[1966]

Ok - first time doing this but really cheap flights booked and paid for to Malaga with Ryan Air for July.

Trying to get nice apartment for us & 2 teens and have come across a couple of nice ones on various letting sites. One we are interested in is available and owner has emailed terms & conditions together with booking form. As we are booking with less than 8 weeks to departure he requires paying in full & booking deposit of €150 for damages etc?

Is this normal payment terms or has anyone out there experience of booking apartments like this??? I suppose what I'm asking is - how do you spot a fraud??

[naughtysmurf]

It seems to be pretty normal with most private rentals when booking close to your arrival date

As regards how to spot a fraud, tough one, you could ask for contact details from owner & get references from previous renters. If ad says something along the lines of " this owner has been advertising with us since 2005" or similar, should be ok

I'm sure other tips will follow

Don't know if you are going to hire a car or not but for what it's worth we rented a 2 bed apartment in the Belgravia Club, Estepona, through Melrose properties a couple of years back, suited us & had no issues

http://www.melrose-properties.com/apartments.php?id=17

[naughtysmurf]

Originally Posted by 1966

but really cheap flights booked and paid for to Malaga with Ryan Air for July.

Do you mind if I ask when you booked your flights and how much you paid

People often ask when is the best time to book for best price, pm if you like, I'd be interested, I'll be looking at Malaga for next year.

One word of warning about Ryan Air out of Malaga, They will screw you for every kilo you are over 15kg they are very enthusiastic in Malaga

If Hiring a car, we used Helle Hollis, found them good on price & service

[Leper]

For a start Naughtysmurf is doing the right thing booking now for 2013, very sensible. Fraud on holiday rental sites is rare and I cannot give any advice on how to spot shady ads. As some people say in other "financial" threads, dont ignore the elephant in the room.

Thousands of Irish people have holiday homes in southern Spain and rent them out which helps with Spanish Taxes etc. It might be worth your while to look up ads in newspapers and on boards in supermarkets etc.

Dont confine yourself to Málaga either, there are plenty of bargains to be had.

[1966]

thanks guys for all the advice.......yeah Naughtysmurf we booked Ryanair flights this week - Tuesday to Tuesday in July for family of four, thats 4 adult prices which cost €850 - unfortunately we spent too much time "pondering" about going and about a week before the same flight was €700 for us all. I'd hate to think how cheap this could have been had we decided to look at flights at the start of the year. We didn't pay for any checked-in bags so thanks for the heads up there......if they are that sticky i probably should look at even paying for one. i know it sounds crazy but we holidayed last yr with hand-luggage only - just packed like a military operation and we got on just fine but we had a couple of moments in the airport where we started to panic about those extra ounces.......

[00benski]

Have a look at these guys i booked an appartment through these last year and had a great time with no problems. www.letsholiday.ie

[naughtysmurf]

Originally Posted by 1966

thanks guys for all the advice.......yeah Naughtysmurf we booked Ryanair flights this week - Tuesday to Tuesday in July for family of four, thats 4 adult prices which cost €850 - unfortunately we spent too much time "pondering" about going and about a week before the same flight was €700 for us all. I'd hate to think how cheap this could have been had we decided to look at flights at the start of the year. We didn't pay for any checked-in bags so thanks for the heads up there......if they are that sticky i probably should look at even paying for one. i know it sounds crazy but we holidayed last yr with hand-luggage only - just packed like a military operation and we got on just fine but we had a couple of moments in the airport where we started to panic about those extra ounces.......

Cheers for that info, just be careful with the weight of your carry on bags also, 15kg's , I can't stress enough how keen they are when it comes to weighing them in Malaga, pick yourself up a handheld scales if you don't have one, they are cheap enough, you will also need to be able to get anything you buy in the airport into the same bag, one carry on per person is strickly enforced in Malaga in my experience

[Leper]

Ryanair is cracking down on size and weight bags at all their airports.

[mikedragon32]

Originally Posted by naughtysmurf

Cheers for that info, just be careful with the weight of your carry on bags also, 15kg's , I can't stress enough how keen they are when it comes to weighing them in Malaga, pick yourself up a handheld scales if you don't have one, they are cheap enough, you will also need to be able to get anything you buy in the airport into the same bag, one carry on per person is strickly enforced in Malaga in my experience

Just to clarify carry-on luggage is 10kg maximum, not 15.

[naughtysmurf]

Originally Posted by mikedragon32

Just to clarify carry-on luggage is 10kg maximum, not 15.

My mistake, 15kg in the hold, 10kg carry on, worse again, hope the op is travelling light