"A Fair comment"

Affinity Villas have always been an excellent company with the team going the extra mile to make our holidays perfect. Terms and conditions are very clear from both Affinity Villas and the insurance companies who will pay out all monies paid upon cancellation on FCO advice

"I have used this company many times and…"

I have used this company many times and have never had a problem.Fantastic villas i have read many poor reviews due to covid problems and notice most have cancelled early so i dont know why they blame this holiday firm.

"if a zero star rating was an option i…"

if a zero star rating was an option i would have chosen it! As with other customers of Affinity Villas i feel compounded to leave this review, Paid a deposit of £2293 in October to rent a villa for 2 weeks in July, the balance of £5850 was due in May. Lost the deposit as we had to cancel because of FCO advice not to travel. We were told that if we did cancel we had an option to use the deposit to re book if the villa was still available if the travel restrictions were to be lifted (which i thought might help). However received another phone call on the day we had to pay the balance to say that if we wanted to stay at the villa the owner had now decided they wanted the second week of our 'booking' for themselves so we would not be able to use it for the original two weeks booked. which rendered the offer of re - use worthless. I would hope affinity villas has passed on the deposit they kept, the villa owner now has my deposit money for both weeks, the villa is still advertised as being free on the first week of our original booking so they are making double bubble if anyone else rents it, plus i have contributed to the holiday fund of the owners staying on the second week.
My car hire was refunded in full, the flights were re- arranged by jet2 without a hitch.
Affinity Villas should be ashamed of themselves, surely the villa owners understood the situation, most of the villas advertised through Affinity are also offered through booking websites which gave a full refund to people booked through them, but not affinity villas, look for yourselves on the web.
also notice the trustpilot link has disappeared from Affinity Villas Website.

"Unwilling to change holiday during pandemic"

We booked a villa with Affinity villas to Portugal for July 2020 in January. We paid the full amount in May in hope that the FCO advice would change (note
that if we didn’t pay in full we would have lost our deposit and would be unable to claim against insurance). Now with no air bridge to Portugal we are unable to travel as our insurance would be invalid. Affinity, unlike nearly every other villa company I’ve looked at, were unwilling to change the date, refund or offer a voucher. We’ve had full refunds from Air bnb for our other stay in Portugal. I would never book with this company again due to their inflexibility and would look to those companies that have gone above and beyond for their customers during the pandemic for future custom.

"DO NOT BOOK WITH THIS COMPANY"

DO NOT BOOK WITH THIS COMPANY

We have booked villas with this company for years now and I am absolutely disgusted at their dealing of the COVID 19 Pandemic.

We live in Scotland and a member of the family is shielding. At this time we are not permitted to travel to Portugal yet Affinity Villas have total disregard of this.

They have today cancelled our booking and kept our £900 deposit as the full amount was due to be paid and we were not prepared to take the risk of paying this and still not being able to travel. There is no refund being given and no chance of carrying our deposit over to next year. This means that if our Villa is rebooked at the same cost then the owner/affinity villas will have £900 extra on that booking. How can that possibly be fair. The customer, through no fault of their own, loses out completely. It’s a total disgrace and Affinity Villas should be ashamed of themselves.

We will not be booking with this company again and are in the process of taking advice on whether or not this is allowed to happen.

SHAME ON YOU AFFINITY VILLAS.

"Well spoken, but incorrect,"

Well spoken thieves.
The person on the phone DID indeed tell me that I would be fined if my balance fell behind.
Also, It seems Portugal is NOT open for business as you are happily telling disappointed customers in your replies below. We may have cancelled on the 30th March but our flights were cancelled both ways in early June by the airline anyway.
A good business is NOT build on shifting the blame onto your customers, you have kept most of your customers deposits to cover your own backs and your reply here makes me cringe.
Do not bother giving out your well rehearsed excuses and saccharine well wishes whilst you bank our money.

"STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!!"

Affinity Villas - A company that work with such outdated booking rules should not be in the market place! We just lost our initial deposit of 1,000 £ since we dont dare to keep our September rental due to the unique situation we're all in. Affinity Villas keep referring to insurance policies but there are no insurance companies that cover the ongoing pandemic! I spoke with both Mastercard and Amex about their coverage of the rental if I pay with any of their cards but they both were very clear about that they will not cover any losses due to the ongoing pandemic. We now will stay at Hilton and Marriott alternatives instead since you can cancel with 24 hour notice. The same applies to all the Airbnb options out there - those are much better and relevant alternatives than this poor company. STAY AWAY!! Companies like Affinity Villa should implement modern, fair and relevant booking rules, that is not the current situation. There are plenty of good and consumer friendly alternatives out there !

"No concept of "doing the right thing""

We had a similarly poor experience with Affinity as others. Deposit of £1,276.80 lost as, in their view, we had “cancelled” our trip starting 2/7/2020 by not paying the balance of over £4,200 in the midst of lockdown. Their communications, clearly carefully written by a lawyer, aim to shift responsibility to customer’s travel insurance and even blame their own villas owners for their lack of flexibility. In difficult times customers see the true measure of an organisation and sadly Affinity have made no effort to do anything other than protect themselves. In the current climate this is not a sustainable position.

"Do not book with this company"

Do not book with this company, absolutely zero flexibility. I had a villa booked for 13th June and when the final balance was due mid April, I phoned the company and was told they would not allow me to defer full payment and if I didn't pay, the villa booking would be cancelled, thus losing my deposit. I asked if my £500 deposit could be held until next year and used for a future booking, they said an emphatic NO. Use another company, there are other UK based Villa Rental companies who have been far more flexible. I will never book with this company again. We are all suffering with the effects of this pandemic!!

"Lost Deposit Zero Flexibility and no…"

We have been trying to reason with this company for a couple of months since lockdown. Prior to our substantial balance being due of £8k on top of an already £4k deposit for a holiday with family, including elderly relatives. We were told if we didn't pay the balance we broke the T&C's. Our insurance company advised us not to pay the balance, as we wouldn't be covered as Covid was now a known issue, which it was not when we booked.
So we were well and truely stuck. We tried to reason, to take alternative dates, vouchers or rebook for next year, We are told bluntly we have broke T&C's of contract and to contact our own insurance. We have asked them to work reasonable with customers and villa owners, to no avail.
They state they don't have contracts with Villa owners for 2021 so cannot rebook, however they are selling villas for next year!
We have had other holidays including Villas booked with reputable companies, who have offered, vouchers, rebook and even refunds.
Affinity villas, have negotiation, whatsoever, they could seek refunds for our deposits and in turn from the villa owners, who i doubt are yet to receive these funds - Who has our cash exactly?
Short term view as us and our family will never rebook with this company and it looks like others feel the same.
Will report to the CMA, Martin lewis, they have even blocked me from sharing on social media.
Good luck with your PR going forward.
Appalling customer service.
Shame on you, when other companies are pulling togther in true spirit and trying their best.