? for those of you who book off site villas

[catherine]

We've never stayed off site before, but DD's boyfriend is coming with us on our next trip. I've priced up a 2 bedromm villa at OKW where we normally stay and it will cost us over £5000 for 14 nights! So we're thinking of staying at Windsor Hills. However It makes me nervous booking a villa with an individual. So my question is do you all check out the people who you're making the booking with and if so how do you go about doing that? I know that I may sound paranoid but I don't want to get over there and find out that we have nowhere to stay!!

 

[jockey]

We usually tay at the gf or akl but the past few trips the room is crowded as we have 2 young kids. We rented a house in windsor hills the location was fab and the house was beautiful. I always use a renter who takes a credit card or paypal.

 

[TraceyL]

Lots of things you can do

Chose a rental site that verifies its owners.
Ask lots of questions of the owners
Verify the address/location on (eg) google maps (to check the pool aspect - often a little artistic licence is used)
Use the County appraiser website to verify the owner
There are also county sites where you can check taxes etc are up to date
Chose a villa that has been recommended to you - lots of UK Disers rent villas & there's nothing like personal recommendation imo

We've not had a 'dud' one yet

 

[Pegasus928]

We have always rented privately owned villas, direct from the owner, and have never had any problems.
To give yourself peace of mind I would recommend going through one of the popular villa sites. One that we have used a few times is
http://www.orlandovillas.com/
All the villas on there are regularly vetted to ensure that they are owned by the owners, and I know that there are a few other good ones out there.
We have also done it without going through a site and going straight to the owner via a link we found on Google Earth. Again this was nothing but a good experience to the point that we will definately be renting this villa again.
We have always found that we tend to get a feel for the person when speaking with them on the telephone, and in the way that they answer emails and questions, as to whether we want to do business with them or not.

Kenny

 

[Whisky In A VAse]

We have booked a private villa for the last 3 years and doing the same this year.
There are some very good websites out there.
We stayed at Windsor Hills a couple of years ago and it is a great community and an excellent location.

Neil

 

[catherine]

Thanks everyone for the advice!

 

[JohnnySharp2]

Our first villa rental was a disaster but we learnt our lesson and always used reputable websites after that and have had no problems since.

www.vr360homes.co.uk
www.villas2000.com , both are very good.

We never book a villa unless we can see the home via the http://www.bing.com/maps/ website, mainly because we insist on the pool being south facing, so we always ask for address and zip code.

Personally whilst I don't mind ringing the owners up, I wouldn't give out our number unless we actually booked , there have been occasions where I have and we had a few phone calls I would rather not have had, as we decided to book other homes.

 

[Pegasus928]

Definately worth checking on something like Google Earth for confirmation of location and surroundings. We had booked a villa once on the basis of its description, only to find it wasn't south facing at all but north facing. When we questioned the owner about this she said she always thought it was south facing because thats what the builders had told her - so as far she was concerned she had done no wrong. Needless to say we cancelled with her and got our deposit back and booked another - which turned out to be much better for less money

 

[T16GEM]

We always email our questions through to the owner and then we usually like to have a chat with them about the villa etc over the phone.

I can honestly say that we have never had a problem in the 15 odd years that we have been DIY'ing.

 

[paul_toria96]

We have always rented privately owned villas, direct from the owner, and have never had any problems.
To give yourself peace of mind I would recommend going through one of the popular villa sites. One that we have used a few times is
http://www.orlandovillas.com/
All the villas on there are regularly vetted to ensure that they are owned by the owners, and I know that there are a few other good ones out there.
We have also done it without going through a site and going straight to the owner via a link we found on Google Earth. Again this was nothing but a good experience to the point that we will definately be renting this villa again.
We have always found that we tend to get a feel for the person when speaking with them on the telephone, and in the way that they answer emails and questions, as to whether we want to do business with them or not.

Kenny

We have rented off Orlando Villas twice, they are excellent, and Hilary is really helpful, they only live down the road and we have had loads of help from them and would reccommend them to everyone. They have a 4 bed villa with private pool and hot tub.
We have only stayed on site once, it was ok but I would def stay off site as it gives you a bit more space. Hope this helps