Owners Direct villla website safest way to pay?

Doozergirl

We used the website in May. The owner we dealt with was lovely and the villa that we booked was just fabulous and half the price of booking directly through the hotel and a quarter of the price of the same as part of a package holiday! It was a perfect holiday for us.

I'm almost inclined to say nothing as I don't want everyone knowing about it

EllaKeat

lol I know what you mean Doozer.... we had a cracking vila in the Algarve, cost us less than a 2star hotel. We were in Cypus earlier this year and again, the villa was not only fantastic, but it cost less than a hotel room! At both, we have had private pools, gardens, luxury interiors and welcome packs. The villa we had in the Algarve had five bedrooms. We had it for a fortnight and various family and friends came out for a few days holiday - brilliant:)

lagoslife

The same topic was recently discussed here

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2638493

Techno

We've used them a couple of times I reccomend getting into a good e-mail conversation with the owner or phoning as mentioned above. We paid by cheque the first time as the owner lived in the UK and paypal the second time as they lived in spain - no problems whatsoever

ellay864

I've had brilliant villa holidays with them. When it was English owners we've paid by cheque, with overseas owners we paid deposit by transfer I think, then the balance on cash on arrival. They'd probably always be my starting point for booking a villa holiday

mp7125

I also used Owners Direct to book a villa in Spain. Couple who owned it were in Bristol.

No problems whatsoever paid by bank transfer. As someone mentioned try and get a good rapport with the owners and much information about the villa before booking.

mchale

Have used OD on many occasion's, if you look on the ad it tells you how long the owner has been advertising with OD.

sunshinetours

Go with your gut feeling. If you have contacted them (phone them) and they are happy top answer questions and point you in direction of otehr satisfied renters etc then go for it. Take the insurance if worried

We have hire private villas and houses before mainly through holidaylettings.co.uk and had no problems

Enjoy

LittleEm

I would definitely NOT recommend Owners Direct - I booked a villa, a few weeks later the owner cancelled on me, as he had a better offer (someone who wanted to rent for the whole summer). This was a month ago and I have still no sign of recieving back the 2000 euro deposit I paid.
This is the response I got from Owners direct "It is your decision what your next step is with the owner. As we are purely an advertising site we cannot advise you how to proceed as we are not involved in the bookings or payments."

It is a shame, as I have booked a villa from their website before and had a great experience, but I guess it only takes one dodgy one to ruin it for everyone else. I'm still hoping to get my money back and will fight it all the way, but because of the worry, stress and the fact that I am unable to afford to book anything else in the meantime (yet have flights booked!) I'll never use them again and wouldn't recommend them to anyone.
Their indifference, lack of advice and general lack of interest in my case is appalling and is making my blood boil!!

johnnyroper

The problem you have is down to a specific owner,owners direct is as you rightly say just a means of advertising you actually deal with the owner.as such there ain't a lot owners direct can do,it is like having a pop at auto trader if you buy a lemon that someone had listed for sale in there.