Villa rental - can I negotiate on rates for two weeks in August?

[digestiveandacupoftea]

I'm looking at renting quite an expensive villa in August. Others of a similar type cost a couple of hundred less but I do like the furnishings in this one slightly more.

Is it worth me trying to negotiate and by what %? We are wanting to book for two weeks, so although it's peak season, I wondered if I could ask for a discount for two weeks (but not very compelling as loads of people will book two weeks and it's peak season...)

There are quite a few similar villas available at the moment so maybe they would be happy to secure a booking at this stage?

Bumping this...

Always worth a punt. I got £500 of our villa a couple of years ago by explaining that it was a bit too expensive for us and that others were less expensive, by basically saying how much we liked it but as it was a group thing we were bound by price.

Friend tried it on our villa this year and they wouldn't budge but they did give us our final cleaning for free.

So ask nicely, I would ask for a discount to make it comparable with the other villas so a couple of hundred.

Booking now for August you are unlikely to get a discount. Most villas are booked up for August so if this is the villa you want I would book it now so you get the weeks you want. By giving discounts now the villa owner would simply be losing money to rent to you.

Anywhere that's good will often be booked up to a year in advance too. Unless they are desperate to sell the weeks, it wouldn't be worth their while. If they are desperate to sell August weeks, I'd be looking elsewhere...

agree with last 2 comments. we booked in oct and even then struggled to find somewhere that was available - i had made an initial list of about 10 places i liked the look of and all but about 2 were booked by oct.

Never hurts to ask though the worst they can do is say no, they aren't going to black ball you from renting it at full price just for having asked for a discount.

Thanks for your comments. You're right, it doesn't hurt to ask politely.

Weirdly the place we are going to still has a lot of availability. I think there is over supply and also it wouldn't be everyone's first choice of destination in August but we like it (we've been lots of times before).
Where do you all go that is booked up so early (just curious!)

portugal. though i noticed that some of the villa's haven't updated their availability online on the calendars - so they look available but in reality aren't.

where are you looking to go? Might be worth me considering next year, as booking this year's hols has been an absolute nightmare - but then i did have a long list of requirements to keep all the family happy

We live and run a gite in Brittany - which is booked up apart from a few weeks here and there until Summer 2014.
We've also been looking for a house in the Aquitane/Dordogne for the end of August this year for us & another family, it's been quite a search, though think we're finally there!

Nothing wrong with a polite request for a discount?

Last year we were wanting to book a villa for 3 weeks - and did ask for a discount. A couple of our choices did offer a bit of adiscount, and as these were villas costing £1500 + per week it was a saving.

In the end, however, we only went for two weeks, I didn't expect any discount for two weeks - as it is quite a standard length of stay.

But - you can always ask? I don't think the renter would be offended.

I've asked...you never know.

Dreamingofsun, have PM'd you as Portugal too. Weird that there's such a difference in availability. I'd be worried about going there if it's so unpopular but I've been lots of times and it works for us.

As another villa owner, this time Normandy, I would say it is unlikely that you will get a discount, particularly in the first half of August, but the way you ask might change that.

Keep in mind that if the owners have gone to a lot of trouble and expense to provide nice furnishings, sheets etc and are then criticized for being more expensive they are unlikely to be sympathetic.

A holiday rental owner might consider giving two weeks at the end of August a discount equal to the cost of one changeover - ie the cost of laundering the sheets and cleaning, but if at the end of the stay they have two weeks of mess to clear up they might reasonably hold back some of the damages deposit for extra cleaning.

I own a villa which I rent out and people often offer a discount. Whilst I won't normally discount for christmas or Easter I do often discount two or more weeks other times of the year.

If you don't ask, you don't get.