Villa cash payment

[HOL2024]

Booked a villa with a credit card deposit but they want the balance by cash on arrival.

Villa is in Portugal - is this normal or does it sound a bit dodgy.

Have done this a few times in Spain and all was fine.

Sounds ok to me.
Its how we are paying for a villa in Italy this year

I used to run a holiday rental business and never did this as if the client cancelled or didn’t turn up I would have lost out.

I guess they’re trying to avoid paying tax on the balance. Personally, I wouldn’t do it. I live in Portugal

We had this in Spain last year...first time we've ever had to pay the balance on arrival, after years of renting gites in France.

We paid the outstanding balance on a credit card when we collected the keys from the agency, but it was a horrendous villa with a myriad of issues, and I'm glad we hadn't paid cash because we got some money back after a lengthy argument with the letting agent.