Has Anyone Booked With These?

az2wp0sye65487

Hi all,

Just wondering whether anyone had any experience with Five Star travel? They let holiday homes around Ireland... www.fivestar.ie

I've never used them before and wanted to book a holiday home for next summer here in Ireland. I'm just a little wary as I've never actually heard of them until I began looking for a holiday rental.

Has anybody any experience using them?

Thanks in advance.

Atlantic Dawn

You don't appear to be able to book and pay online so that would likely mean bank transfer to the advertiser for payment, with this form of payment you will have zero comeback.

az2wp0sye65487

That's part of the reason I'm a little cautious.

Their website, facebook and twitter accounts are full of promotions, properties, contact details etc.

But like I said I've no experience using them so am a little cautious.

Atlantic Dawn

You will probably find the same properties are on Airbn too.

az2wp0sye65487

I found the same property that I was looking at with them on trip advisor. It's a couple of hundred euro cheaper on trip advisor.

But on trip advisor it also has no reviews and no rating...... I'm assuming booking something through trip advisor is safe enough?

tricky D

No proper contact inifo. Their contact page seems hidden/unlinked from the main site [ http://fivestar.ie/contact-us/ ] and the UK address is a companies formations address which does little for trust. Considering that, I'd look elsewhere.

coylemj

Maeve Unimportant Sunroof wrote: »

I found the same property that I was looking at with them on trip advisor. It's a couple of hundred euro cheaper on trip advisor.

But on trip advisor it also has no reviews and no rating...... I'm assuming booking something through trip advisor is safe enough?

Be careful there. I've heard of situations where people found properties on Tripadvisor but when they clicked to book, they were unknowingly diverted off to another website which had the look and feel of TA but wasn't - you can guess what happened next. The person renting the property assured them that it was all covered by the 'Tripadvisor guarantee' but of course it wasn't and they lost all their money, another rental scam.

If you see a place you like, search for it on other rental websites like AirBnb and daft.ie I'd try to avoid any other third party rental websites. Even if it's not a scam, a lot of then just lift ads. from other websites in an attempt to act as a letting agent and take a slice of the action for very little value-add.

Edit: the five star address in Galway (4/5 High St.) is actually the location of a letting agency .... http://www.letslet.ie/ so it's probably a legitimate business even if the branding is a bit OTT. The five star website has link to lots of fancy Irish hotels (Ashford Castle, K club etc.) and when you click, they send you direct to the hotel website but I suspect that that's all window dressing, the real purpose is to advertise lettings.

az2wp0sye65487

coylemj wrote: »

Be careful there. I've heard of situations where people found properties on Tripadvisor but when they clicked to book, they were unknowingly diverted off to another website which had the look and feel of TA but wasn't - you can guess what happened next. The person renting the property assured them that it was all covered by the 'Tripadvisor guarantee' but of course it wasn't and they lost all their money, another rental scam.

If you see a place you like, search for it on other rental websites like AirBnb and daft.ie I'd try to avoid any other third party rental websites. Even if it's not a scam, a lot of then just lift ads. from other websites in an attempt to act as a letting agent and take a slice of the action for very little value-add.

Edit: the five star address in Galway (4/5 High St.) is actually the location of a letting agency .... http://www.letslet.ie/ so it's probably a legitimate business even if the branding is a bit OTT. The five star website has link to lots of fancy Irish hotels (Ashford Castle, K club etc.) and when you click, they send you direct to the hotel website but I suspect that that's all window dressing, the real purpose is to advertise lettings.

Yes I saw the link with let's let also. But even that site wouldn't fill you with confidence. The website has a bit of a 'too good to be true' feel to some of the properties.

Also, I have found the same property listed on daft.ie as well as trip advisor and five-star...... but it's listed more than once on either daft or trip advisor..

On trip advisor it was asking for a booking deposit upfront with the balance due closer to the travel dates. Something about it just doesn't sit easy with me

coylemj

Maeve Unimportant Sunroof wrote: »

On trip advisor it was asking for a booking deposit upfront with the balance due closer to the travel dates. Something about it just doesn't sit easy with me

No harm to be cautious doing business on the web but that sounds like the regular payment terms for a holiday rental. The person who meets you to give you the keys may be a local agent (possibly the local woman who does the cleaning) and the owner doesn't want them handling money so he/she wants payment before you arrive because you will never meet the owner in person.