Keep stressing that we will travel 600 miles by car to South of France only to discover that there is no villa. Check out this website for me - does it look 'legit' to you?

[handlemecarefully]

www.luxurybreaks.co.uk/luxury_villas_France_Cannes+-+Cote+D%27Azur_6_35_1.htm

We have already paid the deposit and are about to pay the balance in full. Am probably being completely ridiculous and OTT but I can not seem to shake niggling doubt that we well travel 600 miles by car with 2 small children only to find that we have been done.

Am I being ridiculous? What are you impressions of the website, does it look okay to you?

There is certainly a lot of detail on it...which is reassuring is it not?. But it seems to be run by a one man band (he is the only guy who answers the phone)

That in itself is not cause for suspiscion is it? Is it?

Also there is no hard copy brochure of properties (is that an issue?)

Bonded. that's the key ask what financial protection organisation they are registered with. If they keep refering to that bolarks verification logo, be warned as they could be selling fish ponds, means nowt/newt!

other travel nancial protection schemes are www.fco.gov.uk here.

Companies in the Uk who sell accommodation only should be registered as such and have leagl duty to have a bond with either
AITO,FTO,TTA,ABTA etc....See above link.

ATOL is the best and required for holidays with air flights sold as a package with accommodation. (In simple terms, variations withheld).

Its all to do with the unfortunate event of insolvency and you lossing your money.

But book with who you like, like Aloha..god luv her.
If you are loaded and it doesn't matter.

I would check out all the details before parting with the full amount.

littlerach you need to report this

enforcement at cpg dot org dot uk.

They will hopefully give you some advice but quite importantly need to be aware of scams going on in the trade.

ATOL Enforcement Home Page

I think it's possible ATOL is for those selling flights or packages and if it's just the villa I'm not sure it applies but I might be wrong. If you have the number to call the villa direct then I would call the owners tonight, now and say you were checking they have received your deposit and get them to check etc.

www.luxurybreaks.co.uk/luxury-villas-france-Valbonne+Cote+D%27Azur-273.htm

This is the property - if indeed we ever get to stay there!

In future - I will making all holiday reservations (am more cautious than dh) and will look for ABTA accreditation

Xenia that's right ATOL is with the caa and is for holidays booked in UK that includes a flight.

All air holidays should be ATOL protected.

If you can call the villa direct to see that they have a record of your booking and they have received some sort of depsoit I would do that.

Look out for TTA - which is bonded and prob the best. ABTA is more commonly heard of, but does not mean the best. God it is a nightmare and I wish I had time to explain it all.

I've booked loads and loads of holidays off of sites like holiday-rentals and other specialist villa hire sites and have never had a problem.

However, it might be worth ringing the number of the property just to check it out.

If you want an insurance policy then book a cheap Chambre d'hote now for the night you arrive and then a classy hotel with a 24hour cancellation policy for teh rest of the holiday. As soon as you arrive, assuming the villa exists, ring and cancel the hotel.

All it will cost is a night in a cheap Chambre d'hote. Worth it if you;ve travelled 600miles

So much, please take out travel insurance that covers loss of money due to unfortunate event of insolvency with your booking agent.

I expect it will work out, but as littlerach has experienced some are not all what the appear to be.

Soapbox - I am liking the insurance policy of classy hotel with 24 hours notice cancellation

I can't ring the number of my actual villa - not specified on website btw!

even ask for their registered VAT address.

They have a mailing address on the website. Do you have any documentation?

Just an emailed receipt for our deposit

Any Company Registered No or a VAT Number?

If not, call them and ask tomorrow and say you want it. End of.

[Wotz you are so assertive ]

TnOgu

have work head on (now you know)!

OK, I don't know if this helps or not but we booked a villa 4 years ago via this website - it was about £1200 and we had to pay a big chunk up front too, the rest was due in cash on arrival, and the whole thing was done via email, fax and mobile phone; when it came to getting to the villa we had to ring the bloke locally and meet up in the car park at a random McDonalds just outside Marbella.

We got our McDonalds confused and hung around for ages thinking we'd been ripped off, but once that was sorted we met up OK and the villa was lovely.

Golffit is an entirely Spanish set up, no UK guarantees at all, but it was fine. SenoraPostrophe did kindly check it out for me as far as she was able, and that was reassuring, but unless you're going to go with an entirely British company (and sometimes even then...) you just have to trust people.

Good luck, hmc

We're going to Antibes too in August. I wouldn't worry too much. We always book direct with owners and it is a bit riskier than booking through a travel agents but it also halves your costs.

PS That link I posted keeps popping up with a weird message box (stack overflow) but it goes away after I click on it about 10 times...

handlemecarefully - If you have paid with a credit card you will have some cover from your card company if things go wrong. Still all might be OK (not really running around causimg doom and gloom) but you did ask in op.
Normally card cover up to £1.5k. depends on each account and credit company.

Those of you that like to rely on trust and goodwill when handing over large amount so of money to websites, you are probaby too good to be true to a scammer. Be cautious thats all.

old news from last year but worth adding here I think

[thought you were in bed ]

It was bugging me

But the alternative is to hand over much larger amounts of money to companies like T Cook...we've had holidays now in 4 great places via fairly random websites

Good point. Credit card protection and you've paid a UK company in the UK so it should be easy to claim even if they've gone under.

I'm fairly sure that the villa he has advertised in Umbria was renovated and is part owned by a very good friend and busines partner of my mother. In fact she is currently in California going over the finances of several properties she is doing with my mother. I will ask my mother to ask her tomorrow (middle of the night here in California) about the luxurybreak company. I'll report back as soon as I hear. I'm sure it will all be fine.