Owners Direct help please and paying

[nappyzoneloveslindor]

Hello hope you can help - about to book a property i have seen on owners direct in isle of wight - anyhow they asked for a £300 breakages deposit which is payable when pay remainder of monies which i thought was extremely high so negotiated to £50 - are they normally so high??? Anyway that aside to pay the owner is suggesting i do a bank transfer but really for protection i want to pay credit card - any idea how i can do that?

Thanks

Must admit I've always done a bank tranfer when dealing direct with an owner. £100-£200 breakages deposit not unusual.

thanks orienteerer - i wonder if normal travel insurance coveres us for private lettigns eg post office?

bump for anyone else..... please

If it's a private owner then they are unlikely to have the capability for you to pay by card -we've always done the direct bank transfer. Breakages in my experience are normally £100-£200.

Check the small print on your insurance, you should be fine but all policies are different.

We only charge £100 for our breakages deposit, but I have thought for a while now that we should maybe ask for a little more as £200 seems to be nearer the average now. We use bank transfers or cheques, but can't take credit cards, and this is quite normal for people renting out holiday homes.

You mention wanting to pay by credit card for protection, are you worried that you won't get your holiday for some reason? I only ask because we advertise with Owners Direct and we had to provide proof that the gite existed - utility bills etc. Not sure if that reassures you at all.

I paid by bank transfer - I think it was 10% of the holiday price as a deposit. No breakages deposit, but depending on the standard of the house I don't find £200 - £300 unreasonable. Many holiday homes have DVD players/TVs/stereos that would cost more than £50 to replace if damaged.

Thanks for the reassurances - we have exchanged a few emails now and all seems above board i think so paying £300 deposit bank transfer plus £50 breakages when remainder is paid. She has now said she has a Wedgewood dinner service so think we will take our plastic picnic set in case . Am all excited now - thanks all.

Most owners don't have facilities to take payment by credit card.

Ref security deposit, in my opinion 50 pounds is far too cheap. I own a rental property and used to only charge 100 pounds until a few months ago when a guest set fire to my oven, completely destroying the cooker and burning most of the units surrounding it. It cost hundreds of pounds to get fixed and the guest denied doing it and I was left considerably out of pocket