Can't find reviews...should I rent anyway?
 

I found a wonderful looking villa in Tuscany called Villa Branca, but can't find any reviews on it. I have checked slow travel & trip advisor. Has anyone stayed here? I hope so, because (if the website is accurate) it looks terrific. If I can't confirm this via reviews, should I go ahead & rent?

Have you contacted them to see if they can offer a name of someone who has stayed there so you can discuss it with them? This is not an unusual request for rental properties.

I did call them last week to ask a few questions. I didn't think to ask for references at that time. I guess I assumed I'd find something on line. The person there was very helpful - I'll request some names from them.

As far as I can tell from the Web site, Villa Branca is not rented as an entire villa; rather, various apartments in two different buildings are for rent.

If you are looking for agriturismo accommodations, it looks fine; if you are looking for an independent villa, Villa Branca might not be what you are looking for.

I had the same concern when booking my villa choice. I actually obsessed over it to the point of contacting the websites that listed the villa and contacting the "chamber of commerce" for the area that the villa is in. I tried to ask the owner for references and she told me that she has been renting the villa for many years to people from many countries. I think the language differences contributed to my difficulty getting the information I wanted.

I posted about my concerns here and on SlowTrav. Everyone pretty much implied that I was worrying too much. Some people indicated that just because you can't find a review does not mean it is a good place. Actually, if you found no reviews that might be better because people are more inclined to post a negative review.

Also, most of the replies to my postings on this matter indicated that they had not had problems renting villas that didn't have reviews.

When I posted that I wanted ref's I was told that usually it would be the owner, not the renter that would ask for ref's.

I fully understand your situation but in my case I researched the property as much as I could and decided to take the chance based on the information I could gather.

I hope it turns out to be fab and that I can write the first review on the internet for my villa :)

Good Luck!

PLMN- Thanks for the post. It made me feel alot more comfortable. I am feeling strongly that it's a good choice and I think I just needed to hear somebody else say it's okay to take the plunge! I guess if we didn't want to take chances, we'd all just stay home. (Yuk).

Cheers!

FYI, in reviewing my original post I meant to say ...does not mean it ISN'T a good place.

Hope it goes well for you!