WIBU to buy a holiday on EBay?

[Utterlyastoundedmum]

Just wondering what other people's takes on this is!
For various reasons we have not yet booked to go on holiday this year (finances one reason) and we are all off work the last week of the summer hols. DP in particular is extremely tired and needs a change of scenery if nothing else.
Have seen a cheap uk holiday on eBay ( think 1/3 ehat you would expect to pay and am thinking of throwing caution to the wind and booking it up!
It's a holiday home, not many photos, a small number of reviews ( about 15) the ones that are thee are all good.
Is this a bog mistake!?

Bloody bloody iPad autocorrect!

BIG mistake not BOG mistake!!

I'd be wary of fraud - it's very easy for someone to pretend to own a holiday house. Some friends of ours lost £000s thinking they were getting a bargain.

Oh dear, well that's worth bearing in mind!
Don't know if it makes any difference but it's uk based and the reviews span over a year.hmmm.....

I work in this industry and yes there have been a lot of scammers this year, which has had a big impact on holiday rentals, the thing to remember is that is paying via bank transfer the money is always traceable so should it be a scam you can get it chased. People have been put in prison for this and a lot of us locally for the area I work in have been working together to provide a list of approved people to book via as we know each other, we know where the rentals are etc and act as a community to help each other (even passing bookings over if we are full)..

I don't know what area you are looking at but it could be worth a look to see if they have set up some type of local community? I know ours is searchable on Facebook, and well all run our own discounts for booking via this group, our group has also personally helped people who have been scammed by offering cheaper prices and members donating the money to pay for the cheaper prices, local pups etc offering free food till they get there money back while on holiday..

Most of us are genuine and honest it is a few who are not and we have a name list of known scammers to us and a black list of people who have "trashed" the holiday rentals so someone else does not get the same treatment

Thanks chatty that's really helpful. It's difficult as I am well aware that reviews can also be bogus reviews left so unless the person has a really long history on e bay it's really hard to judge.
We would probably pay va credit are on PayPal to protect the money paid but would be more upset for the kids if we got there and it didn't exist!
You sound lovely and kind what a nice group of people!

I would disagree with chatty with regards to bank transfer. A few years ago someone was selling festival tickets on ebay. I won and paid via bank transfer. Did the person send the tickets? No.
I called the bank and ebay and both said because I had willingly put money into their account there was nothing they could do!
If you pay via paypal however,y ou would get your money back.

Oh and I forgot to say that personally, I would never pay for a holiday on ebay. It just screams "scam!".

I've bought weeks at holiday cottages on eBay before and it's been fine, but maybe I've been lucky. I always check to see if they are an established ebayer with good feedback ratings and often they have a link to a website too which can indicate that the holiday cottage is an established business.

Normally dr if you can prove you paid for a service that was withheld or made up it is obtaining via desist witch is a legal matter..

If eBay is the issue try searching for them off eBay, we advertise via eBay(rarely normally on free listing weekends and always give a contact number)/Facebook/official sites where membership can be between £20-£200 for the year.

Regarding if the place exists if it is a holiday place where people can buy holiday cottages a bit like static caravan holidays/lodges/chalets find out the site name and give them a call to check the caravan/cottage/lodge etc exists if your unsure...

I can show people bills/invoices for what my rentals cost me to own which shows number etc and would have no issue showing you my gas bill/electric bill/ water bill or insurance cover (policy number covered for obvious reasons) give you my home address, and regular randomchatty emails if it makes peopl feel happy...

I have a booking with someone where we talk about our dogs/kids etc they Havemy home address my email and my mobile number

There is an article on p54 of today's Times about people being ripped off over villa rentals.