Villa cancelled in July

[Vinniecat]

Fist time we went in 2003 our villa was cancelled three days before. The English owner was staying the week before us and was taken ill suddenly so couldn't fly home. Their management company informed us and offered a better villa at no extra cost. I didn't realise how lucky we were at the time.

[debste]

think yourself lucky,a few years ago 6 of us hired a villa,we had been there a couple of days when there was a knock on the door,on opening it ,it was the sheriff who was issuing a foreclosure on the property,as the owners hadent paid the morgage for about 5 months.as it happened this didnt affect us stopping at the villa as they had time to appeal it.but it could have been a lot worse.

[scoobydooby]

Originally Posted by Magnificent

I have mixed emotions here.

On the one hand ...

From both a renter's perspective, and an owner who does their level best to do all they can for their guests, I completely get where you're coming from. The vast majority of villa owners are trying to do the right thing by their guests. I am anyway, and that would continue should I ever sell - which I have no plans to.

On the other ...

There are always two sides to every story, so I wouldn't want to be seen to be too quick to judge other owners too harshly in this situation, without putting things into context. The context I'm afraid for many villa owners is they don't cover costs (only question in most cases is by how far), so an owner in that situation is often not selling out of choice (insolvency or illness usually the two main reasons for sale), and therefore is often not cancelling out of choice. It can take several months to sell and several months more to 'close' the sale - and the time both take are very difficult to predict. This means that if the owner is insolvent or ill, they may simply not be able to pay to run a villa (even my 3 bed villa costs £700 per week to run) while waiting months for a sale to go through without bookings.

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To be honest I have zero interest in a villa owners solvency position. If I have paid for a service I should be legally entitled to receive said service. Villa owners shouldn’t be renting if they can’t assure the service they are advertising.