The land of sea and sun, St. Tropez is where the wealthy go to get away from it all for a few blissful weeks every summer. Many yearn to be part of the St. Tropez scene and go about booking their vacations well in advance to ensure they will be sipping champagne beachside with the stars come out in July. Unfortunately, for several U.K. families recently, dreams of a fantasy vacation were dashed when they realized the deposits they put down on what they thought were luxury villa rentals were gone. Their money stolen and the villas they rented not in existence, these victims are now beside themselves as to what to do next. This vacation scam is becoming all too common and reinforces the need to book your luxury villa rental vacation through a reputable firm that not only knows St. Tropez well, but personally inspects each luxury rental villa to ensure your vacation will be the perfect, stress free getaway you’ve been dreaming of.

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According to Britain’s Daily Mail the St. Tropez villa fraud is one of the biggest of its kind in recent memory, with over £250,000 having been stolen from unsuspected travellers yearning to join the jet set on the Cote d’Azur, and others still looking to vacation in Spain or Austria. The newspaper spoke to one couple, Claudia and Keith Louch, who lost £10,000 on a St. Tropez luxury villa rental for a family reunion. Only after arriving in France and driving to look for the villa did Claudia Louch and her husband realize that there had never been a villa at all. Understandably upset, the couple had to call their other family members to cancel the vacation, many of them being forced to lose the price of their plane tickets when they cancelled at the last minute. Worse still for people like Claudia Louch, travel insurance doesn’t generally cover these types of situations.

The problem that many of these duped vacationers are reporting is not being able to tell the real from the fake. The ads they found were on reputable websites that are, however, just listing pages for villa advertising — not a company that checks on the validity of the ads. In many cases ,the villas were also offered at a suspiciously reduced rate, making them irresistible for those who long to enjoy the St. Tropez lifestyle. Now that the truth has been revealed, of course, it seems more of a case of getting what you paid for in the most unfortunate way.

St. Tropez at Night

A solution for those longing for the experience of a luxury rental villa in St. Tropez, but don’t want to worry about who they are handing over their money to, is to go through a reputable rental company. There are only  a handful of truly specialized luxury villa rental providers in the exclusive St. Tropez area, and you want to look for one where the managers check each property before the keys are handed over to guests. The reputable firms are also well versed in the local culture. Aside from this intimate knowledge of St. Tropez, these reputable rental companies also offer “value added” services that make you feel as though you are sleeping in a hotel, but with a ton much more luxury. Think gaggles more privacy, gorgeous grounds, a refreshing pool, and a staff that can cater to your needs just as if you were staying at an upscale hotel. A win, win it seems.

Most long for the pristine beaches and vibrant nightlife of St. Tropez, but if you’re planning to head out to the Cote d’Azur take care where you decide to stay. Many would understandably prefer a luxury rental villa over a hotel for their stay, but choosing the right one is fraught with pitfalls as the stories out of the U.K. tell us. If you want worry free vacationing then turn to a reputable villa rental company, which will work around the clock to ensure your stay is not only as perfect as possible, but tha you never want to leave.

Tags: luxury villa rental, luxury villa scam, Saint-Tropez, U.K. Vila scam

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 21st, 2010 at 10:56 am and is filed under Saint-Tropez. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.