Holiday home rentals just became safer

Choosing a holiday home to stay in rather than a hotel is both budget friendly and gives you much nicer space and maybe a private pool.

The trend for holiday homes

Holiday rentals get more popular each year because they provide space, privacy, flexibility, a local experience and usually savings on hotel prices. This is especially true if you're a group of friends, as you can rent a French castle sleeping 20 people from about $5000 per week. So for $250 per person and week you'll get private ground, a massive pool and luxurious accommodation. What's not to like?

On the more modest front, you can find apartments that sleep 4 at about $300 per week in most Spanish resorts. Normally these will come with a terrace and shared pool. And with your own proper kitchen, food will be much cheaper than during a normal holiday. All this means about 25% of all holidays are spent in a holiday home.

Renting a home is safe with a guarantee

Getting ripped off by a fly-by-night scammer is a worry when renting a private home. It'd certainly suck arriving at your destination together with your family or friends only to find that the house you rented and paid for over the internet doesn't actually exist! You'd end up losing the rental moneys paid and whatever you'll end up spending on a hotel. That, or head straight back home!

Holiday-Rentals.co.uk just launched the HomeAway Rent with Confidence Guarantee to counter this worry. The Guarantee provides tangible assurance that they are covered for up to $5,000 (or £2,500) in rental fees per holiday home booked in the unlikely event the listing is not legitimate.

Of course, a guarantee only works in conjunction with your travel insurance, so make sure you're covered! The best way to avoid surprises than asking the holiday home homeowner plenty of questions though.

To take advantage of the HomeAway Rent with Confidence Guarantee, travellers need to register their trip via Holiday-Rentals.co.uk after they have booked and paid for the holiday home.

- By Jack on 26 September, 2007 in Hotels and lodging.