The lodging industry, and especially, the vacation rental industry, is unfortunately all too familiar with fraud. At LetMeGo, we have developed a system designed to significantly reduce the chance that users of our service will be victimized by this problem.
How Fraud Usually Works
Frauds can be grouped into two basic categories: Non-existent lodgings steal money from travelers, or travelers use fake credit cards or checks to pay for their stays.
How can you, as a traveler, end up booking non-existent lodgings? Here is an example: Joe, a guy in Nigeria, buys a stolen credit card number on the black market. Joe goes to an online vacation rental directory like HomeAway and sets up a fake listing, paying the yearly subscription fee using the stolen credit card number. Joe tells travelers that his lodging is very inexpensive, but can only be booked by prepaying the full stay via money order. You, the traveler, book his lodging and send him a wire transfer or money order, as he requested. Weeks later, HomeAway learns that the credit card transaction was disputed. Or, in an even worse scenario, it’s entirely possible that you could travel to your destination, get in your rental car, and drive to the nice vacation rental you booked inexpensively, only to discover that the address doesn’t exist. By the time you realize you’ve been defrauded, Joe has been living the good life for weeks and, because it would be prohibitively difficult to prosecute him (since he lives in another country), you have lost all of your money.
The second type of fraud, in which lodging owners lose money, is more straightforward: An international traveler arrives and pays with a credit card or check. Everything appears to be normal. Days or weeks later you get a note from the bank telling your that the credit card charges have been disputed because the credit card was stolen, or that the check bounced back. Once again, the money is lost, as it is very difficult to track a person in another country. Which is not to say that tracking fraud within the same country is a picnic, either.
How LetMeGo Addresses the Issue
We address it in several ways. Some of them we can make public, some of which must remain secret in order to retain their potency.
In order to protect the traveler, LetMeGo will only work with lodgings that receive prepayments, when required, via credit or debit cards. In this way, travelers will have the chance to dispute the transaction in the unlikely scenario that the lodging was not real. When this happens, LetMeGo will charge the lodging its commission at the same time than the prepayment is made. That way, LetMeGo increases the chances of finding out if the lodging is not legitimate before the check-in date. Of course, if the booking is cancelled, LetMeGo will automatically credit the commission back to the lodging.
In order to protect the lodgings, LetMeGo will allow them, at their discretion, to require the traveler to prepay the booking in its entirety via credit or debit card. Additionally, lodging staff members will be able to review the profile of any traveler before accepting a booking from him or her. If they wish, they can accept bookings only from travelers with an existing and positive record in LetMeGo.
Your feedback is highly appreciated. If you can think of another ways we can protect both travelers and lodgings, please let us know.
Alexander Torrenegra
Photo by Martinsjonathan
Alexander is LetMeGo's co-founder and jefe. Here is his LetMeGo 
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