Anyone used Owners direct?

shaking said:
Im looking to book a holiday to Portugal and found some nice properties on www.ownersdirect.co.uk anyone any experience of them?
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Used them for a Villa in Portugal this year (August). You don't really have any dealings with ownersdirect as such as you only deal with the owner once you make the initial enquiry. Everything went perfectly for us.

If you are looking at car rental I can highly recommend luzcar. A portuguese company - Completely hastle free, all in one price, no extra insurance or excess, chils seats included etc.

Check if the property you are looking at has a review on Trip Advisor as a back up.
 
I've used owners direct three times in last few years and no problems but I would always make sure to abide by the golden rules of online (IMO): pay by credit card, don't pay full in advance and if its an unusually good deal - leave it alone!
 
...I should have stated...my own little 'don't pay full in advance' rule does severely limit your options, but if you want to depart from this just consider carefully the rest of the transaction, I.e. is there anything else you're not 100% happy with, anything that feels odd, if you are paying by cc then you still have protection (but may need the funds to find another place at last minute while waiting for a chargeback from cc)
 
I used them last year for a villa in Lanzarote. To be honest I knew the property as we were in the same resort the previous year and looked at the property as I saw it advertised after we made our booking for the package holiday.
I did do a lot research into the owners and not only emailed them but I was in contact by phone too. They lived in Cambridge UK and were very polite and nice people to deal with.
I was concerned about paying for everything before departure but I needen't have been. Worked out as one of the best holidays we've had ( 2 adults / Grandparent and 3 kids). Well worth it. Will be booking with them again.
Hope this is some help.
 
Trip Advisors are also excellent and you can view the reviews of previous guests
Browtal
 
browtal said:
Trip Advisors are also excellent and you can view the reviews of previous guests
Browtal
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Tripadvisor only has occasional reviews for private rentals from Owners Direct. Owners Direct are mostly private individuals renting out their own apartments or their investment properties. I have often rented these and as others have said with a bit of research and by contacting people by email you can make a good judgment.
I have sent rental monies bank to bank many times without any problems.
 
Both Owners Direct and its sister site,HomeAway have lots of Irish based holiday home owners advertising their Algarve villas/apartments on these sites.

As an insurance, you could meet the owner when handing over the deposit.

At least, you will know where to go if things do not work out.
 
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