I looked up Holiday Watchdog and across the top of the page in bold letters it says THIS HOTEL IS NOW CLOSED. I have tried to contact them as we are not closed. After 10 years TripAdvisor also cancelled our listing without letting us know they said we did not comply. After many emails we will now be reinstated on TripAdvisor under THINGS TO DO, but still have no means of removing Holiday Watchdog's false claims. We have lost business due to false claims and having our listing with lovely reviews removed.

joseph g.

1 review

0 helpful votes

“BEWARE - STOP. FRAUD - SCAM”

4/1/19

Trip Advisor and Holiday Lettings should feature on a Scam Watchdog type of program, this is a complete FRAUDULENT Company.
There is absolutely no way of contacting them.
Stay well clear of them DO NOT BOOK with this company.
You have no come back , you cannot speak to anyone, you cannot email anyone.
AVOID.....

David M.

1 review

0 helpful votes

“Stick to Air B&B”

1/20/19

As an owner Holiday Lettings has become a dreadful company after being taken over by Trip Advisor. They now charge owners- or try to- if do not reply to requests in over 24 hours. If a mistake in the booking is made again they try to charge 100 Euros. I have removed my rental appts from today after Google search for a contact phone number. The email address is non functioning and impossible to contact from their website. Avoid and stick to AirB&B

Tip for consumers: Avoid

Service

Value

Ian H.

1 review

1 helpful vote

“Customer support sham”

12/3/18

I booked an apartment in Tenerife through Holidaylettings for January 2019. For family reasons I needed to change the arrival date by 1 day. In the web site there is a section to do this, however that request goes to the owner. If the owner (as in this case) refuses to answer the request, nothing happens. I made numerous calls to the Holiday Lettings Customer Support (what a joke) and they tried to contact the owner to get him to reply. he claimed he was Russian, there was language barrier, and he didn't understand. Bull$#*!! He's already sent me e-mails explaining how to pick up the keys etc. he understands English perfectly. So, now I want to cancel. All of a sudden the Russian agrees to my changes! Sorry mate, too late, you've had your chance, I don't trust you and don't want to stay in your apartment.
I contact customer support again, but unfortunately I cannot cancel without losing my deposit!!!! even though that owner was refusing to answer all correspondence! What a sham, what a scam. I wouldn't book another apartment through this web site if you paid me and good luck to anyone else who does. I have lost 235 Euros for something that wasn't my fault. The customer support was a disgrace and no help whatsoever.

Andrew K.

1 review

0 helpful votes

“Took all my money”

11/10/18

Go through their booking and enter card details process three times , good dates are available. Every time the owner came back and said it's not available. I can't try again I've no funds free in my bank (potentially for the next 7 days if I'm lucky) and the bank blocked my card for fraud to boot.

Gary C.

1 review

0 helpful votes

“Scam artists”

9/18/18

This company which comes under the general umbrella of TripAdvisor along with Flipkey & a few others are to be avoided at all costs. They offer no customer support when things go wrong & the whole booking aspect is dodgy to say the least. I booked a stay that was accepted by the owner within 24hours who then came back the next day & tried to claim another 50% on top of the agreed price. I rejected the claim online as I was told I could & the booking was confirmed. I paid the full balance but when I came to access the property the owner said it had been cancelled. I complained to Holiday lettings after eventually finding the contact number on a forum. The staff who are based in India don't care one bit. I was left having to accept an inferior property in a $#*!ty area with only 1 bedroom. My claim for payment protection as per their website was rejected & the whole experience ruined my holiday. They take their booking fee & move on not worrying about the customer. Use AirBNB or VRBO.

Alex D.

1 review

0 helpful votes

“Nightmare company for any owner”

5/22/18

Since TripAdvisor bought this company they have reduced it to 'don't go there' outfit for owners. Will keep all monies paid until 2 days into rental, and then inform you that a further 5 days is needed to reach your bank. If the customer cancels gets a full refund at any time, if the owner cancels it is £120. Trying to contact anybody by phone is futile, they never answer emails. I had a booking for 18th September 2018 - deposit £250 paid in May 2017 - but I will receive this money about 25th September 2018.
And the booking fee which did not exist in 2017 is enormous - I receive £575, they charge £681.
But don't try querying why as they could not care less - just leave.

Paul S.

1 review

1 helpful vote

“Waste of time. Advertised prices are false.”

3/24/18

We researched and requested a holiday booking at an advertised price only to have the owner come back and offer a "quote" for the same dates around 25% higher. Of course we declined and the owner claims this is how the site works. To me it amounts to false advertising. Don't waste your time and use a site which honors the price advertised. Note that the same property is still advertising the same dates at a much lower price, obviously just to lure people in. AVOID

ALEXANDROS A.

1 review

0 helpful votes

“SCAM”

3/5/18

Scam!!!
I made two bookings through the site and both of them were canncelled by the owner of the property. No problem with that.
However, the site has not yet returned the deposit that I paid. A month has passed since the cancellation, and they say that they cannot return my money due to technical problems. Furthermore, communication is virtually impossible.
Stay away

Shauna M.

1 review

0 helpful votes

“Horrific customer service”

1/25/18

As a villa owner, I follow all HL advise on how to be high in their search rankings. I recently tried to find out why holiday lettings has stopped customers searching on the area they wanted. They are now allowing a 20 mile radius of searches in the area a potential renter searches. It isn't even as though the villas in the rental area appear first. so my villa now appears on page 10 when it used to be on the first page for that area. And villas 20 miles away appear before it. After several messages of them trying to convince me that this is "ok" and wont affect me I reminded them that January was usually the busiest month for enquiries and I had received none. I then asked for the complaints procedure and they are now ignoring all messages from me.

T B.

1 review

1 helpful vote

“No customer support”

10/23/17

just another example of zero help from these online monopolies,dont know what the answer is hopefully some decent competition will come along soon

Pauline C.

1 review

1 helpful vote

“Unreasonable booking fee”

8/22/17

I have recently booked an apartment through Holiday Lettings and was astonished to find that I paid 71 euros in a booking fee on a rental of 561.05 euros. I only found this out as the invoice from the owner showed the rental as 490 euros and the owner confirmed that 490 was the correct rental price and that Holiday Lettings had added their booking fee. I guess they are also charging the owner a subscription charge. I understand that this is covered in the Ts and Cs but you would have to read every word to find it. I wouldn't use them again. Retired from Somerset.

linda g.

1 review

1 helpful vote

“Awful, rude ,unhelpful people are the really really bad -the worst ever”

8/14/17

The worst service ever .
really bad -I cant say more.
You cannot get hold of them -when you finally do -they say ridiculous things like -our platform is not compatible with apple as an excuse for not sending any of the enquiries

Jude S.

1 review

2 helpful votes

“False Advertising”

8/7/17

On four occasions price quoted by holiday lettings is 1000 euro cheaper than actual price quoted by owners for 2018. Very unprofessional!

mark j.

1 review

4 helpful votes

“Poor customer service for owners”

7/4/17

I advertised 3 properties with HL. Having outsourced their customer services dept overseas I find it impossible to receive any help or understanding of whatever question or problem I have had.
The price of my subscription listings having been increased by 75% over 3 years is another reason to avoid them.
They are squeezing the business to inflate short term profits to flog it to some unsuspecting mug buyer.

3 years ago 5 stars, now 1.

Andrew C.

1 review

3 helpful votes

“Abysmal.”

7/2/17

Absolutely abysmal.

I have a holiday rental to let, and holiday Lettings have made a booking at the wrong price (I hadn't even set a price), and now want to charge me 120 GBP to cancel the booking as the bookers don't want to pay the full correct price!

We hadn't set a price for 2018, but Holliday Lettings took a booking anyway. And they set the price (mid summer) as the lowest price that we had ever charged. We told the bookers that Holiday Lettings had assumed a price as we hadn't set one, and told them the correct price. This was more than the bookers wanted to pay, and wanted to cancel. I completely understand, and thats fair enough.

Holiday Lettings however want to charge me 120 GBP for the cancelled booking! It was them that assumed a price and told the booker, and let them book! So why should we pay a fee for them cocking up our booking price. If they want to assume a price, then at least assume the price for the same time the year before!

Not happy at all with them and am cancelling our advert with them.

If you want happy customers then do NOT advertise with Holliday Lettings.

Kibris I.

1 review

0 helpful votes

“Is HL bust?”

6/15/17

HL has "bounced" its payments to me 7 times. This is the first time I have used HL/TA. So far they have bounced their payment 4 times for my first guest and 3 times for the second. Only businesses that are insolvent act like this. I have cancelled the other bookings so HL has wrecked their holidays too. It is beyond words to describe their dishonesty in dealing with me. As described elsewhere, contacting their customer "support" is like trying to grab a piranha swimming in oil.

Paul D.

1 review

0 helpful votes

“They don't pay you”

6/11/17

Advertised since 2015. No issues last year paid direct into my bank.
This year I have been advised that payment has been sent however 15 days later I am still waiting.
The company have stated 3 different payment dates, I have spent 20 hours on phone and sent numerous emails.
My cottage is booked June,July and August we simply can't let cottage free and will be cancelling all bookings
Do not use this company, they tell lies have appalling service and don't pay

John S.

1 review

0 helpful votes

“Worst Decision of My Life”

6/9/17

This was the worst decision of my life. Customer service put me in harms way by not acting responsibly and tried saying that the rebooking of a hotel at the same price was a matter of goodwill, but when in reality it was a contractual obligation. The lady owed the booking service for a previous short term cancellation. She tried to withhold my luggage when I refused to give her any money, when I told her that I paid the booking in full through ****************************** and she needed to contact them. The reason why I believe they are in part responsible for this is that they cancelled her account before I was able to get my stuff from her. 2. I was put in the default position of being tripadvisors/booking.com's agent, by having to inform her that she needed to contact they agency to see why she was not getting the money in full. I told her what she is doing is illegal and I would call the police. I guess she heard me call the police, because she threw my personal property all over her lawn and then threatened me by saying, "She is going to get her boyfriend to kick my ***."

cl m.

1 review

4 helpful votes

“Holiday Lettings/Trip Advisor Rentals works against owners and renters”

3/28/17

I am a holiday property owner who has advertised on holiday lettings for 10 years, in this time I have been very happy advertising with them. However since they were bought out by Trip Advisor things have changed not only for the property owners but for the booker and not for the better. HL/TA are clearly trying to force all owners to sign up to their 'free listing' which costs the owner 3% (not bad you think) and the booker up to 18% (yes thats right!) on top of the rate the owner is asking. Up until last year the annual fee an owner had to pay was £359 ex VAT for 12 months listing but they have also increased this significantly. They chanel the whole process of booking in their favour, they wish to hold all monies paid until after the arrival of the guests (I can take bookings over a year in advance) they scare bookers away from paying the owner direct by constantly stating Never Pay by Wire Transfer. As someone who has invested a lot of money and time in my holiday letting business it is frankly jaw dropping how HL is treating its owners. The most recent bullying and controlling tactic is to email owners who aren't using their 'free to list' 'rip off to bookers' rates and state that their properties would be eligible to win a Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence if they convert to this heinous/covert booking method. ALSO be aware that in order for a holiday rental to be even listed on Trip Advisor it MUST be their customer - i.e. if you don't subscribe to the HL site you CANNOT be listed on Trip Advisor (I thought there was a law against Monopolies!) I do not wish my customers to be ripped off in this way, I object to HL trying to force all bookings to take place on their terms, after all it is NOT their property! I advise all holiday makers to search for owners personal websites and book DIRECT with them. Lastly their customer service is now crap - they employ people who are ineffectual and couldnt care less... The word is out!

Marcello M.

1 review

0 helpful votes

“they stopped before i even started!!!”

3/7/17

I put a villa i managed in 2014 and after the first booking (i have to say it was pretty immediate), HL contacted me and asked for more information about myself (which I was pleased to give it).
They even asked me to send them a picture of myself standing and showing my id document.
I did it and after 1 or 2 days, they informed me that my property and ad were removed because i wasn't the real owner.
I told them I wasn't the real owner and specified it, but there was no way they listened to me.
My property was removed, my booking was deleted by them without letting me explain to the "future" guest what was happening.
So, I sent them an email where I was explaining that if the didn't reactivate my account, I would have spread my disappointment all over the net (which I didn't do it until today).
I called them today to upload another property I manage and after 3 customer service operators, 2 in italian and the final in english and 32 mins of conversations, they informed me that my account has been blocked and I won't be able to work with them anymore!
Yeah, they could have waited some more years to inform me!!!
Now, I'm really highlighting what they are doing!!!
Not only for "my bad behaviour" with the guest, but also because I had to call them to understand why I couldn't move through the website!!!

You know what happens? I posted my property to the competition HOMEAWAY!!!!

Loosers!

Stewart F.

1 review

2 helpful votes

“Rubbish since taken over by Trip Adviser”

2/22/17

After being with Holiday Lettings for 4 years I have been extremely disappointed with the service since Trip Adviser has taken over. Everything is more complicated and because we only let the property out in week long durations, I have been suspended because i am not accepting 2 and 3 nighters. Ruccish

Ton B.

1 review

1 helpful vote

“Totally Misleading and Untrustworthy Company”

9/22/16

I have been with Holiday Lettings for over 2 years and until this week everything was ok, and then, the guest no one wants arrived. They left the apartment in such a mess it took over 7 hours to clean the apartment, the walls has grease all over them and items in the apartment had been broken. I have less than 8 hours to get the apartment ready for the next guest. I contacted Holiday Lettings and asked for part of the damage deposit to be given to me and sent photos of the damage... remember I had a guest in the apartment so I was unable to paint. Holiday Lettings told me that they would only give me the damage deposit if I showed them an Invoice... The photos I sent were not good enough for them, I asked how could I get invoices for the work if I could not have the work done until the guests that were there had left. After 2 weeks of emails and over 3 hours of telephone calls, Holiday Lettings told me that they were going to cancel my damage claim and give the deposit back to the guest that had made all the damage. I was told by Holiday Lettings that they had not received the photos, then I was told they had received them... I was told that they had tried to contact the guest but was unable to. I was told they could do nothing with regards the review they wrote, damming me my apartment and the town after I had received 40 5* reviews. When I asked them to close my account with Holiday lettings they said there would be a fine of over £1500 to close the account and refund the guests that had booked. So at the end of the day Holiday Lettings are God, they run a call center from India, they send out the same email 10 times and do NOT get back to you. They care nothing for the people that use their site to advertise their property and there is no way of leaving them unless you pay £150 per booking. I have blocked my property after September 2017 and the Holiday Lettings can go to hell! I can not see of any other way of getting out from under this Disgusting Company

Kate E.

1 review

1 helpful vote

“Misleading booking fee, charged nearly £100 on top of the rental charge for a six night break”

3/12/16

I don't feel the booking fee was made clear enough at point of booking. The amount charged is extortionate, will never use holiday lettings or trip adviser again.

Ann B.

3 reviews

7 helpful votes

“Absolutely appalling”

2/18/16

If I could give it minus stars I would, as an owner they have not paid for a guest who stayed and have deleted his booking.
I wish someone would start a new site and we would have a choice for letting properties.
Stay well away wether an owner or traveller as you cannot contact them and the completely ignore you.

Customer Questions & Answers

1
Vote

Question:

Why do we have to resort to this contact? You never have any contact details on your website for owner contacts. Customer relations do not exist/

Answer:

I totally agree, as an owner of 4 properties advertised and who totally disagrees with Online Payment Protection and all the problems it creates (just read the trust pilot reviews) all of my properties are constantly on the back pages as I do not have the OPP stamp on them, as I pay an annual fee for all of them and most of the others are 'free listing' whereby Holiday Lettings gets a large commission on each booking, I am disgusted at the new system, especially as I have been a loyal customer since 2008. Don't bother advertising with the other big names out there, they have just changed their system and its even worse.

By christine M. on 7/24/15

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0
Votes

Question:

Is anyone else out there concerned about how little information is shared to us by HL/TA? I am a home owner. Have been on HL for ten years and as with all other comments on here, I saw a big change when TA took over With HL, I would ask potential guests lots of questions about their party. For their comfort as well as my property protection. With TA now, there is no direct contact allowed between guests and owners until the balance is paid. I now have an email address for my next guest who is from France and I am able to ask her questions about her party. whilst she said on the booking the holiday was for 2, it now comes to light it's for 8!! I have paid a lot of money for my property 300k. I find it difficult handing it over to strangers who I know nothing about. Also, like another owner on here, I have 3 bookings over the summer whereas before I would be rammed. Thinking of moving somewhere else now.

Answer:

I also have been with HL for many years without issue. This year however we have had no enquiries so I thought maybe our site was a bit jaded and was just trying to add new photos to freshen up the page. Adding the photos was tedious enough and when I had finished I asked hubby to do a search of the Holiday Lettings site as a potential customer. He couldn't even get the search box to accept the name of the town we are in and ended up wading through hundreds of properties from far and wide and still drew a blank. Once I waded in to try and assist it became clear that because of the way the search facility now works, you need to put the Department (we are in France) where the property is situated, in the search box and that brings up another search box where you can put in the town....if you haven't lost the will to live whilst trying to locate your town! If I were actually looking for a rental in my town I would have given up and gone elsewhere. How much time do we humans want to spend going round in cyber circles? Personally, none. Hence no bookings. I would normally get 15 to 20 enquiries starting in August, for the forthcoming winter of which I would accept a minimum of 4. Didn't happen I always had an email exchange with the renters before they committed with a deposit. There are a lot of questions that only the owner can help with. I am now trapped in a (seemingly) futile attempt to find a way to delete the account.

By Les W. on 2/14/18

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