Booking with TripAdvisor

[Ditsyprint40]

Has anyone booked a villa with trip advisor?

We keep going though the 'request to book' process, with the 24hr window for owner to reply, but they keep expiring with no response.

Can multiple people request to book a place on the same dates, or does it become 'unavailable' once someone has requested it?

Nightmare! Plus my bank is reserving the deposit, so I can't keep requesting to book!

If you don't get a reply from an owner within 24 hours then book somewhere else.

My advice would be to find a villa you like and then try to find the owners own website and book direct, it will be cheaper as trip advisor take fees, and you get to talk directly to the owner to ask questions.

you will most likely find the same villa on owners direct website. if there is a villa you like google its name and see what comes up.

having said that most villa owners who are good will be checking daily for e mails and bookings so would say that they probably aren't that efficient if they haven't come back to you and therefore might not be so efficient with other things to do with your booking.

Absolutely agree with both the above posts. As an owner, we get regular updates about response times - if it starts to drop below 2 or 3 hours they want to know why. Something is not right if they haven't responded. As frechfancy says, google the name of the place you're interested in and contact them directly - you'll save a fair bit of commission.

I booked an apartment and the owner came back straight away. They may be away or something though. Tripadvisor seems to be much the same as owner direct- just an ad site really.

We booked an apartment by Lake Garda via Trip Advisor this year. We made a shortlist then "emailed" them using the "Send message" button to check availability and get a feel for whether we felt comfortable with the owner. That way you're not wasting effort/cash flow on non-responders. I think the first one we chose was booked by the time we went back to them. The second was successful and we had a lovely holiday. There was quite a bit of comfort around paying via Trip Advisor too. We have used Owners Direct in the past too. We've had no problems (and lovely holidays) but always felt a bit nervous until we had the key and apartment door open!

I tried a few on HomeAway, Owners Direct and Holiday Letting this year and either didn't get a response or the price was much higher than advertised. I then booked a villa through Booking which is supposed to give you a guaranteed price but a few weeks later got an email from the owner saying she couldn't honour the price Booking had given. We eventually found somewhere through HomeAway where the owner was very efficient and reasonable. I have used these sites in the past with no problems but feel a bit more cautious now. I would try some different sites and be prepared to contact a lot of places to find one you are happy with.