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Viewing How to Recognize a Reliable Online Travel Agency - 7 TipsHow to Recognize a Reliable Online Travel Agency - 7 Tips
By EmilyD
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If you book your holiday via the Internet, you can save a lot of money and it is a lot faster as well. However, you may risk getting involved with a fake travel agency. This article explains some of the ways to recognize a phony travel agency. Planning a trip? Protect yourself! Here are seven ways to recognize a phony online travel agency. Chamber of Commerce Does the company you are dealing with have a chamber of commerce listing? Not that it cannot be a swindler anyway, but you might filter out some fake websites. Contact Information Is it easy to contact the website? Can you call them during business hours? These are characteristics of trustworthy companies. You might want to check if they have different departments. If they have a unique department for customer service and one for marketing, then this might be a successful company. Google Earth Check the address of their office on Google Earth satellite view. Is this really an office? Or it is maybe someone's home? Not all scammers are that smart ... Contact Them You should contact them and ask them a question to which they would probably have an answer. Think of a question like "Can I bring my dog along on holiday?" The key is to ask them a question they probably get a lot, because if they do, they will probably have a standard answer to it. What also might help is to ask a question that is harder to answer and see how long it takes to get a response. The faster they answer, the more they probably care about their customers. However, if they take awhile to answer your question, it does not really indicate they are scammers, of course. It is just a way to test them out a little bit. Whois Check Check the whois of the website's domain via Whois.net. By doing this, you can find out who owns the domain. Is it a company? An individual? Maybe even someone who does not exist? ... Google the Website Enter the domain name of the website in Google and check out the search engine results. Are there any blogs or forums about this company? What do they say? Maybe you can get some reviews from other people who have done business with this agency. Google Whois Check If you find out that the owner of the company is a person, Google that person and see what is written about them. Maybe they belong to a sister company of a bigger company. Google the bigger company and read the reviews by other people. This way, you can find out who is behind a website and you might find out that it is a scam. These are guidelines to check before you order your holiday online. I cannot guarantee you will filter out all the bad travel agencies, but I can guarantee that you will have a much bigger chance to find possible scammers. Good luck finding a reliable traveling agency! About the Author: The author of this article would like to thank Euro Relais holiday homes for their participation in providing the information needed to write this article. Article source: 111 Travel Directory: Triple1.com (triple one dot com) More free articles: 1st Rate Articles - 1stRateArticles.com |
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