Villa

**malcolm** · 09-07-2008, 07:17 PM

Hi... It is cheeper to book direct with an owner than a travel agent as example if you book with a travel agent and pay £1000 then the TA will take upto 15% then they will contact WelcomeUSA(who have managment companies on there books to supply villas) to get your villa and they will take upto 10% and intern WelcomeUSA will contact a managment company to supply the villa and the mc will take there 10-15% and as you can imagine this leaves not much to the owner and so if owner doesnt get much the villa will suffer from lack of investment and modernisation eventualy.
I dont advertise with the likes of Virgin, FC,TC or James villas as they pay peanuts and expect you to let them have your villa for below your own running costs.
Booking direct with the owner should give you sound peace of mind in respect that you know where you are staying and what you are getting plus all the information you want on where to get things you may need and what is near your villa and where to go to get certain things you may want over there and importantly answers to any question no matter how stupid it may sound to the owner he or she will answer it for you.
I would want any guest staing in my villa to go out there with total peace of mind that they are not going there with any concern that i could have helped them with.

**ukwdwnut** · 09-07-2008, 07:54 PM

i booked direct and the owner did me a good deal, but im not sure i can trust him "malc" tho

**malcolm** · 09-07-2008, 08:06 PM

Originally Posted by ukwdwnut

i booked direct and the owner did me a good deal, but im not sure i can trust him "malc" tho

.......i am shocked

Plus from an owners point of view you can always give the wrong address if it turns out to be a "dodgy" guest.......

Another good tip i didnt mention is to think about booking with an owner who advertises on a forum based site as often you can ask if anyone has stayed in the particular home you are thinking of and see what there opinion is as dont forget they have nothing to loose by telling you about the villa but the owner has a lot to loose if they misrepresent there home in any way.