Anyone used Owners direct? what do you think of this place?

[MeMyselfAndIt]

We are looking for a holiday but wanted to book something privately we were thinking about this place?

Anyone booked through owners direct? where did yo go? do you recommend it?

My parents advertise through owner's direct, but in France.

I am currently looking at lots of gîtes etc for our holiday, and would recommend ringing to get a feel for the owner and the place.

They will tell you lots of things that aren't on the site and you will get an idea of what they are like.

Up until now I've always emailed places but have found recently that it's much more useful to have a chat.

And a google of course!!!

We've used Owners Direct for years - Italy twice, Greece, France and Majorca. We've never had problems - except that at the France place the slightly nuts owner moved out of the house during the summer to rent it out, and lived in a converted shed in the garden. So she was a constant presence, and had obviously been in the house while we were out.

Your place looks really good - I can't see a problem with it. Good that you can walk to restaurants - we have ended up in the back of beyond sometimes.

We have booked with them for Oct- going to Lanzarote. The place we are going to ,we have been before ,but different apt and tour operator. Decided to book through them as it was so much cheaper.
Our apt is C2386- more at that resort on owners direct.

thanks all seems good then, good advice about calling them as i would have just emailed to be honest.

We have 2 young children who will be 5 and 8, we just want a quiet break with a pool, a beach and obviously somehwere to eat etc.

Flossie that place you are going to looks really nice, what is the weather like in october over lanzarote or fuerteventura does anyone know?

When we were there last year it was between 28-32c . Fuerteventura is windier though so would feel cooler I think, evenings we needed a cardigan /light jacket sometimes.
Loads to do for the kids where we go and a nice distance for a wander for a meal at night.

Sorry my grammar was awful in that post.

ive used them (owners direct) and its always been fine. ive found it much cheaper than a tour operator, ive always found flights first then found a villa or whatever.

that apartment looks really nice.

Other one we were looking at was this one here

there is sooo many places to choose from it's so difficult..

I advertise on Owners Direct and think it's a good site. I have booked a couple of places through them too, both good. I would def give them a call, if you can - I am always happy to talk to possible renters, esp as the site is not always flexible enough to include all the info you would like. FWIW - I like the look of the 2nd place you've linked to, although I would check what the railings etc are like round the upper sun terrace if you have toddlers.

we have booked thro' them too.
we looked at afew then emailed the ownerss and asked for the google earth co-ords. they were all happy to send them and we booked P3739

The only problem about an owners' site (not necessarily this specific one), is that you only get the owner's description of the property, and - in our experience - this only described the positive features. It neglected to talk about the mouldy bathrooms and poor electrics which meant that all the lights kept fusing.

We paid a fortune for a house that looked beautiful from the outside, and the rooms that were shown in the ad were all fine. The ones not in the ad left a lot to be desired.

There was no indication that the house was by a main road.

There weren't enough chairs outside for us all to sit and eat (we had to borrow one from the aged parents who lived on site - a lot closer to the house than had been suggested in the ad), and there were only 4 loungers round the pool despite it being advertised as a property for 10 people.

Thankfully the weather was so shit when we were there that we rarely sat around the pool. Still, the owners couldn't be blamed for the weather!

When there's no agent to assess the properties and set the rental, you do have to read very carefully between the lines.

We've had one very good experience as well as the one I've described, but the bad experience has put me off using an owners' site again.

I've used owners direct a couple of times without problems. Its worth googling the place as well to see if it brings up anything.

We usually use them with no problem.

Coincidentally our last holiday was to Caleta de Fuste and for once we didn't book independently, we got flights and mini villa from alpharooms, I think. We stayed in an villa/hotel complex which has recently been built so clean and pleasant and very close to town and beach, also quiet and cheap. It's:
here

Puffling! I stayed there when it first opened last February it was lovely we were one of only 4 families on the site and daughter was the only child!!

Converseley booking that holiday was what made me book our next hols through sites like owners direct as the company we used basically just put a package together that I could have done myself (thomas cook flight, hotels4u booking, resort hoppa transfers).

Anyway yes - googling a property and looking at reviews is always a good idea do not be afraid to ring up and ask questions I must have driven the woman at our next rental mad ! The site only shows a few pics so I was worried what teh rest looked like but was sent some more photos so i guess its all going to be ok fingers crossed. Google earth is great for working out how near to roads etc and dont forget google streetview isavailable in lots of places!

We advertise on Owners Direct and get lots of enquiries and bookings through the site.

Another similar site you could try is holiday-rentals .co.uk. This is owned by the same company as Owners Direct (HomeAway) and operates in the same way but there is a section where past guests can post references. The owners can't write the refs themselves as it all goes through the administrators.

We've gone through Owners Direct before and some of the places we've looked at have reviews on TripAdvisor.

Have used holiday-rentals.co.uk several times. Booked a ski apartment in france in March this year and have two gites in dordogne booked for July. Have always been pleased with properties booked, have generally been even better than website suggests.