1st timer

[carlabishop]

myself and hubby are looking to come to have a wonderful family holiday with our 8 year old son next year ..we came across orlando villa and have found a perfect one..we have never done this sort of thing before always done the package holiday with tour providers ...
got to say i feel quite terrified of parting with the money to a private villa owner, a deposit is needed,then balance up to 8 weeks before...i just dont want to get ripped off ..i understand its trust both ways...it scares the hell out of me ....help and advice please

[Dads_Taxi]

We've had two villas from this site, both times our expectations were exceeded, the homes were amazing and the owners wonderfully obliging.
My best advice I can give is secure your flights first, then enjoy the experience of short listing and choosing your villa. For us the family meetings where we discuss the pros and cons of the homes available is like the start of the holiday. Last year we were a party of 15, so we needed quite a big house!!
Hope you find somewhere ideal for your family.

[Snapper]

Hi Carla,

There are a few things you can do to make yourself feel better. First, ask your villa owner to send you a copy of their rental licence. Every villa has to be licenced by both Florida, and by the county (Polk, Osceola, Lake) that it is in. Any owner should not have a problem sending you a copy of their rental licence. Some villas will be on what's called a group licence. In this case it would be the property management company that will hold the licence. They should be able to send you a copy and also send you proof that the villa you are going to rent is included on that licence.

Talk to the owner. Give them a call. Tell them that you are renting privately for the first time and ask them to prove that they live where they say they live and that they own the villa. Any decent owner won't have a problem doing a bit of legwork to make sure you feel safe and secure.

Then pay a small part (say £100) of your payment using a credit card. This sounds hard to believe but even if you pay only a small part of your total by credit card, the Consumer Credit Act protects your full amount.

And make sure you are renting a place from this site. The owners require that all of us advertisers verify our villas with them every 6 months.

Do all the above and it's difficult to see where you can go wrong.

Most of all - enjoy it - you're in for a treat villa wise compared to what you would usually get on a package deal.