By Ed Perkins
When you’re looking to find a vacation rental, you have two basic approaches:
Rental agencies that are part of the transaction. Your deal is with the agency, not the property owner. Typically, rental agency staff have inspected each rental they represent, so your chance of encountering an unpleasant surprise when you arrive is minimal. Rental agencies minimize your financial risk: They generally accept credit cards and are responsible for fixing any problems that may arise. They tend to focus on more expensive upscale and luxury properties and list very few budget options. Some offer worldwide coverage, but most specialize in limited regions or areas.
Worldwide Coverage
- La Cure lacurevillas.com
- Luxury Retreats villarental.com
- One Fine Stay onefinestay.com
- Rental Escapes rentalescapes.com
- Villarental. com villarental.com
- Villas & Apartments Abroad vaanyc.com
- Villas of Distinction villasofdistinction.com/villas
- Villas of the World villasoftheworld.com
U.S. Coverage
- Bluegreenvacations bluegreenvacations.com/rentals nationwide
- Condominium Rentals Hawaii crhmaui.com Maui, Kauai
- Cottages to Castles cottages-to-castles.com/vacation-rentals Captiva, Sanibel
- Dauphin Island Beach Rentals dauphinislandbeachrentals.com Alabama
- Hawaii Hideaways hawaiihideaways.com
- Homes 4 You homes4uu.com Orlando area
- Invited Home nvitedhome.com U.S. ski centers
- Mountain Home mountain-home.com Montana
- Private Paradise Villas tropicalvillavacations.com Maui
- Russian River Getaways russianrivergetaways.com
- Sand Castle sandcastlemv.com Martha’s Vineyard
- Yosemite West Reservations yosemitewestreservations.com
Other Regional Coverage
- At Home in France athomeinfrance.com
- Bali Villas balivillas.com
- Cabovillas cabovillas.com
- Caribbean Days caribbeandays.com
- Coach House Rentals chsrentals.com London
- CoastalCottages coastalcottages.co.uk Wales
- Doorways Ltd villavacations.com Italy, France
- Dordogne rental dordognerental.com
- Esteponia Villas estepona-villas.com Costa del Sol
- Euracom euracom.co.uk/serviced-apartments-london
- France for Rent franceforrent.com
- France Homestyle francehomestyle.com
- French Connections frenchconnections.co.uk
- Home Club homeclub.com/en Spain
- Home from Home homefromhome.co.uk London
- Homebase Abroad homebaseabroad.com Italy
- Homes and Villas International homesandvillasinternational.com UK, Mexico
- Jamaica Villas jamaicavillas.com
- Kestrel Travel kestreltravel.com Riviera, Provence
- Locaflat sites.google.com/locaflat.com/accueil/accueil Paris
- London Apartment Reservations londonapartmentreservations.com
- Mijas Villas mijas-villas.com Spain
- Panache Rental panacherental.com France, London, Rome
- Premier Cottages premiercottages.co.uk UK
- Resorts in Italy resortsinitaly.com
- Salogi Villas & Farmhouses salogivillas.com Italy
- South France Holiday Rentals southfrance.com/homefrance
- St Barth Properties stbarth.com
- The Villa Collection gicthevillacollection.com Greek Islands
- To Tuscany to-tuscany.com
- Tuscany Now & More tuscanynowandmore.com
- Wimco Villas wimco.com Caribbean
Booking Platforms that act as bulletin boards. They post offers submitted by individual property owners and facilitate the rental process, but your contract is with the property owner. The big platforms incorporate some buyer protections but they’re not responsible for fixing problems beyond outright fraud or misrepresentation. That means they’re a bit riskier than the rental agencies, but they offer far more options—including budget options that the agencies usually ignore.
Worldwide Giants:
Two booking platforms have by far the widest choice of listings. And both offer at least some consumer protections against potential misrepresentation and fraud.
- FlipKey [https://www.flipkey.com/], owned by TripAdvisor, with more than 800,000 listings.
- HomeAway https://www.homeaway.com/, owned by Expedia, with more than 1,000,000 listings; soon to revert to an earlier name, VRBO; incorporates a handful of acquired platforms.
Worldwide: The Others
- 1st Choice Vacation Rentals http://www.choice1.com/
- Clickstay https://www.clickstay.com/
- Vacation Rental Direct http://www.vacationrentaldirect.com/
- Vacations Abroad https://www.vacations-abroad.com/
Regional Coverage
- Akilar http://www.akilar.com/ Spain
- Cottages. com https://www.cottages.com/ UK, Ireland, France, Italy
- French Country Cottages https://www.french-country-cottages.co.uk/
- Gites de France https://www.gites-de-france.com/en
- Online Cottage Rental https://onlinecottagerental.com/ Canada
- Pure Holiday Homes https://www.pureholidayhomes.com/ Europe
- Rent in Spain https://www.rentinspain.co.uk/
- RentVillas https://www.rentvillas.com/ Europe, Caribbean
- SnapTrip https://www.snaptrip.com/ UK
- The Cottage Guide https://www.cottageguide.co.uk/ UK
- The Villa Agency https://www.thevillaagency.co.uk/ Croatia, Portugal, Spain
- Villas 2000 https://www.villas2000.com/ Florida
- Ville et Village http://www.villeetvillage.com/index.htm France, Italy
Other Useful Websites
- Awaze UK https://www.wynvr.co.uk/brands portal to 23 individual managed sites in Europe
- Hideaways Afficianado Club http://www.hideaways.com/ membership agency program
- Tripping. com https://www.tripping.com/ vacation rental metasearch system
- Villas and Voyages https://www.villasandvoyages.com/ rental arrangers
(Send e-mail to Ed Perkins at eperkins@mind.net. Also, check out Ed’s rail travel website at rail-guru.com.)
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