Comments on: Morairaway Scandal – Time for a bonding product ?

By: Mike King

Mike King — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 00:44:53 +0000

Two years on from the Morairaway Scam and it seems that I was wrong about the new regulations so I thought that I should put the matter right.
The fact is that registration is only VOLANTARY, in the Valencia region (including Moraira and the Costa Blanca), for owners of a single holiday property.
Consequently, as the majority of renters here own one property, the registration system is ineffective as far as avoidance of further scams is concerned.
And it looks like Morairaway & Co got clean away with it. A terrible shame because it was so easy for them and likely to happen again.
Mike

By: Mike King

Mike King — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:38:40 +0000

OK, sooner late than never!
One thing I am thinking is that people who live here on Costa Blanca may be able to help a lot. I live in Moraira, which is the next town to Calpe.
Now the fact is that the perpetrators did not use there own name, so they are still here living and socialising amongst us or they have gone and to STAY would be the safest way but they might not have thought of that.
Therefore the question is: Do you know of anyone, possibly involved in holiday rentals but not necessarily so, who disappeared from the scene around the end of June.
You never know!
Mike

By: Schofields

Schofields — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 09:56:14 +0000

Hi Rob,

Just an update:

Timesonline has reported that Thames Valley Police have now completed an assessment of the Morairaway.com case and will lead the investigation in the UK.

They are appealing for victims to make statements. Hopefully justice will catch up with the purpotrators.

By: Mike King

Mike King — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:52:03 +0000

Rob, you made a vary valid point there and it is true that the hotelier’s association has lobbied for a change in the law.
However it is not as simple as that.
It is true that unelmployment in Spain has reached 20% AND will probably go to 25% before the end of the year but I don’t think that this is about creating jobs for the hotel trade.
Servicing holiday properties is extremely labour itensive. It takes around 4 girl/hours to clean a 2 bedroom apartment of villa i.e 1 hour per place. Can you imagine how many places a hotel cleaning girl, with her little trolly, gets through in 1 hour?
So if they want to make more jobs, better that the tourists stay in apartments and villas.
Holiday home owners have the absolute right to income from their investment and even the hoteliers are not denying them that but what they are saying is that they have the right to a return on investment as well and the competition from villas and apartments is unfair.
In the first place a hotel has to comply with a whole load of regulations and then they have to pay IVA (VAT) as well as paying social security for their staff.
They claim that property owners generally have none of these “encumberances” and want to level the playing field.
Please note that these are not personal opinions, I am just trying to relate the facts as I know them.
Actually I am a tourist rental agent registered with the toursit authority and earn my living by arranging rentals for villa owners and organising the services. Perhaps I am not totally unbiased but I really can see ifs and buts on both sides.
This post was actually about the Morairaway scam and my view is anything that prevents this type of fraud is worth considering.

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:03:00 +0000

Thanks for keeping us updated Mike. A cynic would suggest that this legislation was designed to make life more difficult for holiday home owners doing private rentals and therefore make life easier for (struggling) hotels in the region which after all are big employers. Unemployment in Spain is something like 20%.

By: Mike King

Mike King — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:36:44 +0000

Amazingly it was all happening while we talked about it.
The Tourist Authority for Valencia has introduced new regulations concerning the renting of tourist establishments, which became effective on 4th July 2009. DECREE 92/2009
Everything is exactly as I suggested. All tourist properties in Costa Blanca that are “commercialised” have to register AND SHOW THE REGISTRATION DETAILS IN ANY ADVERTISEMENT.
By commercialised they mean advertised for rental for a price for touristic purposes.
Providing that the authorities get their act together it is highly unlikely that there will be more morairaway-type scams in the Costa Blanca because every property and it’s owners or those offering it for rental will be clearly identified.
Here is a good article explaining the new regulations -
http://moraira-info.com/Articles/Renting-Regulations.htm

By: Mike King

Mike King — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:09:44 +0000

REGARDING BONDING SCHEMES
One problem would be how to implement the scheme another would be how to fund it.
Most private villa owners offer their properties in good faith, try their best to keep them in good order and arrange services. Most are basically honest and all that is likely to go wrong is that a little “inconvenience” – not total loss!
Morairway was a deliberate fraud from start to finish, which was only possible because the perperators where able to hide their identity and market inexistant villas.
I mentioned earlier the registration scheme that is being prepared by the Costa Blanca Tourist Authority and this would prevent most deliberate frauds because both the registrant and the property have to be positively identified.
The Valencia Agency for Tourism is a government body, funded by the state and there will be no fee to register.
If all such agencies, in other countries/areas, did the same there would be no need for a bonding scheme as it would be very easy for asvertising websites to check the “bono fides” of the advertisers and their properties.

By: Schofields

Schofields — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:22:52 +0000

Until any such bonding scheme is developed, it appears that paying by credit card and the homeway rental guarantee, currently offer the most protection. If rental sites offered the facility for owners to take payments, this would be a good start.

With regards to checking out if an apartment or villa is genuine, these steps might help…
http://blog.schofields.ltd.uk/416/how-to-check-for-bogus-holiday-rentals/

It will be interesting to see if any such bonding scheme is developed.

By: andy

andy — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 17:01:55 +0000

Hi all,

Very interesting all the comments coming out. With regard to owners offering CC payments. This is easy, you can do it through my website for as little as 2% and it’s free to list, so you see it is not hard to offer this to customers and I would say it is going to get a lot more necessary with this scam out in the press. Paypal can still be an issue because you have to claim back within 45 days. If you book earlier than this you knackered!

I have to say, I still find it extraordinary that people are prepared to send cash, bank transfers and checques to what are effectively faceless strangers. Especially the amounts that it costs to go on holiday to a villa.

I certainly wouldn’t book without a CC these days and I am sure with this bad press around others will think likewise. Sad but true.

Andy

By: helene coxhead

helene coxhead — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 16:56:04 +0000

I agree entirely that holiday rental portals should do more and, like Andy has already said, there are some out there that do. Organisations such as Sawdays, Your Holiday Matters, Travel Eden, and others have an approval process which covers more criteria than just being able to pay for your listing and they make this clear on the websites. These organisations are obviously trying to make a difference. Having said that I think some of the publicity could have mentioned the HomeAway family ( including Holiday Rentals) offer a guarantee up to £3300 in the event of a bogus listing although I suspect that up untill now not many people have bothered to take it up – that will certainly change now.