Is “All Chalets” reliable?

S

Sievehead

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About to making a booking for a ski holiday in Austria for group of 8, website called “all Chalets” it seems to have great options for my preferred location however I’m not certain of their reliability. Has anyone used this company before? Any help would be appreciated.
 

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I have reservations on accommodation reviews on many holiday websites. Who knows who posted the reviews? It could be the owner. I’ve spent enough time in Spain to see what some people will do to rent out their holiday homes and lying is only part of what they can get up to. So you’re in Austria, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland etc and miles from home. If you’ve been dealt a bad hand there’s little you can do about it. Before you agree on anything, ask questions and if the answers are not forthcoming, keep your money in your pocket.

What do you ask? See my previous posts on Renting a holiday Home.
 
I’d be very wary of using anyone other than one of the big sites like AirBnB. It’s very easy these days to put-up fake reviews and to create dummy profiles for existing, legitimate rentals.
 
Most ski areas have an accommodation section on their website which lists all types of accommodation in the area ( the areas can be extensive) You may find the exact same accommodation listed there....sometimes minus platform fees and ,sometimes including cancellation at more reasonable , or no, extra cost.
Edit,
I should have mentioned as example, I'm going to Austria this week and the local accommodation platform got me the same place for €140 less than Airbnb.
Airbnb can be a great search engine , but once you find something that suits, consider that the start of your search.
 
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The platform fee buys you insurance and peace of mind. Scammers take screenshots of bona fide rentals and then create fake rental websites. The victim only finds out they’ve been conned when they arrive to find the legitimate AirBnB tenants in the property. There’s such a thing as being pennywise and pound foolish.
 
Fair enough, I suppose. Not for widows and orphans, or catastrophisers.
 
ClubMan said:
Unfortunately there's no way to tell if they're genuine or fake.
Click to expand...

A little analysis of the reviewers will reveal a lot. If you click on their name you can read other reviews they have done so just take a sample of recent reviewers.

For example with Allchalets the first reviewer I see has only done one review so not much to go on there. The second reviewer has done 10 reviews, giving different verdicts on different types of businesses so likely to be genuine. Find a few of these reviewers and I think they're likely to be reliable.

I looked at one website recently that had a lot of five star reviews on Trustpilot. I was considering making a purchase. Spending a few minutes looking at the reviewers, the vast majority all had done two reviews and funnily enough their second review all happened to be for another suspicious website, common to them all. So one to be avoided.

Likewise with TripAdvisor, take heed of posters who have reviewed multiple hotel over many years with balanced reviews.
 
I dished a lot of advice to holiday home owners on how to improve their reputation. First, tell the full truth, charge honestly, aim for repeat customers, inform client of full rental cost etc. Sadly, greed comes into the equation and the punter can easily get screwed.

Warning:- Just because somebody sounds like he/she was educated at Oxford doesn’t mean they are truthful.

Suggestion:- Ask somebody who has used whatever service. Word-of-mouth cannot be beaten.

Comment:- If the holiday home is so good why is it being advertised - Why not repeat clients?
 
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