An increase in false villa bookings online has seen one villa rental search company see a rise in activity from the UK travel trade.
Vacation rental search engine IAVRA has benefitted from travel agent and customer demand for trusted villa suppliers after horror stories revealed people were paying deposits then would turn up to a destination to find the accommodation did not exist or they had booked through a fake company and lost their money.
Sybil Napolitano, director at IAVRA told Travel Daily the site had also seen an increase in activity following the rise of dynamic packaging and the launch of its ‘free for life’ accounts for the travel trade.
“There has been amazing interest and we’ve seen more results in a short period of time. When people have a bad experience they turn to a travel agent and more are using our system,” she said. “We have more suppliers there and more enquiries coming through with UK travel agents as one of our top four markets for users.”
Similarly to the serviced apartment market, villas are often difficult to categorise and there is no grading system. Napolitano doubted that a grading system for the sector would be introduced but said IAVRA ensured it has a minimum number of photographs for each property and agents can normally tell the standard by facilities on offer such as a butler or swimming pool.
“Agents can also normally judge the value of a property by the price,” she added. “They can see quite easily from the site what is available. Our prices include commission and are the same as the direct websites; we will challenge the villa agent if we find it cheaper elsewhere.”
The site now has its sights on growing its offering, with more than 4, 800 villas currently displayed. Italy, France and Greece have been popular searches for the summer season, with enquiries now starting up for ski resorts and the Caribbean.
“City apartment searches are also a growing trend, such as enquiries for companies like onefinestay. From what we are seeing, people are enjoying the privacy of being in their own apartment which has more character and where they can cook, and it’s often cheaper too,” Napolitano said.
The site is also due to launch agent profiles to build more a community between its users and suppliers. It has no plans to allow bookings through its site, instead allowing villa agents to liaise directly with travel agents.
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