In spite – or perhaps because of – the continuously increasing number of choices on the Internet, selecting and subsequently contracting the right villa for your Bali holiday is getting more difficult every day. Remember, this is YOUR vacation, and you cannot be too careful. The joy of saving a few dollars is nothing compared to memories of a spoiled vacation.
Some web sites advertise deceptively low rental rates to attract potential clients and then try to sell them something else afterwards. Some promise services they don't deliver or advertise villas which don't even exist. Others tell outright lies on their web pages. For instance:
"Villa rental is who we are, It's what we do, It's all we do." Right next to this claim is a box highlighting "Valuable Links" to a hotel site, a wedding site, and more hotel sites for Lombok and Singapore. All owned by the same company.
On the same page this company says: "(We are) a Bali based company. We live here, we know the people, ". When you check the background, the owner of the web site is a company in Tortola, British Virgin Islands. So be careful.
Here are some hints on how to protect yourself from false claims and/or unreliable companies so you can avoid possible disaster:
* Always book through a reputable villa rental specialist or travel agent. If you deal directly with villa owners, they will always try to convince you their own villa is the best choice. They are hardly objective, of course, and their ideas regarding "quality" often don't meet international standards.
On the other hand, every established villa rental specialist (good travel agents will not deal with any other) will know most of the available villas in his/her area and will only recommend those which really meet your individual requirements and expectations.
* If you book directly with a villa rental company, always check how long the business has been established, and whether they accept all the major credit cards. If the company has been doing business for many years and works with all major credit card companies, you can be sure there have been no serious customer complaints. No credit card issuer would continue to do business with a company if card holders have repeatedly requested refunds because of problems they have experienced.
* If you consider booking on the Internet, search the web site for detailed information on the company. Look for the place and date of incorporation, paid up capital, office address and telephone/fax numbers, names of the management and key staff, and the company history. You should find this on a "About Us" or "Corporate Page". For instance, see Balivillas.com/Bali.com Ltd Corporate Page.
* Check whether the company and the owner of the domain you are visiting are identical. You can do this by going to the WHOIS database and key in the domain name (e.g. xcompany.com).
* Check the company's Privacy Policy and whether it has been approved by TRUSTe. You can read the Privacy Statement by clicking the "Privacy" link on the company's web site. To verify the validity of the license click the TRUSTe icon on that page. If you cannot find any Privacy Statement with the TRUSTe icon it means no TRUSTe Approval Certificate has been obtained and the company does not take the privacy of its clients and/or web site visitors seriously.
* Check the Site Security Certificate. You do this by clicking the VeriSign icon on the web site which will show you the validity of the Certificate. If you cannot find any VeriSign icon this probably means no security arrangements have been made. In this case be VERY careful submitting any personal data or other confidential information.
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