Checking an Ibiza villa rental/homepage for safety and legality is becoming increasingly important. Like any popular tourist destination, Ibiza attracts people of all kinds. Mainly, good, honest people come to our beautiful island to spend their precious vacation for which they have worked hard and saved.
On the flip side, there are also small but rotten apples that can spoil the whole basket without warning. Scoundrels who try to capitalize on the popularity of destinations like Ibiza by setting up fraudulent websites claiming to offer Ibiza villas for rent, to which they actually have no access. Every year, people are cheated out of their hard-earned savings. They pay deposits for their dream villa rental, only to arrive at their vacation destination and find out that the villa was never booked, their deposit has vanished, and they are completely stranded without accommodation. Heartbreaking.
How to Check if an Ibiza Villa Rental Company is Safe and Legal
We’ve all heard the horror stories, right? It’s easy to scam people if they don’t know how to make the proper checks. That means knowing what to look out for, who to ask, and exactly where to go to check a company’s legitimacy. We believe it is very important to clearly explain what to look out for, where to go, and who to ask to check whether a villa rental company is legal here in Ibiza. Therefore, we have asked the Official Tourism Board of Ibiza for their latest guidelines for checking a company’s credentials and avoiding scams.
The good news is, it’s actually pretty easy – if you know how – to check whether or not an Ibiza villa company is safe to do business with. That means properly registered, insured, and legal.
1. Check if the Company is a Member of the Ibiza Villa Association (AVAT)
If the villa rental company is legal and registered with the Ibiza Villa Association (AVAT), the AVAT logo will be displayed on their website, just like you can see in the footer of every page of our website. This logo means that the villa company is not only legal and insured, but also committed to high standards. Here is the logo to look out for.
Here – https://www.avat-ibiza.com/en/members
2. Check These Important Numbers
If the villa rental company is properly legal and authorized to offer tourist accommodations in Ibiza, then they will have a Central de Reservas number and a Comercializador de Estancias Turisticas number. By law, these license numbers must appear on every page of their website, as you will see they do on ours. Here are the numbers to look out for, right there beneath the AVAT logo. No numbers? Scam alert. The company is possibly not authorized and operating illegally, without the proper licenses. Don’t risk it.
CENTRAL DE RESERVAS RGE CR-1234-E – COMERCIALIZADOR DE ESTANCIAS TURÍSTICAS 12345
oder
Comercializadora de estancias turísticas licencia tramitacion 2013026234
3. Check with the Island Administration (Town Hall) if the Company Exists
Call the Tourism Department of the Ibiza Town Hall (Consell de Ibiza) and check if the company is properly registered with the authorities here. There will usually be someone in the Tourism Department who can speak English. Here is all the contact info you’ll need to do that.
Here – https://www.conselldeivissa.es
4. Check the Age and Reviews of the Domain
Please educate yourself before engaging in online shopping! Most scams are easy to uncover!
Example here https://global-villas.com/ or https://villa-portal.com/
a) About us and Contact – Nothing proper weak information!
b) Use https://web.archive.org/, not many dates available or website just new. About us saying 11 years why are there no records in the past 11 years!
c) Use, for example, the search “global-villas.com” review. Many warnings coming up. Not 1 review.
5. Check Facebook and ask this group
Always up to date and the latest news -> https://www.facebook.com/groups/fraud.fake.at.ibiza/
Scams!!! Always remember: “Buy cheap, pay twice”
There are no bargain deals. The villa owner sets the price. Some villas can be found on numerous websites. There might be a difference of 10% to 20% as some agents add more % on top than others. The villa names could be different on these websites as some agents use different names.
But 50% deals do not exist. Especially not several months in advance.
- First, check here if the website where you find the villa is listed at https://avat-ibiza.com/es/socios. The official villa association of Ibiza.
- Next, check https://archive.org/web/ to see when the website appeared on the internet and click the years to see how the website has changed.
