How can tourists protect themselves

Depending on the type of the property – hotel, villa or apartment, you should request to be given at least part of the information described above: references, advertisement websites, website of the property, documents for classification and membership in associations. If the manager/owner of the vacation property does not want or cannot provide you such information, you’d better not take the risk to choose this one and you’d better look for another place. Proceed to payment of the deposit, which is sometimes quite a big sum, only after you have complete and satisfactory information.

Along with the mentioned above pay attention also to:

Information from the manager/owner. Do not hesitate to call on the phone and to ask in detail about the property, about your room and about what there is around, etc. Ask for more pictures. It is very difficult to answer to a lot of detailed questions if the property does not exist. Moreover the information obtained will be useful for you anyway. You are a customer and have the right to be informed.

Amount of the deposit. The required deposit should not be too big. Usually it does not exceed 20-30% of the total.

(mostly for hotels) Documents. The booking form needs to cite all arrangements that have been made with the initial contact such as an arrival date, length of stay, number of visitors, payment method and schedule. The tourist fills in the data about the visitors and confirms the arrangements via email. The hotelier issues an invoice/payment contract and the tourist sends the deposit on its basis. The tourist needs to keep the payment document; the property manager sends a receipt for the amount received. The quick exchange of well-formed documents reveals that the property has experience in the booking procedure.

Information on the Internet. Along with the exchanged documentation the tourist may search for information about the property in Google. You can search with the key words “name of the property” and “forum”. If you do not find any information in websites or forums, it means that the property is either inexistent or not very active/visited. This puts into doubt not only its existence but also the quality of the tourist service. The information above applies mainly to hotels, but a great number of vacation apartments and villas are as well discussed in Internet forums.