According to the Zonder survey, the vacation rental industry hasn’t been adversely affected by the recent downturn in the worldwide economy. In fact, the vacation rental industry appears to remain strong as dictated by 100% of the property management companies surveyed.

Here are the Zonder survey results:

• While 100% of PMCs reporting said the number of bookings has remained steady, over 40% have seen an increase in bookings

• 100% of PMCs said revenue was comparable or better than last year

• No PMCs reported a decline in inventory and 60% have seen steady inventory growth

• 50% of PMCs reported that, more than ever, owners are relying on management companies to increase occupancy rates in order to maximize secondary income

In response to the survey results, Zonder CEO, Bob Barnes commented, ‘We’re seeing a sharp increase in people choosing a vacation rental within driving distance rather than paying for airfare and staying in a hotel. Vacation homes have always been a great value, but especially during tough economic times. In addition to saving on lodging costs, travelers get the benefit of having increased privacy, common family/living/dining areas, and the ability to save by eating meals at home. This study underscores the value of vacation home rentals and the evergreen nature of the vacation rental industry.’ 
 
Here is the full article about the growth of the vacation rental industry remaining steady.

Free-Rentals.com now supports Atom Feeds for listings of…
 
1) New Vacation Rentals
2) Vacation Rental Special Promotional Offers
3) Vacation Rentals Available Right Now 
 
If you are seeking a vacation rental on a regular basis. Please consider signing up for one of these feeds to keep up to date with the listing on Free-Rentals.com.

If you are a vacation rental home owner. Please consider listing with free-rentals.com to take advantage of this new publishing system for your rental.

Ok, we were wrong when we wrote THIS post about dateblocker. Dateblocker is a calendar system for vacation rental owners.

Disclaimer… we have contacted them a couple times to try and initiate partnership, but never heard back from them.
 
Anyway, thats not why they suck… they suck because.. well, they suck. We tried using their calendar services, and it’s great in appearance but lacking in execution.

We get about 1 scammer a month signing up on Free-Rentals.com. At least, we know of at least 1 per month. This person, or people, sign up only in Manhattan NYC USA. And they have scammed several vacation rental seekers in the past using other vacation rental websites.

 We are happy to announce here at free-rentals.com, that we have not yet had *ANY* incendent of a vacation rental seeker getting scammed. And this is creditd by our dilligence and technology in catching and deleting the scammers posts within minutes of their initial post.
 
We have worked with the FBI in the past to provide information about these scammers signing up. And while we are able to detect new scammers signing up, the FBI apparently has no more interested in catching them.

We have tried to offer this information of new post scammers to the FBI, and frankly, they don’t care.
 
If you are an FBI agent, please contact us, and we will provide you with *real time* information of a brand new scammer signing up on our site whenever we get one…. if you are interested in catching these cockroaches.
 
There are essentially 2 types of scams pertaining to the Vacation Rental industry. They are described HERE.

We have no affiliation with this company, but we hear they are one of the best out there (and genuinely independent, no bait and switch hidden agendas up their sleeve).
 
DATEBLOCKER
 
Let us know what you think of it?

Steven Strogoff used PayPal to try and scam visitors of the free-rentals.com website. Read the story here.

Exactly 1 month ago, we got a $50 USD donation from Free-Rentals.com member. Just today, he refuted his paypal donation. I got an email from PayPal saying that the “buyer” disputes sending us $50 USD and has requested the money back. Here is the email I got from paypal…

 ”A review of recent transactions indicates that you received an unauthorized payment. This means that the PayPal account holder did not authorize the payment you received.”

I log into PayPal and counter the dispute giving my side of the story. Paypal has a simple text box for me to explain my verion of the story. I point out that, we are a donation based system only, we never ask for money, we only accept donations IF and WHEN a member benefits from the services of our website. 
 
The paypal form says to post any email conversations I had with the person. The person never contacted me, and if they did, and explained why they weren’t happy with our free services, and why they regret donating to us, then I’d most likely have just refunded their money.
 
Well, of course, I spent too long typing in my story to Paypal, so their website timed me out and booted me, forcing me to re-login, and losing my story. So I have to write it again. 
 
Exactly 2 seconds after submitting my counter claim, PayPal sends me the following email…
 
As you know, we have been reviewing the transaction detailed below. Our
investigation is now complete and we have returned the funds to the PayPal account holder.

Now… I’m not linguist… But does a 2 second machine handling of email really count as an “investigation”? 
 
There was no investigation…. PayPal should have just written me back and said… “Look, we are too lazy to really look into this, so we’ll side with the buyer, because well hey, it’s the safer side with him right? I mean, wouldn’t you do the same if you were us?”.
 
Now, if this was all there was to the story, it wouldn’t be a big deal. I wouldn’t care. If someone wasn’t happy with their donation, and they wanted it back, so be it. But there is a reason this story is particularly frustrating.
 
You see, the person who donated to Free-Rentals.com, and then 1 month later, took their donation back… is a SCAMMER!
 
We have had problems with this scammer in the past. They create a fake listing on our website, in the New York Area… the only real information is the email address. Potential renters contact him to rent the apartment in New York… through email coorespondance, the scammer requests a security deposit be made to secure the booking.
 
The victim makes the security deposit, and then arrives in New York and has nowhere to stay. Follows the map, directions to the rental apartment, but it’s phoney, doesn’t even exist. The scammer makes off with the victims security deposit.
 
Now, most vacation rental directory websites charge a steep fee for owners to sign up and list a property. Free-Rentals.com however does NOT charge any fee upfront, so it’s easy for these type of scammers to post a fake ad and try and scam a potential renter out of a security deposit.
 
We have put security measures in place to combat this scam, and it’s working fairly well. 

In this particular case, the scammer caught on to the fact they we kept deleting his fake accounts, so what did he do? He donated, so we wouldn’t be flagged that he was a possible scammer and posted a fake account…. never did we suspect that PayPal would give this scammer his money back after he had a month of trying to work over his scam on our customers.
 
Here are the details of his fake listing he had posted on Free-Rentals. I have since deleted it.
  
Name: Matt Low mattlow101@aol.com
Phone: 206-888-6955
Rental Name: Matt Rental
Address: 172 W 67th St New York, New York 10023 United States 
 
HERE IS HIS SCAM this person is running.
 
Here is the PayPal information this scammer used to donate $50 to free-rentals.com and then take it back:
 
STEVEN STROGOFF
12 ESTABROOK ROAD
SWAMPSCOTT, MA 01907
United States
 
If you don’t think crime pays, check out STEVE “SCAMMER” STROGOFF’s $670k house right near the Atlantic Coast. But Steven The Scammer may not be acting alone.
 
We track the IP address of everyone entering into the free-rentals.com website. This scammer, the actual person who posted the fake property listing, comes from the United Kingdom. (which as matter of factly, I’ve come to learn from experience that there are about as many internet scammers per capita from the UK as there are from Nigeria).
 
PayPal… Your “investigation” is as phoney as this scammer’s property listing. One of the measurements we used in determining if a property listing was real or fake, was whether or not they donated, paid money to us… because afterall, scammers stay in business because the money flows in one direction, and one direction only… and that is TO THEM.
 
PayPal, by allowing this scammer to take back the money, you are essentially allowing them a free month of trying to scam people. Please do us all a favor and look up the word “investigation”. If you really investigated this case, and this person “STEVEN STROGOFF”, you would discover that he is a scammer working with other scammers in the UK. 

There are essentially 2 main vacation rental scams.  Be aware of them and do whatever you need to do to protect yourself from them.
 
1) A fake “renter” contacts a real owner and requests to rent the property. The fake renter then sends a check to the owner as a security deposit to rent the property. But they write a check that exceeds the proper amount of security deposit. The fake renter then waits a few days until the owner cashes the check, then contacts the owner and says they overpaid, and pleads for a refund in the amount overpaid… usually by telling the owner to send the refund of the amount overpaid via Western Union, and usually to Nigeria or Central Africa. A few days later, the check that the fake renter from Nigeria gave you will bounce… and so you are out that money, and you are also out of the money you just sent them via Western Union. 
 
HERE is more information on this scam.
  
2) A fake “owner” will post their rental property on a rental property directory website such as www.free-rentals.com. However, the rental listing is a fake. Usually fake address, fake pictures, fake place. But the email and phone number will be real, so they get contacted. The rental seeking victim then contacts the fake owner and requests to book the place. Of course it’s available. The owner then requests a security depost and sends the contract. The renter sends a security deposit, then shows up but there’s no such place available for rent.
 
For this second type of scam, USUALLY the biggest barrier for the scammer is that they have to PAY to join a vacation rental directory website… Most sites are about $150 USD per year, usually too steep of a price for these such scammers. However, since Free-Rentals.com is free, it leaves us wide open for these kind of scammers to sign up and try to scam someone. So please be on the lookout and very careful of this type of scam when seeking a rental.

We do everything in our power to find and weed out such scammers, but we need your help. If you suspect any of these 2 scams on free-rentals.com, please contact the free-rentals.com staff immediately.

On July 19th 2007, I was tipped off by a member on the free-rentals.com of a scam, here is the message I got:

“Message: I checked the web site to see about possibly listing my NYC vacation rentals on your site. I believe that 2 of your listings are scams. The listing at 153 W 57th St lifted some phrases from my ads and some from other ads. There are no Golf courses in Manhattan. I do not believe there are any private outdoor pools in apartments, and a lot of other clues that this is a scam. The listing at 128 W 58th Street has a photo that was used in other scams that I am aware of and the name Thruman has been used in other scams. There are a lot of other clues that tell me that it is a scam. If you wish to contact me you can reach me at 212-xxx-xxxx. I am 80% booked for the year and not trying to get rid of competition. I am trying to clean up the industry to make it better for all of the honest VR owners.”
 
Before deleting the scam listings, I inquired on of f the properties to see how the scam works… here is how. 
 
Basically the scammers make up a phoney rental listing. For whatever reason, at least on the Free-Rentals.com website, they’ve been targeting the New York City Area. And the scammer users very simple addresses, and only uses 5 photos, of a plush looking apartment. All the pictures and details and directions and address are fake… all made up. 
 
The scammers then gets the renter interested to rent the property, then seeks a security deposit by paypal, check or wire transfer.
 
The unfortunate victim, the renter, pays a security deposit, then shows up in New York, but there’s no such place available for rent… it was all made up. Meanwhile, the scammer keeps the security deposit.
 
Be aware of such scams, and if you suspect one on Free-Rentals.com, Please notify us ASAP.
 

This company (and they problably have a million other domains) are spammers. They fake inquiries to rental properties and when you reply, they put yo on their spam list. We are making every attempt to prevent them from preying on our listings. But be aware of their scam…

http://www.villa4vacation.com
http://www.villa4vacation.us/
 
If you are seeking a calander for your bookings, we highly recommend the following business:
 
DATEBLOCKER - http://www.dateblocker.com/
 
We have absolutely no interest in this company, we don’t even know them. We just know them to be one of the best “fair” calendar systems out there.