Hi lesmor
We have been visting Tenerife for the last 10 years & after staying in some very dodgy accomodation booked through some of the big tour operators we decided to make our move & book our own flights & our own accomodation.
I can honestly say that we have never had a problem, all the private apartments we have stayed in have been furnished to a much better standard & when you book with the owners directly you get a much better personal service. You will always receive a 24 hour telephone number to ring should anything go wrong. As the owners usually holiday in their own apartments they tend to look after them & replace furniture etc as needs be.
We have just completed the purchase of our own apartment and are renting it out, if any person who rented it was disappointed I would be very concerned & do my utmost to put it right.
At the end of the day you should find the owners will look after you as they want your repeat business as well as recommending the apartment to your friends and families, whereas by and large the big companies are not bothered whether you enjoy your stay, they've had your money & they will get plenty of business whther you return or not.
Hope this helps.
Nigel

What date do you arrive in Tenerife and how long are you staying for and how many people are there.

10 th March for 14 nights 2 adults

Oh so you will be there when i'm there.

My friend has stayed in this apt in Garden City it is a private owned apt, but is lovely and has a great location.

Do a serarch on the internet and you will see how good it is.

http://www.daltonsholidays.com/fulladview.php?property=2623&page=1

Oh and £417 for 14 nights is an excellent price.

You could try http://www.eurosol.com - We have used them satisfactorily and have booked with them again for March.

I would definitely do so again

I just wanted to reinforce what most of the other people, and particularly Nigel, have said. You will definately get a better deal doing a DIY holiday and the service we owners provide is often excellent some of us have to rely on the custom we get so you usually find that it is in a very clean decorative order, with an 'Home from Home' feel about the place.

Enjoy it Les.

Regards

Peter

.....yes indeed ; we have to try hard to keep our guests satisfied by offering good service at a keen price ; a large, impersonal holiday company may not know - or care much - if customers are not completely happy with their accommodation ; as owners we have a duty to ensure that our own high standards are maintained....repeat bookings are a good sign of this......

We've booked independently for the first time for April. We booked through Maestro Vacations who deal with owners. We're staying in the Cristian Sur Apartment in Los Cristionos. I've seen this in a tour operator brochure who rate it as a 3* - we'll see but you'll never know if you don't try!