Renters helper

Is this the first time you rent a property directly from an owner?

We have thought of you, and produced a short video that explains the most common procedure for how to book one of the holiday homes listed on Spain-holiday.com. Turn on your speakers and hit play.

In case of additional doubts and queries, please do not hesitate to contact us or consult our frequently asked questions section below.

Here are a few tips as to how you can make your rental transaction and payment more secure.
As with every online company, there is a risk that people will try to take advantage of the trust that we have worked so hard to earn.
Spain-holiday.com has made every effort to employ all possible means to prevent clients from being left with a serious problem. If you follow these security tips and use common sense you are well on your way to having a safe/secure booking.

Security

www.spain-holiday.com has more than 2,562 properties advertised and has been running since 2002. We maintain a record of each property and owner. If an owner repeatedly receives complaints, the account will be disabled immediately as we only wish to advertise properties in which we are certain that our visitors are in good hands.

The owners are required to comply with strict regulations (including sending us proof of ownership details) which they must accept before they are allowed to add a property to the website. They are also aware that www.spain-holiday.com does not accept complaints of any kind. Furthermore the owners are required to pay www.spain-holiday.com one year in advance to advertise their properties, so a person intending to defraud, must pay us first.

Be aware that property owners or managers may be victims of identity theft, also called phishing.
Our homeowners and agents usually communicate with renters through their personal email accounts which are outside of Spain-holiday.com's security walls. Such personal email accounts create a potential for phishing to occur. Phishing is when a criminal hacks a homeowner or agent's email account. Once the phisher has control over their account, the phisher impersonates the homeowner or agent and convinces the renter to send money to the phisher's account rather than to the homeowner or agent. To protect yourself from ending up in such a situation, there are a few things we advise you to do before sending payment to the homeowner.

  • Do not pay upfront in cash or instant money transfers using companies such as Western Union or Money Gram
  • Call the telephone number displayed on the ad on Spain-holiday.com before paying
  • Check that the name used in the email is the same as the one used online
  • With bank transfers, make sure the account holder name corresponds with the name online
  • Make sure the bank account is located in the same country as where the owner is from
  • Check the online booking calendar to make sure it's not booked during your desired rental period
  • Follow the payment methods and terms advertised in the ad
  • We recommend paying by credit card, PayPal or bank transfer
  • Paying by credit cards is safe as they offer charge-back protection should there be any issues with your reservation

If you are still uncertain about renting a holiday home from a private owner or agent, please contact us for assistance by phone or email.

Travel

There is not a fixed standard of how payment is arranged with the owner; however many use the following method
  • On making a reservation, 20-50% percent of the total amount is paid
  • The balance is paid between 3 to 10 weeks before arrival
You may also be asked to pay a refundable deposit upon arrival, in case of damage to contents of the property. Most owners will ask you to make a bank transfer. Some will accept cheques while more and more have set up their own paypal account in order for the clients to pay by credit card.

If you liked a holiday home and sent an enquiry to the owner via the ad directly, you will receive a follow-up email within 2 days, with a direct link to the ad you enquired about, so you can have another look at it. If by then you haven’t received a reply from the owner, we will help you with contacting the owner.
Please be sure to provide your correct email address and your phone number with country code so that the owner can make contact with you.

If you have rented a holiday home, you might also need a rental car to explore beautiful Spain. We offer rental cars at low cost in more than 80 destinations throughout Spain. Simply click on the following link to check prices and hire a car

If you use www.spain-holiday.com there will probably be several holiday homes you like. We have created a method to place all your preferred holiday homes in a shortlist, so that you don’t have to search repeatedly every time you use www.spain-holiday.com.
You can do this by clicking on “add to shortlist” in the ad itself, so that every time you visit www.spain-holiday.com, you are able to open your shortlist, adapt it by adding or removing other holiday homes and even send it to friends or family.

If an owner has availability on their holiday home within the next 3 months, they may be able to offer a last minute deal so you can book the holiday home at a special price for a specific period.