Holiday Lettings www.holidaylettings.co.uk

Holiday Lettings www.holidaylettings.co.uk
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3.6
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Latest Reviews

“Terrible”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Jadau270 on 17/09/2023

Don't use this site- booked an advertised holiday for summer 2024 for Henley house in Weymouth - put in my card details to be told I had to wait for the owner to confirm - Then got a reply to say that the price indicated by the booking system does not represent the likely cost !! ie...they are not accepting bookings for 2024 as they will be putting their costs up ... WHY advertise it at all then ??? Very disappointed and will not use this site again. Not happy that I have put my card details in .. they say my card will not be charged ???

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“An apartment that ruined a holiday for two OAPs.”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Taffy54 on 06/09/2023

Do not book this apartment you have been warned: Apartment Jean Jaures 1 Massena. Promenade Anglais, Nice. Do not expect or trust Holiday Lettings to help you. This apartment had not been cleaned. Mould in the shower and on the kitchen tap. Cockroaches in the kitchen. An electrical socket hanging off the wall in the kitchen with bare wires showing. Cobwebs on the ceilings. Handles falling off drawers. Water leaking from the ceiling into the apartment. Holes in the bedsheets. Noise every night from outside the master bedroom from revellers till 4/5 in the morning. A brothel 25 metres away. Complaints made to the agency office in person 3 times. They came to clean after the second complaint 6 days later. Although they told Holiday Letting that they came the next day after the initial complaint. They are liars, as I have proof with dated photographs. Then they offered us a derisory offer of compensation and Holiday Lettings only offered a discount on their commission as compensation if we booked another holiday with them. Fat chance.

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“Don't trust their cancelation policy.”

★☆☆☆☆

written by _tom_r on 26/05/2023

Don't trust their cancelation policy. I had to cancel a stay after realising our flights would miss the last ferry to the island we were staying on. I cancelled with in 2 hours of making the booking and received no refund whatsoever. What's more they only took the payment for the stay out *after* I had cancelled. I rang up and they firstly said it was up to the individual owner to refund the booking fee not them. Then after pressing them they seemed to change their story and said it was because the booking was made 59 days beforehand and they policy only covers 60 (even though they were fine with taking the deposit after it had already been cancelled). Bottom line is they treat their customers awfully. Avoid.

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“TRIP ADVISOR !!!!!!!!!!”

★☆☆☆☆

written by JulieChurch on 18/07/2019

We have been customers with Holiday Lettings and then Trip Advisor for almost 12 years now. Initially we were very please with the volume of enquiries we received from Holiday Lettings and we felt that we were getting value for money. However ever since Trip Advisor arrived on the scene things have deteriorated. We have three properties so we are paying them well in excess of £2,000 each year but the customer service you receive is poor to say the least. They are obviously a very large company and they do not care about customer service. We have had many problems with emails which were not being delivered to enquirers when they were routed via the Trip Advisor web site. When we did try to complain, we were given the royal run around and they always say that they are going to "escalate" your complaint but nothing gets done. Recently we have felt under pressure to move on to their "commission only / pay per booking plan". They have emailed us and even telephoned us supposedly in response to our "request" when we have never expressed any interest in moving to this system. We have noticed a very clear fall in enquiries in recent months and it becomes apparent that little or no prioritisation is actually taking place now for people like us on the "old fashioned" system of payment. It would appear that they are desperate to get owners on to the new system because they know that they can make much more money that way. When the time comes for our renewals we will certainly not be staying with Trip Advisor.

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“AVOID”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Holt458 on 07/02/2019

AVOID, AVOID, AVOID - as an owner As an owner I have been with 'HL'for 6-7 years and TripAdvisor has changed the format, entirely to their advantage, to the point where I have had enough - many owners are looking elsewhere. I was a customer when 'holiday lettings' ran the site - before TripAdvisor and their greed ruined it. Specifically I find the complete lack of communication channels for owners unacceptable. Then the imposition, without notice, of a 15% booking fee that has led to an 70% drop in bookings for us for 2019. We already pay a 3% + vat charge. Then all monies are held until 5 days after client books in. A deposit paid June 2018 will only be paid to me in mid September 2019 - what other business would dare do this? I know - other USA owned giant booking site who put greed before service. TripAdvisor has turned 'Holiday Lettings' into an evil, cowardly and greedy goliath. They should consider: Step 1: establish a line of communication for owners - one that is accessible and accountable - neither a non-existent tel.no. nor an email address that never replies. Step 2: pay owners - those with an exemplary record of replying to bookings, with excellent reviews, who have only been praised by customers - on time. Owners such as myself. Step 3: curtail your greed and abolish the hidden and unfair booking fee imposed without warning that diminishes our bookings. You will not do any of this as you are consumed by greed - it's the American way.

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“Avoid this company”

★☆☆☆☆

written by DAMCG on 17/09/2018

I have outlined the details below but here is a summary of what to expect from Holiday Lettings: emails ignored as standard, hours spent on hold on a premium rate line at your own cost, a fight and a long wait to get your damage deposit back, customer service team reading from a prepared script (they are of course very sympathetic to your problems and understand your frustration but nothing gets done) no escalation to manager if you are unhappy with how your complaint is being handled - there seems to be one supervisor in the call centre but you will never get to speak to anyone more senior. They also never call you back when they say they will - they repeatedly claim that they tried calling but it went through to a voicemail which is complete rubbish as I do not even have voicemail on my phone. It's just another story on top of all the other stories to fob you off. In all, I've never dealt with a company with such appauling customer service. It is obvious that they make the whole process as frustrating and ineffective as possible so that you give up the fight and go away. Just in case you need it, the quickest way to get the damages deposit back is to contact your credit card company who will launch an investigation and that seems to do the trick. We booked a holiday rental in Portugal through Holiday Lettings for the dates 20-29 August 2018. Before our holiday even started, we contacted Holiday Lettings by email on 16 Aug to inform them that the owner was requesting that we paid the £400 damages deposit in cash on arrival. However, we noticed that a previous traveller reviewed the property on 5 Aug to say that their deposit has not been repaid and the owner had ignored all of his emails. This traveller believed that they had been robbed. We did not want to pay the deposit in cash and have the same problem getting it repaid as the reviewer of 5 Aug. We requested urgent advice but there was no response from Holiday Lettings. In the end we had to spend the day phoning their premium rate number at our cost to sort it out the day before we were due to travel which was very stressful and time consuming. In the end we paid €400 as a damages deposit to Holiday Lettings rather than the sum in cash to the owner on arrival. As soon as we arrived on holiday, we experienced problems and tried to get assistance from the owner but he made no attempt to resolve the problems with our stay. There were no chopping boards - the owner told us to cut up on the stone worktop but not to bang too hard as this will damage the stone. We didn't really want to do this because it might jeopardise our damages deposit. In all other rental properties we have stayed in, chopping boards have been provided. There was only one wine glass - we were a family of 5 adults who wanted to enjoy a glass of wine with dinner on holiday and this is not acceptable. The owner said that wine glasses had been broken by previous guests and he would not replace them. There were only 2 sunbeds - as above, we were 5 adults. 3 sunbeds are pictured in the photos of the listing of the property. Again the owner said that sunbeds had been broken by previous guests and are not being replaced. When we arrived, we found the BBQ dirty and full of ash from the previous guest. The coffee machine was also full of coffee which had gone mouldy. Again, this had not been cleaned. We had to clean both the BBQ and the coffee machine before we could use them. There was an ants nest behind the couch in the lounge. The owner told us to use ant spray but the ants still kept coming. There were also faulty items such as a wall socket on the landing, wires hanging from the ceiling in the bedrooms which looked dangerous and a faulty shower screen in the ensuite. The swimming pool also had several tiles missing and sharp cracked stones which was a real worry because we had 4 small children. There was also mould growing in and around the tiles in the pool which was very unpleasant. We contacted Holiday Lettings every day on holiday to ask for assistance. At first, they agreed to not release our funds in payment to the owner until the issues were resolved but after a couple of days, they informed us that they had looked into our case and had decided that Payment Protection did not apply and the funds were released to the owner. After this point, Holiday Lettings stopped communicating with us and proceeded to ignore all of our emails requesting assistance. We feel very let down that we experienced these problems on holiday and were not given any help from the lettings agent. We feel that the property was described as 'luxury', 'new' and 'well equipped' and we paid a lot of money to stay there but it was not as described. Therefore, we feel that a refund and an apology is required because we did not go on holiday for problems and complaints. When we returned from holiday, we lodged a complaint including supporting photographic evidence with Holiday Lettings. However, the owner immediately lodged a complaint against us on 31 August claiming that we had stained the couch and €200 of our damages deposit would not be refunded as a result. We absolutely refuted this fake claim and had to wait 48 hours for the owner to provide evidence before our damages deposit was returned to us. After this time expired, I had to constantly chase Holiday Lettings for our deposit to be returned with hours spent writing emails (all of which were ignored) and on the phone again at a substantial cost to me. After a week of chasing, I contacted my credit card company to investigate the matter and the deposit was finally returned to us on 11 September. Holiday Lettings still have not responded to my complaint about the property being substandard and I feel that as the lettings agent, they bear some responsibility to ensure that complaints are investigated and customers are reimbursed if a property is not as advertised. I would like others to be made aware of this awful customer service so that they do not have to suffer such treatment when booking a holiday. I will never use them again - I have booked several holiday rentals through Owners Direct and never had a problem. I will now pursue my claim through the credit card company because I have had no response from Holiday Lettings. And for Tripadvisor to own this company, they should be ashamed of themselves as they are taking complete advantage of people's trust in the reviews and recommendations which come from this site

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“Conveniently hard to contact ”

★☆☆☆☆

written by TerryBaxter56 on 08/09/2018

We stayed at a below par villa in Spain and gave in 3 out of 5 stars and it was a balanced review. We wondered why all others had given it 5 stars and were a bit suspicious of only 6 reviews in 6 years. Ours has still not been published and it is long beyond their time scales. I suspect it is because it is not favourable and we would not recommend the property. No response to our e-mails to Holiday Lettings. Would never use them again.

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“False advertising”

★☆☆☆☆

written by on 03/09/2018

I tried to book several different properties but when I checked with the alleged owners the price was far greater than advertised for them dates.Please avoid !don’t waste time and effort booking with them.

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“lovely comfortable apartment”

★★★★★

written by jayjay1952 on 07/08/2018

stayed with friends for a long weekend,very comfortable beds/sofas Very clean and plenty of space .Everything we needed was there, plus handy coop shop on ground floor.Although on a fairly busy road ,we were at the back so very quiet.Close to beach and shops ,what more do you want.?

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“Very poor customer service”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Spoors on 02/08/2018

Holiday leettings ( Trip advisor) seem totally unwilling to help us wdith the issues that we experienced. We would have thought that under stanard consumer protection that we would have had some reimbursementas a result of these issues. We had some initial issues with the booking not going through properly, however, this was dealt with. Our main concern was the total lack of help in resolving some quite serious issues with the standard of the place we stayed in. When sending emails questions were not answered and the response came back each time. You are not eligible for payment protection, contact the owner directly. Given that the owner had been most unhelpful during our stay, this was not going to work. Also we could not even leave a rewiew on the property since the owner had removed it from site and it was up for sale. Issues with property included bare wires on extractor fan, no catches on window so could not be opened, during heat wave, owner told us to be creative! Fire escape in heap in cupboard with no instructions. Sofa propped up on books, cushions ripped, garden furniture falling apart, carpet not hoovered properly, toothpaste stains on dresser, cracks in kitchen floor tiles and water running down wall from leaking shower!! I would NEVER book through this company again, I paid in full 7 months before the stay, which meant I could not use my credit card to help either and got no help at all.

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“Don’t book with Holiday Lettings/Trip Advisor”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Angelicaah on 21/05/2018

As a property owner HL/TA have become greedy, extremely unprofessional, don’t pay up all money and make us chase them for what is owed to us. Additionally, they have fined us several times £100 for double booking our home out when we already had it booked. Bookings appear at last minute that we know we’ve not accepted then not only do we go out of our way to quickly accommodate these poor people, but HL/TA fine us £100 take 50% of the booking, make us chase them up for non-payment and payments they seem to forget they owe us. As if that isn’t bad enough, they then allow people to leave reviews about how WE double booked them and didnt let them know until last minute. The last ones, we couldn’t find accommodation for at last minute so they were allowed to rip our business to pieces and HL/TA fined us £100 plus we have to pay £400+ for the accommodation costs it cost extra for them to find and we have been dropped to the lowest research! Therefore, it is not with great sadness but we are leaving HL/TA as they don’t have the monopoly like they like to think they have. They will ruin all businesses out of greed and stupid made up money fees and rules. Got too greedy...

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“Horrendous”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Rooneyxv374 on 10/04/2018

Initial booking process was ridiculous as we received conflicting e-mails regarding confirmation about our Accommodation. Had to contact Customer services 3 times who all spoke broken English. Received an email from owner 4 weeks later to say our apartment had been double booked. Avoid at all costs!

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“Awful awful awful. Avoid if letting property. ”

★☆☆☆☆

written by L1zDoyle on 20/09/2017

I rent my holidaycottage in Donegal via Airbnb and Homeowners abroad. Both great companies who are easy to deal. I have dealt with them for 3 years. I decided to try Holidaylettings.co.uk What a disaster! They are expensive and have no contact number for support even in an emergency. A lady recently rented my house for 2 days. She left after 1 day. Her complaints include. The grass was too wet. The insects outside might bite her. The fire was not hot at the right time. The ground was boggy. They go on in this highly intelligent vein. She complained to holiday lettings that there was no tv or wifi as listed on the advert. There is no tv or wifi which is why there is no tv or wifi listed or advertised with this property. She wanted her money back. Not happening. However holiday letting think I should return her money as "you cannot deny the renters experience"!!!! What does that even mean???!!! Try Airbnb. They answer your calls and you get intelligent locals talking to you.

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“Great Accommodation”

★★★★★

written by Talia379 on 02/09/2017

We have just returned from an 8 day stay at this small complex, the apartment we stayed in was named 'WATERFRONT' it is part of the Watersedge apartments owned by Roseanne and Ludwig Camilleri. The apartment is 2 bedroom very modern and complete with a decent size swimming pool. It is in a good position a very short walk from rocky sea bathing and about a 10 minute walk from beach in St Thomas's Bay. It has full air conditioning (extra charge) we only used one of the 3 units and the weather was very hot. It has full Wi-Fi (extra Charge). We recommend this apartment, we look forward to renting it again.

Stuffedbyhl's Comment

Written on: 26/09/2017

Duhhhh! You are meant to be writing a comment about how efficient or otherwise you found Holiday Lettings, not how nice or otherwise your rental was!

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“DON'T BOOK!”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Larax146 on 15/07/2017

Paid the deposit and then found out the property was not clean and was a disgrace, not like the photo. Now, after several letters, emails and phonecalls, they are refusing to refund my money. You have a 24 hour cool off and I unfortunately went a touch over that time. Guests that are staying in there came out to say how bad it was. Thank god I can send someone to look outside to see if it's o.k. Others can't! I was also threatened by a member of staff who left me visibly shaken. BE CAREFUL. Some pictures are not a true portrayl!

Stuffedbyhl's Comment

Written on: 19/07/2017

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“What a disgrace”
Written on: 19/07/2017 by StuffedbyHL (4 reviews written)

Be VERY VERY careful if advertising on Homeaway. First you pay a £300 subscription, then they force you to one of their booking systems that earns them another 5-10% commission. If you refuse that they suppress your advertisement so you get no bookings. In the process of issuing a County Court summons to get my money back but very hard to find the name of anyone senior… Read Full Review


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“Never Book from Holiday lettings”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Fowler497 on 09/06/2017

This was the worst decision of my life. Customer service put me in harms way by not acting responsibly and tried saying that the rebooking of a hotel at the same price was a matter of goodwill, but when in reality it was a contractual obligation. The lady owed the booking service for a previous short term cancellation. She tried to withhold my luggage when I refused to give her any money, when I told her that I paid the booking in full through ****************************** and she needed to contact them. The reason why I believe they are in part responsible for this is that they cancelled her account before I was able to get my stuff from her. 2. I was put in the default position of being tripadvisors/booking.com's agent, by having to inform her that she needed to contact they agency to see why she was not getting the money in full. I told her what she is doing is illegal and I would call the police. I guess she heard me call the police, because she threw my personal property all over her lawn and then threatened me by saying, "She is going to get her boyfriend to kick my ***."

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“Asked for private documents via email”

★☆☆☆☆

written by ScarlettSaunders207 on 08/05/2017

Booked a holiday villa and received a dodgy looking email asking for a photo of me next to my license or passport and to send it via email thought it was fake they then cancelled my villa. What company requests documents by email. I asked for another villa and they said they would need another payment. Absolute joke dodgy villas would not use them again bad company.

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“BEWARE FAKE BOOKING CONFIRMATION”

★☆☆☆☆

written by WELLS56 on 25/04/2017

I MADE A BOOKING TO SITGES WITH THIS WEBSITE, THEY SAY THAT DEPOSIT NOT TAKEN TIL OWNER CONFIRMS AVAILABILITY. I HAVE E MAIL TO CONFIRM MY BOOKING DETAILING DEPOSIT TAKEN,DATE TAKEN, BALANCE DUE AND DUE DATE. AFTER I MAKE AND PAY FOR MY TRAVEL, I GET A MESSAGE FROM OWNER SAYING SHE MADE A` MISTAKE` SHE HAD DOUBLE BOOKED, I COULDN`T HAVE PROPERTY AND SURE THAT I WOULD FIND SOMETHING ELSE. TOTAL DIS REGARD TO ANY ELEMENT OF CUSTOMER SERVICE. MY DATE WAS FIXED DUE TO ANNUAL EVENT IN SITGES. HOLIDAY LETTINGS/TRIPADVISOR WON`T ANSWER EMAILS AND THEY HAVE NO ADVERTISED CONTACT NUMBER TO COMPLAIN TO ANYONE. BE VERY AWARE BEFORE YOU BOOK VIA THIS SITE....

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“Trip Advisor and Holiday Lettings Rips off Bookers”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Sims76 on 28/03/2017

I am a holiday property owner who has advertised on holiday lettings for 10 years, in this time I have been very happy advertising with them. However since they were bought out by Trip Advisor things have changed not only for the property owners but for the booker and not for the better. HL/TA are clearly trying to force all owners to sign up to their 'free listing' which costs the owner 3% (not bad you think) and the booker up to 18% (yes thats right!) on top of the rate the owner is asking. Up until last year the annual fee an owner had to pay was £359 ex VAT for 12 months listing but they have also increased this significantly. They chanel the whole process of booking in their favour, they wish to hold all monies paid until after the arrival of the guests (I can take bookings over a year in advance) they scare bookers away from paying the owner direct by constantly stating Never Pay by Wire Transfer. As someone who has invested a lot of money and time in my holiday letting business it is frankly jaw dropping how HL is treating its owners. The most recent bullying and controlling tactic is to email owners who aren't using their 'free to list' 'rip off to bookers' rates and state that their properties would be eligible to win a Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence if they convert to this heinous/covert booking method. ALSO be aware that in order for a holiday rental to be even listed on Trip Advisor it MUST be their customer - i.e. if you don't subscribe to the HL site you CANNOT be listed on Trip Advisor (I thought there was a law against Monopolies!) I do not wish my customers to be ripped off in this way, I object to HL trying to force all bookings to take place on their terms, after all it is NOT their property! I advise all holiday makers to search for owners personal websites and book DIRECT with them. Lastly their customer service is now terrible - they employ people who are ineffectual and couldnt care less... The word is out!

Angelicah's Comment

Written on: 21/05/2018

Thank you for writing your comment. We too are holiday home owners and since Trip Advisor got on board they have ruined the whole site. We use other sites like Airbnb and Homeaway, plus one or two others and despite us being booked and our calendars supposedly syncing, they keep double booking us without us accepting then fine us for having to cancel their booking £100 each time then they dump us low in their reviews and allow the people who double booked to leave awful reviews for ‘us’ cancelling their holiday or break even though we go out of our way to accommodate them in other prestigious accommodation. Trip Advisor have also added that many charges that it’s not worth our time letting our properties with them. They got too greedy and their customer service stinks.

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“Terrible customer service”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Asiac385 on 07/03/2017

Tripadvisors holiday lettings site is a joke. Their customer service is terrible. I upgraded to a subscription account as they rip off the customers so much. They said it would take 3-5 days to get the advert active again, how it can take this long to verify a passport photo I do not know. 5 days later the advert is still not active. So I rung up and they promised it would be within 24 hours. 48 hours later and of course nothing. No phone call or anything to apologise or explain. You have to wait for ages to get through to someone and then they are just sat reading a computer and basically pathologically lying to you.

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Asked by Ladytraveller38 on 15th August 2018 Report this content
How do I contact holiday letting about my deposit? The owner says she didn’t say anything. So I should get my deposit back I have for one visit but not for the previous booking also I want to know how I get reciepts for both stays.

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Asked by Agnesh on 7th March 2016 Report this content
How is it possible to update the calendar on the existing Trip Advisor website? It used to be straightforward on the original Holiday Lettings website. I have tried many different ways but get no response. I am unable to block out the dates reserved . There is no way to contact the company . The telephone number supplied is answered by someone who does not understand or cannot reply in English. Is there a UK number with a staff of English people? I am very unhappy with the changes made to what was easy and straightforward.

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Answers (2)
Report this content everswich Written on: 08/03/2016
Hi.I found a number on the Holiday Lettings site under the help tab.Its a Uk number. Hope this helps
Report this content Mortonbyway1 Written on: 08/03/2016
Think the problem may lay with you device, I have no problem doing anything on the Trip Advisor website. But agree with you re communication channels, they really are pathetic
Asked by Lorraine2015gabbitas on 21st July 2015 Report this content
If my request was declined when will my funds be released?

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Answers (4)
Report this content StephChaz Written on: 22/07/2015
You should not be paying until your booking has been confirmed. If it gets cancelled by the owner - monies should be returned promptly. If they are not - contact the booking company and demand an explanation.
Report this content BarneyH Written on: 22/07/2015
As far as I know and understand your money will not be taken until the booking is confirmed by the owner.
Report this content Mortonbyway1 Written on: 22/07/2015
Why did you pay before you had a confirmed booking? If you have inadvertently paid, all funds should be reimbursed immediately.
Report this content Cazjack2007 Written on: 23/07/2015
Good luck on this one. We booked an apartment with Holiday lettings and they took our money. When we got there it was a shabby filthy studio. All the complaining didn't get us anywhere. No answers no refunds. Would never use this company again
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Asked by Benito6 on 10th May 2015 Report this content
As an owner, can anybody please tell me how I can cancel the Online Payment Protection? I have sent numerous emails to Holiday Lettings but am now at the end of my tether with them as not getting a reply. Are other homeowners that pay the annual fee noticing that enquiries have deteriorated, your property does not get a fair deal on the algorithm, all the properties with Online Payment Protection are all on the front pages? I have advertised 4 properties for the last 6 years and have always praised Holiday Lettings but in the last approx 6 months decline in enquiries for my properties have come to a standstill. I have been reading all the reviews and they are all negative. They are going to lose so much custom, surely they have to change whatever has caused this.

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Answers (4)
Report this content Roor644 Written on: 11/05/2015
I moved onto their payment protection system having found their fees for annual listings out of proportion with the business they generated. I have spent a lot of time responding to enquiries but have almost no bookings and only stay with them because you cannot list a "holiday rental" on tripadvisor except through them. Finding my listing on tripadvisor however proved almost impossible so I now have a separate business listing but get hidden within a sector "Speciality Lodging" so am considering closing that. Tripadvisor are obviously not as open as we all like to think as they are trying to drive the market through their own subsidiary holidaylettings and earning a commission on all bookings. They then have so many properties listed that they do not care if anyone books with one individual property as they earn from any booking. The agencies are taking over the marketing with their greater expertise and technical knowledge of how to manage the internet so the days of the independent business doing their own web marketing are numbered. My response is to use the specialist area listing sites such as visit somerset or visit Exmoor to at least get a hearing and not get ripped off as you won't disappear into listings of 10000 self catering properties. I have only had responses by ringing them, emails are a waste of time.
Report this content Mutley18 Written on: 12/05/2015
Hi I too have had a very sugnifficent slowdown in enquiries from last year. I agree that Holiday Lettings may loose custom (mine included) You are right to say that it seems that all Holiday Lettings are interested in is revenue. I will be looking for another company.
Report this content Cazjack2007 Written on: 16/05/2015
They are only interested in getting the money. I don't think they even have a customer service because no one ever replies I think any letting agency would be better than this one
Report this content HerbieKefalonia Written on: 27/06/2015
I pay an annual subscription and like you have found that my enquiries have reduced drastically. I did take out an annual subscription with Owners Direct and within 2 weeks had a booking confirmed for 2016. This has paid for the subscription and all I can say is that after 7 years of staying with Holiday Lettings I will NOT be renewing my subscription with Holiday Lettings. I am certainly not going onto the payment on line method so that in order to keep my prices for the customer at the same level I have to reduce them by up to 15% in order that Holiday Lettings get their cut. They do nothing to earn a commission, not even checking that the villa exists. I reckon the only way they will see sense is if everyone does the same as I am doing.
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Asked by jerrymartin on 8th April 2015 Report this content
I am an owner registered with them. I am unable to set the seasonal prices as no calendar comes up and although I set the dates in correctly it comes up with incorrect dates. Can anyone help me?

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Report this content anonnnnnn Written on: 09/04/2015
Make sure you are using the Chrome browser - their site seems to prefer that. They have told me they test using that browser but oddly, the staff use FireFox. Weird outfit.
Report this content BarneyH Written on: 09/04/2015
As a consumer and not a property owner, I'm not sure I can answer you. But, I would check the website and look for the address of the webmaster and ask his advice.
Report this content Agnesh Written on: 07/03/2016
I have found myself in the same position. It used to be very straight forward to block out the dates on the calendar but now nothing happens when you click on the dates! Nobody replied to my emails and the telephone number supplied was answered by someone who neither spoke good English or understood the question.
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Asked by Abersochpropertyowner on 4th February 2015 Report this content
As an owner - I am trying to get a personal answer to many e mails sent to Holiday Lettings- after receiving a "robotic" style e mail response each time - which was totally irrelevant to the questions asked. Does anyone know where I can find a proper e mail address (Review Centre won't allow the the email address on here) which I can contact Holiday Lettings? I would be very grateful. A very disgruntled property owner

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Report this content SteveandChris Written on: 04/02/2015
I am not an owner but a consumer. However looking at their web the only way to contact is on a contact form. I would go through the Rent your property one and tell them if you don't get a personal response you will withdraw your property,perhaps even threaten them with Watchdog (I find that works well) after all there are plenty of other sites. If there is a legal issue try your local consumer office. Never had a problem with as a consumer and always received answers to my questions from the owners but that could be automated too! Sorry it's not really any help, but good luck. Regards
Report this content Middleton2 Written on: 04/02/2015
It would be great to instigate some sort of owners' revolt against Holiday Lettings to try to force them to improve the service they provide to their owners. I fear HL are now more interested in acting as a lettings agent and therefore in earning most of their revenue via the payment arrangements they offer holidaymakers; certainly they're no longer interested in us suckers who simply want to pay a fee to list our properties on their site. But without us, they'd have no business so not sure how all of this is going to end up. Despite excellent TripAdvisor reviews, I now seem to get fewer and fewer enquiries through HL so I'm disgruntled too. Anyway, last year I did manage to get through to HL by phone and spoke to someone. Hope this helps.
Report this content awdtuts Written on: 04/02/2015
I advertise with HL too.They are the worse company in the world for getting back to anyone despite numerous emails. Their Customer Relations are terrible and they are by far one of the highest charging Holiday Rental companies for people like us. The complaint or problem emails that you write to them are never answered fully (if at all) and so the process starts all over again as full satisfaction not acheived. They are a very arrogant company making 100s of £Millions per year but will not spend any money on rectifying paying advertisers problems. You will find that if you call the line for New Business they are keen to answer the phone then but not for any other reason. When you are in touch with someone, tell them how bad they are at getting back to people and rectifying faults that lose us money and waste hours of time. I hope you get some satisfaction from this poorly organised and uncaring company.
Report this content capdan Written on: 04/02/2015
We had lots of problems , along with many others, as a villa owner. We were let down and withdrew from their site. We found Facebook was the best way to get a response but promised phone calls do not often materialise from them. The final straw was when a client of ours who had booked our villa could not pay through their site. Holiday Lettings advised us to cancel their booking, a couple of weeks before they were due to arrive and get the client to pay us via a different method. This made us look unprofessional but luckily the client actually believed us and we then dealt directly with them. All I can say is good luck finding a phone number is never easy everything appears to be hidden and made as hard as possible. We would never deal with this company again.
Report this content melek Written on: 05/02/2015
Oh dear very infuriating. I advertised with them for many years until they were taken over by Trip Advisor. I had so many problems and getting a sensible answer from a real person with decent English skills was one of them. I am now with Owners Direct who are much better (and cheaper) and I am also busier. Sorry I can't help but I wouldn't waste your time with them much longer. They just seem to be getting worse. Good luck x
Report this content denisedarwent Written on: 06/02/2015
Hi, I had a very similar problem with this company. The only way is to write on their facebook page about the problems you have. Be a pest, when they remove your comments, write it again on a Friday afternoon. No one seems to look at it until Monday morning. This is the only way to get an answer to your question. Good luck
Report this content Jocelynel Written on: 06/02/2015
I was recently trying to get a reply from HL about a query I had. Yes, they reply a completely wrong answer, it's like they don't read your question. In the end it took 3 phone calls and many hours to sort out my issue. The first 2 customer administrators hadn't a clue what I was asking, but luckily the 3rd person knew exactly how to help, she was amazing. One of the administrators actually hung up on me.
Report this content Cazjack2007 Written on: 09/02/2015
You can contact them on Facebook Hope this helps x
Report this content anonnnnnn Written on: 09/04/2015
Its is best to move over to the "free entry" option, where they retain a small percentage of the booking value. I have been told anecdotally that the "free" entries appear higher in the search results as it makes more money for HL. With the paid-for adds, they already have your cash and do not earn more from new bookings.
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Asked by Lynlou on 14th June 2014 Report this content
How can I find information to change my email details and password, I am an owner?

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Report this content Middleton2 Written on: 16/06/2014
Go to your Dashboard, click on 'Account' (top right of page) and click on 'Your account details' in the drop down menu. Hope this helps.
Report this content mrspence Written on: 16/06/2014
Simples, if the answer is not in front of you then simply send an email requesting advise.
Asked by TessK on 8th April 2014 Report this content
I have just called Trip Advisor and have been told that Holiday Lettings are owned by Trip Advisor Media Group.

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Report this content wallypott Written on: 09/04/2014
I'm not sure what your question is, but that is the case, and it has been to the detriment to the quality of the Holiday Lettings site sadly.
Report this content anonnnnnn Written on: 10/04/2014
From a hosting viewpoint, the two sites are sort-of connected together - but reviews are handled exclusively by Trip Advisor.
Asked by TessK on 7th April 2014 Report this content
I have booked a holiday home in France and it wasn't until I had paid that I saw their booking fee! Why isn't this display before payment?

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Answers (11)
Report this content biggles53 Written on: 08/04/2014
HL used to be a super user-friendly company. They now belong to Trip Advisor who are out to grasp every penny they can.
Report this content notholidaylettingsfanclub Written on: 08/04/2014
There is nothing that is "friendly" about this site. For the customer this is a less than subtle or transparent approach. For the owner it is another annoyance to add to the lack of proper customer service, the inability to offer proper advice to your clients, complicated charging systems, unreturned e-mail queries and hours on the phone on hold as you try to get your issues sorted. I would happily recommend a site that comes high in the search engine results, offers decent customer service, is linked to Trip Advisor and offers a transparent pricing structure. This is not my description of HL. I am happy to pay the owner's commission to them and it is not an attempt to take from them what their due, but it is entirely understandable if a customer sees a property on HL then tries to book it elsewhere.
Report this content TessK Written on: 08/04/2014
I have been in touch with Mail Money this morning and they are calling me back. I will not let this rest until some action is taken. They are based in Oxfordshire and I asked Trading Standards to investigate. There are so many people on here that have had issues and someone must answer to this. .
Report this content wallypott Written on: 08/04/2014
Because they don't want you to know that you are paying more than the owners are receiving. Since being bought by TripAdivsor, Holiday Lettings has more or less railroaded owners into accepting their booking fee option, by decreasing visibility of properties that pay the (expensive) subscription formula. Not only this but the owners now only receive your payment 48 hours after you arrive, which makes running a holiday home difficult in terms of cash flow.
Report this content melek Written on: 08/04/2014
HL were a fab company for many years until Trip Advisor took them over. This is why I stopped advertising with them. The difficulty is some advertisers choose free advertising and then pay a commission to HL and the customer (you) pays a fee to HL. It is a total nightmare. The advertisers other option is to pay DOUBLE the yearly advertising fee than they used to. So, to be fair, this is not the holiday home owners fault although maybe they could of warned you. Interesting, they are not only upsetting owners but customers too.
Report this content phil1edinburgh Written on: 08/04/2014
Be wary of using Holiday Lettings because their guarantee is not for everything just that you get into a place. If you book a 4 bed apartment and when you get access it is filthy dirty and only 2 beds with camp beds for the rest holiday lettings say that is not their business and they will not return your money.
Report this content awdtuts Written on: 08/04/2014
Some property owners are up front with their fees and others are not. It's always best for potential guests to contact the owner direct and ask the fully inclusive price. That said, it should not be ambiguous as to how much the total cost should be when a payment is made. Everyone should be able to know the full amount to be paid and in advance of any payment made. Holiday Lettings is just an advertising company (a very expensive one I might add) for private and commercial individuals. This means that not EVERY cost is dispayed on their webpages about individual properties as that is up to the property owner. There are still many faults with Holiday Lettings and also the information on thier pages. Another prime fault is where they show a cost per night. For a £700 week say, they simply divide this by 7. This would indicate a £100 per night. It doesn't work like this as though. Sometimes cleaning costs may be £80 or so. The owner would not make a profit gaining only £20. When people ring up and get a price of say £400 for 2 nights they question the original figure shown on the Holiday Lettings blurb and rightly so. Any figure quoted on Holiday Lettings should always be questioned and an email got from the owners showing a full breakdown of all costs before any payment is ever made.
Report this content gma001 Written on: 08/04/2014
I didn't encounter any fees but had major problems with the couple I rented from in Gibraltar and as I have rented numerous properties throughout Europe vowed that I would not book through Holiday Lettings again.
Report this content denisedarwent Written on: 09/04/2014
Hello, There is a lot about this company that is never on display. Unless they have had a full change of staff members, then they don't offer a customer service after. Don't even try to phone or send an e-mail, they either don't answer or are rude if you phone. We booked a house letting through them to take students to London. They took our money through pay-pal, then I noticed that pay-pal had taken the money from my account and then refunded it. I phoned Holiday lettings to tell them and they said they would deal with it. Of course they did, they cancelled our booking, 3 weeks before we were due to go. When I phoned again to try to sort this out, I got nowhere, finally I asked to speak to a manager, I was told I couldn't, and they wouldn't give me the name of the customer service manager. That must be top secret! The only way to get an answer is to post your complaint on their facebook page, but do it after 6pm on a Friday, so it's there over the weekend. I did and got the deposit back, it took a while, but stick at it. This company should be avoided at all costs. If you want an answer from them, do it through facebook. Good luck.
Report this content JL2010 Written on: 09/04/2014
I advertise with HL and I can only agree with the comments of biggles53; "HL used to be a super user-friendly company. They now belong to Trip Advisor who are out to grasp every penny they can." Other owners, like me, are generally totally fed up with them, and I hardly get a booking through them now, wheras Homeaway get me lots of business, and their systems actually WORK. HL operate a bit like Ryanair in my view, and that is not a complement. Avoid advertising your property with this unprofessional shambles of an apology for an agency is my advice.
Report this content anonnnnnn Written on: 10/04/2014
The site is a bit of a pain all round from a hosting viewpoint. Getting any sensible support when things go wrong is virtually impossible.
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