Regrettably it seems that we are currently living in a time where it seems acceptable for human beings to treat each other very badly with no justice for it and no reason why people are so accepting of this type of behaviour.
The case in point today is accommodation scams in Spain and the dreadful affect that these have on the poor souls who have been sucked into the web of lies and become victims of heartless money merchants who only want one thing!
There have been some arrests in Spain as many of the innocent consumers have raised complaints regarding mis-selling and fraudulent activities regarding holiday accommodation. 20 Spaniards and Romanians have been taken to prison in Spain after reportedly taking £650,000 from British holiday makers. Unfortunately, though it does seem that once one set of these unethical criminals is put behind bars, another group without any moral compass pops up to carry on scamming and ripping off innocent people who want to spend their money on holidays with their families and friends.
In one particular case a family lost £3,722 on a family holiday booked in Tenerife for two weeks. An astounding amount of money to lose to a fancy but faceless website that has sold you something, that doesn’t in reality exist.
I have heard of numerous consumers buying their holiday or villa, normally from a flash and glitzy website, they turn up at the airport and the promised ride to the villa never materialises, left stranded there, with suitcases and spending money but no where to sleep.
There have also been noted tales of customers arriving at their (seemingly) booked accommodation only to find other families staying there already!!
These situations obviously cause an inordinate amount of distress to the customer, but can also put them in a very vulnerable position from a financial point of view. The worry is that they are left stranded in a foreign country, with no contacts, no beds and no recourse to the ‘people’ who they booked their accommodation with. They could be left with no option other than to try and find somewhere to stay and it’s virtually guaranteed that they will struggle to get their money back or any form of compensation.
As a consumer, you may be lucky enough to find out prior to your holiday that you have been duped but again you will struggle to get any money back or compensation. The likelihood is the website and contacts you have for the booking strangely disappear and all you are left with is an image of somewhere you could have gone but wasn’t really real!
Mr Bain booked through a google search with a company called Luxury Canarian Rentals. Mr Bain is an IT professional and knows his stuff, he searched the web for negative reviews and when he couldn’t find any, completed his booking. Mr Bain went on to correspond via email with the firm’s property manager Mirabel Sotelo Morales, a contract was signed and proof of identity sent. Two days before their flight Mr Bain contacted Mirabel to advise that they didn’t need the free taxi offered as they had hired a car. He received no contact, no response and couldn’t get through to anyone on the phone. Alarm bells rang and Mr Bain completed another search on the web only to find that the company was a fraud! Mr Bain decided not to take the risk of flying over and not having anywhere to stay. They lost a lot of money and this completely ruined what was supposed to be a well-earned break!
Make sure you thoroughly research the site you are looking at before you press ‘confirm’.
For more information regarding this article or assistance in any other timeshare related issues please contact the TCA on 01908 881058 or email: info@TimeshareConsumerAssociation.org.uk