In spite – or perhaps because of – the continuously increasing number of choices on the Internet, selecting and subsequently contracting the right villa for your Bali holiday is getting more difficult every day. Remember, this is YOUR vacation, and you cannot be too careful. The joy of saving a few dollars is nothing compared to memories of a spoiled vacation.

Here are some hints on how to protect yourself from false claims and/or unreliable companies so you can avoid possible disaster:

Always book through a reputable villa rental specialist or travel agent. If you deal directly with villa owners, they will always try to convince you their own villa is the best choice. They are hardly objective, of course, and their ideas regarding "quality" often don't meet international standards. On the other hand, every established villa rental specialist (good travel agents will not deal with any other) will know most of the available villas in his/her area and will only recommend those which really meet your individual requirements and expectations.

If you book directly with a villa rental company, always check how long the business has been established, and whether they accept all the major credit cards. If the company has been doing business for many years and works with all major credit card companies, you can be sure there have been no serious customer complaints. No credit card issuer would continue to do business with a company if card holders have repeatedly requested refunds because of problems they have experienced.

Check whether the company and the owner of the domain you are visiting are identical. You can do this by going to the WHOIS database and key in the domain name (e.g. xcompany.com).

Check the company's Privacy Policy and whether it has been approved by TRUSTe. You can read the Privacy Statement by clicking the "Privacy" link on the company's web site. To verify the validity of the license click the TRUSTe icon on that page. If you cannot find any Privacy Statement with the TRUSTe icon it means no TRUSTe Approval Certificate has been obtained and the company does not take the privacy of its clients and/or web site visitors seriously.

Check the Site Security Certificate. You do this by clicking the VeriSign icon on the web site which will show you the validity of the Certificate. If you cannot find any VeriSign icon this probably means no security arrangements have been made. In this case be VERY careful submitting any personal data or other confidential information.

Check other credentials of the villa company e.g. membership in trade organizations such as the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), the Pacific Area Travel Association (PATA), and so on. To visit and search the ASTA web site click the icon below, select "All Business Types" from the pull-down menu and key in the company/website name (in our case Balivillas.com). To search the PATA members database you have to select the first letter of the company name and then scroll down the subsequent page.

If the company is registered with D&B, you can find even more details there. Most companies in international business nowadays have obtained a D-U-N-S number which is required by many global industry and trade associations, including the United Nations, the U.S. Federal Government, the Australian Government and the European Commission. (Balivillas.com/Bali.com Ltd's D&B D-U-N-S No. is 66-389-8141.)

Look for testimonials of recent guests. However, disregard them if they are shown without full name and address since there is no way to verify them. Balivillas.com only publishes testimonials with the full contact address of the contributor.

Make sure the villa rental company has a professionally staffed office at your destination to help with any problems which may arise during your stay. Only companies with an on-site office are in a position to monitor the maintenance of the villas and the performance of house staff, and be on call around the clock to help in emergencies.

Avoid booking through the growing number of villa rental web sites which list any villa without inspection as long as the owner pays a fee or commission. Advertisers can promise you ANYTHING   because the web site operators/owners have no liability whatsoever.