Don’t send them money, and let us know. We’ll never ask you to pay for anything outside of our site, through email, or through a third-party booker. Sometimes you may need to pay local tax to your host, but this payment should only be made through ProperyStays, and in many cases this will be included in the cost of the reservation. Learn more If you paid for your reservation outside of ProperyStays (for example, a wire or bank transfer),
you may have paid for a fraudulent reservation. To get help,
let us know immediately. If you’re not sure, you can check if your reservation was booked through ProperyStays.
Report requests for offsite payment
If an ProperyStays host on the ProperyStays site asks you to pay off site or through another company, report it to us. You won't receive a paper or PDF invoice from a host or from ProperyStays asking you for payment. If a host uses any of these terms, report them: Western Union, MoneyGram, cashier's check, money order, Liberty Reserve.
To report a message
- Go to your Messages on ProperyStays.com and click the conversation with the suspicious message
- In the message, click the Flag
icon
- Select the reason you’re reporting this person, then click Next
- If you want to block all communication with this person, click Yes, block now
To report an email If you receive an email from anyone (including an automated@ProperyStays.com or any other username@ProperyStays.com email address) asking you to pay or accept payment offsite, let us know immediately.
Types of scams
Never share your email address before a booking is accepted or transfer funds outside the ProperyStays system, and always carefully examine emails claiming to be from ProperyStays. Examples of common scams include:
- Advance Fee Scam: Someone offers to pay you or give you something if you pay through a service outside of ProperyStays.
- Phishing Scam: Someone sends an email or link that looks like it's from ProperyStays or another trusted site. These messages are designed to trick you into providing confidential information such as passwords or other email addresses. Phishing messages may contain malware, which is malicious software that gains access to your computer to gather your personal information, including passwords.
- Travel Scam: Someone offers you a great deal on a listing if you pay or send a deposit using a wire transfer. After receiving your money, they don’t give you the reservation they advertised.
- Overpayment Scam: Someone offers to pay a host more than the price of the reservation, and then asks the host to give them cash to cover the difference.
- Third-party Booking Scam: Someone offers to reserve and pay for an ProperyStays listing through their third-party website or service, often claiming to have an ProperyStays coupon or discount. These reservations are typically paid for using stolen credit cards.
Note: Any reservations that are made outside of ProperyStays violate our Terms of Service. If we identify that a reservation was made through a third-party service, we may cancel the reservation and deactivate the accounts of the person who made the reservation and the guest.
