Villa Rental

Can anyone suggest any good villa rental companies?

I have tried Bowhills and Iglu but can%26#39;t find what I am looking for.

I am looking for Provence or Cote dAzur

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Try chez nous. They have a very good selection.

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vrbo.com.....or i have personally stayed at Chateau Talaud in their apartment...they also have a small house on the property...wonderful owners...good location.

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I use ownersdirect.com. But they are simply a website and you book directly with theowner. Saves fees but obviously you are relying on a bit of luck. No problems so far. Hige range of properties

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Have you tried Homelidays? It is a French website (has English language option) with independent villa rentals in lots of countries and you can contact the owners direct. They are usually very reasonably priced and the wesbite has an excellent search facilities

Website is www.homelidays.com

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Watch out for these folks!

Chateau Talaud in Provence:

At first look, it%26#39;s a place dreams were made of. The gorgeous gardens, the majestic chateau and the intimacy all making it very compelling for you to ring up and book. Our company, one of the world%26#39;s most published and famous travel consulting firms did just this for two clients on their honeymoon. We had just had this honeymoon couple in Paris for four nights and it could not have gone any better. She was literally crying tears of joy at every turn. We had prearranged with Connie and Hein (the owners of the chateau)to do

something so very, very simple: arrange for the honeymooning husband to make his dream come true of cooking dinner for his new bride in a French Chateau kitchen, of course as part of a lovely surprise. We made it clear, crystal clear, that this was a prerequisite for us booking there. Connie, though Dutch, proceeded to take on a sometimes French persona, stated %26quot;C%26#39;est impossible%26quot;, but we soon struck a monetary arrangement to make this

%26quot;impossibility%26quot; just another day at the races. Now please understand, people hire us to do the impossible. Trust me when I say that this is nothing but a walk in the park for us. Impossible is having a police escort block off the Champs de Elysees for our clients. That%26#39;s a challenge. After all, she does

own the chateau and in fact has a chef come 2-3 times per week. It was merely a matter of having the chef come in on his day off. So, we were quite convinced that all was a go and agreed to the schedule she made such a big deal of. I literally had to kiss her *** to get something so basic such as

making a client happy and God forbid we throw such the proverbial monkey wrench into the stay!

Now we had hired a very well thought of guide, named Michael Rijken (who was ironically Dutch as well) and operates a super fine company called %26quot;Mike%26#39;s Wine Safari%26quot;, and he was absolutely superb with our guests. We spent a couple of hours with him plotting out their entire day- morning, lunch, and afternoon for the following two days of the itinerary in the area.. He executed it beautifully. The problem was Connie, despite our strongest instructions to leave our clients alone, just play host and keep her nose out of the batter, recommend nothing, and keep her opinions to herself, Connie decided she knew more than everybody combined, and arrogantly provided a very %26quot;beaten path%26quot; array of tours while paying no attention to logistics, not to mention forgetting that we are the client, not the guests.They didn%26#39;t choose this accommodation, we did. And it was our check she received.

But what really chapped me was that on the day of the dinner demonstration, our client came down to ask when he should report to the kitchen for his %26quot;gastronomique%26quot; experience, but there was none to be had. She said %26quot;it really was too difficult to arrange%26quot;. They never allowed us to speak to the clients and we would have to wait for Mike to have them in the car before we could get them on the mobile!

I could go on and on, but suffice it to say, if you are in the travel business and you handle very special clients and you want your clients to feel free, unencumbered, and without pressure from the owners to send you where they can make commissions, I highly suggest you pick another chateau in the area. I truly believe that these people are better off running a Fairfield Inn. They haven%26#39;t a clue as to the true meaning of %26quot;the experience%26quot; and it matters not to them who the client is, as they are going to pander to the guests out of their own arrogance. All of this, despite the collective effort of people who are being very well paid to create %26quot;the experience%26quot; because they know what they are doing in executing an original agenda. The rooms were quite nice but I suggest a social life (outside of their guests) may be in order for this charming couple.

GPHoustondreamaker

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Try frenchconnections.com we have used these 2 years running. Rented a beautiful house in Uzes last year an this year heading to Le Bar Sur Loup. Very reasonable and most are British owned to easy to arrange over email.

Good Luck!

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sorry it is frenchconnections.co.uk

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Try www.drawbrigetoeurope.com. I used them for a 2 week stay in Provence in May 2006. Exceede my expectations. Stayed in Eygalieres. Great location for getting to many areas of Provence.

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Hi

Read my TA review for Chateau de la Loubiere in Pertuis, Provence .... great location, English speaking owners .... lovely accommodation or you can look at their website

www.laloubiere.com

The Property is recommended by Sawdays, which means they are visited on a regular basis to ensure high standards

www.sawdays.co.uk

Hope this helps

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