Owners Direct reviews

This review has been reported to customer service by a Trustpilot user 15 May 2013 for violating other Trustpilot Guidelines.

Customer service is in the process of investigating this review.

Following this investigation, it will either be deleted or returned to Trustpilot.

See our review guidelines here.

Beware before signing on as an owner of a rental property!!

I have been calling and writing the "Managing" Director and his partner for over a year (!) to get a response and a phone call back. They have no customer care and completely ignore complaints or questions for clarification.

I have been an advertiser for a few years now (this will be my last year!) and was told when we signed up that the properties were all rotated so that, although we were a long way down the listings one day, we would be on the top on other days. After a few months, I looked at the movements and recorded what page we were on- it stayed the same, in fact, went down as new properties were added. I wrote for an explanation and was told:"Thank you for contacting us. Please accept our apology in the delay to replying to your email. Our Head of Development has been out of the office and in order for us to establish the reasons for these results we need him to investigate the issues you have experienced." This was in June last year. Since then they have been on holiday, out of the office, blah blah blah. No intention at all. I will not advertise again and I would strongly advice paying property owners to look at other sites. This company is part of other web based companies, so check it out before you part with your money- you might be paying them twice...!

First class service

My friends and I have used this site to find villas 6 times in all and have never been disappointed. We are searching for this years holiday at the moment.

Thanks Owners Direct for all your help.

brilliant

I have used owners direct three times.Never been disappointed villa's in florida were great

Top-Notch Site for Property Owners & Travellers

We've listed our properties and used OD for booking holidays for many years now.

From an owners perspective, the site is easy to use - the interface for managing adverts is simple and the ads themselves are attractive. The site generates a decent level of enquiries for us at a reasonable cost.

From a traveller's standpoint, the site is easy to navigate and the adverts clear & logical. We've booked at least half-a-dozen properties through OD and it is always our first point to begin a holiday search.

It is worth remembering that OD themselves are just a listing site, albeit a very well managed one: they are not a holiday company. As both owner and traveller, I would always recommend calling a property owner to verify that they are bona fide before parting with any cash and to seek evidence from past guests in the form of reviews (most properties will have something like reviews on Tripadvisor these days).

Overall, very happy indeed with Owners Direct.

Jon Doust
Owner, Vendée-Vacances,
France

great for places to stay in fuerteventura

i recommend looking through owners direct as we have found some lovely villas and apartments when we go on our holidays to fuerteventura,so easy to use and always quick replies ..we would never use a travel agents again

Great selection of places to rent

I used Owners Direct to rent an apartment in Majorca and the whole process was quick and easy. Would definitely recommend booking through them!

Great places to stay and quick responses from owners

I was recommended the Owners Direct site by a friend and have subsequently used it to look for a last minute weekend over Christmas and a summer break. At first I was slightly worried about having to liaise with owners to work out availability. However, it worked really well and even in mid-December, owners were responded to my availability requests really quickly so it was very easy to narrow down choices over a 24 h period. We rented a gorgeous villa in Italy for a summer holiday - the owners (based in Edinburgh) were really helpful and every aspect of booking, getting directions and keys etc worked smoothly. We will definitely come back to the site to look for other holiday destinations as there is so much choice.

Love this site!

Have always found it really useful and easy to use. Booked my last holiday on here and can’t wait to go!

Easy to book and great value for money!

A friend recommended Owners Direct to me. It was very clear and easy to navigate, I quickly found the villa in Spain that i wanted by using the advanced search function; and I could check availability and book online - score!

Great cottages and an easy to use site

We recently stayed in a great Owners Direct Cottage near Leeds Castle. The property was to a very high standard and we couldn't have been happier. We will most definitely use Owners Direct in the future. We like the site and the huge range of properties from which to choose.

No less than three brilliant experiences!

I have stayed in three different Owners Direct properties and all have been brilliant! The properties were even better than I imagined from the photos and descriptions on the website. We found a beautiful place in the mountains in southern Spain, a delightful apartment on the Amalfi coast, and a very cosy and convenient city hideway in Granada. The owners were really friendly and helpful - they were on the end of the phone if we needed directions to the property or any assistance throughout our stay, they met us at the property when we first arrived, and in one property they had left delicious homemade food and wine to make us feel really welcome. I would recommend this company to anyone looking to book a happy holiday!

Absolutely recommended!

Absolutely recommended! Great site full of lovely holiday properties in Cornwall from caravans, to lodges, apartments, cottages, houses and many more!
A massive choice of holiday accommodation, from budget to super luxurious!
I’ll definitely be using Holiday Lettings Cornwall again when planning my next holiday in Cornwall! Thanks!

Thanks for Wonderful holiday

Hey Guys, I am glad I found you guys to book my holiday villa. I can see some people had bad experiences but Millions other are very happy like me. Cheers

No assurances - fraudulent agents like Katie Hall at Boho Ibiza Villas!!

Dear Boho Villas / Owners Direct

This is a copy of a complaint letter sent to Boho Ibiza Villas the agent and Owners Direct in September 2012. To date no response has been received from either party.

Phone correspondence meant Owners Direct said they had no responsibility and could not even contact the owner. No use or comfort in using them at all. Go through a reputable travel agent!!!

Complaint detail below:

We have now had a chance to reflect on our appalling stay at Villa Harmonia and having sought legal advice we are following up in writing in the hope that we can resolve the problems and inconveniences we experienced without having to go into legal proceedings.

Firstly we are deeply disappointed that since our return the £800 security deposit paid on 31st July 2012 into Katie Hall's personal UK Rotherham bank has not been refunded. Please ensure that this is actioned within the next 5 days otherwise we will be forced to take legal action regarding this.

As you are aware we were in regular correspondence with you prior to our arrival in the early hours of 5th August and at every request be it by phone or email to both myself and my husband we were assured that Boho Villas were an established and reputable travel management company. Your website (www.bohoibizavillas.com) boasts management of 10 luxury villas and your emails stating that your portfolio contains 6 managed villas on the island, of which Harmonia is one of them. Your credentials purport over 15 years travel industry experience. All of these facts were the reasons we were assured of the validity and reassurance of the property as to who we were dealing with and why we continued to book this holiday through yourselves. We advised both verbally, via email and our completed booking form as requested, that our party of 8 consisted of a family, including elderly grandparents in their 80's and teenage children and we were not a group of clubbers looking for a crash pad or a stag/hen do party. We were extremely concerned that everything went smoothly with this holiday given the fragility of the elderly guests travelling out to Ibiza.

In the week prior to our arrival we were sent the wrong welcome pack magazine which gave details and directions to a different villa, Bohemia. Only when we queried this did we then receive the correct welcome pack on villa Harmonia (30th July 2012). All contact details given to us in the emails received 30th July stated a management team at Boho Ibiza Villas, which consisted of 4 names Katie, Caroline, Jutta and Nadia with telephone numbers for both Katie and Caroline.

We were met at the villa in the early hours by Kate, who apparently is your PA. Unfortunately she had no knowledge whatsoever of the villa, its facilities and how to operate any of the domestic appliances. Obviously in August the weather is extremely hot and after travelling we expected to be able to relax into one of your "luxury best picked properties", detailed as a "luxury", "beautiful" and a "magical" villa and a "truly amazing sight to behold". This was certainly a truly amazing sight to behold, but unfortunately for all the opposite reasons to "luxury", "beautiful" and "magical"!! It was immediately apparent that there was no hot water or air-conditioning, as well as no instructions for the operation of any of the domestic appliances ie, cooker; generator system; or airconditioning unit. There was no welcome pack / manual folder in the property whatsoever. When we asked how to get these appliances working we were advised by your representative Kate, who had a complete lack of knowledge either purposefully, or as a result of no training or background information, that she did not know how things worked or where things were, as she was just your PA. This has become a very popular phrase repeated throughout the week by Kate. When asked if there was a BBQ she said she wasn't sure. Every other question was met by a suitably vague, non-committal response. Due to the lateness of our arrival and the fact that the outside lights were limited as your representative did not know where all the light switches were, we agreed verbally that she would send somebody out first thing on the Sunday morning to rectify the air-conditioning and lack of hot water problem. It was extremely obvious that Kate's only desire was to get away from the villa as quickly as possible to go out for the evening with her boyfriend who was waiting in a vehicle for her and who never offered to assist in anyway.

We foolishly continued, in good faith, to hand across in cash the requested balance payment of €1,650 and accepted the keys. Upon our further walk into the rest of the stifling hot villa we found each and every room to be tired, worn out, old damaged furniture and old, worn dirty bedlinen on the beds. Where you state that the villa is a "distinct bohemian feel" and "The decor is rustic and bohemian with Spanish antiques mixed with modern furnishings" and again purport that "All the rooms have been lovingly professionally interior designed" I can only drop my mouth in astonishment. Whilst we have an appreciation for antiques there is a significant difference between tat and quality antiques which would sell for some value - I can only say that nothing in that villa would have any value even collectively. Modern furnishings, I can only imagine that we are talking the difference between civilisations in history as nothing in that villa was modern and if the explanation of having tables and chairs of some description equates to modern then maybe you are correct in this phrasing. There was not even an electric kettle! Before retiring to bed, we attempted to have showers in order to try and cool down, however not only with the lack of hot water 2 showers out of the 3 bathrooms did not work at all.

On the Sunday morning a local Spanish handy man arrived who did not speak any english, which made it difficult to discuss usage of any of the appliances or instructions on how to operate. He managed to turn on the generator which allowed us hot water and to get the air-conditioning working in each of the bedrooms and main living room. This is something we would have expected our holiday representative to have had working for our arrival. It transpired though that in one of the bedrooms the unit was not safe to use as it was pouring water out of the electrical console. This was discovered after a full suitcase on the floor in the corner of the room below and its contents had been completely soaked. We had to put large saucepans underneath the unit to collect the water and kept emptying this every few hours. The problems with the 2 showers not working seemed to be left that the handyman would return the following day (Monday) and replace shower heads and fix the dishwasher, which we also found to not be working properly. Once the handyman had left, we also then found that we did not have sufficient and usable cutlery, cups, plates for us all to be able to eat at the same time. When sitting at the kitchen table one of the old "antique" kitchen chairs literally fell apart and I sustained bruising to both my legs where the broken side struts on the chairs had cut into them. I am not exactly heavy (around 9st) and all I was relieved about was that neither of our elderly guests had suffered this experience as with irregular heart beats the shock and pain would have been enough to ensure we would have had to find a local hospital.

At this point we called Katie the owner of Boho Villas. Following several voice messages left for Katie we finally had a call back. Having updated Katie on the problems that we had encountered since our arrival, she seemed somewhat bemused and certainly gave the impression that she didnt feel any of the problems were a real issue and we were advised repeatedly that nobody else had complained! We explained that we felt the villa had been mis-represented in the particulars and a good example of this is that one of the pictures in the welcome magazine on Villa Harmonia (3rd picture down) is simply not taken from the villa in question and shows a beach view through a trellis edged balcony - total mis-representation and illegal. After further pressure Katie agreed to replace the crockery and bedlinen and bring these to us the following day (Monday). We were advised that there was nothing more that she could do other than this gesture as there were no alternative villas available that she knew of on the island.

On Monday, we got up early in anticipation of the handymans return and waited until lunchtime. He did not appear. We also did not hear back from Katie, whom we'd expected to see or at least hear from with an update. We left the villa early afternoon and returned around 6pm expecting to find that items had been replaced and fixed as requested as promised. Upon our return we found nobody had been all day and nothing had been resolved with the dishwasher, faulty air-conditioing unit, showers, kitchen chair, kitchen utensils/crockery, and bedlinen still in the same state. We were appauled and upset that nobody was taking our concerns seriously and reacting accordingly. There was no communication whatsoever. There was also a complete lack of urgency to respond or resolve anything and our 7 day holiday was reducing without us being able to actually have any sort of a holiday. At this point, we regathered our belongings and vacated the villa having locked up securely and turned everything off as necessary. Luckily we had received a return call that afternoon from a reputable travel operator back in the UK who had managed to find a cancellation villa that was available on the island. We left the villa and called to secure the booking of this alternative villa, Casa Mar for an additional cost of £1,695. We had deeply hoped that this would be avoidable if Boho Villas had responded as promised to fix the appliances and replace crockery / bedlinen, however since our conversation with Katie, over 30 hours+ previous we had received zero communication or contact.

We waited for a further 24 hours (evening of Tuesday 7th) expecting an update from Katie. Having still heard nothing, at 20.21 on 7.8.12 we sent a message to Katie as below:

"Katie, very disappointed as we haven't heard from you or received anything you promised. This reflects extremely badly on both you, your business and the owner. You have miss represented the villa and services you were going to provide. Extremely upset and disappointed and won't be treated this way. We expect compensation for having our holiday ruined. Justin"

We had a response back from Katie late on Tuesday night to this message:

"Hi Justin I have bought you all new crockery and a kettle. I have also bought new sheets for you, they are getting washed at the laundry as we speak as they are pretty stiff if you do not wash them. Housekeepers will be up in the morning to sort for you. Thanks Katie."

The lack of communication and update to our requests at arrival to Kate and our phone call on Sunday morning to Katie is in our opinion totally unacceptable. We had at this point effectively spent over half of our 7 day holiday waiting for Boho Villas to resolve sub-standard, mis-represented holiday accommodation.

On Wednesday 8.8.12 at 11.09 we advised Katie the following:

"Katie, hadn't heard anything from you. Only have a week. Couldn't afford to mess around any longer and therefore left on Monday having found another villa that is up to standard and does meet our expectations! Need to discuss refund with you as have occurred additional costs due to misrepresentation of villa and lack of any urgency in sorting matters out. Justin ps. have retained the keys for security reasons."

Since this message was sent we have had no response from Katie to date in any way shape or form. Radio silence is not an acceptable response and reflects extremely badly on any individual or company, especially one representing customer service!!

We sent further messages as follows:

8.8.12 @ 16.23
"When do you want to meet to sort this out?"

8.8.12 @ 19.33
"Katie, please have the courtesy to reply to me please. Thank you Justin"

Calls were made to both telephone numbers for Katie and Caroline as detailed in the emails sent to us before we arrived in Ibiza and we left numerous voice messages for somebody to call us back.

9.8.12 @12.03
"Hi. Please can you call me urgently. Thanks Jo"

I finally had a response to my message above not from Katie but from Kate on the number advised for Caroline.

9.8.12 @ 12.59
"Hi there i have just missed received your message. I have a migraine so am not able to answer the phone right now. Is there something you want me to pass onto Katie?"

Whilst I have the greatest sympathy for any migraine sufferer having suffered myself with this ailment since I was a teenager I was a little surprised that anyone with a migraine, which impairs your vision, was able to concentrate to construct a text message and send this but not take a phone call. It did feel more and more as though we were just being fobbed off by Boho Villas. I would also not expect someone who was ill to have to be responding to clients as there should be someone else in the business who could cover for sickness / holidays of other employees.

Kate did then call me but she expressed that she was ill and hence the whole conversation was undertaken in whispers. I updated Kate on what had happened and advised that we were really disappointed Katie had gone radio silent. I was advised that Katie had lost her phone on Monday. Again, this seemed extremely odd given we had received communication back from Katie on Tuesday night!?! I asked Kate to reconfirm when Katie had lost her phone in case this was a mistake but was assured it was definitely Monday, which again doesn't seem plausible. It also is not acceptable for any individual in this 'modern' day and age with technology to a) not get a replacement phone and b) operate a business where the owner is uncontactable. I also asked where Caroline was as the number Kate was contacting me on was advised as Caroline's. At this point I was informed Caroline no longer worked for the business. I did ask who else was employed by Boho Villas as if Katie had lost her phone and Kate was unwell there should still be other team members Jutta / Nadia etc who could help resolve our situation. I was advised that the only person working at Boho Villas was Katie and Kate was just her PA. Kate repeatedly stated that she was just Katie's PA and couldn't help with anything. This is a deeply distressing scenario for a supposedly reputable business to have an owner who is not contactable by any means, person, phone or email and to have a PA, the face of any business, who knows nothing about the business, the clients or the properties they manage and retail to clients. At this point I was more than starting to question the authenticity of this business. I asked who it was that had the 15 years travel industry experience if there was only Katie and Kate working at Boho Villas. The response from Kate was "I don't know what it matters". I did remind her that this would mean that they were breaching their legal requirements by fabricating their business credentials and that it was extremely important as it was based on these credentials and facts that people like ourselves agree to make contractual agreements and book holidays with them, but if these facts are not true then that is legal mis-representation.

I was asked why we had not left the keys in the villa and confirmed that we would not wish for anything untoward to have happened if we had been this careless and for security reasons we had retained the keys. I asked if Katie could come and meet us to collect the keys and discuss resolving the situation without this becoming a much bigger issue, ie compensation of the costs we incurred on having to move villas. I was advised that Katie could not come to meet us as she did not have a car and that Kate had this and that there was no way we could contact Katie. The call was left that we needed to meet to return the keys and that Kate would try to contact Katie somehow and get her to make contact with us.

I followed up our conversation with a message to Kate:

9.8.12 @ 19.38

"Hi. Please can you confirm back by 10am tomorrow who will be coming to collect the keys and what time? Also, can you let me know in advance where we stand on the refund and ask Katie to contact me.Thanks. Jo"

No response was received.

10.8.12 @ 10.04

"Hi. Ive not heard back from you or Katie. Please can you get Katie to call me before midday latest and can you advise what time you or Katie will be able to collect the keys and pass on our refund. This needs to happen today. Thanks Jo"

At this point I called the telephone number for Owners Direct in the UK to try and track down 'James - the Account Manager' who was detailed as BohoVillas main contact and who was in regular contact with them. Given the experience we were suffering I was unsurprised that they had regular contact from Owners Direct as I cannot believe that we are the only clientele who have received such poor service and been disappointed and raised the concerns on mis-representation and mis-selling holiday property. I spoke with a lady at Owners Direct, called Katie. This was becoming increasingly complicated with everyone being Katie, Kate or Katie, however I was advised the channels to complain to and that Owners Direct would liase directly with the actual owner rather than Boho Villas to resolve our complaints and concerns. It was Owners Direct who then contacted Boho Villas to get hold of someone to arrange for them to contact us and collect the keys. I had a call back from Katie at Owners Direct to advise that Kate would be in touch shortly and to confirm that our complaint needed to be put in writing.

Shortly afterwards we had the call from Kate and a meeting point of Crystal Beach Bar in Playa d'en Bossa was agreed for 20 minutes time. We then had to drive down from the villa to this location point, once again disrupting yet more of our final day of holiday. Upon arrival Justin met with Kate and the keys were handed over, however when he re-iterated our treatment by Boho Villas he received the now familiar phrase "I'm just Kate's PA". When it was pointed out that surely a PA carries a degree of responsibility, he was once again subjected to continued bland responses, one of which was "I'm just a fashion designer!".

We are beyond exasperated with the extremely dire communications and handling of all of our raised concerns. We tried hard to work with Boho Villas to come to a mutual agreement that resolved some of the issues and to deal with our own disappointments during the 7 day trauma in Ibiza. However the complete lack of responses and non-action on rectifying the problems with malfunctioning equipment and sub-standard bedlinen, of which there is no excuse for things not to be clean even if they are old and tired.

Finally, one of the most upsetting points is that this is without doubt the last time Justin's elderly parents will not only join us on a family holiday, but will be their last holiday abroad and it was meant to be a pleasant, relaxing and extremely memorable week, instead it turned into the worst week abroad we have ever experienced and resulted in un-necessary heartache, disappointments and upheavals as well as additional cost to us for having to relocate. We spent the whole week trying to resolve matters and could not relax. Whilst we tried to be reasonable and ask for the cash final payment element to be refunded of €1,650 to cover the additional sterling payment of the villa we moved to, we now feel that this gesture would be unacceptable and that a full refund is required to compensate for everything that was mis-represented, mis-sold and the time and effort still having to be undertaken in seeking legal advice and writing these lengthy complaint letters to capture and document everything concisely.

We expect a response by no later than 5pm on Tuesday 28th August 2012, otherwise we will have no option but to engage our lawyer to take these matters to the next stage and seek full compensation, damages and costs.

NO RESPONSE EVER RECEIVED EVEN TO LAWYERS LETTERS. BEWARE!!!

DO NOT USE THIS SITE OR BOOK WITH MR LINDSAY BROWN!!

Was the worst holiday apartment we have ever seen. Not at all as described on the Owners Direct website. The Cornisa 5-3 apartment in Los GIGANTES Tenerife Ref:C3123 was unsafe and dirty, we stayed for 1 hour although we payed for a week. The owner, Mr Lindsay Brown from Edinburgh said we would get our money back but we never did. He even kept the security deposit so he owes us over £500. Owners direct were not prepared to get involved and they still advertise this apartment today. We are trying to get our money back via the court but the owner is definitely clued up on getting away with this sort of thing. Family holiday ruined for us, please don't make the same mistake. We will always use a site with customer reviews in future.

Owners Direct - one of the most unhelpful companies EVER

We booked a villa in the Algarve in Portugal - P3080 - for our summer holiday this year through Owners Direct. It is the first time we have used this company and it will most definitely be our last!!

We choose this villa for its secluded location as privacy and relaxation are our top priorities for our annual holiday.

The villa was actually quite nice but the main problem was the owners who “lived nearby”. This villa is clearly their own house that they rent out in summer and while that meant the villa was very well equipped it also meant that the owners where reluctant to leave us alone!! We booked the villa for 10 days and during those 10 days we saw the owners FIVE times - so much for a relaxing holiday!!

There where several things advertised which where clearly not correct. They advertised a sun terrace for private sunbathing – the gate to this was locked. When we asked about the terrace we were told it could not be used because of a new roof? A Wii was advertised for “family fun” – there was a Wii in the villa but NO games so it was pretty pointless. Weekly changes of linen and towels were advertised but we did not get this either. The owner promised us a welcome pack but, once again, this was never given. On our return home we double checked our emails to make sure we had not dreamed up this offer of a welcome pack (we hadn’t) so contacted the owners to ask them. They initially denied the offer but then, after being sent their own email, said they would refund us £20 – we never got it.

We contacted Owners Direct to tell them of the issues we had at the villa, including the incorrect listing for several items which we never received and, like others who have posted here, they told us that they were simply there to advertise the properties for the owners and would NOT get involved in any issues between the owners and the renters – they are happy to take the money for the listings but then wash their hands of any other involvement – great customer service!

We have been renting villas, all over the world, for the last 7 years from Europe to the USA and have NEVER had a problem until we choose Owners Direct.

I did ask Owners Direct why they did not have a “review” section with each listing so that people could see what other holiday makers thought of each property before they made their decision to rent, or not (this is something that most other villa rental companies offer) and was told it is something they are thinking about! I know what my review would have said if I had the option to add one – perhaps that is why they won’t add a review section because they know what will happen!!!!!!!!!!

Do not trust ownersdirect

We booked a villa in Cornwall for our first holiday with our sons but for some reason the owner decided they wanted to use the villa instead a week before we were going there so was left in the proverbial shit!!!!

Beware of OWNERS direct because they didn't care and said the owners can do what they want because there only a publishing company. The owner was Karen Croft Beware

WARNING - DO NOT USE OWNERS DIRECT

DO NOT BOOK THROUGH OWNERS DIRECT AND DO NOT BOOK A PROPERTY FROM MR CHRIS LARGE.
SERRA NOVA MANAGEMENT GROUP (SN GROUP)
BECAUSE HE IS A CROOK AND A CON- ARTIST.

We booked a villa via Owners Direct in Italy Property Reference: IT3474 Villa Casa Izabella, Near Serra Nova Puglia. The owner is Mr Chris Large (Serra Nova Management Group) SN Group.
We booked the Villa for a week in August 2012. The site miss-sold the property with a misleading and false description of the Villa. We complained to the owner while we were away and he said he would give us a full refund when we returned to the UK, however he has not given us a refund and he has not returned our 300 euro security deposit either. He will not answer our phone calls and he is ignoring our emails. We have complained to Owners Direct who state they are only an advertising site and do not monitor the properties they advertise, so therefore the site is open to abuse from unscrupulous owners such as Mr Large. We are now forced to take legal action against this man and the Owners Direct site do not want to know or help us.

DO NOT BOOK THROUGH OWNERS DIRECT AND DO NOT BOOK A PROPERTY FROM MR CHRIS LARGE.
SERRA NOVA MANAGEMENT GROUP (SN GROUP)
BECAUSE HE IS A CROOK AND A CON ARTIST.

Beware of Villa Scams

Be very wary of booking villas without speaking directly to the owners. I booked a villa (villa consuela fuerteventura) through owners direct by using the enquiry form on the site, the enquiry was then sent to the villa owner whose email account had been hacked. i received an email from sunnyrentalsspain@yahoo who posed as the property company, they answered all my questions and i booked the villa and paid for it using bank transfer. a week before the holiday i had another question and when i emailed a few times at got no response i finally phoned the contact number and spoke to the real owners who knew nothing about our booking. I ended up with no villa and the best part of a thousand pounds down. seems nobody will take liability for my data being mishandled. the police are investigating but i doubt i'll ever see my money again. I didn't find Owners Direct to be at all sympathetic. I think they should remove email forms from their site and just have phone numbers for the owners. Email is not secure enough clearly!!

Owners Direct do not use them

I booked my holiday rental through Owners Direct sent the enquiry form for the property we found and got a response from the owner ,booked and paid the full amount as it was short notice going within a fortnight.However it appears that the enquiry was intercepted by a hacker who pretended to be the owner.The advert was real the property existed.Owners Direct refuse to take any responsibility for the fraud.I am out of pocket for 2,500 pounds and no holiday.Be Warned.

Makes sense to book direct

I booked a villa in Portugal, for a group of friends in July, through owners direct. It makes absolute sense to me to book directly with the owner. The prices were very reasonable, but I suppose you don't have a travel company taking their percentage and forcing up the price booking in this way.
We had a wonderful time. The owner (Eleanor) was a pleasure to do business with, friendly, helpful and so welcoming. We were contacted after our stay to check we had everything we needed and to take any suggestions for future guests.
I will definitely book with owners direct again.

Luxury and a home from home feel

I took my son to France by ferry this month with a friend and her daughter (both 4) as our husbands couldn't get time off and we stayed about 20 minutes from Cherbourg in a gorgeous big farmhouse (http://www.ownersdirect.co.uk/france/fr4625.htm) - it was the owners holiday home and they met us on arrival and gave us a tour. They welcomed us to use anything we wanted from the larder, fridge and cupboards and there was also a plentiful supply of games, toys, books and DVDs. It made our stay so easy because everything was on hand. The utility room was great as we did all of our washing before coming home too! Renting a self catering property has huge benefits as many parents will agree it's sometimes more relaxing to eat once the children are in bed so we did just that and dined al fresco after they were asleep with a bottle of cold rose in the gorgeous garden. Arranging the trip was easy, we emailed with the owners to confirm our arrival details and had one phone call to check through finer points and ask a few questions. For families it's so simple and the choice is huge - you come home eager to plan your next trip and find another hidden gem!

Booking was cancelled

We booked an apartement in Cannes as part of our honeymoon, we booked it ages ago, probably last year in July or August and we needed it for the second week of June 2012. As you can imagine a wedding takes a lot of planning and organising so it was nice to know the honeymoon was all sorted.

I regurlarly went onto the webiste to see if the availibility calender was updated and this was not the case. I figured, she probably doesn't have control over the updating. Somewhen in January 2012 we received an email from the owner saying the apartment was no longer available for us, she advised us she had a longer let and had to accept that as we were only there for a week. The calender is now updated to show the longer let, which makes me think, if our week was crossed out people would not have contacted her to book the apartement. Obviously this has made us very aware not to go through an owners direct site again as we were very dissapointed and it was quite stressful to try and find something else which is not through owners direct. We still had time to find something but did not want to go through owners direct again, or any other website where you deal with owners direct as we didn't want to take the same risk again.Imagine if this would have happened a week before going!

I am sure it is all just luck but I wanted make people aware that a booking through owners direct is not secured.

good company had no problems

In answer to the person who wasn't happy with the owners of his holiday let. I am a person advertising on owners direct and also worry about the people using my property. I ALWAYS speak to them on the phone before making any arrangements and get an address from them which I then check out. I would advise anyone renting a holiday place to do this Louise

easy site to use

have booked several family holiday from this site and so far so good, never had a problem, have just booked a late break through them and was ;its of places and properties to choose from many with super discounts

No comeback

The problem we had was that Owner's Direct don't have any involvement in the actual lettings/bookings so if anything does go wrong you have to sort it out between you and the person you are renting the property from. We had problems with the apartment we rented in Paphos (CY1697) and the owners weren't very helpful at all - in fact we couldn't contact them directly. We had to wait till we got home to raise our concerns but to be honest they didn't care and didn't even offer us compensation/refund. To top it off they didn't return our £200 bond either and I had to chase this up - we did eventually get it back. You can't leave any reviews on the Owner's Direct website which I think is a bad thing - the reviews you see are what the owners have put on themselves (they are obviously only going to put the good ones on there aren't they?)
Just a word of warning to be careful when booking anything through Owner's Direct - although we have booked twice through them in the past and had no problems - we just had a bad experience this time. It has put us off booking through them again.

Website OK - villa owner was a fraud! Ref: B3447

Before I start this is in no way a slur on the website ownersdirect.co.uk but a warning to any potential users. We found the website useful and friendly but it is marred by people who use it to fraudulently obtain money from it's customers.

We booked a lovely villa in Ibiza through the website and had a wonderful stay. Unfortunately when it came to returning our security deposit; the owner of the villa is unobtainable. Mrs Raeburn Sidi and her husband are criminals. They have retained our £500 deposit with no explanation or contact since our departure. When we try to call Mrs Sidi; on the odd occasion when she does answer, when she hears my voice she hangs up!

The downfall of this website is the fact that there is no guarantee that you are going to get what you pay for. The website does not verify the owners or the existence of these villas.

I will continue to chase our money but I don't hold much hope.