Renting a Villa: Pricing Question

Posted by Debbie (Los Angeles) on 03/16/10 11:14 AM

First time poster here. I am planning a birthday trip to Italy in September 2012 and this is my very first attempt at this type of trip. According to my preliminary searches, I've found villas that sleep 8-10 from $2,400 - 3,500/wk. However, a travel agent that I've enlisted for advice tells me that those prices are preposterous and too good to be true.

The sites I've been on are vrbo.com, rentvillas.com, holidayhomeland.com, etc.

What gives? Is the difference that the above villas are rented directly from the owner and the others through an agency? Any advice, help or experience with these sites is much appreciated.

Posted by Beatrix

Calgary

03/16/10 03:50 PM

2297 posts

Definitely not "too good to be true". It's a price range that should give you some very good options including maid service and/or cook etc. Another good site:

www.tuscany.net

Posted by S J

Western Canada

03/21/10 10:37 AM

3111 posts

Go to www.slowtrav.com and look at their many vacation rental reviews for Italy.
It's your travel agent that is out to lunch, not the prices!
You will find lots of very reasonably priced villas, and remember you are dividing the price between a few people.

Posted by Debbie OP

Los Angeles

03/22/10 04:25 PM

9 posts

Thank you for the replies! I appreciate everyone's thoughts and additional resource suggestions.

Posted by Casa del Cipresso

Calitri, Avellino, Italy (& US - where I live the majority of the time)

03/30/10 07:14 AM

223 posts

not a "villa" by any stretch...but I do rent out my vacation home in Italy "by owner" and, as said, those agencies take a HEFTY fee from the owner for marketing, etc. (up to 40% actually) so, sometimes, deals are certainly more easily found directly. My only advice though is to make sure you are comparing apples to apples and not apples to oranges ;-) In Italian rentals, especially those owner by Italians and not foreigners, it is fairly standard practice to take on "extras" for things one would normally consider given inclusions...final cleaning, linens, even heat and electricity (!) or per person surcharges so, make sure you tally the total cost of each rental when you are doing comparisons. Besides VRBO, I also like, HolidayLettings, OwnersDirect(.co.uk), Homelidays, and HomeAway.