FAQ:

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who are the people behind Villabreak Spain?
• How do I make a booking?
• How do I pay?
• Do you send reminders when the balance is due?
• Will you send me an email to acknowledge my payment?
• Can I leave a message for you to call me back?
• Can other people in my party contact Villabreak Spain regarding the accommodation I have booked?
• Will there be anyone to meet us?
• Do you provide a free welcome pack?
• What happens if I need help?
• What happens if I have to cancel?
• What if I need to change details of our party or amend my booking?
• What happens about cleaning?
• How do I get my security deposit back?
• How do I find the rental villa or apartment?
• When do I get the keys?
• What happens if we leave the property late?
• What happens if we are unable to clean the property prior to our departure?
• Will the swimming pool water be warm enough to swim in?
• Are there any restrictions on the use of a BBQ?
• Which things may be charged against the inventory deposit?
• What happens if a retention is made to my inventory depsoit?
• What happens if I dispute the amount retained against the deposit?
• When paying for the accommodation, will we have to pay exchange rate charges?
• What happens if my anti spam or service provider blocks your emails?
• What happens if I do not pay the balance of my booked accommodation on time?
• Can I contact the owner directly if there are issues Villabreak Spain have not been able to resolve?
• Do I need travel insurance?

Villabreak Spain is registered in Spain and set-up to provide holiday rental accommodation on behalf of owners with villas and apartments on the Costa Blanca. We publish all of our contact details on the website with the exception of our direct email address which you will be given when contacting us via the website contact forms. Properties can only be reserved by filling out a booking request form on the website. Navigate to the property details page and then click on the ‘reserve now’ link. If the property is exclusively managed by Villabreak Spain, this will take you to the availability calendar, where you can check to see if your preferred dates are available. If they are, you can then click on the start and end dates for your stay and then fill out the on-line reservation form. This will then display the price for your accommodation, with a request that you pay the booking deposit as specified on the contract. You can pay via credit card ‘currently Paypal’ . After making your payment you will receive notification of your reservation.

b) In the event that the availability needs to be checked before a booking can be made, an email will be sent automatically to the owner. If the dates are available you will receive an email with a link to the on-line booking form for that property. You will be asked to pay the booking deposit after completing the booking form in the normal way.

Currently all payments have to be made in Euros. You can pay the booking deposit on-line via credit card and then choose to pay the balance either by bank transfer or credit card when it falls due. No, we do not. In order to offer the accommodation at the best possible price, we have streamlined our administration. The balance is due 6 weeks prior to your stay and you will be given the due date at the time of making the booking. It is your responsibility to ensure that the balance is paid on time. Failure to do so may result in you losing your accommodation. As of 2008 we are no longer sending acknowledgement emails, due to the problems of mail being blocked by well meaning spam filters. Instead, you will be given a login ID when making your booking which will allow you to check and see if we have received your payment live on-line from the Villabreak Spain website. You are also free to call us using our UK local rate number to verify this. Yes, however we do not return calls to mobile phone networks outside of Spain, unless you are already staying at the accommodation or are on the way to or from the accommodation. We will return calls to all UK and Spanish landlines As the contract is between the principal booker and the owner, we are only able to deal with enquiries from the person who made the booking. Delays at airport and other issues often relating to independently booked car hire mean we are no longer able to offer a 'meet and greet service'. However in some cases the house manager is able to offer this service. Details can be accessed via the user log-in section of the website. The welcome pack is provided as an optional extra, with a choice of styles. If there is a real emergency you should call the 112 emergency services numbers (the equivalent to 999 in the UK). Local emergency service numbers are in the welcome book. You should then call us or the house manager. We are here to provide support during your stay, so should you have a problem with the accommodation, call straight away. This largely depends on when you cancel and the terms and conditions which are in affect for your particular accommodation. Generally the booking deposit is non-refundable. A cancellation up to a month prior to your stay will be subject to a scale charge refund as published in the terms and conditions of your particular accommodation. In the event of a last minute cancellation, you will need to make a claim on your holiday insurance. Any changes to your booking other than requests for additional goods or services will incur an administration charge of 30 Euros per item. This includes changes to dates and named people in the party. For most properties, the price includes cleaning prior to your arrival, but excludes any costs for a clean on departure. You are expected to leave the property as clean as you found it. Some agents do make an 'end of stay' cleaning charge, and if this is the case, it will be clearly indicated on the booking details. In any event you are expected to remove all waste from the premises during, and at the end of your stay. Villabreak Spain no longer requests a security deposit for properties which are exclusive to the agency. Instead a damage waiver is charged on a per person basis. It should be noted that this only covers small breakages. Wilful damage or damage which exceeds 200 Euros will attract a charge back. Terms and conditions apply to the damage waiver which is explained in the booking contract notes.

b) Many owners still request a security deposit, and in these cases the money will be refunded by the owner or their agent (usually within 14 days but in some cases longer) after your stay either by bank transfer or cheque to the principal booker.

If you have arranged for an airport collection or a ‘greet at a meeting point’ you will be taken directly to the property. In all other cases, directions together with the exact address will be posted on the 'User Account' pages of the villabreakspain.com website, once the balance has been paid in full. These can be accessed by entering your login and password. In some cases these are collected from a central collection point with 24 hour access. Details will posted on the 'Client Area' pages of the website, and can be accessed with your login and password. In all cases the property must be vacated by 10.00 hours on the day of departure, to allow sufficient time to prepare the accommodation for the incoming guests. In the event that the property is not vacated, there will be a 90 Euro surcharge for every hour or part thereof that the property administration is subjected to restricted access. You will be charged a cleaning fee and an administration fee. A surcharge notice will be sent and this will either be deducted from your security deposit or charged to your credit card unless a private arrangement has been made prior to your arrival with the house keeper. This largely depends on the time of year you are visiting. Generally unheated pools are warm enough to swim in from late Easter through to October Occasionally yes, generally from the last week of June to the end of August, the fire department can issue restrictions on BBQs due to the risk of wild fires. Villabreak Spain do not require an inventory deposit, but some of the owners do. In these cases breakages and damage to furnishings and or décor will be charged on as well as any items found missing from the inventory. Failure to return keys, tv remotes, A/C remotes, excessive and wasteful use of A/C, blockages to drainage caused by failure to adhere to sanitary guidelines, bank charges, foreign exchange and transmission costs, uncollected fees, such as airport transfer arrangements, cot and high chair rental, if not charged when the booking is made, administration charges for changes to booking, damage to garden equipment and parasols, if not put away during winds, re-positioning of furniture, if moved, additional cleaning, domestic waste removal, damage to domestic appliances or pool filtration equipment, by failure to adhere to the rules regarding the use of sun tan lotion, to name but a few. This is not an exhaustive list, but gives some indication as to the types of things that owners may make a request for a retention to be made against. Villabreak Spain will only make a retention to the inventory deposit if the owner requests it and Villabreak Spain uphold the retention request as valid under the terms and conditions in force at the time the booking was made. A notice of retention will be sent to the principal booker, stating the reason the charge is being made, together with the amount, which may include administrative charges. In some cases an agent of Villabreak Spain will try and contact the principal booker and request further information. If this happens and we are unable to contact the principal booker within 14 days, all funds held, less an administration charge, may be passed to the owner. Villabreak Spain try and act fairly and as impartially as possible at all times and in all cases. Villabreak Spain are the sole arbitrators of what consitutes a valid retention. In the event that a retention is disputed, we are only able to respond to the principal booker via email. We are unable to consider requests for re-consideration received later than 21 days from the date of issue of the retention notice. No, provided you are based in Spain and paying in Euros. In all other cases you will have to allow for variance in exchange rates. In the case of payments via credit card, a cross border charge may be levied by the card service provider. You are responsible for ensuring that mail from us relating to your holiday is not filtered either by your service provider or your PC software. We never send Spam or unsolicited mail and we would therefore recommend that if our email is being blocked that you either update your spam filters or install software that is capable of differentiating between legitimate mail and Spam. b) As you are responsible for your booking payments and for the above reasons, we no longer send out reminders when the balance is due. All matters relating to information we hold about the status of your booking can be accessed via you personal holiday management page via your login and password on the Villabreak Spain website. You are responsible for paying the full cost of your accommodation within 6 weeks prior to arrival. No reminders are sent, although your booking status can usually be checked at any time by visiting the website and logging into the customer area. In the event of default or late payment, it is likely that you will lose your deposit and possibly your accommodation. In cases where we have been able to renew the booking, an administration charge will be made which can be up to 5% of the booking value. Only in the event that a dispute has arisen that falls outside of the normal terms and conditions, as set out on the booking contract, or where the owner can be shown to have been clearly negligent, as would likely be upheld by a Spanish court of law, will the owner's details be forwarded to the principal booker. All members of your party must be covered by adequate travel insurance in order to make a booking. There are no exceptions to this. We may at any time request proof of cover and policy number.

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