.
You must be a mindreader, what your friend said soooo applies to a couple we’ve got checking out today. Fortunately, in our experience they are a minority.
JF
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but you could get their home address and details as they were previous guests?
More travelers are trying to find ways to book a property directly. Many of them know that VRBO is just charging them service fees for the hell of it. Their credit card protects them from scams. VRBO requires the guest to first file a chargeback with their bank, and then if denied then VRBO will use their “guarantee”
If you are really getting that many requests then you should list on Houfy so that guests can find you somewhere else outside the system. No booking fees, free to travelers. And already connected to Stripe and Stripe. Houfy does not handle funds…it goes straight to owners. You can upload your cancellation policy, house rules, rental agreement, etc. and you handle everything. All of your reviews from ABB or VRBO import right into Houfy. You can sync unlimited icals. PayPal, Venmo, Transferwise have all been mentioned as possibilities to integrate later.
Yes that’s true at some point you have to give your bank account number of course. But if they start out asking for a bunch of other information too they could be trying to find out more about you and suck you into a scam.
I had a friend who got scammed this way, the scammer had her personal info like birth date (maybe from facebook), got her bank account somehow, then sent an email to her bank pretending to be her (set up a fake email similar to her email), asking for a wire transfer. The bank almost did it without asking her but did notice in extremis the email was not exactly the same. This was a few years ago maybe it wouldn’t work anymore.
What country is your friend in where her bank would almost send a wire transfer to a scammer? Like Chris said, his banking information is on his website. For Americans, our banking information is printed on the front of our checks. Anyone who views our checks or checkbooks easily has access to this info. Our driver’s licenses show our birth dates.
I think it depends on the conversation in determining if something is a scam. If an American is asking another American for banking info to do a wire transfer, when credit card is offered as a method of payment, then yeah…it may be leading up to a scam later as Americans are used to using credit cards, and there would need to be a really good explanation that the person would be wanting to transfer money. but just having this info alone isn’t going allow them to wipe out your account.
How much do bank transfers in EU cost transferring between each country? Does it vary by country? And if there is a cost, does the recipient or sender pay…or do both pay?
In the Euro zone (all payements in Euro), it should be free if you have an IBAN code and BIC code of your correspondant.
No it should not vary by country.
If the country is not using Euro then all bets are off you will have fees depending on sending bank, receiving bank, country, and exchange rate rip offs etc.
In any case when making the transfer if there are fees you will get a question saying who should pay the fees: sender receiver or shared, if there are fees.
You should probably specify all expenses for your guest and then who cares what he does.