Villa rental

[prugone]

We have been visiting Florida for some 40 odd years and since the early eighties have rented homes rather than 'on site' or hotels. I thought I would post my recent experiences on here as I'm wondering whether I'm getting a little out of touch. Years ago it was a relatively straightforward exercise, there were a limited amount of options compared to today and it was simply a question of choosing a home at the weekly rate quoted in the advert. As I say, simple. Over time we noticed the system change. Booking outfits appeared on the market and additional charges started to be added to the quoted weekly rates. We started to use people like Owners Direct and HomeAway because of the range of properties there were able to give us but it never seemed quite as satisfying as dealing direct with the owners. Looking to book for our three weeks in 2020 (March/April) we again returned to the HomeAway website and started to seek out available homes. I was struck by the number and amounts of the additional charges that are now stated in addition to the basic weekly home rental. Things like 'Admin Fee' (apparently an extra if you want to pay by credit card), 'Stay Tax' (that one I completely understand as owners have to pay this), 'Service Fee' (this is for the 'service' provided by HomeAway covering such things as safeguarding your payments) Don't you get that with credit card payments?. Then I came across 'Cleaning Fee' and was faced in some cases by an extra £200! (villa owners, please tell me if I'm being unrealistic in thinking this is a 'little heavy'). One villa we were interested in for a 9 night stay came in around £2,500 on the Homeaway website. When we messaged the manager with a few questions and a request for the total costs paying by c/c, the answer came back with an increase in the required rental fee to £2,800 of which £1,900 was the villa rental! HomeAway seem to be in the process of 'gobbling up' the opposition but is this market domination making them greedy? (Am I right in thinking they are owned by Expedia who in turn are owned by Facebook? If I'm wrong I stand to be corrected.) I am not using this post to knock villa owners, we have had some lovely holidays in beautiful homes that the owners obviously take a pride in sharing. I fully realise that costs such as cleaning and pool heating have to be paid for. My beef is with what I will term as greedy corporations who have cottoned onto a burgeoning market over the years with the intent to rip off the customers with ever increasing 'fees' which I'm sure are supplemented by additional 'fees' payable by the owners. Am I right to think this way/

[Lisbon]

You are much better off booking direct with the owner. The fees for all the big sites for owners are rediculous and the fees seem to change all the time
Rob

[Gryff]

As Rob says the big sites charges for renters are ridiculous and owners never see any of it
My clean for a 4 bed 3bath almost 2000sq feet is $90
We always quote with taxes fees cleaning included only extra is pool heat but we don’t take CC

[martyn7836]

I’ve been booking villas for the last 5 years and years before that it was my parents job. I use home away and VR360 to find the villas then I message them and ask for Facebook/Twitter or direct email save filling out enquire form every time. After I get in touch direct I see what the owner wants to rent it out. For instance the one I’ve just booked has just been renovated on home and away the overall cost including all those stupid extras you mentioned was £1900 plus a security deposit of 260. However by talking to owner direct he has a offer on for English booking direct with him which is £30 cheaper per night and also included free pool heat the total. Comes in at £1450 so I’ve bitten his hand off.

Just try to get them on direct email or through another route sometimes the owner would prefer to deal direct sometimes they will want to go through a agent for security etc I’m not sure what they get charged by them

[Moorlandman]

AirBNB is a little cheaper than Homeaway but I agree with the above posters and book direct with the owner if possible

[bighal]

We used to like homeaway but since they got bought out by expedia the charges have rocketed. The villa we are using this year we booked direct with the owner after finding it on homeaway.
Time to find a new villa search service me thinks.

[Pagan8c]

I've just booked direct with owner and saved a lot of money on similar villas on big companies. Also was able to pay via PayPal with my CC so covered as well just for a few extra pounds. Looked at lots of villas but as the OP thought they were mad prices till I picked up a couple of tips from The Dibb.

[steve@mac155.f]

Now that Home Away are owned by Expedia and they have bought out a lot of other listing sites they have gone mad on the extra charges to the renter and also the owner, it is a shame really as HA was a good site at one time but now it has just got greedy i suppose it is the same with all large companies as the share holders want to see a return on their investment.

I no longer list on HA or any of it's other sites as i did not agree to the higher charges to guests and i also did not like being told how i had to do things to advertise on their sites.

Steve

[McSleepy]

Owners Direct had always direct contact with owners.

They were then bought out by HomeAway and the move towards automatic booking and charges.

Then last year HomeAway were bought out by Expedia and they have gradually added charges. We had all taxes included in our rates. At the start of this year out of nowhere they added the taxes. We had to make adjustments to our rates to prevent guests from being charged taxes twice.

To be honest we only use it now for US guests and deal directly with UK guests.

[Majik]

This is the reason that we do not advertise on these large sites. By booking direct with the owner you will avoid these charges and also get to know the owner of the villa. We like to build a rapport with our guests for their benefit and ours.