I'm renting a house in Spain through SpainSelect. I paid about $600 by credit card as a deposit and was given a deadline of 1/27 to pay the balance, at which time I would be sent all the information about the location of the house, etc. (I only know the name of the village). I have been trying to reach SpainSelect since last Sunday by email. Previously, they always emailed back within a few hours. I'm getting concerned about the lack of response. I sent them a fax this morning.
Do any Fodorites have any thoughts (other than contacting my credit card company which is a last-ditch solution?) Has anyone heard or had any first-hand bad experiences with this company? I know it's a little late to be asking...
Anyway, would appreciate any advice.

I'm sorry but..... Do you know whta house you're renting? You say you only know the village's name.

Sorry, I have never heard about this organization. I suggest that you go to www.slowtrav.com and post there. Most of the people that post there rent houses when they travel so there is a chance that somebody might know this company.

I wouldn't pay the balance until you hear from them again. Could you call them? Where is this company based?

The house is called Las Tejas. I can't give them any more money til I hear from them; in fact, that is why I emailed them on Sunday: to find out how to process the remainder of the amount due. That's why I'm mystified about not having heard from them.
Thanks for the tip about slowtrav.com. I'll post there later today.
They're based in Madrid. I asked my travel companion to try to call them today. I can't make an int'l call from my workplace and she's a much calmer person than I am. Wish me luck! and thanks for the input.

Gailw,

How did you hear about this company? The reason I ask is that I have tried to find companies that rent houses / apts. in Spain and have found very few options. There seems to be so many for Italy but very few for Spain.

Good luck and let us know how it ends!

do they have a phone number you can give me? i will call from spain, where i live, and check this out if you want me to.

good luck.
sounds strange, to say the least.

www.toprural.com is good website, cruiseluv, for country homes.

also, if you google an area in spain you want to go to.. and "rent villa".. you will find TONS of properties.. or by owner, or by agencies. there are 1,000's.

lincasanova: thanks so much for your offer to call -- the number I have for Spain Select is 34 91353 0809. The two people I had emailed were a Daniel Hermoso and a Sandra Cabello. I really appreciate your offer. I'm getting a little freaked out by their continued silence. I faxed them at 8 am. Eastern time and still haven't received a reply.
To Cruiseluv: I spent a lot of time searching the internet for vacation rentals in Spain; found info about the Lecrin Valley and kept searching. Found an obscure website that listed a few houses in a small village half an hour south of Granada. Rented one, loved it, returned several more times to same village. Tried a different town one year; didn't like it as much. This year, the house we've rented in past is being renovated and isn't available, so I went back online, searching for vacation rentals in that village. Found several different websites which appeared to offer the exact same house by different names. If you Google "vacation rentals in Spain" "villas in Spain" and any other combination you think of, you'll pull up hits to different websites that offer Spanish rentals.
Good luck.
gail

topping for help from lincasanova

gailw.. need a litle more info, the house is las tejas.. but do i need to tell him who you are and the exact dates?

will call tomorrow.. got home late after work tonight.

this place is in the yellow pages so i think you are o.k..

it is a real estate agency.
hope to find something out for you tomorrow.

lincasanova: the house is in my name, Gail Wild, and is rented from 3/27 to 4/6. I have a confirmation number and reservation number and if you want them, maybe you could email me directly and I'll reply to you with them instead of posting them. Thank you so very much for doing this for us. We still haven't had any response at all from them. I can't figure out what's going on!

gail.. everything is fine. have spoken to sandra.

i forgot there is this HUGE tourist fair in madrid this entire week "Fitur" and the majority of the employees are there so the email responses are behind.

she will send your confirmation sometime today and apologizes for the delay.

so.. don't worry. all in order.
she knew who i was talking about.

lin

Lin,

Just wanted to comment that it was so nice of you to do this for Gail. I know I would have been worried too.

Also, thanks to you and Gail for the tip on how to search for houses. Maybe I'll get luckier. It doesn't seen difficult to find if you want Marbella, Costa del sol, that kind of area, But for the north I wasn'y having any luck.

for houses up north, check this out, and google with asturias, galicia, pais vasco, and you will get a lot more.

http://www.vivirasturias.com/asturia...gas/index.html

lincasanova: I got an email this morning. I can't thank you enough for calling them. I bet I wouldn't have heard from them for a while if you hadn't called for me. Muchisimas gracias.

i do think you would have heard from them soon because she was aware of all the email back up and was getting up to date all day today she said..

good news. hope you enjoy the place.

snowing now over most of spain.
bad cold front.. as though we all haven't spent enough on heating already this year.

Wow, I didn't think you got much snow. I live in New England and we've had much less than usual. There are places where you can see bare ground, but those are in the sun. Mostly, it's a pretty white landscape still. We're very psyched about our trip to Andalucia and smelling the orange blossoms!

second most mountainous country after switzerland.
tons of ski areas.. but it usually doesn't snow at low altitudes, but they are warning EVERYONE to put chains in their cars this weekend because the snow is coming in really low.

bilbao is covered in it as we speak!

next week we will probably be back to normal.. i hope.
we get spoiled!