Bookings from a UK Government Agency

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Pengman
Posts: 115
Joined: Mon Apr 22, 2019 4:54 pm
Location: Portland, Dorset UK

Bookings from a UK Government Agency

Post by Pengman »

I got a call recently from a lady purporting to be from a company acting for a UK Government Agency enquiring if my UK holiday let property was available to be booked by them for a 12 month period, a 6 month period, or failing that on a month by month basis. Her selling points were twofold - (a) wouldn't it be nice to have the comfort of being fully booked throughout the winter, and (b) they would accept my seasonal rates as they are and were not looking for reduced rates. Regretfully in hindsight I dodn't ask her any probing questions like what company was she calling from and what Goverment Agency did it represent, but just gave her a fairly swift 'thanks but no thanks' and there the conversation ended.

Checking my phone later, I noted she was calling from a 'Private Number'. (i.e. ex directory). So, assuming the call was legitimate, her company presumably didn't want me to know who they were unless I'd agreed to pay ball with them. Also, I've recently done some benchmarking against other holiday lets advertising or listed by OTAs in my area and, interestiingly, a lot of those I've benchmarked against in the past have to all intents and purposes disappeared. Does that mean they've accepted a similar deal?

Racking my brains, I can only think of two likely reasons for the call - (1) it was a scam and that had i said 'yes' I was just a couple of questions away from being asked my bank account details etc, and (2) my property was being sought to house illegal immegrant/ asylum seeker families. The latter seems the more probable and makes sense to me - according to the press, single male illegal immigrants/asylum seekers are being housed in hotels, but it makes sense (to me anyway) that HMG would try to house families in individual houses if they could.

Anybody had a similar approach ?
I came, I saw, I bought it.
J B
Posts: 137
Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2007 10:56 am
Location: We live in England and have rental properties in N Wales and Paphos, Cyprus
Contact:

Post by J B »

Just another scam

Forget it and move on ...

:lol:
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