We are making advance plans for a week-long stay in Provence in Sept. of 2022, a group of five couples who would like to rent a traditional Provence stone farmhouse for our stay. Has anyone worked through Homes-in-Provence or Provence Holidays to book a vacation home?
We actually had a confirmed booking at Moulin de la Roque, a historic estate of holiday rental homes and apartments that I've mentioned a few times on this forum, giving rave reviews of a 2018 stay. My husband and I have wanted to return ever since and were so excited to be going back and taking a large group of friends. I made the booking and paid the deposit over a year and a half in advance because they only have one home with 5 bedrooms, and we had identified the exact week we wanted, the third week of Sept. of 2022, and I wanted to be sure to secure our booking early to avoid disappointment. We booked and paid the deposit in January, all done via extensive email communications with the owners. We got email confirmation that we had a firm reservation. In mid-April, they contacted us to say they wanted to move our stay up by two weeks. They wanted to accommodate an artist workshop that asked to book the entire estate for part of our week and part of the prior week. (Their terms and conditions require a Sat. to Sat. stay but obviously their frequent art workshops are not bound by this.) We declined the change to the first week of Sept. as it interfered with other bookings we’ve made for this trip. They cancelled us and refunded the deposit. Don’t trust Moulin de la Roque to honor your “firm reservation” if one of the four to six artist workshops that they host each year wants your week!
VRBO gives us lots of wonderful choices and has very favorable terms and conditions, with the right to cancel and receive a full refund of any deposit paid all the way up until 30 days prior to check in date (or for some homes, 60 days). And apparently as long as you're still within the 100% refund period, they will also return the VRBO service fee paid, which I believe may be a new policy. I've used VRBO many times over the years, in the U.S. and Europe. We did have one disappointing experience in Prague that we suspected was a planned bait and switch, but other than that, our VRBO bookings have always worked out well.
Just for fun, I looked on two other websites and found some outstanding homes which I actually like a little better than anything I've found so far on VRBO. One website is Homes-in-Provence and the other is Provence Holidays. Neither of them has as favorable terms and conditions as VRBO. I believe that for either one, we'd have to pay a 25% or more deposit that is non-refundable, and when the final payment is due (which could be up to 4 months prior to stay), that final payment too becomes non-refundable. We already have trip insurance, the cancel-for-any-reason kind, but if cancellation is for a non-covered reason, we'll be reimbursed only 75% of pre-paid and non-refundable costs.
After just having been burned by having a firm reservation cancelled, I want to be sure that this next booking is with a trustworthy organization. Has anyone had experience renting a home with either Homes-in-Provence or Provence Holidays?
Homes-in-Provence offers 26 luxury properties. It is run by Simone, from the Netherlands, who has lived in Provence for 30 years, previously running a B&B near L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, now in the business of helping people book holiday homes. Provence Holidays is based out of London and has a large staff and a huge inventory of properties to offer in all price ranges. I'd appreciate any feedback from anyone who has rented through either of these outfits.