Joshua Parfitt
A STRING of Spanish villa rental companies have been allegedly defrauding British holidaymakers by using the SAME website under different names.
The Olive Press uncovered the con tactics of dreamvillasspain.com when four Brits alleged the company were charging money for fake villas.
But now Donna Archer, 42, has reported travelvacationtour.com also charged her 5,000 pounds for a Spanish villa before shutting off all contact.
“They promised the world before we booked, and then they screwed me,” Archer told the Olive Press.
“My son and his best mate just finished their GCSEs so I said ‘I’ll take you wherever you want to go’.
“He fell in love with this villa in Tenerife, and I can’t bring myself to tell him what’s happened.”
Archer made an initial payment of 1,490 pounds as the company offered a ‘10% discount’ if she paid up-front.
But she says three days later the company charged her 3,500 pounds for three separate transactions without warning.
Emails shown to the Olive Press show Manager Property Maria Alba Leiros suggesting Archer had rented a ‘yacht’ and a ‘chef’.
After Archer denied these purchases and requested a full refund, the company has stopped responding to email contact.
The company’s telephone is also disconnected.
The website run by travelvacationtour.com is almost identical to that on dreamvillasspain.
Spanish companies house however shows the company’s have different owners, with the former based in Girona and the latter in Palma, Mallorca.
In April this year, the Olive Press reported how British chocolate expert Angus Kennedy turned up at the villa he had booked to find a German man living there.
The man, named Klaus, had no knowledge of renting his villa out via dreamvillasspain.com, meanwhile Kennedy was 5,000 pounds down and scrambling for an apartment to house his family of five.
Have you lost money through fake villa rentals? Please contact the Olive Press newsdesk on +34 951 273 575
