Villa Rental Direct from Owner

I am looking to holiday in Florida for the 1st time this August, & am trying to get exactly what we want for our holiday without paying over the top. To this end, I've been looking to rent a villa, directly from the owners rather than through an agent. I've been offered a 4-bed, 3.5 bath villa in Sandy Ridge for £400pw, which seems great value.

What worries me, is how do I know I am dealing with a genuine owner? The paperwork came in the post the other day, & it's just been done on a home PC. The owners only take cheques for payment - no visa, which would have made me feel more secure. The full amount (£800) has to be paid 8 weeks before my holiday, so giving possible scammers plenty of time to disappear with our money.

I can't imagine anything worse than paying our money, then turning up on our dream holiday to an address that doesn't exist, or has someone else living there. What proof/paperwork should I expect? What sort of contract should I have? Can I insure against any problems? Is any possible saving worth the possible risk?

Any help/info greatly appreciated.

Have you booked the villa through this site? If not I would give this site a try.

All villas on this site have to be verified every 6 months. This means the owners have to prove to th epeople running the site that they do infact own the villa.

You could always ask the owner for the phone number of their Management Company to check them out as well. Most owners would also be happy to provide you with referrances if you were unsure.

Most owners will ask for full payment between 8 - 10 weeks before your holiday so this is not unusual. You will also have an address for the owner and they should also give you a telephone contact as well as email.

I would comment however that £400 per week at peak time is a bit on the cheap side, so do find out all you can about the villa before commiting. As mentioned earlier if you are unsure take a look at the 3 links on this site.

You don't say if you found this owner through any of the OV sites at the top of each forum page but, if you did, then all the homes have to be verified every six months that the owner advertising actually owns the property.

Most private home owners would ask for payment something like 6 - 10 weeks before your check-in date so that's not unusual in itself.

However, £400 a week in August for a 4 bedroom home is awfully inexpensive as that's peak season so I think you're right to ask questions. Why not ask the owner if they can verify their home to you so that you can satisfy yourself that they own it?

Hello Lind
If you have used the three sites linked at the top of the forum then the villa owners have all been checked out, making sure that they do own their villas. This happens every 6 months by Roger and John who run this site and they verify each owner. Most of us do use our pc to forward details of our villa guest; I do this myself all the time. Personally I always phone my guest before they book to reassure them that I do own the villa and to answer any quires they may have I also give them my Management Company’s telephone number. I ask that a £200 non refundable depoit to be paid to secure the dates that guest require and ask for the final balance 10 weeks prior to departure along with the final balance is a security deposit of £200(refundable after the guest have left if there is not any damadge to the property)

Hi Lind

If the villa you have chosen is through this site you can be assured that the villa owner has been verified and is genuine. You could ask for the name of their Management Co and contact them to make sure they look after the home for Mr or Mrs XXXX. Most owners that do accept Credit Cards do this through their Management Co., but theirs might not offer this facility.

I am sure it will all be ok for you.

Best of luck

Don't forget that if you booked through a travel agent, you would have to pay before you go also.

Have a great holiday!

Thanks for all your answers :)

I only discovered this site today, & jumped right in [:I]

The villa is one I found originally adertised on E-Bay, (home of the bargain, & the scammers)which led me to the owners website. The website is well done with lots of info & pictures. The price on the website for August is £600pw, which is more in line with others I've seen - & out of our budget.

The villa is a new build, & the owners say the price is an E-Bay special. They have no feedback relating to the villa, as E-Bay is just being used advertise, rather than auctioning weeks off.

There is a brief mention of a management company on the website, but nothing on the booking forms. Access to the villa is via key code, so I don't have a Manager's details for key collection even.

It all looks lovely, & I don't wish to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I'm such a cynic I can't help but worry.

Hi Lind,

I am not a villa owner but I have rented many villas, I would suggest you go with a villa from this site as advised above then you have peace of mind[msnwink]

Been twice
Rented from here
everything fantasic

Need I say more

To be honest £400 per week would barely cover the utility bills and management fees never mind a mortgage, taxes, and keeping the villa up to standard.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by lind

There is a brief mention of a management company on the website, but nothing on the booking forms. Access to the villa is via key code, so I don't have a Manager's details for key collection even.

It all looks lovely, & I don't wish to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I'm such a cynic I can't help but worry.
[/quote]

Even if a villa has keycode box the owner will still have an MC to look after the house while you are there so should be able to give you their details.

However if you are still nervous ( and at that price I can understand why) you should try finding a home via the three sites above where you know the owners are for real.

For peace of mind I would also look at renting from one of these 3 sites. You don't want to spend from now until August worrying about the villa you have rented. This happened to us a couple of years ago - We didn't know if the owner actually owned the villa he was advertising. It turned out that he had owned it but had to sell it due to unforeseen circumstances. We ended up in one of his friends villa. The villa was very nice but we spent quite alot of sleepless nights worrying if we had got a place to stay and we definately lost our confidence in the owner.

I know there are plenty of genuine sellers on ebay but to be honest I would not think of renting a property off ebay for my holiday, I just worry that it is too risky, but I do buy lot of lower priced items and have only had one occasion when it just wasn't up to scratch.
I would be far happier renting a property via a verifed site like this one were you know that the property is genuine.

I have to agree with all the others, you cannot do better than rent a villa from one of these three sites.

However, I can understand your hesitancy. I cannot understand why anyone would want, or need, to rent out their villa for such a paltry sum at the most popular time of the year, and a £200 discount is a huge amount.

As Caroline so rightly says, that sort of price is not enough to pay all the bills, let alone maintain high standards.

A trip to Florida is something that many of us save for and plan for a long time. It is certainly not worth trying to cut down the cost of one's accommodation and risk being very disappointed. It is very true that you get what you pay for, and to be able to return each day to a beautifully maintained and lovingly equipped villa is one of the high spots of a trip to Orlando, and well worth the extra.

Cheap villas have to cut corners somewhere - it may be pest control or lawn care, pool maintenance, not adhering strictly to the licencing laws, not replacing worn out or damaged items, or a combination of all of these.

If you have any doubts about this 'bargain' then take a look at what is on offer here before you make your final decision.

I am a home owner who is unable to advertise on any of these sites due to the long waiting list. I would suggest if you are concerned, that you ask the owner to provide proof of ownership and existance of the property. This is something they can do quite easily and you can also do your own online verification on the property appraisers website. I hav'nt added the link, as I am not sure if I am allowed to post it.

Belinda,
I am not going to beat about the bush if you are prepared to risk £800.00 of your hard earned money
renting from ebay not having all the facts, without being 100% certain they are genuine, it could be the holiday from hell.
A member of this forum a few months ago discovered someone advertising a villa on Ebay as a special,
displaying photograghs of her home in place of his.This person did own a home but was using photograghs of a superior home to rent his home.
At the end of the day it's your money,your choice. I would'nt risk ruining my family holiday renting from ebay.buts thats only my opinion.
You may have a tight budget,we all have budgets to keep to,but the home that will be yours for two weeks is not where you should be trying to make a saving, many other ways you can achieve this.Buying all your park tickets from a reputable company such as this one http://www.park-tickets.com/ will make you a saving,this way you can afford to spent a little more on your accommodation.
What ever you decide is best for your family Good Luck,have a great holiday
[msnsmile2][msnsmile2]

Belinda
Welcome to the site, hopefully by the time you have finished we will have been able to reassure you on most points.

The address and keycode virtually all owners give out these details on payment of final balance. As thsi is generally between 6-12 weeks before you travel this is plenty of time to check you're coomfortable with the driving directions etc. The reason we have to ask for payment upfront is, in the main most of us own only one home, therefore can accept one booking per time period and the home is then advertised as unavailable. Should the guest (for whatever reason) then be unable to complete the booking (many of our guests book 18 months in advance to secure their dates so things change and is why we recommend travel insurance to cover cancellation).

If the guests are unable to travel and we have to readvertise those dates then we need as much time as possible to try and achieve that to ensure the fundsto keep our homes to a high standard. Unlike hotels, we don't have funds coming in from other rooms to offset any no shows, and also don't get the benefit of "walkins" as they may do.

We also get asked why guests have to leave a security damage deposit, unfortunately not all guests are as respectful as we would hope and whilst accidents happen and we make allowances for that, general hygiene and sheer negligence cannot be left without the person responsible has to be responsible for the consequences.

As you say , you're putting a lot of effort into checking out the place and make sure the whole place is right but we do ask our guests as well to appreciate that trust is a 2 way street and whilst you may be trusting us with around £1000 for a typical 2 week holiday but we are, in return,entrusting our homes worth in the majority at least around $250,000. Even if only a small amount of damage may occur, if it means the home is uninhabitablefor a few days before the next guest can arrive then it has another knock on effect as we have to pay for somewhere else for the guest etc.

I hope by answering your questions honestly you can see that we are in the main trustworth people and by verifying where you are going to be etc.

If you are unhappy about cheque payments you can find many owners who will either take credit card payments or use Paypal to pay by credit card if it makes you feel more comfortable.

Hello Lind, welcome to the forum.
I have a home in Sandy Rdge, as you say they are all very new and are beautiful homes, so I can only agree with all that has been said before, £400 does sound very cheap[msneek] and I think you have good reason to be cautious.

With regard to credit cards not all villa owners have the facility to accept credit cards directly, but they should certainly be able to accept credit cards via payapal.......especially if they are advertising on ebay[msnoo]

I hope you are able to check out things to your satisfaction, if not, then don't do it!!!!!!!
If things do work out OK have a really fantastic holiday[msnsmile2][msncool]

As an owner who is on the waiting list to advertise their villa on the above sites I have to agree with alistair. Contact the owner and ask for verification about the villa. I would be happy to have as much contact with my renters as they needed.

A warning was put out on a villa owners site earlier this year the there is a scam targeted at people trying to get a bargain holiday for nothing. If the deal sounds to be to good to be true it is. Villas are let at a certain price to contribute (and I use the word contribute as most villa owners actually run at a loss) If you come across a deal that is much lower than the market rate ask your self why.

If you bought a CD from Virgin you would pay a similar price for the same CD in HMV, Woolworths etc. But if you bought the CD in the market for half the price I bet its either nicked or a conterfiet. Up to you but I agree with everyone above. Look to these forums. They may be a little more expensive but at least you will get exactly what you are paying for and will not have sleepless nights worrying about your holiday before you go or worse of all finding that when you get there you are sleeping in the back of your rental car!!!!

hi Lind
I agree with what everyone has said above ,
check it out its a long way to go to find that you haven't rented the Home you have payed for
there are lots of beautiful homes here on the three sites
to look at and have all been check out by roger and john

You cannot do better than look at the sites recommended above. You will have great choice and a lovely time choosing the right one for you and your family.

Jill