Cheap holiday rentals guide discussion

My first post! I'm prompted to write in this thread as we own a holiday home on the Norfolk coast and have been running it as a holiday let for around seven years now. So I'm looking at this topic from the other side.
Renting a holiday home puts mutual trust and respect at the heart of the transaction: we trust our guests to take care of our property, not annoy the neighbours, arrive and leave at the arranged times etc; they trust us to come up with the promised goods and put everything in place so that they can have an enjoyable holiday. We take a £100 deposit which we almost always return in full after they leave. I think It's this which ensures most people do leave the house clean and tidy!
Someone commented further up the thread that the big agencies charge high fees to owners, and this is what has led us to steer clear of them. Some of those mentioned actually keep hold of the guests' money from the time they book until after they leave, so that the owners sometimes don't get the cash for several months, which can lead to cash flow problems.
We advertise through directories rather than agencies, and handle everything ourselves, which means we can keep our prices lower than those who have to factor in agency and cleaning costs. So that's a tip for anyone seeking a value-for-money self catering holiday. We can also build up a personal relationship with our guests through the booking process, which means we can make sure special requests are dealt with, misunderstandings avoided, and quite often happy guests come back another time!
Just thought putting the owners' perspective would be useful in this thread.

The advice throughout this page to get cheap holiday rentals, ie, avoid getting a spoof property and ensuring your money doesn't get diverted off to some scammer was sound advice and definitely worked. I have sent in notification to the admin team that this advice has now been outdated so hopefully it will be amended shortly. I paraphrase but the main plank of the advice is that holidaymakers should contact the property owners direct on the owner's trusted phone number provided by the holiday advertising company. Further, by speaking with the owner direct you can be sure that the property meets your needs and using the owners trusted number is the safest way to be sure it is the real owner you are speaking with and paying. All of the 4 companies recommended on this page however have since removed all owners contact numbers. It is no longer possible to speak with the real owners until after an on line booking has been made through one of these companies on-line booking platforms for which booking fees are charged. It is argued by these companies that the removal of the owners contact numbers and the move to on-line booking platforms is to enhance security. Owners and holidaymakers however see the move as simply to make money. HomeAway are quoted on a Nasdaq forum to earn a billion dollars in added booking fees this year alone as a result of this move.
If you get to read this Martin please do not endorse these American giants, they are abusing their monopoly in this sector and represent everything you fight against. Check out Simply Owners, it is UK a company specifically set up to challenge this monopoly. You can save your viewers 100's of millions in booking fees and help Simply Owners (David) bring these American giants (Goliaths) into line. With Simply Owners holidaymakers still get the owners phone numbers as per your strong advice, get free Payment Protection and don't get charged booking fees.
Hope this is helpful. Tim

Visit Simply Owners if you want to have one on one contact with owner/holidaymaker, avoid booking fees and get free payment Protection for holidaymakers. How it should be!
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