Is this a fraud? anyone else booked on this website?

Fian

So I have booked a holiday in this house.


I would like to book it but I need to pay a large deposit. I am wary because:

1. The website will not accept payment by paypal or by cheque, they insist on a bank transfer. I even offered to pay the "paypal" commission fee.

2. The decor/furnishings in the house looks too good to be true (see photos). Here is a google maps link to the house which does look like the photo from outside: 4600-052 Cepelos

3. There is no indication of when the house is free or booked on the website.

4. The website have been jumping through hoops to convince me to part with the deposit.

5. I have checked and as far as i can tell the website has been operating since March 2010. That is somewhat re-assuring. http://whois.domaintools.com/turistrevo.net

6. However the website just doesn't come up on web searches for accommodation in portugal.

7. I sought a quote on a reputable site and the response was that the house was booked up but there were three others available and i was provided with links to this website.

So what does the interweb think - is this a fraud? I have booked flights at this stage so I hate to have to find another house, but i suspect I need to. Better than paying and then ending up on the doorstep with four kids in tow and no where to stay.

Duckjob

No previous experience of them unfortunately.

The website looks pretty tatty alright, though IME most spanish/portuegese accomodation/property websites tend not to be too hot on design and presentation.

They actually have quite a Facebook page with a fair lot of stuff on it, though I can't see it linked anywhere from their site!

They might want to use bank transfer because it's a fixed fee as opposed to paypal who take up to 3.4% of the transaction value (not the profit). If they are a small outfit, working on small margins that could make the difference between making profit or a loss.

Likewise, with the SEO, they're operating in a very competitive space for Google ranking, and they may not have the budget to spend on getting someone to promote them.

Fian

Thanks for that duckjob.

I'm a lawyer involved in criminal work so maybe i am overly suspicious as an occupational hazard.

My biggest concern is that i reached this website from an email and that they don't have any indication of when the houses are booked - so it would be possible for them to "book" the same house multiple times. Also i did offer to pay the paypal charge out of my own pocket.

the_syco

I did a reverse image search of the picture, and got the following sites;
http://www.niumba.com/en/portugal/oporto/villas/amarante/480826
http://www.imovirtual.com/imoveis/casas/desconto-vistas-panora-micasa-amarante/743086/

Seem to quote the same price. I'd wonder if they don't accept cheques because of the economic situation there?

roro2

Cashing/lodging a cheque from an Irish bank would be a very long and arduous process for them, even if the local bank accepted it. It would be the same story with trying to lodge a Portuguese cheque to an Irish bank account.

tricky D

€250 deposit isn't that much. A client of mine takes €450 as a deposit.

As for poor site and booking system, that's common enough.

Fian

I'm just going to delete the website from my first post because i realised it would show up in google searches which is unfair when i have no real reason to be suspicious.

thanks very much for the reverse image search in particular, i didn't know such a thing was possible, and for the rest of the replies.

they want a €900 deposit since i am taking for 3 weeks, i think that is the website deposit.

I will pay it and if it turns out i was scammed i will post again to clarify whether or not it was a scam.