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| Using This Guide |
The Villas For Rent Guide has been designed to help you search for a villa or holiday home, and book with ease. For those who have not used this site before, or are new to renting holiday homes directly from the owners, the following guidelines will help you.
Finding a Property
You can list the villas for rent by the number of bedrooms in order to make it easier for you to find the size of villa or holiday home that you need. Often extra sleeping accommodation is in the form of sofa beds, so a 2 bedroom apartment may sleep up to 4 people. You may wish to consider a larger property, as sometimes these are not always more expensive.
Contacting the Owner
You will find all the contact details (e-mail and web-link) for the owner at the side of each advertisement. If you are e-mailing, please give your name, e-mail address, telephone number, the number of people in your travel party, and most importantly the dates that you are interested in. If you have any particular requirements or questions to ask, there is room on the contact form for this. Remember that some of the adverts are from private owners, and that they may be away from their e-mail for a few days. Most will respond very quickly, but if you do not receive a response within a few days, you could telephone them.
The Booking Process
Each villa or holiday home owner will have their own way of making a booking but, as a guideline, you should expect to pay a deposit to secure the booking. These amounts are usually between 10-25% of the total rental. This is normally paid by cheque or Bank Transfer, and the owner should confirm the booking on receipt of your deposit by letter or by e-mail. The balance is normally paid around 8 weeks before the start of your holiday. Sometimes a breakage deposit is required with the balance. This is refundable at the end of your holiday, less the cost of any breakages and metered charges for gas/electricity/telephone, if they were not included in the rental price. Please check the cancellation terms with the owner at the time of booking. Deposits are often non-refundable and they may have a sliding scale of charges for last minute cancellations after the balance has been paid. We recommend that you ask for any term and conditions in writing.
Arrival
Make sure that you have the property address and directions. These are normally sent to you when you pay the balance. Some owners may send a key in advance, some may live on-site, and be their to greet you, whilst others may have a local representative or neighbour who will greet you (in this case please make sure that you have the owners, or their representatives telephone number so that you can inform them of any delays in your arrival time).
Problems
All owners should leave instructions at the villa or holiday home for contacting them or their representative. If you find that you have a problem during your stay, please call them immediately. Either they or their representative will have the local knowledge to put this right as soon as possible. It is essential to discuss any problems or difficulties on the spot as this gives the owner the chance to ensure that your holiday is not spoilt. Please do not leave your complaints until you have returned home.
Enjoy!
We ourselves have enjoyed many holidays renting accommodation directly with private owners, and we at Villas For Rent Guide hope that you do.
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