Gite holiday

[sunsand]

Hi all, We are keen to have a family holiday in Normandy this year for 2 weeks ina 3 bed Gite with pool for August 2011, we found one on a auction site, and the question is, am i being too trusting in sending off a cheque deposit then paying the full amount left a couple of months before we go, or is this the normal route to do business, i only have lost my trust slightly due to 1. the owner having no reviews. 2. The owner living in Scotland uk, and when i question as to who maintains the properties and gives key etc the advertiser says shes just taken them over and will be there personally with the key.

I sound so untrusting but i heard of a poor lady who booked and paid fr a villa who traveled to the place only to find no such villa or address existed?

Please give me your views or am i just being over causious

[Théière]

Sounds dodgy to me, play it safe and book ours [;-)]

Only kidding! that sounds pretty normal and if you pay with the auction pay method and using a credit card you have got two levels of protection should the unlikely happen.

Bonne vacance

[pouyade]

Thieiere

Have pm'd you

Pouyade

[Théière]

Answered [:$]

[Charly]

It's usual to pay the deposit required in advance so that the gite is booked/reserved, and then the balance by 6 - 8 weeks before the holiday date. I can understand your anxiety but many many people rent gites every year and have really good holidays, so hopefully the chances of your being ripped off are low.  Maybe if you feel really uncertain the answer is to book through a large gite rental company or agency or at least someone like Clevacances or Gites de France where you would at least feel you had some come-back if things did not work out as you anticipated. I have experienced both sides of the situation.  When we bought our home one of the buildings had been used as a gite and the very laid-back owners omitted to say until the day of completion that they had not cancelled all of the gite bookings for that year!!!!   After throwing a small and pointless fit in the Notaires' offices, we decided we'd  just have to make the best of things.  The first person to arrive had not only NOT paid in advance other than a small deposit, she had also received permission to bring her cockatoo (don't ask!) and the complicated transport of its cage - scheduled for the week before - never actually materialised until the week after she arrived.  Result - one free range cockatoo for week one! The piece de resistance was when she told my Husband (she'd already decided best not to push her luck any further with me) that she wouldn't be able to pay for her holiday until about 2 weeks after she got back to Paris, since she was waiting for a payment from Social Services...... Cue another fit, this time slightly larger!  I went mad at the previous owners who told me that everything would be "fine". In actual fact, it was, but after that we tightened up the rules quite a bit and can see the risks from both sides now.  Have a good holiday and book soon since August is mad and your choice will be limited. 

[Owens88]

My only reservation is that you saw it on an auction site. Can you check whether they are on other sites? Do they have their own web site? How long has that been going (and who owns the site, try a whois lookup)?

None of these are definitive in their own right but if , say, they have been 5 years on h*** r***s or V********s then 'probably' they are ok.

As others have said, the process is a normal one.

Have a good holiday.

John