On the heels of the recent St. Tropez luxury villa rental frauds comes word that vacationers in high-end destinations are being preyed on in yet another way. According to The New York Post one Russian billionaire was duped out of 10,000 Euros by a concierge hired to make his time away the vacation of his dreams.

Most people who turn to luxury villa rentals for their vacations are looking for more privacy and luxury that your usual five-star hotel offers, but they also want the added perks of services like housekeeping and onsite laundry. Unfortunately, despite what some advertise, most luxury villa rentals don’t come with these extras. At best what you’ll find once you arrive is an estate agent who is generally unequipped to provide the kind of services that guests require. Another option is to hire an independent concierge service to fulfil your needs during your luxury villa rental stay, but even then it’s difficult to know what you’re getting and on what kind of a timeline.

The majority of people hoping for a memorable luxury villa rental vacation in gorgeous places like St. Tropez or Miami don’t want to have to worry about mundane tasks like cleaning or doing laundry, tasks that with most villas will fall squarely to them. If not that then the adventure of trying to find a housekeeper or cook in a foreign locale during high season will. Neither seems particularly appealing when one is hoping for a relaxing, luxurious getaway. Worse still is the reality that hiring a concierge service to fulfil your needs while you’re away from home can lead you to being duped out of large sums of money. There are many concierge horror stories floating around from harried concierges attempting to serve the needs of several renters at the same time to services promised but never rendered. (more…)