We use them every year for Mallorca, Portugal or Italy and all the villas are superb. Very high standards in great locations but not with a hefty price tag. James Villas are always very helpful, nothing is ever too much trouble.

Inadequate,uncomfortable and broken loungers. Parasols poorly fitted and flying in wind gusts. V little sun protection. Would not recommend.

Where do I start. We moved into Dolce Vita Villa, Son Bou, Menorca. Monday 26th, unpacked and within 30 minutes, 2 strangers enter without notice. They told us to leave as the balcony is collapsing. The maintenance man said this been this way for some time, the agent said it’s only just happened. Bear in mind we have just unpacked all of our belongings. We were then downgraded and separated into 2 villas. Bear in mind this villa was £550 a night, James Villas is giving us a £40 a night, Travel Lodge service. We were told we can move back into the villa Friday morning following a phone call on Thursday afternoon. Well it’s Friday now, all packed up ready to move. 50 minutes before moving back over, taxis arranged, airport transport rearranged. We receive a call to say we can not move back. This is twice they have left it till last minute, messed us around and no apologies, the agent finds it funny, laughing. we had to constantly chase James Villas for updates throughout the week, promised calls back, yet nothing. Mangers would not deal with it and palmed it off to the lower ranking members. Compensation or not, this has ruined our entire holiday. We had adults and children, we can not split them apart like they made us do. I WOULD AVOID AT ALL COSTS!

Terrible experience, due to disgusting putrid smell of something decomposing in one of the bedrooms downstairs we couldn’t use one bedroom for the whole stay. Villa Salar is not as described, satellite tv is a joke, there’s no English channels apart from the news channels, only German channels. There’s no privacy as people walking on the street see you into the pool area and the entire back of the villa. There’s drilling noise every morning and evening from building works across the street. There’s loud neighbours, parties and dogs barking all night. The bathroom downstairs is so small the toilet is almost attached to the shower door, you have to come out of the shower squeezing sideways or literally fall on the toilet seat; there’s no towel rail as this is weirdly located outside the bathroom in the corridor, the bidet was removed but they didn’t bother tiling, leaving unsightly patches. A socket in the kitchen is hanging off the wall. The instructions about the villa were wrong, as James Villas had not updated them since 2021, so we couldn’t set the alarm system as it had been changed but James Villas didn’t know, same for the location of the fuse box the instructions for satellite tv and other items. We had to tell James Villas all these things to update their documents for clients. Also no instructions about rubbish bins, we had to ask the neighbours. The table tennis bats and balls were broken and flat, unusable. We had to clean cobwebs in the ceiling, the sheets had rust stains. There’s camera like devices in the bedroom and living room, not sure if this is for the security alarm but it makes you feel uncomfortable like someone is watching you. We had to waste 4 days of one week holiday waiting for local maintenance, which ruined our plans as no communication from James Villas to tell us when someone would attend. They came out mid week to do an ozone treatment in the bedroom with the horrible putrid smell but this was not sufficient as the mattresses still had that smell after the disinfection, and the room had a toxic chlorine like smell it was not possible to use it. One of us was forced to do steep stairs up and down to sleep upstairs, which was painful with arthritis and other health issues. We had paid for the whole villa and wanted to be able to use the bedrooms downstairs but couldn’t due to the awful smell. It’s been disturbing, as the rotten smell was seeping through the corridor the whole time. Maintenance and James Villas both promised to send out a technician for the satellite tv as they saw there are no usable English channels, but no one came. We asked for a refund for breach of contract, breach of duty of care, breach of consumer law as the villa is not as described online, but James Villas refuse responsibility, as they say they are only a broker, so we have to take action in court. Horrible experience overall.

Just returned from a week in this stunning Villa - would highly recommend and would definitely return the pictures simply so not do it justice We also booked car hire through James Villas which unfortunately was not available when we arrived to pick it up ! However James Villas customer service dealt with the problem professionally and promptly and restored our faith in the company and we will have no reservations in using them again for future villa holidays - Thank you Ruby

Absolutely disgusting! We’ve booked a holiday almost 18months ago. We get an email from them 12days before departure saying, our cars are not available and our villa we booked also not available? There are 8 of us and been waiting for this all this time now it’s like we haven’t booked anything. Absolutely terrible attitude from staff. They just saying “sorry we haven’t got that holiday anymore”. How can they do this? How the hell are we suppose to find a villa in Florida and cars in 12days? No alternatives offered. Avoid this lot at all costs !

Booked a villa in villaverde photos looked lovely all well maintained settee look so comfortable nice and clean but my god it was filthy I had photos of all the problems we had and sent them to them but the reply was standard more or less calling us liar's but photos tell the truth

Just had to cancel a holiday due to Covid restrictions and James villa refused to give any refund . I was told it was rough luck and I can only cancel more than 30 days beforehand . That’s the small print they don’t tell you about. When I explained that the country admission rules Changed And me and the family could not physically get into the country , their response was that was tough luck. When I explained they suggested they had already lost a lot of money due to Covid and could not accommodate a Refund. Jet 2 fully refunded flights and car hire . I will NEVER BOOK WITH THEM AGAIN. DISGUSTING BEHAVIOUR FOR A COMPANY I HAVE USED FOR YEARS !!! DR Ishtiaq Rehman

This villa is located in a very quiet area about 20 minutes walk downhill to the main strip of bars and restaurants (beach). Taxi back was about 5 euro..this was needed in the heat of the day, it was a hard walk uphill! There is a supermarket, some places to eat within a 5-10 minute walk. The old town/marina is closest. We were two ladies on our own and not going to lie when it was dark it was real dark and anyone could walk on to the villa premises and round the back looking right in to the lounge area and you wouldn't know it! We had a couple of times where we felt a little insecure. The villa had an alarm for when you went out. The villa itself was big. 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, air conditioning in bedrooms plus fans. Lots of wardrobe space, well equipped kitchen, outside utility area, basement playrooms and comfy lounge and dining room looking out to terrace/pool area. There are a couple of ‘tired’ areas in the villa, small things like the curtain poles painted and when you open them the paint falls off everywhere, bath needs resealing in places and the doors bang a bit in the wind…that doesn't help you frel secure either!. The pool was small/ok size, deep end about 1.7m. You did have to clean it each day as bits from the trees blew in to it. There was outside shower for pool area. The whole pool area is tiled..: it got real hot! Plenty of sunbeds - about 6 I think and a table and chairs on terrace and another table/chairs to the side with an outdoor bbq and sink area. The location was the only downside for us but that said the villa was great and if you planned to spend a lot of time there for sure good value for money. Well worth using the link electric scooters…they are dotted about and once you register you can scan and pick one up around the villa…scooter down to the beach and park up and scooter back. I think it cost me about £4 for half hour and to be honest good fun and good way to get about those hills so I would def do it again. If you book to go…enjoy!

Gorgeous villa close to town and beaches but in a very secluded quiet residential area. Restaurant only 5 min walk. Very large pool and immaculate gardens.

We spent a week at Finca Pere, Benimarco in June this year. We loved the location and simplicity of the villa. The owner was friendly and cleaned the pool. The outdoor bbq was brilliant. Although clean the interiors were very dated and old. The beds really uncomfortable and the bathrooms dated. We really hope some money will be spent on bringing it up to date so we can soon return. Suggestions are new mattresses, sofa, fans and painting bathrooms.

Brilliant villa, great pool, big BBQ, lovely big garden, 4 bedrooms all en-suite, walking distance to two beaches One small and sun beds, the other one long beach and sun beds, near several restaurants, fresh fish and steak and bars, brilliant supermarket you can get everything you need, not far from Albuferia 10 minutes by taxi. The only thing that let it down was the bed pillows need to be replaced, and need all new bedding didn’t fit the double beds too small, and the towels need to be replaced they were very old. But would go back there if these small things were done, the Yellowfish transfers were brilliant on time and lovely people, and the Villa rep was great full of information.

Where to start with the terrible customer service, our villa was nothing like the photos that helped us chose Villa Tomas in fact the photos were taken when the villa was first built which is now owned by a private family and is up for sale. We had several issues with hard beds, dirty kitchen area, stinking blocked drains around pool area, which we had to clean as the smell was so bad we couldn’t sit outside. The villa is situated on the main-road through the golf resort so very busy all day & night, I might add with speed humps right outside the villa. There is building/refurbishment work going on all the time with noisy lorries dumper trucks all full of rubble racing up and down right outside the door. Also a cherry picker is used to enable painting villas which is diesel and also very noisy. When we reported this to James Villas customer relations they asked me to send photos & video recording of the noise and the response was the drains around the pool are filters and the fact they were full means they are doing the job they are designed for (need to be cleaned out occasionally though, to stop the build up causing bad smells) Rusty barbecue was according to James Villas usable as was not dirty. The noise they stated was acceptable due to the road outside the villa, (oh but they forgot to mention that on the description) & also the works going on was not all day as the painter was only using the cherry picker to move about. Absolutely unbelievable cop out that I have ever heard in my 60 odd years. James Villas you should be ashamed of the appalling places you are selling to unsuspecting hard working customers.

Everything went well while booking and made the payment. However when we reached to the villa, the whole villa was dirty, poolside area was messy. Rooms were not cleaned and the kitchen still had dishes. When called the local agent, he was no help what so ever. Had to call few times in order to get someone to come and clean the Villa. Wasted the whole evening like that and had no apology from anyone. Never booking from this site again

Following our recent stay at Fig Tree Villa in Fanes , Rhodes , we would like to say what a lovely well kept and homely place to stay in , it had everything you could possibly want on holiday , but most of all the location once you have driven up the rather twisty uneven road is so quite and peaceful, yes you do require a car to get to and from this delightful villa but my wife and i felt so relaxed and chilled after our two weeks that we will definetly return .The Wi Fi works really well so we were able to keep in touch with home and listen to English radio as i am sure the TV does but we did not even switch it on because we were away from all that . The pool is kept in very good order by the person I dealt with as is the Villa itself by the lady, they are a good team , available if you have a problem ( which we did not) but not intrusive. If you want a peaceful , relaxing holiday in a fabulous villa this is the place for you .

Stayed in Villa Holly Vilamoura, through James Villa's from 10th to 17th Sept 2016 , 6 adults, 3 toddlers and 3 babies. Great villa in terms of space and facilities BUT we were burgled while asleep!!!!! Woke up on the Friday morning to few items missing and cash was taken out of a wallet and his wallet was in the bedroom, all happened on the top floor. All doors were locked and no sign of a break in! Very nerving and strange experience to have been burgled while sleeping and the fact that all doors were locked too. Be very carefull when booking to stay in this villa! The fact that this happened while we were asleep and we had young children in the rooms too which they must of gone into!!! Reported to the police and even they seemed confused and put it down to someone must of had a key to this villa. Shocked at lack of empathy from James Villa rep and the fact our young children were at risk!

We booked our James Villa Barreto, Albufeira, Portugal on 30th August 2015. We received an email on the 24th November 2015 stating that " It is therefore disappointing for us to have to tell you that we have made the decision to remove Barreto from our programme as we feel it no longer reflects the standards expected from a James’ villa. As such, Barreto will no longer be available for your holiday. " A little annoyed but grateful for avoiding a potential problem, we then booked another villa through James Villas, obviously there wasn't a huge amount of choice left. We decided on the alternative which was Algarhb Villa. Everything went smoothly and we arrived at Faro airport Thursday 18th August 2016, got the car and went to the villa. The villa was nice, the food pre ordered was there, so as we had arrived late, we went to bed. As many had noted the décor was a little dated but none of that really mattered to us as we just wanted a relaxing time. A note had indicated that the TV wasn't working correctly but again, of no concern as we had the beach and the pool. Our problems started shortly after. The dishwasher wasn't working correctly but a quick email to cerronovo, the local agent I believe, sorted the problem and they replaced the dishwasher. Wow, that was great service. Sunday 21st August a minibus arrived at the villa next door. During the day there were about 10 people in next door's villa but the music started playing out with quite a deep bass. We were trying to relax by our pool and could just hear the bass and the music with a lot of screaming mixed in too. We hoped it would dull down or go off after a while, but sadly not. As we were going out to a few places over the next few days we hoped that they had been there for a party and would go away. The noise did stop in the evening after about 9PM and we kept our fingers crossed. By Tuesday 23rd August we had had enough as the music and noise was every day and emailed cerronovo to ask if there was anything they could recommend. As we were "foreigners" and they appeared to be Portuguese, we weren't sure how to approach the situation. Cerronovo responded very quickly and visited and asked the occupants to lower the noise a bit. That was great as it really reduced the noise and we thought it might then stop. Wednesday 24th the noise escalated again and this time they were using pots and pans as percussion instruments. This time my wife phoned one of the phone numbers in the James Villas book to see if any further could be done. Apparently she answered and my wife was almost vilified for daring to phone. " It was not her problem and was pointless as nothing more could be done " my wife was told. "If the police were contacted then they would do nothing".  This was a complete change to the responses via email. We then started researching to see if there were any other villas available in the area. My wife found a few on the James Villas website and thought it might be possible to change to one of these. During several phone calls back and forth, we were told that there was nothing available but when we said there was, they changed attitude again and said they would look into it. Who that was, I am not sure. We then received a phone call that stated that we would receive an email with any alternate accommodation. To this day we have never received that email. As there was no further help from James Villas, during the afternoon we thought enough was enough and we decided to research to see if we could find another villa and pay for it ourselves. We looked online, thank God for the internet, and found owners direct. Everything at this point onwards was an unknown for us. Surprisingly quite a number of villas were available for the remainder of the duration of our holiday. The next part was trying to contact the owners in a short amount of time. 3 villas looked good with pools and within close proximity. The first was Villa Caguy which was literally a 2 minute drive. I left a message with the owner Guy Maxence via owners direct and he got back to me within a few minutes. He confirmed that the villa was available but had not been cleaned since there was no one due for the next week. I was a little concerned as it was all happening in quite a rush and also he was in Switzerland. I read a few things about Owners direct in news stories and it didn't help my confidence. I decided to phone guy and he was very kind and relaxed. He said that if I wanted to have a look at the villa and see what I thought. He could get the pool man to let us in and have a wander. This really reassured me as I didn't want to be ripped off. I thanked him and thought I would look online at some other villas. Another, which was supposed to be available, I received a phone call from the English owner. She apologised and said her villa was actually booked for the next week. She was so nice and trying to help us from the UK even though she had no financial interest at all. After contacting the 3rd villa owner and leaving a message we decided to go out and look at villa Caguy. The villa looked fantastic from the outside and we soon worked out that the name Caguy was a combination of the owners, which was a further reassurance. We phoned Guy back in Switzerland and asked if we could have a look. As it was getting fairly late by now we arranged that for the next day. Thursday 25th August 2016 The pool boy as we got to know him, met us in the afternoon of the 25th. This gave us time in the morning to raise the CASH to be able to pay for the new villa. Luckily we were able to use cashpoints and made it all work. He showed us around the villa and apologised for the "MESS". The villa was absolutely beautiful. We agreed to move and handed over the money and kept the keys. We had a dolphin trip, that was booked the previous week, at around 5PM, so his wife, the cleaner, would work her magic. We moved some of our things when we went to look around the villa. All of this WAS a pretty big risk but as many will know when you start talking to people, you get a real feel for things. The pool boy (English) is married to a lady and he had been in Portugal for about 27 years. By the time we got back from our Dolphin (No Dolphins spotted) and cave trip 8PM ish, she had cleaned the Villa and He had started the pumps for the pool which was on a salt water system. We fetched across the rest of our belongings and unpacked again. Friday 26th August- Thursday 1st September We enjoyed the rest of our holiday. We only received one further response from James Villas throughout the rest of our stay, which apologised that our stay had been spoiled, and that the only other thing would have been to contact the police, which we had already been told would have been a waste as they would do nothing. As I stated in an email to James Villas " It cannot be helped that there are noisy neighbours but how the issue is dealt with shows a lot about a company." We feel that more could have been done to even attempt to try and find us alternate accommodation. I have never had to deal with a situation like this before with the Virgin Villas in Florida or elsewhere, so cannot know how another company would have handled it. You may think at this point that we are probably just fussy and James Villas is highly regarded. We are not fussy people. When the original lady came to the villa to replace the satellite box, it still didn’t work but we were there for a rest and not a problem. The slight smell of fish that emanated from the bedroom next to the toilet downstairs, was not a problem. The half rubbed off graffiti on the sofa was not a problem. There are tiles missing out of the outside shower that were on the floor and caught out toes but we moved them and not a problem. We were there for a rest and thought paying the higher James Villas prices would give us as much peace of mind as possible. The only other communication since we have been back is the email requests to review our holiday, which I am doing now. What we have learned is that we have received many communications from various villa owners all trying to help us and sort the issue. James Villas asked for our review and this is it. Thankyou so much for their help and communication. Even though we are home they have "whats apped" us and hoped we had a nice time. We would love to go back to Albufeira and would love to stay at Caguy. If Caguy was not available, we now know there are numerous villas available with lovely owners to book with direct. This time we would arrange our own flights as we kept being reminded online, that the flights we booked through James Villas were going to be late ones and we could UPGRADE to a more social hour for a fee. For most I am sure, James Villas have been fantastic, as their reviews show, but just have in the back of your mind a plan for when it's not quite going right.

We have had 2 holidays with this company, but no more. The fist holiday was great, everything as it should be. We were invited to put a review on their website, which we did. The second holiday was completely different. Uninterested reps, a filthy villa also used as a public car park, a frisge with brown water in it etc etc. It wouldn't be so bad, but on our return James Villas are totally uninterested in our complaints and won't even reply to us. So the moral is, don't go with James Villas. They are fine until things go wrong, then they are not the least bit interested. After all, they have had your money!