Hi
You should be fine, the villa should be at least clean and comfortable.

You may not get the high standard you would get renting directly from an owner like Allison (Poohcorner) who posts here as they invest their profits into maintaining and improving the property, a lot of the tour operators buy unsold rental weeks from villa owners or property management companies at bottom rates so no profits to re-invest into the property.

Hi Dariowiser
We have been to Florida 4 x now but never in a villa. Could you tell me how much the deal is that you got and what time of the year please? You can PM me if you want to.
We have stayed in Kissimee before and would rent there.

Thanks Liz

Hi jeff1106uk
Thanks for your reply.
I didn't realise how travel agents actually got their villa rentals - learn something new every day
Thanks once again
R's
Dianne

Liz, there are a couple of good sites you can check which are usually cheaper than most of the tour operators, I've yet to find a package deal that I can't beat buying seperate flight, car hire & accomodation.

http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/Florida/Orlando/Disney-Area/Kissimmee-Area/r696.htm
Just used these for our Nov/Dec trip and got a brand new 3 bed condo for £175pw

http://www.floridavillaoptions.com/index.htm
Used these 4 times and haven't had a bad property, rented both villas and condos from them.

I couldn't find flights any cheaper than what we got the whole package for.
We're flying from BFS on 15/8/08 2ad 2ch and I got this for £2600 - I have looked on every site possible over the past few months and came across this by chance on the TC website. The same holiday is now showing for approx. £3500
R's
Dianne

If you're stuck with using your local airport the prices can be horrendous, ours is Newcastle and while the prices are not too bad the flights (irrespective of which tour operator you booked with) are all provided by Monarch who I wouldn't recommend to anyone over 5' 4" tall!, and the other problem is of course availability, if you don't live near London or Manchester most charter flights only run from March/April to October.

We've flown from Gatwick, Newcastle, Manchester, East Midlands and even Dublin and Amsterdam to get the best prices, for the dates we wanted, usually flying scheduled with at least double the charter flights luggage allowance for all the shopping!. So far the best has been £99 each and the worst £305 but that was First Choice Star Class Premiere so still a good price
I usually get flights for £250 - £300, car hire from £80pw for a 4 door economy with full insurance and a 3 bed condo or villa anywhere between £175-£230pw. If you've got a good deal locally then that's great
While DIY isn't everyones cup of tea the flexibility of number of days and cost savings make it my first choice, if I find a cheaper alternative I'll certainly take it!

Hi Jeff
Yeah we are sort of stuck with airports - Belfast or Dublin really. We could fly to Gatwick etc but with the kids (7 & 2) it's just easier. Last year we only paid £2000 but then the little one was free as he hadn't reached the grand old age of 2:>).
What car rental company do you use? 'Free' car hire has been included in our package but we need to pay extra insurance - which will be about £300 for the fortnight - I haven't agreed to use TC car hire yet because I thought I could get it myself cheaper.
Thanks for all your help.
R's
Dianne

Hi Dianne & Happy New Year
We always end up using Airline Network, never found anyone cheaper and they use Dollar who are at the airport.

http://www.airline-network.co.uk/CarHire/? prices for 2 weeks with full insurance start at £180 for an "economy" car, don't let that word put you off, last 2 trips we've booked economy and both times got a new Dodge Caliber which is a bit larger than a Ford Focus http://www.whatcar.com/car-review/dodge-caliber-hatchback/846/ you can upgrade to Platinum Insurance but it's usually better value with the larger cars/minivan, you get all drivers over 25 and a full tank on collection (return empty). You can use the standard insurance and when you pick up the car ask for a full tank and return it the same way, don't take it back empty as they charge $6.99 a gallon!!!

A good trick is to go to Dollars web site and join the Dollar Express program, it's free and means that if there's a queue when you go to pick up your car you can use the Express desks or a Dollar employee will open a desk for you if the's none available
https://ww2.dollar.com/Express/Enroll.aspx

Another good tip is to get an account with Nationwide, their debit and credit cards offer the best exchange rates and there are no transaction charges either, last visit we were getting about 6c above the Post Office/Travel Agents rates

Hi jeff1106uk,
We live in Cumbria so could use either Newcastle or Manchester. I've done a coupld of Web Searches for Flights to Orlando and couldn't find prices anywhere close to the prices you mentioned.

If you don't mind me asking, which Companies do you normally use, also what time of year do you normally travel, I was checking dates for School Holidays which are always higher,

Cheers

Jordy

Sorry to but in, but have you tried looking for flights though one of the web-sites that scans other sites as this might help you get something competative.

People like skyscanner and travelsupermarket.com. I know they dont look at all web-sites so are not 100% on getting the best deal but sometimes they come up trumps.

Have a look at http://www.cheaptickets.com for flights

With Thomas Cook, Virgin Holidays and First Choice they are allocation on arrival. You normaly meet the rep at the airport who gives you information, map etc to get to the local office which can be a managment company who will give you keys and a map of where the villa is, so you wont know where you are staying till you get to the office.

Most villas clean and tidy and quite often you can be upgraded at the office but as i say you wont know anything about the villa till you walk through the door and if you have high expectations of what you booked you can often be disapointed.

It is better to book direct with an owner on a forum such as this one and reason being not only do you know exactly where you are staying but you get the help from the owner with all the local information and about the other places arround to visit. You dont get that from travel agents

Malcolm