James Villas Reviews 

Competitive prices and easy to use website.
However €95 charge to change holiday start date by 1 day (less than 24hrs after booking) was surprising

Updated: James Villas have very kindly removed the charge due to the change being made within 24 hours. Thank you Emma 👍

Great selection of properties. Called in for some advice and they were extremely helpful

The site is easy to use, but I didn’t receive a confirmation email, all ok just logged into my account

Great choice, reasonable pricing and very easy booking. So pleased to see JAMES villas back as a choice for villa holidays

Simple to use.

The luxury villa was very spacious, the bedrooms are massive and first impressions were great
But there were a couple of things which we would have expected as follows:
We had no toilet roll in the master bed En-Suite
No soap dispenser in the upstairs toilet
No welcome pack i.e., Tea, Coffee, Milk, Washing tabs etc
The kitchen was completely empty of condiments apart from a salt pot, which was unusable
No contact with anyone on our arrival
Not able to park on the driveway due to garden rubbish piled up, there was however ample parking on the road.

Then things started to unroll, there is a lovely covered area which is great for eating outside in the evening, having said that, it is tired....
The outdoor furniture was comfortable but in need of a deep clean, it was dirty/dusty under the glass on the table and around the edge needed pressure washing due to old food etc in between the rattan weave
The sun loungers were dirty and had remanence of old sun cream etc also bolts sticking out
The 2 windows either end of the outside area are filthy, they haven’t been cleaned in a while as with the 2 glass floor panels by the stairs and glass above the stairs.
The pool is also tired and the waterfall no longer works, the pool level is approx. 100mm lower than it should be so no longer works as an infinity pool. As the level is lower it no longer skims of the top so I had to use the net every couple of days to get the bugs and debris out. It’s not a really deep pool anyway and being even lower than normal made it more difficult to swim.
The whole of the outside area is dusty and is just in need of a real deep clean.
The outside shower doesn’t drain and just overflows down the drive
Several of the balcony panels around the villa are cracked and the wobbly and really need sorting as this could be a danger.
The Villa in general could be so much more with a little bit of TLC but we did not get the experience that we paid for, over 3K for a week.
The photos did not resemble what we got, also things that were listed did not work correctly
Would not recommend at all!

Cupboard door in lounge hanging off hinges. Water leaking from kitchen sink. No TV or dvd as advertised. No electricity of any kind for two days. No information pack of any kind in villa. I had to pay a local electrician to get electric back on. James villas said l should have rung the number in the information pack!!!!. Of course ther wasn't one. Absolute cowboys fro beginning to end. No wonder they are going out of business. I reiterate BLOODY COWBOYS.

Can't now see areas by month. Has to be set dates. Long time customer but novasol website is dire

Just got an e mail- my Christmas Villa booking is cancelled. Just like that - no compensation - maybe 10 days to refund. What do you think we can do now - everywhere is booked up ..... James Villas parent company stole Christmas !

Have also received the email cancelling my villa in Cyprus next June. Have paid for all my flights. My problem is that I paid using a James Villas Voucher, which I accepted in settlement of a County Court Claim against them. The Email says they are 'closing down' (therefore not in administration), so hopefully they will honour the voucher and refund it? No reply from my query about this.

UPDATE
One week later an no reply to my email whatsoever. Seems like they've given up on customers already!

Just received email advising they are closing and all future holidays are being cancelled and refunded, which leaves me out of pocket for the flights. All calls being hung up on after a brief recorded message. Tried to call the parent company, Awaze. All numbers on Website diverted to their operator Hoseasons who are unable to help. Clearly they do not wish to work with customers and I am frustrated at this treatment

We stayed at a villa in sardina last week it was the best holiday we ever had .it was so relaxing and the kids loved the pool and the dog cuma .the owners luca and antanella live under the villa they were so friendly and nothing was to much trouble . We had use of all the grounds.the villa it's self was well equipped with everything you needed all we had to do was unpack the cases and make ourselves at home.

My husband and I, and our friend, booked a holiday in Paphos, Cyprus, the first week of October 2023. We selected a villa in Paphos called Beach Haven, James Villas being the provider. This was a modern, contemporary, lovely villa. The whole holiday was (thankfully) booked through Trailfinders. At 10.40 pm, the evening before we were due to fly, we received a text from Trailfinders 24 hour desk, informing us that they had just received a message from James Villas that we had been moved from Beach Haven villa, Paphos to a villa in Coral Bay (Coral Bay is a good 10-12 miles outside Paphos). We had an early morning flight to Cyprus, so at this point, we just had to proceed. We had a transfer taxi booked at Paphos Airport, for which we had to pay another 20 euros on top of our original transfer payment, because it was a longer journey to Coral Bay. I was so upset when we went into the villa in Coral Bay. It was well below the standard of Beach Haven; screws hanging out of electrical fittings, light bulb not working, some electrical points taped over, awful beds and bedding that did not fit, in need of updating – we had paid for marble style bathrooms with spacious walk-in showers - we had a shower tray with a plastic curtain. Fortunately, Trailfinders had stayed in touch with us, and managed to get us moved to a villa in Paphos, but not until the Wednesday of our holiday. When we pulled up outside the villa in Paphos on the Wednesday, we instantly recognised the villa next door as the Beach Haven villa, our original booking, which is now named Laurus 1. We were in Laurus 2, which met the requirements we were looking for. Beach Haven was already occupied when we arrived, and I had the opportunity to speak with them. They had originally booked Laurus 2 (the villa we were now in) for two weeks, but before leaving for their holiday, had been informed that they had been moved to Laurus 1, no explanation given. So, their first week of holiday was in the villa we had booked, and we were moved to the Coral Bay villa, WELL BELOW THE STANDARD WE WERE PAYING FOR. We “lost” two days of our holiday (Monday and Tuesday), and we didn’t get a chance to do all we had planned to do in Paphos. We had not rented a car with our villa booking, because we expected to BE IN PAPHOS. We are grateful to Trailfinders who helped us through this. The disappointment of this holiday was all caused by James Villas’ appalling service. SHAME ON YOU JAMES VILLAS.

In response to your reply to my review, you quote "Looking in to your booking further I can see we contacted your travel agent with a number of options before your travel." Why would you be offering a number of options when we had already booked and paid for Beach Haven? Only reason I can think of is that you had overbooked it. I see there are other reviews on Trustpilot complaining that their villa had been overbooked. However, I note their is a review which states that James Villas has now closed for business. Hmmmmm.

We have booked villas, flights and cars through James Villas for a number of years but our recent experience will lead us to book through any other company / platform in future. James Villas for us used to be a premier villa rental organisation but now appear to give the same level of protection as other cheaper alternatives.
Main issues during our holiday: No WIFI for 7 days, pool turned green for 5 days, villa was tired and in need of maintenance and an uplift, inaccurate villa details, no water for 1.5 days (which I actually fixed in the end), issues with jacuzzi bath, villa is overlooked by a block of apartments, next door villa and is built alongside a public car park. Three separate building projects going on in the small village which meant we had breakfast to a back ground of JCB's breaking rocks. Greece has to build but we weren't informed or offered alternatives. There were numerous other small issues which we didn't expect from a James Villa.
To add insult to injury James Villas have offered a "gesture of goodwill" of just £50 above what they gave us for a complaint about a dangerous car they rented for us back in 2012 ! and, we have to spend their "gesture of goodwill" with them !
Part of the problem here I believe is that if there is a problem James Villas appear to act only as a 'go between' they don't actually take responsibility.
In response to James Villas reply :
Perhaps this is an automated reply or perhaps it is what is now commonly known as a falsehood whichever, we did not agree to anything, we were TOLD what they would give as a " gesture of goodwill " which by the way we have to spend on another James Villas holiday ! I wouldn't book with this organisation again, not because of the issues we experienced but because of the way they have handled our complaint.

We booked a villa in Lanzarote for a week. Prior to arriving to the villa we went to a supermarket to buy some food. When we arrived, we noticed there was a hire car parked on the driveway and the code we were given for the key box was wrong. We managed to work out what the code was but there was no key inside. As it was Sunday afternoon, we called the customer service line and got through to the India team. We explained the situation and they said they will call us back. After a while they called back and said the local Spanish team will contact us. Again after a while the Spanish team contacted us but they were unable to explain what was going on and why we couldn't get in the villa. Then they said they will contact the maintenance guy- we thought he would be able to let us in but when he finally called us he said the previous guests extended their stay for an extra night. He said he spoke to James Villa multiple times to remind them that we were booked in that villa and they will have to sort something out for us. So they knew the whole time! We got this information after sitting on the driveway for over 2 hours. It was getting dark and late and the food we bought was going bad. We called the India team again to find out why they didn't tell us straight away that the villa was double booked and why they didn't contact us in advance. They said we should book a hotel room for that night. There was no apology or attempt to fix the issue on their end. Awful customer service. They should have been the ones sorting out the temporary accommodation for us instead of leaving us to do it all ourselves. We tried to go to the nearest hotel but as it was last minute they were fully booked and turned us away. We then received a phone call from the Spanish team who wanted to know if the maintenance guy contacted us. We explained what he told us about the double booking. As you can imagine we were extremely unhappy and stressed out at this point. The Spanish team found out that the villa directly next door to the one we booked was empty and we could stay in there for the night. We were relieved that we had somewhere to stay however we lost at least €40 worth of food and spent 2 hours on the street stressed out. And to top it all off the door to the villa next door was unlocked the whole time, the door lock was broken so the door wouldn't lock. We spent the whole night worrying that someone could easily break in. We were able to move into the villa we originally booked the following afternoon but the only "apology" we got from James Villa was "Sorry for the confusion." This was pure neglect from them and not a confusion! The cherry on top was when a pool cleaning man appeared out of nowhere and poked his head over the fence to find out if he can come in and clean the pool. The reason we picked this villa was because it was very private. I was sunbathing topless and as I didn't expect a stranger to show up, it really frightened me and I felt uneasy for the rest of the stay. We will not be using James Villa again and definitely do not recommend unless you want your holiday ruined.

Upon arrival the provided key code was incorrect. Once we had figured it out there was no key in the box. Rang customer services who passed us to the "local team" (3rd party management company), the "local team" gave us the phone number of the caretaker who told us that the current occupants had extended their stay by a day, and he had told them multiple times and had been informed it was solved and we had been relocated (we hadn't obviously).

I then had to go back to James villas customer support, who told us to book a hotel and they will reimburse us. We went to a nearby hotel and were sent away, when the "local team" rang and told us that the villa next door had been empty the entire time and asked us to go there. All in all it was 2.5h of sitting/walking in 30° heat after spending the entire day travelling by the time we got in. Then the following day we elected to move back to the originally booked villa as it was much more private and that's why we booked.

During the course of our time there the pool cleaner visited twice, both times just walking around without knocking on the door which really took away from any privacy we felt we had, putting a real downer on combined with the issues we had during our entry.

The villa itself was lovely, well appointed and very private and comfortable as expected, but James villas management and customer service leaves a lot to be desired, and we certainly won't be coming back to them.

An awful holiday experience with James Villas. Arrived to find the villa in Greece already occupied. After contacting the company they explained we had been moved to another (far worse) villa. Oh, and that they meant to tell us this back in July. We had no choice but to stay. The villa had a steep spiral stair and the only pool access was down this stair and through a bedroom. The bed also had bed-bugs and we were both eaten alive.
James Villas used to run a great business, but clearly they have given up on this approach and just want your money. Awaiting compensation.

Loyal customer for well over ten years and will not book with them again. Booked a villa to find out at short notice it has been double booked. The alternative offered was not to the same standard. They tried to stress it was £500 more, which they would cover, however this was just due to size of villa and not reflective of similar or better quality. No compensation or support to find an alternative. Ended up spending £800 more on accommodation. Once a reliable, customer focused and quality brand is now just a booking agent with limited resources. Book with online booking agent- cheaper and probably more reliable.

"The following booking will need to be cancelled or re allocated as property is fully booked during this time.
Owners had blocked off the dates in system but this has unfortunately not synced through to our system and so we have taken an over booking." - took them over a month to realise and had I not contacted the owner, we would have shown up to no accommodation.

Appalling customer service, many issues with Villa not dealt with properly. Subsequent complaint raised after we got home - including highlighting an issue where French law is being broken - not dealt with either. They are happy to take your money but then won’t take any responsibility when things go wrong saying refer to their T&C’s…. Do not use this company.

Our villa in Kolympia in Rhodes was burgled and we decided to book an early flight home. We contacted James Villas to let them know. Given that the villa is inherently insecure, the least we expected was a good will gesture for the fright this had caused, not to mention the extra cost for the flights and curtailment of our holiday, but they offered us nothing