Owner's referrals

[CJakob]

I've carefully looked for all your site with a whole of info and am currently contacting an owner for renting a house.
However, I was not able to find a history log of previous renters of any house so as to have any referral from a previous user of the house as it's used in other community sites (eBay for example) where you check for a reputation.
Is there anything equivalent in your site? if not, why isn't it?
Thanks for the patience from this newbie.[msnwink]
Cristian.

[Carla]

This site has something much better than ebay's system. It has the Verification system. In order to join/remain as an advertiser on any one of the 3 OV sites, our homes have to be verified and then re-verified every 6 months. This involves the site owners checking with official records that that home is bona fide and actually belongs to the owners named on their advert page.

Therefore all guests have a guarantee that any home owner they contact is genuine and that the home is genuine. Ebay cannot give you that kind of guarantee since it doesn't check out any of the advertisers.

[Genie]

After all the the scam stories I have read lately I would be very careful of doing something like that from there. A lot of owners like myself have brand new homes so not previous rentors history would be available. But as Carla says everybody is verified and checked very carefuly so there should be no problems with anyone on here.

[huckleberry house]

Hello Cristian

As Carla mentions all the homes on these sites have to be verified so you can be sure that you are renting a genuine home from a private owner.The owner of any home you may be interested in should also be able to let you have a guest reference or previous guest comments should you ask them but please remember it is a two way street and as much as you are trusting the verified owner they are also trusting you as a guest to look after their home and belongings worth many $000K. The beauty of renting privately is the direct contact you will have with the owner and you can ask them as many questions as you like and they will always be happy to answer any concerns you have.



Have a great vacation, Lesley

[Cruella DeVilla]

Cristian,
As the others have said it is very safe to rent from any of the 3 associated sites here. We have all had to prove the house belongs to us.

Recently someone on EBay was advertising a house that was not theirs and that is fraud, that wil not happen here!

The owners are entrusting you with their beautiful home to and it is a two way trust.

Hope you find what you are looking for.

[hamptonlakes]

Like everyone has said all the owners that advertise across the 3 websites are fully verified and this is the verification process all owners go through every 6 months.

Villa Verification Scheme - Book With Confidence!

Booking a home for your vacation for the first time can be quite daunting - you will be asking yourself important questions such as does this house really exist and will my money be safe?

To address this important issue, we have devised a Villa Verification Service. Look for the Verified Villa logo against vacation homes on this website:


To be accredited with the Verified Villa logo, the villa owner provides us with:

Villa owner's home address and telephone number
Villa address
A recent utility bill showing the villa address
We will then verify the owner is correct by cross-checking the villa address and utility bill against official County records. If there are any discrepancies then the logo will not be awarded.

Note: We does not offer any guarantee of any sort beyond these checks. By having the Verified Villa logo you can expect to be viewing a genuine vacation rental home and that the owner is genuine. We act as an introducer between the guest and private villa owner. Once initial contact has been made, all future dealings are direct with the owner. We do not offer any financial security, insurance or guarantee in respect of any transactions you have with any of our owners.

We believe that all the homes advertised on our website are of the highest quality, and we are not implying that homes without the Verified logo are not as good as those with the logo.

[chris c]

Booking a home through this site gives you a guarantee that you would not get with many other rental sites.
Nearly all owners take great pride in their homes and actually care whether or not their guests are satisfied!
[msnsmile]

[Ann]

as i have told some of my rentors in the past when being asked for previous guests refferences
i could give you 10 emails addresses of friends of mine who will all tell you what i want them to you have no way of knowing they are genuine
this way at least you know the home is genuine and the owner is a real person

[ClareC]

Hi Christian,

You may also find that the home you choose has its own website with an online guest book on. We now have a guestbook and we always invite previous guests to make a comment about their stay. I have found most guests are happy to do this as they know how it feels sending their money to a complete stranger.

However, as has already been said, if you are choosing a villa from this site you need have no worries.

[tuzanne]

We have a guest book at our villa which we ask guests to complete and sign when they leave. We intend using their comments to put on our website when we next go over.

However, as everyone here says this site is very strict about letting you advertise your villa. It took me lots of emails and scanning of loads of documents before they would accept us as owners. It was a pain but I can now see the value of it.

Sue