Speaking from the perspective of an accommodation website owner (specifically apartments in a city – which perhaps could be seen as more direct competition to hotels?), I would really welcome anything that protected the people that booked with us and showed others that we were completely above board.

We compete with some great people, but certain individuals can quite easily give the industry (and the properties they represent) a really bad name.

How would someone go about setting up an ATOL/etc. equivalent for this industry? There is this: http://asap-servicedapartments.co.uk/ But it seems to be very much focussed toward the business customer.

Great post, thanks Darren – Gareth

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“The chance of that is probably very remote but it does make you wonder if more should be done to control the number of accommodation rental sites, and also make them accountable should a consumer find that they are stranded without any accommodation.”

…This is exactly why Holiday-Rentals has introduced the HomeAway Rental Guarantee (see http://guaranteeuk.homeaway.com/ for more info), which offers free protection for travellers in the event the above does happen. As you point out, this is very unlikely, but as private rentals become ever-more popular, we recognise that there is a need for some element of protection and assurance.

In addition, we also now have the facility for past guests to leave reviews too. All reviews (with some guidelines of course; no profanities etc…) are posted, but crucially the owners have space to respond too, to give a balanced view. Hundreds of reviews are being added every day and as well as providing increased peace of mind and un-biased, third-party views on the property, also often provide additional insight on what there is to do nearby, what not to miss etc…

So this, combined with the increased peace of mind provided by the guarantee and reviews, we hope, will help more people discover the benefits of renting private properties.

I would encourage everyone to try a holiday in this way; just make sure you speak to the owners first, ask lots of questions, take up the guarantee, and get independent travel insurance to protect against unforeseen circumstances, such as illness, flight delays etc…, which I would always do anyway – even if travelling with an agent.

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I know your not being funny. Thanks, never heard of that plugin and I will look into it, and I’ll dig some links out tonight. I am playing devils advocate on this post because I would be a hypocrite if I said everyone should book with an ATOL agent when I book my own accommodation/flight holidays.

What do we do? Good question. I think it is a good topic to discuss, but, I doubt regulation will happen because the companies concerned will not be wanting to pay out association fee’s but travel agencies have to, so why are these companies any different?

It’s also interesting that there’s hotel chains and accommodation only / rental sites reading this but none of them have jumped into the conversation. It’ll be good to get their opinion. I don’t pretend to be an expert on these things, but I do like getting discussions started on topics people in the industry are afraid of having.

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You said: “The point of the post, is that accommodation only companies should be regulated through an association, and can be audited, so that consumers have more confidence in booking with them.”

Yes, but they’re not regulated, so what are we going do?

I wouldn’t get spooked by travel companies’ ads, even regulated companies are going to the wall and these days, getting your back will be harder as there will be none – the banks will have it all

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