Paying for a villa abroad

busiscoming2

Hi

Am about to book a villa, can any one advise me on the best and definite no no's about payment methods please as I've never done this before.

Any help welcome. Thanks guys!

Has anyone experience of holiday-rentals.com?

PNEfan

You need to reassure yourself that the person advertising genuinely does own the villa. You could do this by asking to see a copy of a utility bill. Also try Googling the villa name and location - this should show up any positive or negative feedback that you may not have seen on holiday-rentals.

It is usual to make a payment on booking (perhaps 25%), with the balance payable 8 weeks or so before the rental. That gives the owners the opportunity to re-advertise if you back out.

Take out travel insurance on booking in case unforseen circumstances lead you to need to cancel.

What payment methods are they offering? You probably have most protection if you use a credit card, but may be expected to pay the cc charges. I know some people are cautious about Paypal, but they have mechanisms for disputes which are pretty effective.

ailuro2

We used holiday lettings for this reason, have had our fingers burnt before with foreign currency traveller's cheques as it worked out cheaper than paying the paypal charges on the rental owner's business paypal account. Then he said his bank hadn't recognised it and were charging extra fee, so we would have to pay it!

Never again - this time the money is handled by holidaylettings, including damage deposit, and the price was comparable too.

Edited to add - made a mistake, we used villarenters.com

Dumyat

we have booked villas privately for years now. we have not had any problems so far....whether thats luck or judgement I don't know.
I have always paid by cheque, booking villas from people only based in uk. usually as PNEfan says a deposit and then balance before you go.
as pnefan says check out the owner. I always ask lots of questions by phone or email and check the answers....ask about local supermarkets, journey from airport...management team in resort. how will key hand over be handled. do searches on google and I have even checked locations on google earth.
I also tend to use renters who have advertised on these sites for a few years...

another option is to ask around at work. surprising how many people own villas these days.
there are also villa rental companies (like james villas, interhome etc) but you do pay more for that peace of mind.

PNEfan

Just to correct ailuro2, holidaylettings, ownersdirect, holiday-rentals, etc do not handle the money. You pay the owners directly and they provide advertising. However you do have a degree of protection with them because it is not in their interests to allow people to advertise villas if they receive complaints.

poet123

We have rented villas privately for years without incident. Again may be luck or judgement....but i do follow similar rules to another poster. Ask lots of questions,check length of time advertiser has been on the site,get a gut feel. We have rented all over the world, and all the villas have been as good as, and better in many cases, than we expected.

Bengt

poet123 wrote: »

We have rented villas privately for years without incident. Again may be luck or judgement....but i do follow similar rules to another poster. Ask lots of questions,check length of time advertiser has been on the site,get a gut feel. We have rented all over the world, and all the villas have been as good as, and better in many cases, than we expected.

Good advice! I can only agree to this. I have rented from private individuals more than three times and I have not been cheated so far...
If the price is reasonable and there are lots of photos there would be easier ways to swindle you than a fake advert...

Lemoncurd

I asked this exact question about 3 weeks ago
We too used holiday-rentals.com , they do offer a 'guarantee' service where you register your trip and the amount you paid, have a look on the website for the terms and conditions of that. They also have a page explaining the advantages and disadvantages of each payment method.
We paid by bank transfer and apart from a slight hiccup when the owner hadn't given me the full details needed it all worked out ok. We've just returned from the trip and everything went well.

ailuro2

PNEfan wrote: »

Just to correct ailuro2, holidaylettings, ownersdirect, holiday-rentals, etc do not handle the money. You pay the owners directly and they provide advertising. However you do have a degree of protection with them because it is not in their interests to allow people to advertise villas if they receive complaints.

:eek: sorry, my mistake, when I checked the bank statement it's villarenters we booked with, and villarenters who appear on our bank statement as the money went to them:o

Can you tell we trawled through a lot of villas before we found one we liked?:o

It does tell you on this site whether accommodation is smoking or non, which we found helpful.:beer:

busiscoming2

Im still trawling! Have found a few and have emailed for more details, have booked flights so need to choose one soon!