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I am going to be travelling to Netherlands and trying to book a farmhouse for 3 night long stay. The farmhouse I am looking at is listed on Booking but is unavailable on the dates I am interested in. However, when I contacted the property directly I was told that there is no problem to book the place and was asked to pay a 30% deposit by transferring money to their bank account. Is this something common? Or should I skip and look somewhere else?

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    Note that by doing this, you will lose any protections that you’d normally have by booking through a service. If it does turn out to be a scam or it goes south in some other way, your money is likely unrecoverable.
    – Zach Lipton
    Jun 7, 2019 at 1:20
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    Did they provide any explanation, why their place is sold out on booking but you can still book with them?
    – Sabine
    Jun 7, 2019 at 15:15
  • Did you consider checking property records to establish if the person offering the house for rent is also the owner? This site <kadaster.nl/producten/woning/eigendomsinformatie> can provide the name of the owner for a fee of EUR 2.60. The site is in Dutch and I have not used it. An online translation tool would assist you, if you do not know Dutch.
    – Richard Beasley
    Jun 7, 2019 at 18:57
  • @Sabine Have not yet got their answer
    – Asahi
    Jun 8, 2019 at 17:45
  • @RichardBeasley Actually I did not think/know about such option. Thanks for the tip, I'll consider.
    – Asahi
    Jun 8, 2019 at 17:46

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Is this something common? Or should I skip and look somewhere else?

Bank transfer is the normal way of transferring money in the Netherlands. If there are any red flags in this situation, that is not among them.

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It is difficult for us to tell you if you are being scammed or not since you are the one with all the information. So the burden is onto you.

I would ask for some sort of proof that the deposit is required and that it guarantees your booking. Off the top of my head such proof could be:

  • an invoice
  • a signed booking contract
  • a proof of payment

I would also try to obtain any sort of proof that the person asking for the deposit is in fact the owner/manager of the property - name, address, etc. Best way to do this is to get in touch with the property. Generally speaking, I'm pretty sure that if you get in touch with them and they are genuine they will have no problem in demonstrating this. Be forward and explain that you want to make sure that nothing is wrong before transferring money cross-countries into some stranger's bank account.

It is worth noting that Zach Lipton is right. By booking outside of booking.com (or any other trusted site)

you will lose any protections that you’d normally have by booking through a service. If it does turn out to be a scam or it goes south in some other way, your money is likely unrecoverable

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When I booked places in the Netherlands (multiple times) through Booking.com, the deposit was either charged to the credit card I provided when booking or it was collected when I arrived, with full payment as I was leaving.

That said, as the accepted answer points out, bank transfers are a normal way of making payments in the Netherlands. It may be a scam, but it's also possible that the person renting it is either doing business in a way that they are used to or wants to cut out Booking as the middleman and avoid credit card payments, which saves them money. Dutch people love to save money.

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Short answer: it depends.

Long answer: it depends...

While advance fee fraud is common on sites such as Airbnb1 2, if you're not being specifically asked to go outside of a site's in-built payment structure, banks transfer is also a very common way of paying for deposits on things like holiday home rentals in much of Europe.

There are some sites and rental owners who I'd absolutely trust 100% doing this with and it's the normal and culturally expected way to do things.

There are other circumstances where I'd be 95% sure it's a scam. Experience helps.

Things to look out for are stolen images (use a reverse image search), clones of listing websites (are you sure it's the real Booking.com?) or copy-pasted descriptions. Basically you want to try and verify that a) they actually have the rights/access to rent the property, b) the property exists, and c) you know their actual real life identity.

As ever, a suspiciously low price is another red flag to look out for.

You have zero protection paying by bank transfer so make sure you're really confident it's legit. On the other hand, it's the easiest method in many cases.

There are some people who would say never ever pay for anything online with a bank transfer. I'd not go this far, but see if you can find alternatives that offer you better protection (even if you have to pay some amount in fees).

Pushback from the seller against alternative payment methods is another strong red flag. I would be concerned why they won't go through Booking. Offer to pay the fees they charge and see what they say.

If you decide to go ahead, be sure you are familiar with the following scam methods:

  • Advance Fee Scam
  • Phishing Scam
  • Travel Scam
  • Overpayment Scam
  • Third-party Booking Scam

You might both also be breaking the site's T&Cs.

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    Not everything that involves paying for something in advance is an "advance fee scam". Specifically (source): An advance fee scheme occurs when the victim pays money to someone in anticipation of receiving something of greater value—such as a loan, contract, investment, or gift—and then receives little or nothing in return. In this case the victim would have no expectation of receiving something of greater value than what they pay, so it is not an advance-fee scam.
    – hmakholm left over Monica
    Jun 7, 2019 at 13:46
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Most likely a scam. Bank transfer equals scam. Whatever website you went to is very unlikely to the actual owner of the property. That kind of scam costs people millions every year.

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    I am not so sure. In the Netherlands it is quite common to transfer money from one bank to an other. (Not sure enough to trust my own money without further testing.)
    – Willeke ♦
    Jun 6, 2019 at 19:32
  • Why would the owner put the property with an agency which says it is full, when it isn't? One reason I can think of is that the owner does not have to pay the agency for direct bookings, and gets the advertising free. But it does seem fishy: when you pay by card, there is some protection against fraud.
    – Weather Vane
    Jun 6, 2019 at 19:54
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    @WeatherVane 'Unavailable' on Booking.com does not have to mean full, but can also mean that some condition, e.g. minimum duration of stay, is not fulfilled. There may be many reasons why a landlord decides to deviate from these restrictions and rent out a property anyway.
    – Tor-Einar Jarnbjo
    Jun 6, 2019 at 21:30
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    @Willeke is correct. Bank transfer is so common in the Netherlands that any other way of paying the deposit would be a red flag. I rented a room in Curaçao a couple of years ago, and when I told the owner that my bank was going to charge $40 for the transfer, she said "don't worry about it, just pay me when you get here."
    – phoog
    Jun 6, 2019 at 22:50
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    "Bank transfer equals scam." it's a plain nonsense
    – user45851
    Jun 7, 2019 at 9:02

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