Villa holidays 2025: Best and worst overseas holiday let providers

Whether you fancy a luxury pool villa or a bargain lodge on a family-friendly site with shared facilities - our latest survey of more than 2,000 people reveals the providers most likely to deliver the overseas getaway you've dreamed of.

Even Eurocamp, new to our survey this year, garnered a decent customer score, despite coming bottom.

Booking.com was the most used – unsurprising given its prominence – but was one of two providers given three-star customer service scores (along with Vrbo). Its rivals with ratings in this category, secured four. 

When we recently investigated scam listings on Booking.com and asked why it hadn’t refunded a customer whose accommodation didn’t exist, it said that while it can chase what you are owed, it’s the owner’s responsibility to refund you.

That wouldn’t happen with villa holidays from BA, Jet2 or Tui. These three big names only let out self-catering accommodation as part of flight-inclusive packages, so if the accommodation isn’t available, you won’t lose out financially.

The package holiday providers were more expensive, even after we removed the flight cost in our snapshot pricing research. However, there’s a good reason: choose a package and you’ll benefit from Atol protection. You won’t get stranded abroad or lose money if the company goes bust. And if the accommodation isn’t as promised, your organiser must put it right because of the package travel regulations. We think that’s worth every penny.

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Best and worst providers of overseas holiday lets 

You can compare customer scores and prices in the table. For extra peace of mind, both the companies awarded Which? Recommended Provider (WRP) status have promised they won't apply surcharges – so the prices won’t go up after you book.

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Best for villa holidays with flights

 Jet2Villas (part of Jet2holidays) review

• Which? Recommended Provider
• 79% customer score
• Snapshot pricing indication*: £93pppn
• Package bookings only

Jet2 is a WRP in various travel categories, and it didn’t disappoint in villa holiday results either. This package provider has villas dotted around the Mediterranean (although none in France) and the Canary Islands. Our snapshot pricing suggests Jet2’s villas are priciest (even once we removed flights), but it does throw in a hire car, unlike other brands, which partly explains the extra outlay. Still, Jet2 got four out of five stars for value for money. On some of its holidays, you can remove car hire. On others, you can’t, but you can swap it so that you have airport transfers instead. And with 2,800 villas to choose from, it has the most villas of the three package holiday companies  (itself, BA and Tui). The airline part of the package should impress too, as fewer than 0.5% of flights were delayed by more than three hours or cancelled within 24 hours of departure. 

Verdict: Jet2 excels in all our surveys. It’s a reliable choice. 

Book a Jet2Villas holiday rental package

Tui villa holidays revie

• Which? Recommended Provider
• 79% customer score
• Snapshot pricing indication*: £67pppn 
• Package bookings only

Tui is middle of the road in our other surveys, but it’s doing something right with villa holidays. It could be the accommodation: in our most recent surveys on package holidays, all-inclusive resorts, city breaks and escorted tour providers, it got three out of five stars for hotel quality. Yet for holiday lets, it scored four stars. Several survey respondents commented that their villa was exactly as described. Tui has just 110 villas across the Mediterranean and Florida, which means there is less choice than with Jet2. These vary from traditional shuttered houses surrounded by olive groves in the Greek countryside to sleek haciendas in Lanzarote with wraparound pools and all the mod cons. But your journey might be less comfortable than with Jet2, given that Tui scored lower in cleanliness (three stars) and seat comfort (two stars) in the airline survey. The good news? According to our pricing snapshot, Tui is considerably cheaper than other brands.

Verdict: Less choice and fewer in-flight comforts than with Jet2, but you’ll save if you secure a decent car hire deal.

Book a holiday rental package with Tui 

British Airways villa holidays review

• 79% customer score
• Snapshot pricing indication*: £68pppn
• Package bookings only

BA has a selection of more than 1,000 holiday lets, from villas in buzzy complexes complete with ocean-view infinity pools, to rustic hillside boltholes and townhouses with hot tubs. Even better, BA has given all its Mediterranean and Floridian villas a star rating. This means you know what quality to expect rather than guessing from pictures. Jet2 doesn’t do this on most of its villas. BA, like the other two package providers, includes baggage as part of the cost. However, car hire is not included – you can add this on, but we wouldn’t. Avis and Budget, the firms it works with, didn’t score highly in our last car hire provider survey. Where BA falls down is its airline, which was the fifth-worst-rated short-haul airline in our recent survey.

Verdict: Its flights bring down British Airways’ villa packages. Jet2’s airline is better rated and more reliable.

Book a holiday rental package with British Airways

Best for cheap holiday rentals abroad

Gites de France review

• 75% customer score
• Snapshot pricing indication: £19pppn
• Accommodation-only bookings

Gites de France has more than 55,000 holiday lets to choose from. You’ll find quaint cottages, sprawling farmhouses and compact shepherd’s huts and lodges with varying quality. Each property is vetted, which is more than what sites such as Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo do, as they simply list them. You’ll need to use the filters to locate a private rental, setting it to ‘lodgings’ and unticking ‘guest house’ – the latter being a B&B- style accommodation. Beware, though, that private rentals might sit next to the owner’s home. This can be great if you need help or recommendations of things to do in the area, but it may not be everyone’s ideal getaway, especially if the pool is shared. 

Verdict: You may need to share spaces such as the pool, but it’s incredibly cheap nonetheless. 

Book a holiday rental with Gîtes de France 

Specialist in luxury villas

Villa Plus review

• 74% customer score
• Snapshot pricing indication: £85pppn
• Accommodation-only bookings

Villa Plus has holiday lets all over the Mediterranean, from Kefalonia to the French Riviera and Sicily. It scored decently, but we expected to see it nearer the top of the table since it specialises in villas. Still, its portfolio is luxurious – every holiday let comes with a pool. Its experts visit each villa five times before deciding whether to add it to the collection. It’s perhaps these rigorous checks and extras that whack up the price. Our only concern is how it treats consumers in a crisis: back in 2020, Which? tussled with Villa Plus when it initially refused to refund consumers for holidays they couldn’t get to during lockdown. It later relented, but quickly swapped monetary refunds for vouchers.

Verdict: Stunning villas, but you might be better off with a package holiday provider for more financial protection. 

Book a holiday let with Villa Plus 

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Research notes: To calculate indicative prices, we took the average price of three peak time holidays. *For the three package holiday companies that include flights, we removed the flight price to calculate the indicative price.