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Original poster

Advice on villas in Croatia

2 replies

MumOfThreePlusPets · 12/03/2025 07:39

Hi all, am looking for advice on renting a villa in Croatia, probably Zadar or Nin. There’s tons of villas available on Booking.com and other sites, all absolutely gorgeous and a really good price. They all have amazing reviews, but not many of them, so I’m worried that the villas may be a scam and that the few reviews they do have are fake. Have any of you rented one of these villas and what was your experience? Thanks x

OP posts:
Catza · 12/03/2025 09:09

That's a bit of a leap to think they are fake based on just having a few reviews. In either case, booking.com has a pretty solid refund policy. They really don't mess around - a few complains and you are shut off. Plus, I am not sure there is any way to leave a fake review on there. You have to actually pay for and stay at the property in order to leave a review.
Technically, I suppose a host could open a fictitious account, book one night at a discounted rate and leave a review but that would be pretty implausible that every single host decided to take this route.
For context, I have a rental apartment advertised on booking.com so I do have a good knowledge of how the platform works on the back end. And I lost one of my accounts very swiftly because one of the customers complained that there was a camera in the bedroom. There wasn't it, it was a motion sensor linked to an alarm system which was only activated when the apartment was empty. Regardless, I never managed to recover that account despite sending multiple pieces of evidence and had to start a new one - with zero reviews. Doesn't make me a scammer but shows you how ruthless booking.com handles their hosts. I imagine, there is very little room for maneuvering if someone is trying to run a scam through them.

Original poster
MumOfThreePlusPets · 12/03/2025 09:31

Catza · 12/03/2025 09:09

That's a bit of a leap to think they are fake based on just having a few reviews. In either case, booking.com has a pretty solid refund policy. They really don't mess around - a few complains and you are shut off. Plus, I am not sure there is any way to leave a fake review on there. You have to actually pay for and stay at the property in order to leave a review.
Technically, I suppose a host could open a fictitious account, book one night at a discounted rate and leave a review but that would be pretty implausible that every single host decided to take this route.
For context, I have a rental apartment advertised on booking.com so I do have a good knowledge of how the platform works on the back end. And I lost one of my accounts very swiftly because one of the customers complained that there was a camera in the bedroom. There wasn't it, it was a motion sensor linked to an alarm system which was only activated when the apartment was empty. Regardless, I never managed to recover that account despite sending multiple pieces of evidence and had to start a new one - with zero reviews. Doesn't make me a scammer but shows you how ruthless booking.com handles their hosts. I imagine, there is very little room for maneuvering if someone is trying to run a scam through them.

Thanks so much for your reply, that’s quite reassuring. I’ve booked many properties through booking.com but they’ve always been either hotels or villas/apartments with good reviews and I’ve never had a problem. I’ve always avoided properties with only a few reviews, especially if they’re all a glowing 10 out of 10 and the price seems too cheap to be true.

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