Beware of Scammers

The new holiday approach that has gained popularity and interest in Türkiye in recent years offers various possibilities to guests who want to holiday in a summer villa. The dream of many of our people of holidaying in a villa is coming true. Today, real estate and tourism companies prepare summer villas for guests in the world-famous, most beautiful holiday resorts of the Mediterranean and Aegean regions and present them for guests' approval. Making use of developing internet technologies, real estate and tourism companies also build websites and serve guests through them. Renting a summer villa from a website brings guests many advantages, such as saving time, the chance to choose among countless villas, instant booking and getting information about the villa. However, today people's dreams and wishes of a villa holiday are being dashed by ill-intentioned people. Ill-intentioned people and organisations cause people material and moral harm.

As a situation we have been encountering very often lately, very many people fall victim to listings on free classified sites. For example, scammers show a villa in Kalkan as if it were in Bodrum, or copy listings belonging to agencies and post them on free sites, victimising people. They make the villa's features and details attractive and market it at favourable prices. They usually introduce themselves as the villa owner or an agency and definitely use disposable GSM numbers. They give no address or landline number.

So that the time you plan to spend, the most valuable time you dream of all year round, in comfort and peace does not end in disappointment, and so that you do not lose your money to these people, everyone needs to take some precautions. We try to expose these people who damage our sector to the public as far as we can. However, there are also points you need to pay attention to:

IMPORTANT: Institutions providing daily rental services must have a TÜRSAB GROUP A TRAVEL AGENCY OPERATING LICENCE. You must ask for the number and have it checked on the official TÜRSAB site.

Always make the payments requested from you to a bank account. Make these payments to the company accounts registered on the company's tax certificate. Be sure to ask for a Travel Information Document or confirmation documents containing the details of your payment.

IMPORTANT: Since, by law, residences for tourism purposes can only be rented by companies holding a TÜRSAB licence, never make payments to personal accounts.

Research the people or institutions on the internet.

For scammers, how much the house is rented for does not matter. They may ask for prices of even half or a quarter of the normal rent, because they have no one to pay. The money you send will be collected directly for their personal use. For this reason, be careful of people who rent below average prices. Please stay away from houses that are offered below their value, because they are not real.

Treat with suspicion firms that give you large discounts on your request for a discount. Since we are an intermediary agency, we receive low commission rates from homeowners. Sites that claim they will give a discount either try to mislead you by adding a price on top of the price, or defraud you by tempting you with large discount rates.

Say that you want to pay the amount other than the deposit on the day you arrive at the house, or that you want to come beforehand and see the house or have a friend nearby inspect it; if it is a real company, it will not avoid this. They will respond positively to your offer.

Do not trust listings published on classified sites and other free listing sites, made with the aim of reaching the homeowner directly and getting the house cheaper. Fraud is generally carried out through such sites. Corporate daily-rental companies let houses on behalf of their owners at low commissions. However, these companies inspect and check the houses for you, screen them, and present the selected houses to you. They tell you the advantages and disadvantages of the house.