Great 'Cheap Holiday Rentals' Hunt. How to grab fab self-catering properties for less

geordie1234

I was really pleased with the range, service and price from cottages4you.co.uk AND I got a call from Petchey leisure a few months later offering me an apartment in tenerife for £79 total for 4 people for the week, double bargain!

winnywitch

Direct renting is the way to go!

We spent years booking our holidays to Florida through a travel agency. I was always the first to pick up the crisp new holiday brouchures and i would spend hours scanning through them looking for a bargain. Then the internet happend and booking packaged holidays on line was a great past time of mine. One year we went with some friends of ours who booked a villa directly with the owner. It was great! Just big enough for 3 couples and ££££'s cheaper than a hotel package deal.
They booked through www. Holiday-rentals.co.uk and we stayed in a home called Palmtreesvacation.
We also negotiated a deal so we had late check out and stayed by the pool for the last day and also got all our washing done!

cazwasere

http://holidaylets.net is another good one as they have a special area for bookings within I think 6 weeks of travel at reduced prices,

davie

I'd also give my vote to homelidays.co.uk. Been to Italy, France and Montenegro and been thoroughly impressed with all the accomodation. I'd additionally recommend gites-de-france.com for cheap French holiday accomodation and also farmstay.co.uk.
In the UK I'd take a look at next4weeks.com and next6weeks.co.uk

Edinburgh-foodie

Jelliebeen wrote: »

Also, stay in touch with the owners of places you've already visited.They may offer you special rates of their own accord - nicer for them to have someone they already know and trust in, rather than a new person. Does rely on you not minding holidaying in the same place more than once though!

My dad has a place he rents out, and 50% of his bookings come through this way. He uses a holiday company for most of the summer, but if you are nice to him or the housekeeper when they let you in/see you off (plus leave the place in a good state!), he'll get in touch offering you discount rates for off peak weeks.

Some of the regulars go every year for practically nothing, so it's definately worth staying in touch with the owner if you do find somewhere you like!

VipOrlandoVilla

Going with the owner is definately the best way to go. We have done it for years (even before the internet was popular) and got a great buzz knowing we had booked everything ourselves so no surprises and quite a few bargains. I also like chatting to the owners because it gives me a feeling of knowing them.

We have people come back year after year because they know me and my standards etc... they get a great discount too!

My tip is always speak to the owners. You can tell a lot from a phone call and it would help you to make your decision. There is never any harm asking for discounts too - I have often given a discount because I know people will enjoy staying in our place and that gives me great pride.

Montypooh

Has anyone tried Last Minute Cottages (just Google them!)
This is a really good website which specialises in late availability holiday cottages. They are not an agency so you contact the owner direct (which is always cheaper and allows for a certain amount of flexibility on price!) They have cottages all over the UK and it is a really straightforward and easy to use website. If you are flexible you can find some real bargains here. I booked a cottage last year and had a fantastic week for what we would have paid for a two or three nights in a hotel!

Nucky

The big advantage of going direct to holiday home owners is that you pay in Sterling and avoid currency fluctuations especially the illogically high value of the euro. I advertise my Cyprus penthouse on holidaylettings.co.uk (part of the Rightmove group) in Sterling and the price has not gone up in three years despite the increase in the cost of servicing it due to the high value of the euro. I don't offer discounts except for low season and long stays because Cyprus rental prices are comparatively low anyway. You can avoid selecting a 'dump' by viewing the 20 photos and reading the guests' statement's which in my case are genuine.

Wiggetts

I have also booked a cottage through Last Minute Cottages (look it up on Google!) and found the site really easy to navigate and find just the property I was looking for. The fact that they advertise their vacancies over the next couple of months is a great help. It gave enough information to make an informed choice and you deal with owners direct so can get some very good deals, especially as it is a late availability site. Definitely a site to add to your favourites and tell your friends about!

Nigel_Bright

I have found that if you are looking for a self catering property in Europe, especially France, one of the best companies to use is homelidays.com as it costs nothing to use and their website is easy to use, providing you with properties, their descriptions, amenities, pictures, available dates and rents.
Once you have selected the property you want, you register your name and email address with Homelidays and they send an enquiry on your behalf to the owner, so both parties know the other is from a genuine source.
After that you deal direct with the owner. You can usually judge an owner and how the house is kept by the speed and the efficient way they handle your enquiry, so ask as many questions as possible and you will not be dissapointed.
Also always ask for a contract in English if money is requested before you arrive. After your holiday both sides can give a testimonial so it keeps everyone on their toes.