In this morning's webinar we kicked off with some discussion on fraud, and the importance of being vigilant as business owners to defend against potential bad actors.
Occurrences are on the rise; the current macroeconomic environment has contributed to more and more instances of creative measures from desperate folks.
Are last minute bookings on your radar? Ever felt uncomfortably rushed by a guest during walkthrough? Ever felt that communication from a potential guest was a little off?
As an online platform, we are all susceptible to those who don't have our best interest at heart. Please ensure you have appropriate processes in place and follow your spidey senses when they tingle.
Speaking of fraud (do you review licenses as part of your walkthrough process?)
It's highly recommended to take picture of front/back of driver's license for all approved drivers as part of walkthrough:
- great measure to vet guests/reduce potential claims
- data shows that this action results in guests taking greater care of your rig
- becoming a standard practice
Identifying fake licenses
To help spot a fake ID, you should know a few possible differences between counterfeit and real IDs, including:
- Quality: A fake ID is often of lower quality and may have printing errors, incorrect font, or blurry images. A real ID is high quality and has clear accurate information and pictures.
- Security features: A fake ID may lack security features such as holograms and watermarks that are present in real IDs to prevent counterfeiting.
- Information: The information on a fake ID may not match the information provided by the person presenting it or may be inconsistent with the information on the ID. In contrast, the information on a real ID is accurate and consistent.
Defending against potential chargebacks
- are your 90-day inspections up to date?
- falling behind on maintenance can lead to increased malfunctions (which has a negative impact on guest experience)
- are you conducting thorough and consistent walkthroughs?
- if you have 'same day turnaround' ensure it's not negatively affecting your key exchange/processes
- have you included pertinent content in your 'rules of the road' section?
- are your ‘reservation documents’ up to date (and attached to enabled e-signature)?
- do you have terms of service uploaded?
- fyi: this is signed off on as part of guest checkout flow
- are you posing all of the right checkout questions?
Security Deposit Visibility
We've received a few questions recently about where to review details affiliated with the collection of a security deposit. This can be viewed in the transaction log, as well as the transaction log export (the export is handy for sorting/slice & dice purposes).
International Transaction Fee
In the event that a renter pays with a card that originates from a different country than your bank account, they are charged a 3% International Transaction Fee (which is not refundable if the affiliated charge is refunded). For more details, please review the updated article here
Thank you for all of your feedback/insight!
We routinely review 'WB Feedback & Feature Request form' submissions and share with our product team. Some of the more notable and consistent concerns raised recently were also presented in a 'Voice of the Customer' meeting that was held earlier this month.