In the past few weeks I have received emails from consumers asking me if a number of holiday rental companies are reputable enough to book a holiday through them. It’s worth remembering that the rental company is advertising the accommodation on behalf of the owner or an agency.

Whilst the holiday rental company will have their own terms and conditions with regard to the usage of the site, the booking terms and conditions is with the actual owner or agency. As I have experience of this type of holiday I thought it would be a good idea to provide some general advice.

Speak with the owner or agency

You can tell a lot about a person when you speak to them on the telephone, ask them plenty of questions about the holiday accommodation and the location and make sure you remember their responses, in fact write them down if you can.

Trust your gut instinct

If there’s something just not right about the person or what they are saying then always go with your gut instinct, the last thing you want is to find out that the accommodation doesn’t exist or that it’s a scam to get money out of you, not that I am suggesting this happens a lot, but I am sure it does.

Booking terms and conditions

Any reputable owner will send you a booking form and their booking terms and conditions. Usually you have to sign the form to say you agree to the T&Cs so make sure you read any documentation and if you have any queries contact the owner or agency. If there’s no documentation then question why this is the case with the owner.

Check the location thoroughly

Most owners and agencies will not send you the actual address until full payment has been received and processed, which you can understand, but make sure you check the destination out on travel guides and Google Maps and ask the owner questions about the area.

Read accommodation reviews

Whilst you won’t find many rental companies providing accommodation reviews, a few of them have started to provide this service, and whilst it’s controversial with the owners, it’s important that consumers have confidence. Holiday Rentals provide this service, so it’s a good place to start.

Pay for the holiday with a method of payment which is traceable

Under any circumstances do not pay with cash or cashier cheques – I know this sounds like common sense, but you’d be surprised to hear it does happen. Ideally, pay by a bank cheque, debit or credit card if the owner or agency provide that service. It’s important that the money can be traced back should anything happen.

Plan your holiday well

You do not have the luxury of a holiday rep to deal with any issues that you may come up against, so it’s important that you plan your holiday well. Make sure you keep a copy of all email communication, and if you have any issues with the accommodation then take video and photograph evidence.

Breakage issues

You will more than likely have to pay for any breakages, so it’s important that you notify the owner or agency should you find any breakages when you arrive at your accommodation. Otherwise you could be made to pay for them – remember that the accommodation will probably not have been visited by the owner for some time.

Use the Holiday rental company

If you have any complaints lodged which the owner will not respond to then contact the holiday rental company and ask them for advice. Any reputable rental company will have a complaints procedure which deals with badly managed holiday accommodation.

Popular holiday rental companies

Whilst I have not booked holiday accommodation off any of these sites, they are popular, and have been established a number of years. They seem to have a good reputation with travellers but follow the advice above before booking.

Holiday Rentals
Owners Direct
Holiday Lettings
Holiday Lets
My Villarenters

Hopefully these holiday rental tips will help ensure that your holiday is hassle free. Have you booked a villa or self catering holiday accommodation with an owner or agency – I’d be interested to hear good and bad experiences from readers.

Interesting investigation on BBC Watchdog last night regarding issues with consumers credit or debit cards being frozen abroad by their own bank. It’s an issue I featured back in September 2007, so I thought it was worth updating that blog post with some additional advice.

Useful travel tips

• Inform your bank prior to departure that you are going to be using your credit or debit card abroad
• Leave your mobile number with the bank and ask them to contact you if they have any issues
• Write down the person you spoke to and their position within the bank
• Write down the contact details of the bank and take it with you on holiday
• Don’t rely on just debit or credit cards, take some foreign currency too for emergencies
• Don’t use a bank machine that isn’t attached to a bank, as you’ll never get your card back
• Remember your security details because you will be asked them whilst abroad

Apparently consumers have had issues with their account being frozen despite them contacting the bank – the banks blame their computer system which freezes the account if it see’s any strange activity but it’s still important that you follow the advice given above.

Not that this isn’t going to help if your stranded abroad, but contact the financial ombudsman with details of your complaint. It’s outrageous that you have to inform your bank when you are going on holiday, but on the other hand I am glad that they are protecting our money.

Have any of you had a bad experience with this issue?

There’s a worrying trend of travel consumers going on holiday abroad, without taking out adequate travel insurance. A survey by the review centre revealed up to ten per cent of people will head off on holiday without insurance.

I have to admit that it’s incredibly confusing as they are so many travel insurance products to choose from and whilst comparison sites are a great way to find the best deals quickly, it’s still time consuming choosing travel insurance for all eventualities.

My advice is make sure you read the small print and take time to read what your covered for. Some consumers have had problems getting money back from when airlines have gone into liquidation as the insurance cover doesn’t include this event.

Shop around for the best deal, but don’t always go for the cheapest deal, go for a package which makes you and your family protected should any event happen whilst your on holiday abroad, especially if you are booking your own flight and hotel.

Maybe US airlines Skybus, ATA and Aloha read my blog post on cheap flights being extinct by 2012, panicked and went bankrupt. Joking aside, it’s a worrying trend that hopefully won’t continue over here in Europe, not because we’ll loose our cheap flights, but because of the impact it will have on independent travellers.

There is a misconception that if you book directly with an airline then you are automatically covered if it goes bust, but it might be worrying for independent travellers to learn that you are only covered if you book by credit card and if the money is taken inside the UK.

It’s advisable to take out adequate travel insurance, either single trip or annual as soon as you have booked your flight and accommodation. Check the small print carefully as some policies may not pay out for everything you would expect them to.

Finally..

If you are booking through a travel agency rather than an airline, check that the company has the ATOL symbol on it’s website. Remember that whilst booking through an ATOL member will cover you if the airline goes bust, it won’t guarantee you an alternative flight.

Useful links:

Financial Protection for Air Holidays
International Airline Passengers Association
European Low-fare Airlines Association
European Airlines Association
European Commission: Transport

As usual if you have any questions or issues with booking flights please leave them in the comments.

Update: News that Oasis Hong Kong Airlines have gone into liquidation

One question I get asked a lot is what are the advantages of booking a premium economy seat and my reply is that it depends on which airline you are flying with. All of the airlines offering premium economy give you extra leg room, and more reclining space but some offer a number of extra benefits.

Virgin give you a pre-flight drink, dedicated boarding and luggage reclaim, compare this with BMI who offer free alcoholic and soft drinks plus advance seat selection at time of booking. Personally, I don’t think that the extra cost is worth the money, but that’s my personal opinion.

Premium economy explained and compared

If you want to travel with a little bit more comfort then its worth paying the extra money that premium economy costs, but I’m quite happy with the leg room, and space I get in flight, I’m quite happy to pay for my drinks and newspaper, and would spend the extra money on a nicer hotel.

It’s all down to personal choice.

Have you flown in a premium economy seat – let readers know your experiences.

In keeping with the theme of online booking experiences, tonight I road tested seven flight comparison websites with the aim of finding the cheapest flight from Manchester direct to New York, for the 17 – 24 September, for 1 passenger, that’s me.

Here are the reviews..

Kayak

Cheap flight - £397 with Delta airlines
Provider - Cheaptickets.com

Review: For search experience Kayak was my favourite. It has a plain but easy to use interface, and it was the quickest to find flights. I still feel it’s very much US led, and if they were to use more UK based providers then in my opinion it would be the best all-round flight comparison site.

Travel Supermarket

Cheap flight - £387 with Delta airlines
Provider - Major Travel

Review: This site seemed to have a lot more choice than Kayak, and it was interesting to see that the same flight was £10 cheaper through the UK-based Major travel. The downside for me though was the lack of search filters, and it was a little slower than it’s competitors.

Skyscanner

Cheap flight - £433 with British Airways
Provider – British Airways

Review: Not the nicest looking of comparison sites, but it was one of the easiest to search. The downside for me was the lack of choice of only two airlines and no providers like the other comparison websites, which is where you tend to save the most money.

Henoo

Cheap flight - Nothing found
Provider – N/A

Review: Oh noo, I had initial problems when using the calendar to choose my travel dates on the Firefox browser, then when I received the search results I had to click on a provider, which took ages to search and then brought no results back.

Flight Comparison

Cheap flight - £400 with Delta Airlines
Provider – Expedia

Review: I felt like I had been sent back to the 1990s, the design is dreadful, and the search is pretty useless if I have to click a link for each provider to find the prices. I might as well have gone direct to the provider because this site didn’t save me any time or money.

Cheapflights

Cheap flight - £386 with Continental Airlines
Provider - STA Travel

Review: If you have a firm set of dates to travel then the site is not user friendly as you have to click on individual providers to get the prices, but if you are simply looking for the best deals you’ll find them easily. The US version of the site has an improved search, which will hopefully be introduced in the UK soon.

Mobissimo

Cheap flight - £394 with Delta
Provider – Ebookers

Review: It’s lacking content for me, and whilst it provided results from providers none of the others covered, the prices were more expensive. I’d like to see airport guides, more overall information on the flights – it’s not a site that I would hang around for long.

Momondo

Cheap flight - £390 with Continental Airlines
Provider - Opodo

Review: Nice looking site, easy to use search, but could do with some more providers. Results appeared fairly quickly and it comes close to beating Kayak as my favourite flight comparison site, and I will probably use both Kayak and Momondo to compare prices for future flights.

User experiences still has a massive impact on how other consumers book their holiday – a work colleague has returned back from France, she drove down to Dover, and got the ferry to Calais, then travelled to her ‘villa’ that she had booked independently, just outside of Paris.

On arrival her ‘villa’ turned out to be a house which had not been stayed in or cleaned for months, it was damp, dirty, and they booked into a hotel instead. As she was telling other work colleagues her experience a number of them said that they were thinking about booking their holiday independently, but they will now probably book with a travel agency.

User experience is powerful..

Have you had a bad experience when booking independently?

Travelling with teenagers can be extremely tricky. Even the best-behaved teenager can get themselves into trouble. Being naïve enough to trust strangers who seem kind, not being mature enough to make judgments about taking drugs or alcohol, or simply falling into trouble through cultural differences.

So what do you do? Teenagers want to be independent. Maybe it’s possible for them to be more independent at home. But what would you do with your teenagers if you’re on holidays in a different culture? Is it all right to insist they hang around with their boring parents the whole time?

You’ve probably all been following the sad story of Scarlett Keeling, the 15-year-old British girl who was allegedly raped and left for dead in Goa, India, after her mother left her in the care of a 25-year-old tour guide, who had just started a relationship with Scarlett. Her mother went travelling in another part of India with the rest of the family and felt she was leaving her daughter in safe hands, and it turned out tragically.

There’s really a danger of giving teenagers too much freedom when you’re on holidays, especially in a completely different culture. To get personal: when I was 15, I spent a month in Germany with a group exchange.

I definitely loved the freedom of not having my parents around to tell me what to do – but looking back, I can certainly imagine situations there where things could have gone wrong.

I was lucky, and I met good people, and ended up having a trouble-free trip, but only a small thing needs to go wrong to change the balance. Transpose the whole scenario to a country with really different cultural values, in a place where drugs and alcohol and partying are the norm, like the beach resorts of Goa – I wouldn’t expect my parents to trust me with that.

One pretty balanced write-up in the Independent decided that Scarlett’s mother problem was that “her hippy ideology destroyed her common sense”. It’s nice to trust people, it’s nice to trust your teenager too, but it’s hard enough to do this in your home country where you know the people, the culture and the customs inside-out.

When you’re on holidays in another country, surely you have to be that bit more careful in what you allow your teenagers to do. They might not like it, but thirty years later when they have their own teenagers, they’ll understand.