HOUSTON — The Great American Eclipse is less than a week away and if you’re considering booking a last-minute trip, watch out for deals that are too good to be true.
All you have to do is search "solar eclipse vacation" in your internet browser and rental homes start popping up, promising the best views, along what’s called "the path of totality." It's the strip of towns where people can see the moon completely cover the sun, weather permitting.
Airbnb said their search traffic for rentals is way up and Texas has two of their top 10 most popular cities for eclipse watching - Austin and Dallas.
Carolina Petriciolet at the Better Business Bureau of Greater Houston and South Texas said rental scams are on the rise. Sometimes, it's hard to tell if the listing is accurate.
“That’s the thing, we don’t know but what we can do is do our homework," Petriciolet advised.
She said scammers often take advantage of high-profile events like the eclipse because they know consumers are on a deadline to book.
“By now a lot of these places are either going to be rented or hotels are going to be at capacity, so you are probably going to find a lot of great deals, a lot of too-good-to-be true deals," she warned.
She suggests being proactive:
- Do a reverse image search on the pictures in the listing to make sure they aren’t stock photos or being used in multiple listings for different homes
- Check the address to make sure the location is as advertised
- Pay with a credit card because it offers more protection
“Most people think if there’s an issue, I'll file a complaint with Venmo or I will file a complaint with Zelle," she said. "Just know that even these websites ask you to be sure who you are sending money to because they can’t retrieve that money back for you, it’s like putting cash in someone’s hand and letting them leave."
Airbnb also cautions against communicating or requesting payment for a reservation outside their system.