Cheap holiday rentals guide discussion

Thaihand

There are some useful pointers in this discussion, but I'm not convinced they address the board's aim, which is to find a holiday rental at the best possible price.

The listing sites mentioned charge owners for their adverts. Some take an annual fee, and others take a percentage of the cost of your total stay from the villa or rental owner. Many owners mark up their rental rates to cover such costs.

We run a Thailand specific villas site - and we're going to work against ourselves here! Once you have found a property you like on a listing site, try googling the property name and location to find the owner's own website. Then write to the owner directly, saying you found their property on such a such site, but are writing directly to ask what is the best possible "direct rate". Because the owner will not need to pay any commission, they will almost always offer you a better price! As an example, we have a fully catered, private pool villa called Gecko Villa in Thailand listed with us. Like what they offer? Google the name and place...and hey presto you have found their own site, and can write to them directly.
This is the money saving secret. And it almost always works.

Of course, we strongly recommend that you check any tripadvisor reviews of the property you plan to book, and swap a few emails with the owner prior to finalizing and booking - you need to be sure the property is bona fide and checking third party websites, together with emails to the owner to see how responsive they are, will quickly allow you to draw your conclusion.

Happy hunting!

gibson123

A good way of finding a holiday rental cheap is through ex-pat forums for your destination. Many holiday home owners use these forums to keep up to date with local information and if you post that you are interested in a holiday rental chances are one of he regulars will get back to you. Ex-pats the world over are like neighbourhood watch, they will soon tell you if the offers come from a crook.

Charlon

Visit gozo-bookings.com for affordable unique holiday in Gozo.
Taste the beauty of gozo!!

dude0nvacation

What I do on my end is I go to this site,

http://crispy-hotels.com/

and find the cheapest hotel accommodation on my next travel. Been using this for quite sometime already and it never fails me. I can always be on my budget as I can compare hotel rates to the other. Gives out great hotel suggestions world wide.

So far, this is what I do and I hope this is a big of a help!

Cheers!

Seryo

We've been self catering for years and I find to get the best deals in the correct locations it's good to get a local agent. They tend to be much more flexible than the bigger agents who aren't situated in the local area and don't have contact with the owners of the cottages.

There is a great devon based company Devon Cottages or for the Lake District Sally's Cottages they are both really friendly and knowledgeable about the areas and can usually get some money off for you by convincing the owners.

MaggieS.

HI,
Is that become the main question once you have Kids? Now, with my two Boys (6 and 10) any holiday did cost me a fortune!:mad:At the moment the best way for me is to rent a apartment or villa, directly from the owners is even better. I would advice holidaylettings or expedia, but now it is good to just ask your friends, and this way I was very lucky. Just this year we rented a apartment in Bodrum,Turkey with 4 adults and 2 kids:j for only £250 - this is great, as you pay for apartment not for people.
I found my from a friend at myholidayinbodrum.com

Thanks,

Bob_the_Saver

Charlon wrote: »

Visit gozo-bookings.com for affordable unique holiday in Gozo.
Taste the beauty of gozo!!

No Chance bozo

melb

it's gozo not bozo - it's that little place that's even less appealing than malta

CottageInTheCountry

Seryo wrote: »

We've been self catering for years and I find to get the best deals in the correct locations it's good to get a local agent. They tend to be much more flexible than the bigger agents who aren't situated in the local area and don't have contact with the owners of the cottages.

There is a great devon based company Devon Cottages or for the Lake District Sally's Cottages they are both really friendly and knowledgeable about the areas and can usually get some money off for you by convincing the owners.

Hi Seryo,
You are so right. A local agent knows their properties intimately and can suggest viable alternatives if your choice is not available. They will accept debit and credit cards and many have Cancellation Protection Schemes to cover the usual reasons if circumstances prevent the holiday. We cover the Thames Valley to the Welsh Borders with loads in the Cotswolds for example.
We are also members of CottageLine, a UK consortium of private, local companies whose ethic is the same; local knowledge, national choice - nearly 6000 cottages!! Google CottageLine or our own site Cottage in the Country (sorry, can't paste links!)
One call or web visit will save hours of fruitless searching.

MD2000

As a property owner, who rents direct rather than using agents, but also uses some of the listing sites to advertise, here's my advice to ensuring you get what you are expecting (after all - cheap may be cheap, but if it's not meeting your expectations, you can still be disappointed)

Ask questions.

If there is some specific feature of the property you are looking for, and it's not clear from the advert - ask the owner up front. Most owners are happy to give more details about their home, or the area and give local information before you book.. (You can also see a lot from google maps nowadays as well)

If you don't want to take things unnecessarily, ask whats already there. I'd happily tell somebody exactly what saucepans there are, what styles of potato peeler we have, which I don't think an agent would know - even a local one.

If there are extra things you would like, or special arrangements, ask for those as well, but do be prepared to pay for them. Some things can be arranged, and I would normally pass this on at cost. Late checkout, early arrival really depends on who is in before or after.


I am keen to ensure somebody has a great stay, and writes me a great review, so I will do anything possible to make sure my guests get what they are expecting, or more. Which is one reason why returning guests are so welcome - they know you and you know them,.

On haggling - remember that there comes a point where it's just not worth taking a booking for a couple of nights, which involves a risk for the owner, admin, cleaning costs, heating costs, wear and tear - some people think that owners will be desperate and take any booking, but I'd suggest that you might not want to be renting from somebody that desperate for your business.......

I also use self catering for our family holidays - and I would always prefer to deal direct with the owner. I think you get an excellent idea of what treatment you're likely to get from a couple of email exchanges or a phone call . I've had 95% excellent experience both in UK and abroad, give or take the odd amusing incident.

Happy holidays.