As more and more foreign holiday destinations are coming under quarantine restrictions, UK holiday makers are deciding to spend their breaks closer to home. International travel is becoming more difficult and harder to plan ahead for and in response, booking sites have seen a surge in interest for holidays within the UK.
In response to this, a number of holiday deals have started to appear across social media that appear ‘too good to be true’. A number of these are advertising availability at some of the most popular sites in the country during peak season, others are using a number of different pictures, all from separate sites, to promote a glamping site that doesn’t even exist.
Unknowing customers are being tricked into paying for holidays that never existed in the first place. In some cases, people are turning up to glamping sites only to be told that they don’t have a booking and that there’s no availability left, others are turning up to glamping sites that don’t look anything like the one they’d booked only to be turned away.
Holiday scams have always been around, but the recent surge in interest for staycations within the UK has seen a large increase in the amount of them out there.
Managing Director of Canopy & Stars, Mike Bevens became aware of false advertising where a number of their most popular glamping sites were being advertised across social media sites such as Instagram and Facebook, despite them already being fully booked. Speaking to The Express Bevans warned:
“We have noticed some of our popular spaces, already booked up for August, being advertised via what look like scam social accounts, we are asking guests to be aware and be vigilant.”
For people that are looking to book holidays, there are a number of practices that will safeguard you from being taken in by these scams. Firstly, if the company is only allowing you to pay via bank transfer, this should send up red flags. Most reputable organisations will give you a number of payment methods, the most trusted being payment by debit or credit card wherever possible. If you ever do come across a deal or offer on social media, you should always find the glamping sites website and contact them through the methods they list instead of proceeding via social media. And lastly, it is rarely a good idea to follow a link that someone has sent you via email unless you know that person well, so if the staycation that an email tells you about sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
For site owners, things get a little bit more complicated. It is impossible to police all corners of the internet checking for scam listings for your glamping site, but there are ways to safeguard yourself to an extent. Updating your website and social media pages with a warning about these scams detailing the ways that customers can make bookings safely is a great start. If anyone ever does turn up to your site having fallen for a holiday scam, it is important that you find out exactly where they found the offer so that you can take action.
If you have been affected by one of these scams it is important that you report it to Action Fraud, the national fraud and cyber crime reporting centre, you can find their website at www.actionfraud.police.uk.
