About Simply Owners

Private holiday rentals with no booking fees

Why we created Simply Owners

"Simply Owners was established in 2016 because of the changes the large monopoly websites were forcing onto both holiday homeowners and holidaymakers.

I advertised my summer house on TripAdvisor’s holidaylettings.com for £49/night, it appeared on their site at £81.40/night (a 66% increase!). On Owners Direct (now VRBO), it was £54.64 (an 11% increase).

The holiday rental market was controlled by just a few companies, both owners and holidaymakers were starting to get squeezed. There was a need for a sensible provider, that simply dealt solely with real owners, that did not try to rip anyone off.

It was clear that many other holiday homeowners, like me, were not happy with losing control over renting their properties or with the charges and fees imposed on their guests."

Avatar of Tim Parkes
Tim Parkes, Founder

We created Simply Owners to be different from other holiday rental websites

We researched the holiday rental marketplace and tried to understand what we would want, from both an owner and holidaymaker perspective. There were so many things that stood out as negatives:
  • Service charges adding from 10% to 60% to owners costs
  • Holidaymakers charged booking fees, of hundreds of pounds
  • Control taken away from owners, to run their holiday let how they wish
  • Forcing owners to pay extra, to move up rankings, to be seen by holidaymakers
  • Websites holding onto payments, causing cash-flow issues for owners
  • Dark patterns, to force holidaymakers into feeling pressured to “buy now”
  • Increasing prices due to demand, causing holidaymakers having to pay more
  • Unable to talk to a real human easily
  • Holidaymakers being hounded with upsells, cross sells or other services

What Simply Owners Values

As well as doing none of the negatives above Simply owners is trying to be the best choice for direct holiday rentals.
Our aims and our values are:
  • Ensure that all our customers feel valued
  • Make listings fair on both owners and holidaymakers
  • Let owners have control, over how they run their holiday let
  • Give holidaymakers a 100% payment protection guarantee, to increase trust in Simply Owners
  • Avoid all hidden and extortionate costs to holidaymakers
  • Ensure direct contact is possible between holidaymakers and holiday homeowners
  • Ensure our pricing is fair - We charge a flat fee, nothing else
  • Our customers are able to speak to us quickly and easily

Learn More About Simply Owners

We aim to become the choice of homeowners and holidaymakers. Learn more about Simply Owners.