Why do the contact details remain hidden until the booking is confirmed?

When you communicate through the Sportihome internal messaging service before booking, we deliberately hide the contact details such as email addresses and phone numbers [hidden content]. Aside from the obvious advantage of allowing bookings to be made through Sportihome, thus enabling us to improve our service, this also effectively protects you against the risk of fraud.

For the Hosts

If you're a host, your phone number and the address of your rental accommodation won't be shared with the guest until the guest confirms and pays for the booking. As regards your email address, we never reveal it. Communicating with your guest via our internal messaging service means there's a written record in case of dispute.

Moreover, in hiding your contact details, we're making sure you won't be hassled by systematic canvassing.

Remember there's no instant booking at Sportihome, that way you can communicate with your guest and pre-approve their booking request.

For the guest

If you're a guest, your phone number won't be revealed to your host until your booking is confirmed and the payment has gone through. As regards your email address, we never reveal it. You communicate with your guest via our internal messaging service, which means there's always a written record in case of dispute.

Allowing contact details to be posted before the booking has been paid for would incite people with malicious intentions to publish false listings, that try to lure unsuspecting guests into transferring down payments or paying for whole stays directly by cheque, for example. Or a guest might get to the accommodation only to find it doesn't actually exist...

If, in spite of our precautions, a host tries underhandedly to get you to pay him/her directly, we recommend you exercise the greatest caution - remember, in such circumstances, you'll no longer be able to appeal to Sportihome for help!