ABTA...??

[Dawn Ashfield]

Hello

I'm new here to the forum and I have been browsing the website and some of the Villas are absolutely fabulous!
Some of them look a bit too good to be true...
Because of this I was wondering, how secure it is to book a Villa on here?
I don't mean to cause any offence but I would like to know if it happened to fall through, would there be any compensation given back to us?
I ask this because I have noticed that the website doesn't have the ABTA logo on it, to say that it is secured if the company goes bust or what ever...
I would be very grateful for your help.

[blott]

Welcome to the forum Dawn.

When you book a home via one of the Orlandovillas websites, you can be sure that the owner has been verified as owning the home they advertise. You will be dealing with a private home owner if you make an enquiry or a booking via the Orlandovillas sites so the viability or otherwise of the websites isn't in question. Individual home owners will not be members of ABTA as that costs an awful lot of money for an individual owner.

However, if you book via somewhere which has ABTA membership, then you're likely to be paying a lot more for something that you can rent direct from an owner. You're also likely to be talking to a member of staff who has never seen the home that they're selling and knows nothing about it - in some cases, they won't even know which home you're renting until you arrive in Florida. When you rent direct from an owner, you can ask the owner any questions you like as they are the experts on their home.

All the individual home owners on the Orlandovillas sites have lots of extremely happy guests - I'm sure that they would be happy to let you have references from previous guests for your peace of mind.

[Dawn Ashfield]

Ok, well thank you for that information.
It was much needed, I guess it's just hard to believe something that is so nice like some of these Villa to be real!
I am literally in awe with some, they are just perfect.
We are planning to go next Summer for 3 weeks, we have been before but only for 2 weeks and that wasn't long enough.
So hopefully this time we should be able to relax and enjoy the wonderful world that is Disney and Florida.
=D

[ellie]

I am sure you will find your perfect villa here, Dawn, and I hope you have a great holiday. As you say, two weeks is never enough! [msnwink]

[Snapper]

I know this is a daft question, but does ABTA membership provide security against a travel company going bust? Or is it more a code of practice / code of conduct for its members?

ATOL (Air Travel Organiser's Licence) does, I think, require their members to provide a bond which they use to secure against the failure of any of their members ... buuutttttttt ... doesn't this guarantee only apply to accomodation if that accomodation is booked as part of a package through an ATOL accredited business?

And if that's the case, then Dawn - for your holiday planning, to have ATOL protection, this would mean that you would sadly be put into whichever villa the tour company chose for you, and you wouldn't have the choice of the top-end of the villa range, as you get from the Orlando Villas family of websites.

Errrrr, I think?

I think some of this changed a year or two ago as well. Happy to be corrected if anything I've typed above isn't right. It's an interesting topic ... in a 'should get out more' kind of way. [msnsmile2]

[Katys Grandad]

There is a discussion on a similar question here:

http://www.orlando-guide.info/forums...48&whichpage=3

I think the simple answer to your question on whether there's any inbuilt protection is "no" but the instances of people having problems with direct rentals are rare. Yes, there is a risk, but it's a pretty small one.

Even so, if that's absolutely the most important thing to you then you need to find an ABTA bonded agent and book with a credit card.

[steph_goodrum]

Booking with a credit card (our Visa backed debit card also has the same protection) even without an ABTA backing would afford some extra protection as the credit card company (or bank) would have a joint responsibility to ensure the goods are supplied and fit for purpose.

Many owners have the facilities to take credit/debit card booking through either their MC or Paypal so it is often worth paying the charges to acquite that protection. We often do that with our flights if we are booking a way in advance as the difference in paying the charge is often the same or less than booking through a travel agent with their mark up would be anyway.

[kitch50]

Hi Dawn
Welcome to the forum. We have been using OV as villa guests since 2001 and also thought the very first time that the villa would probably be to good to be true, the villa was beautiful, and exactly how it was described on the site (actually it wasn't, it was sooo much better) and we were hooked, we stay at the same villa everytime we go now.
As we booked the rental of the villa for this holiday 2 years ago (we go in 14 days, can't wait), I actually rang the villa owner (a very nice lady, you know who you are[msnwink]) earlier this year because we were worried about the current financial situation and the fact that a lot of villas were being sold off and she was more than happy to answer all my questions and to alay (i hope that is the right spelling) all my fears.
I hope this helps you decide what to do, for myself, I can't recommend this site highly enough [bowwave].

[Dawn Ashfield]

Thank you for all the warm welcomes.
I appreciate all the information given to me.
I am sorry if I did cause any offence, it was not so much due to lack of trust in the website as to insecurities about the finance side of things. I am also very glad that you have had successful holidays for many years with this website.
That is also a deal breaker for me, you have me convinced to book on here. Also whilst I'm here, could anyone suggest a good website to get good deals on car hire please?
Thank you all once again for your responses.
It should hopefully be all booked up by this time next week.
=D

[blott]

No better place for car rental than here. http://www.floridahire.com/

And park tickets too. http://www.park-tickets.com/

We've used both for years and the customer service is second to none!