Cheap holiday rentals guide discussion

abugintheground · 17 January 2013 at 2:03PM

I'm booking a Villa on behalf of myself and seven other friends, in Southern Spain.

The agency is called Sol Inmobiliaria - I'm not allowed to post a link but it's a google away...!

They are asking for a 20% deposit up front, which is fine, but they will not accept credit card payment.

How am I best placed to cover myself? I'm naturally cautious as I'm spending friends' money, so I don't want to rush into anything.

Thanks in advance for any help

Passionfruit · 18 January 2013 at 10:11AM

Don't be put off by the fact that you can't pay by credit card - many owners can't take cc payments - they are expensive and difficult to set up.
Check that the website is legit. Find out how many years the property has been advertised. A dodgy property would not last 5 mins on a decent website.

Passionfruit · 18 January 2013 at 10:30AM

Thanks for mentioning Owners Direct. I have to say I do not agree with the advice in the article suggesting Owners Direct only for UK rentals - it's an excellent website for villas abroad, too!

Greenqueen_2 · 20 January 2013 at 1:13PM

or another similar site is https://www.ownersapartments.co.uk

lagoslife · 6 February 2013 at 11:18AM

Don't be put off by the fact that you can't pay by credit card - many owners can't take cc payments - they are expensive and difficult to set up.

Very true, I expect 70-80% of owners don't take card payments. Don't be put off, but do some sensible research on the property before you send bank transfers/cheques.

2Sheds · 15 February 2013 at 1:45PM

Looking at a 2 bed place in LA, it's a new listing this year on VRBO.

Done some research and seems OK, althought owners number comes up as 'Wireless' on http://www.numbersleuth.org, while Fax number is Peerless Network.

Payment is through PayPal, they accept MC, Visa and Discover cards.

Anyone had experience of paying this way ?

Barbara_Gw · 16 February 2013 at 5:49PM

As the owner of one villa in Cyprus that I rent to holiday makers, I have read this guide with interest, but also a great deal of surprise at your recommendations. I as an owner would list Owners Direct and Holiday Lettings as the best sites to use by far. Villarenters is a total nightmare of a site that no right minded owner would ever use and I have had no success from HomeAway at all. With regards to the comment about credit cards, I think the Moneysaving Expert team should bear in mind that most owners are just ordinary people such as myself and its very hard indeed to get credit card arrangements unless you are a business.

tomkerswill · 1 March 2013 at 4:31PM

What's great about renting a villa, is that they tend to be owned by individuals, so it's a really good chance to talk to someone who knows the area really well and can give tips. We run a little villa rental site (I won't mention its name!) and find that most bookings happen because there's a dialogue between the person booking the villa, and the person owning it.. either via the contact form or on the phone.

I agree with MD2000 above --- email or call the villa owners, and ask questions!

Tom

DHH · 6 April 2013 at 4:33PM

A good guide and a lot of useful comments and that's from an agent for a few hundred owners.

Its always a good idea to ask for discounts as a matter of course. However many owners will not accept anything but a marginal discount as the costs of cleaning a whole house, linen, heating or air conditioning (possibly on all the time) makes the actual costs very high. Many owners are absent and need to contract all these services. Add in an agents fee or Booking.com/AirBNB fees etc (15-20%) and you can see that some places have no margin left. This is the reason many would rather leave a place empty rather than possibly need to deal with maintenance issues, meet and greet etc for a small amount of money.

The hotel and rental markets seem to be converging from a marketing perspective and the big ad sites, Home Away, Holiday Lettings, AirBnB all charge premiums for the booking, which can be levied on a visitor. So more widely, many owners and agents don't use these sites anymore as the advertising is so expensive.

The best bet is to call the agency or owner and have a chat. Also look for their own websites, don't stop at the big ad sites. The more money an owner pays these sites the more likely you are to see a particular rental. The very good ones could be at the bottom of the list!

MelanieNJ · 18 July 2013 at 11:26AM

I was going to suggest accepting Paypal for credit card bookings but just found information about that at the bottom of the guide. There maybe a possibility to still claim though so I think once I list my property for rental I will offer to accept it just to give potential customer's peace of mind.

Here's pat of the info. from the guide

"... If you pay by credit card via PayPal, Section 75 protection won't apply, as technically you're not using the card to buy the goods or services, but to charge a PayPal account.

If you do pay by PayPal and use Visa, Mastercard or Amex, one possible route to get your money back is the card networks' chargeback schemes. "

We're planning on renting our old 'family home' out from September and are going back to Spain in August to pack up our personal belongings, give it a coat of paint and a good spring clean. The main problem we've had is finding someone to trust to hold keys and deal with change overs. Luckily, one of our friends has now agreed to do it as she's looking for extra work.

It's been a difficult decision to decide to rent our house because it was where our children grew up and although renters worry about being scammed, we also saw many owners scammed while we lived in Spain. People would empty places of all the furniture, fitted kitchens, Sky boxes/dishes and even the kitchen sink! These could obviously be sold for much more than someone had paid to rent the place for a week's 'holiday'.

We'll be living here in England for the next couple of years due to family reasons and having spent the past year weighing up all our options we've decided the house is probably safer with people staying in it than it is sitting empty. It's not that we lived in a rough area! It happens all over Spain whether people rent their houses/apartments for short or long lets. Knowing our friend, rather than a stranger, will be holding the keys, meeting our renters and keeping an eye on the place was just the push we needed to actually decide to rent it.

Next step... sort it so it's suitable for renters, take photos and build a website. As a first time holiday property owner I'm apprehensive, excited and ready to give it a whirl.

Cheap holiday rentals guide discussion

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free