We booked dream £17K holiday to France but got horrendous shock when we arrived… it could happen to anyone
STARING at a dusty, overgrown plot by the side of a dirt road, Dave Parr felt a sickening feeling in his stomach.
He had travelled with his family and friends to this remote spot in the south of France to stay at a luxurious £17,000 villa in August last year - but when they arrived it was no where to be seen.
Dave, 42, who lives in London but is originally from Wigan, had been confident the accommodation in Nice had been legitimate, having secured it through travel website Booking.com.
But they quickly realised they'd been scammed, leaving him, his heavily pregnant girlfriend, three-year-daughter Lyla and pal Keith and his family stranded with no where to stay.
Speaking to The Sun, Dave says they eventually found alternative accommodation which was a two-hour drive away, but had to fork out thousands to cover it.
Shockingly, the fake villa was still being advertised on Booking.com's website until The Sun alerted them this week.
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Dave says it was a blisteringly warm day when they arrived after a two-day drive, and when they realised the address didn't exist, panic quickly set in.
"My girlfriend was probably the most emotional about it given the fact that she was seven months pregnant and had to be in that heat," he recalls.
"And we also had our three-year-old and had no idea what was going on.
"I was pretty p****d off, as you can imagine. But I was still hoping that we could get some resolution once got to know about the issue.
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"We rang them and they said they would get in touch with the owner to let us into the property, but after a couple of hours, hadn't rung back.
"My girlfriend needed the bathroom and it was impossible to go. We couldn't find a bar or a place open.
"We were in the middle of nowhere in the hills. Our friend had an autistic son and that didn't sit too well. It was one thing on top of another."
Their bleak situation was made even worse when every nearby hotel they checked was booked up for the summer holidays.
"We really struggled to find a hotel that had availability for that night," Dave says.
"It wasn't even about the money, especially when you are sitting at the side of the road and it's baking hot. It was more about where we were going to stay for the night.
"Booking.com came back to say they'd found something but we'd have to pay an extra €8,000 (£6,882) for the week. They offered us €25 (£21.50) as an apology."
They finally found a hotel for a few nights - nearly two hours away - and a couple of days later, the group moved to an alternative villa for a week.
Dave, who works in technology recruitment, explains: "We had to call in a favour with some friends and they found us that villa, though it was miles away from where we'd wanted to be."
The group had been looking forward to enjoying the advertised villa's indoor and outdoor pool, huge bar and terrace area - but Dave now believes the signs were there that it was a con.
"We probably paid the same amount it would have cost to go to the Caribbean, which was out of the question because of my girlfriend's pregnancy. I appreciate £17,000 is an awful lot of money to spend," he says.
"The pictures look a bit like CGI when you look back now in hindsight.
"I was busy working so I just looked at the images and thought, 'Yes let's book it, it looks brilliant, I've got a holiday booked with the family and we will have a week away'.
"Looking back now, maybe some alarm bells should have rung. That said, my mate's wife - who we went with - is a headteacher and I'm also really busy, and my girlfriend is pregnant.
"It didn't have any reviews but our assumption was that going through , we'd be okay. Maybe that was naive.
"I should have gone online, looked at the address, and looked at Google Earth, but we relied on . Next time we book, that's what I'll make sure I do. But it wouldn't be through them."
The seven-bedroom, eight bathroom Villa Quatre Chemins, "managed by a private host", was still being advertised on the website as of Thursday morning (June 22), when The Sun attempted to book it.
Its description boasted of its spa and wellness facilities including a sauna, hot tub, and hammam, with Nice-Ville Train Station 9km away and Monaco Heliport Airport just a 16km drive.
It still had no reviews, and to book if for the same time Dave travelled there last year, for six adults and three children, it was priced at £12,383.
"Still advertising and selling it to people is just wonderful," Dave scoffs.
"If I had the money and the time, I would have absolutely pursued it any way I found possible. That's how frustrated I was - and still am.
"If had held their hands up and said, 'Listen, our bad. We didn't do our due diligence and here's a place you can stay for a week,' I could have gotten over it.
"Their handling of the incident was shocking. They were and still are unwilling to take any responsibility. And we weren't allowed to write a review about the place because their rules state you have to stay there to write one.
"I can't believe that any reputable site would not provide a solution when you have nowhere to stay with a few kids and on the side of the road.
"I understand that I should have done due diligence but there's been no apology or any acceptance of responsibility."
Dave urges anyone booking a holiday to use a credit card, as he was reimbursed by American Express while waiting for his money back from .
When The Sun reached out to Booking.com, the company said the villa has now been removed from its website - 10 months after Dave's ordeal.
In a statement, a spokesperson said: "We are sorry for the experience this customer had, it's definitely not what we want for anyone as they set out to enjoy a holiday.
"We facilitate millions of stays every week and have robust safety and security measures in place. Issues like this are thankfully exceptionally rare.
"While we are investigating the claims in this case, we have closed the villa in question from taking any further bookings on our site."
Dave is one of a growing number of Brits who fall victim to holiday scams every year.
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From 2021 to 2022, Action Fraud received reports of more than 2,244 travel-related scam cases - and the figures continue to rise.
Victims end up losing an average of £1,868, according to the report.
