Help! High and Dry

[MaryB]

It's our first time in Florida - family treat for gran, grandad, 2 daughters and son-in-laws and 2 grandchildren aged 3 and 9 months. Booked villa first as recommended back in Feb to spend Christmas and New Year in Orlando. Contacted the villa owner today to pay the balance to find that she has sold the villa and it is no longer available. She has kindly (?) offered to refund our deposit but am fearful of finding availabilty of another villa at this late stage. I am frantically contacting all the villa owners advertising on this site but am having no luck so far. Any suggestions please.

Mary

[christhear]

Mary

you need to send out a general enquiry, to the three sites above. I dont think you have done this as I have not seen one.

The owner is duty bound to return your deposit as they are unable to provide the serivce you payed for.

I know that there are still owners, including myself, with availabilty for christmas so don't be too dishartened. You may even find a better villa.

[MaryB]

Thanks for your reply. Sorry not quite sure how to send out a general enquiry. Would welcome any advice.

Mary

[floridadreamvilla.co.uk]

Here's the links to make a General Enquiry on each of our three sites. Each site goes to different owners so to cast your net as wide as possible use all three links. Make sure you put any specific requirements into the comments box.

http://www.orlandovillas.com/Contact.aspx
http://www.villasflorida.com/Contact.aspx
http://www.onlinefloridavillas.com/Contact.aspx

[steph_goodrum]

I'm sure you will have no trouble finding something suitable Mary. It's also working in reverse for many of us owners as well who have had their booked Guests cancelled because of various reasons, some of whom had booked last year. Look at it this way you get to have the fun of choosing all over again.

I'm sure when you get to where you are staying the angst will soon be forgotten. We're going over for Thanksgiving this year so I can get to see the Christmas lights etc before we come home in early Dec.

[mfairhurst]

Good luck geting a villa and hope you enjoy ypur vacation .
MAUREEN
www.onlinefloridavillas.com/villas/1683.aspx

[sundowner]

Hi Mary, your general enquiry worked. Although we are booked for some of your dates so could not help I am sure you will find a beautiful villa for your holiday from this site and please don't worry. As mentioned earlier, there are a number of owners getting cancellations for various reasons from people who may have booked more than a year in advance.

You now get to pick another villa and will be able to speak to the owner right up to the minute you step in the door.

It may seem a stressful time right now, but rest assured things will get better very soon.

[luckylady]

Sorry to hear you have been let down by a homeowner Mary. I hope you don't think all homeowners are the same? I am sure someone will have availability for you and your family over the Christmas /New Year. [xmas1]

Good luck finding a beautiful home and I hope you have a fantastic time in Florida [msnsmile2]

[MaryB]

Thanks for all your help and advice. I feel so much better now and thanks to all the villa owners who have contacted me with availability over the required period. You may be right and I might find an even better villa than the one I originally booked but I'm still a little shocked that had I not contacted the owner now I would not have known til the last minute that the villa was no longer available. I did book through this site but I know its a chance you take and there are no guarantees but it has been a sobering experience. Thanks again.

Mary

[gpullan]

We booked our villa through this site back in March. The villa owners then emailed to say they had put it on the market but things could take forever.

Not in this case, i received an email about 4 weeks ago to say the villa had now sold and the new owners now had my booking and deposit.

I have opened lines of communication with the new owner and all seems fine. The only very very slight concern i have is that the villa is no longer on here hence not verified. I am trusting the owner not to change too much before we get there in February.

All in all an owner selling their villa has not affected our plans.

Best of luck.

[floridadreamvilla.co.uk]

That's nothing to get concerned about. We have a strict policy of new owners having to joining the Waiting List when a villa advertised with us is sold. With a lot of owners on the Waiting List and some of them being on it for several years, it's the only fair way we can see of dealing with the issue.

It's absolutely no reflection on the credibility of the new owners, who I'm sure are absolutely fine.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by gpullan
The only very very slight concern i have is that the villa is no longer on here hence not verified.
[/quote]

[floridadreamvilla.co.uk]

I've only just spotted this question so apologies for not answering it sooner.

Villas can be put on the market at any time and generally we let the advert run until the sale date and then the new owner has to go on the Waiting List and the actual advert is removed from the site. We work on the assumption that owners will keep their own guests updated on the situation and in 99.9% of the cases this happens really well.

We quite often don't know a villa is on the market as owners could just put it on for a period to test the market etc etc. That's one of the main reasons we require owners to re-verify their homes every six months as this soon picks up on any house sales we were not made aware of. We do however encourage all owners to keep us in the loop so we know what is going on too.

As might have been alluded to here, villa sales, like the sale of any house, can be a quick matter but often take a lot longer. Sometimes they never go ahead and the house is taken back off the market.

I know when we sold one of our own villas a few years ago, we kept all future guests in the loop and arranged for all bookings to be honoured on the terms they were booked with the person who was buying the villa. We also gave all guests an option of cancelling and re-booking with another owner if they wanted. All guests stayed and went on to have a fabulous vacation in the villa, being really well looked after by the new owner.

Occasionally a home will be sold to a permanent resident. In this case they obviously won't want the bookings so it's up to the owner who is selling to liaise with their own guests and arrange suitable alternative accommodation for the guests or refund the money paid so the guest can choose their own alternative accommodation. We're obviously more than happy to help with the search for alternative accommodation in this kind of situation as we have a lot of homes on our site and probably have quite a few that will suit the guests requirements and are available.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Father
More generally, can I ask if this site has a policy relating to owners who are selling? What is considered good practice here?
[/quote]

[lafifille]

Mary, I am sure you'll find a great villa and have the great vacation you've been planning for.
I can't believe these people didn't contact their guests when they finalized the sale. Surely they already knew you wouldn't be staying in their villa when you contacted them? That's really not nice at all, specially considering you are going during the Holidays, which must be a busy period. Bad bad manners...:(
I'm wondering how many families are without a villa now thanks to these careless people and don't know about it?

[Susan J]

Mary
I feel ashamed to think what you have been put through- this is your dream holiday, and most villa owners want to enjoy that experience with you- I hope you find a suitable villa that more than compensates.........I haven't seen your general enquiry on Villas florida?

[DLB-GOUROCK]

John,

Just curious as to how the registration system works for villa owners.
Why is there a waiting list? Are you restricted to the number of homes you can deal with or do you set a limit to enable you to have more control over who is registered and offer a better service.

What criteria has to be met to register?

This will give all us prospective renters an understanding of how things operate and a confidence to place bookings with your members.

Is there a web page on here that we can look at with this sort of info ?

BTW, Mary I'm glad you are getting responses back and appear to be able to get your holiday sorted out.

[atush]

For GPullan,

you may find your vill is even better after being taken over.

I bought a villa that was previously owned and upgraded tvs, cable, added internet and free calls immediately. Then went on over the months that followed to retile, buy new furniture etc as well as repair and replace other things.

With a new owner you could very well be better off than with an owner under financial pressure or an owner who has fallen out of 'love' with their place.

[ujpest doza]

Same happened to us this year and we only found out when i went online to show someone the advert on here of the villa we were staying at and the advert wouldn't appear.

I contacted the owner and found out it was sold and he had no other bookings this year other than ours. He said he had been waiting to find out if the new owners would take over our booking before contacting us but had no feedback from them so i asked for my deposit back.

We then found a newer, nicer and actually cheaper villa which we stayed in in October on Tuscan Hills. This from from another site though, not this one.