Villa-with-pool rental

Any good tips/recommendations? We stayed last year in a Pierre Vacances place in Cannes, which was great, but we thought this time we%26#39;d like room to swing a cat and perhaps have a pool to ourselves. Any good companies out there (I%26#39;m a bit chicken to go direct with a private owner!)

Thanks for your help

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Hi

Going direct with the owner maybe going with an English expat - not too scary. Some of my friends use this company to rent their places through www.holiday-rentals.co.uk, others (going direct) use chez-nous or I have used inter-home. Some of my best finds have been in The Lady or Sinday Times.

Good luck

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Gosh what a slip of the fingers Sunday!!!!

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Thanks for the thought, but its the lack of back-up if anything goes wrong I worry about - I can speak French. I did once get a cottage from the Lady (in this country) but would hesitate to do it abroad - at least ehre it would only have been a 2-hour drive home at the worst!

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So are you looking for a complex that is owned by a company with resident staff?

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No, I%26#39;m happy to be in a private villa (i.e. not sharing a pool with the owners) but with a local agent or a number to ring if I get there and it hasn%26#39;t been cleaned or something

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Easy then all of the above. Everybody who rents out has to have somebody looking after the place and to hand-over keys. I have never come across a place than has not had somebody local to sort out problems - just cannot function any other way. If you find somewhere interesting just ask the question %26quot; How near is your local representative?%26quot;. As I said I know several people that use holiday-rentals to rent out their places. Just have a look at them and chez-nous and inter-home to get some ideas. Do all your homework. If you do not know the area try to find out as much as you can by google and posting here.

If you want to go with a local agency chose a resort and then google it to get the phone numbers of local agents.

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Thanks J-Bart - good tips

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We%26#39;re investigating the same questions, as I%26#39;ve always used gites de france or a UK ABTA bonded agent before. I%26#39;m wary of handing over large amounts of cash, in advance, to a stranger who claims to have a villa to rent, so what safeguards should I look out for?

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OK I%26#39;m trying to understand, I don%26#39;t see the difference between gites de france and inter-home (with offices in France), holiday-rentals and chez-nous? Perhaps you may not be comfortable using private advertisements but using a UK company just means that you are paying that company for an advertisment and the pleasure of dealing with them. Speaking from personal experience the villa next to ours was rented through a well known UK holiday villa company. They came round once a year to count pictures and cushions ( OK I exaggerate slightly) but apart from that they did nothing but market it. The cleaning and maintenance were taken care of by the owner. When the owner got fed up of the company%26#39;s demands, cushions and pictures, she advertised it with holiday-rentals. Same set up cleaning and maintenance but now without the less than helpful English company. The English company was in no position to sort out problems and they did nothing if something happened. Yes in all circumstances you may get a disaster, one year the hot water failed but it was the local handy-man who sorted it out. When the drain bloked I sorted it. There is no way a having an English company would have made any difference. It is ensuring that there are people available on the spot to sort out problems.

I%26#39;m sorry you are probably talking to the wrong person as I would always go direct and it must just boil down to personal preference and what you feel comfortable with.

Whatever happens I hope you find something that you feel right with.

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JBart It%26#39;s really helpful to hear about rentals from the owners%26#39; point of view, but it%26#39;s not actually the nuts and bolts maintenance which bothers me, it%26#39;s the money! How do I know that a private rental actually exists, in the condition described,and what recourse do I have if I%26#39;ve handed over several thousand euros in advance, probably in cash (so no claim on a credit card either) and I don%26#39;t get what I expect. Looking at somewhere like chez-nous, for example, they are clear that the contract is with the owner and chez-nous have no liability. And I%26#39;m not actually impugning dishonesty to anyone - just that I like to consider the worst case scenario before taking the decision.