NOVASOL UK Reviews 

The booking was quick and efficient

It would be easier to list the things that went well when dealing with Novasol, as there were very few of them! Their whole bookings process is antiquated and riddled with inconsistencies and clashing information.

I ended up dealing with them after finding a house on Vrbo, which in itself was a badly managed process as Vrbo took my payment details but then (it turns out) did not take any payment as that is left to Novasol, but this was not well communicated by either company. For example, after giving my credit cards details to Vrbo I received a couple of emails from Novasol saying I had an outstanding amount to pay, but then stating ‘Please disregard this e-mail if you have already made this payment’.
So I disregarded it for a while because I assumed I had already paid via Vrbo. This was not in fact the case, and set the scene for a number of jumbled instructions.

Another example was ordering and paying separately for the linens. Novasol sent me an email with a link to order the linens, which I duly followed. However, this change was never represented on my ‘My booking’ Novasol page, so as I don’t want to be on holiday without towels and sheets, I had to do an online chat to double-check this. That employee told me that the linens I had ordered would never show up on my booking page as it is organised and paid for directly by and to the caretaker. While I am happy to say we did in fact receive our linens, it later turned out that we did in fact have to pay for this via Novasol in their second invoice. I think we can also all agree that it is confusing to have linens showing as ‘0’ in your account when they have in fact been ordered.

The second invoice was another issue, possibly an issue of their English being ‘lost in translation’ as I know they are not an English-speaking company. Nonetheless, it was unpleasant to receive what was in fact my first email asking for the second payment to be made to be couched in terms that suggested that it was overdue and that I had somehow resisted paying it. This is what they said:
‘Unless we are mistaken, we are still waiting for the payment of your service invoice related to your Novasol booking’, with the subject line of ‘Unpaid invoice – Reminder #1 – Booking #…’.
Just to be clear, there was no way to pay this invoice before this email was received, so this was in fact the very first email I received about the second invoice, but they word it as if it is late and unpaid. Why don’t they just say: ‘It is not time to pay your second invoice! Here is how you can do this…’. Their wording is extremely rude, but I realise that they may not be aware of this.

Not long before departure you receive an old-fashioned PDF with details about key collection and other details about the property. This is where it all went really wrong. My PDF provided a name of a caretaker and her phone number to contact to arrange key collection and pay the tourist tax to her. I also added my estimated arrival time into Novasol’s system. That was all the information provided about keys. On the day we were due to arrive there were delays on the Eurotunnel, so I contacted the name provided to update our arrival time, only to be told she no longer worked at that property! So now we had no way to contact anyone about the keys. I had the French number for Novasol that I had been given during the chat about the linens, so we rang that and spoke to a very smug, unpleasant female Novasaol employee who acted like we were stupid because we did not know that there was a key box at the property! Well, I can’t know about that if you don’t tell me! And to make matters worse, she insisted that they had sent me this information, which they absolutely had not as otherwise why would we be trying to contact a person who no longer worked at the property - why would we even have her information if that was not what was sent to us? I still have the PDF with the proof that this was the info they sent us, and that they never mentioned a key box!

Other things about Novasol that you might want to know: there are additional charges (like the linen), they will send you a lot of emails that need to be actioned before you go (I have never spent so much time on a single booking in my life!) , the check out at our place in France was 10am, which is an extremely early check out for Europe. I have never seen this before in Europe, maybe in the UK.

So it’s back to using Airbnb, where at least people live in the 21st century, don’t constantly give you inconsistent information, and do tell you about the key boxes!

Update: they emailed me on 16 June (our stay was in late April) to ‘remind’ me (again for the first time) that I needed to pay the tourist tax! You could not make this up! I wrote most of this review just after this awful experience then never to around to posting it (I usually don't do online reviews) but this email inspired me!!

My daughter booked the villa in the S of France via my Airbnb account and credit card. The villa was a good choice, however Novasol are crooks. Once booked they then sent an invoice for €380 approx to provide bedding, towels and cleaning. They then expected us to clean the property before we left too ! This was not made clear at the time of booking. Unless we paid we would not be allowed in! No cancellation options available either. Despite many emails and instructions for bed needs for 7 of us, these were ignored. The room I stayed in with my wife has some animal in the cavity and roof space scratching around at night. We complained and the reply was... Not our fault or responsibility. We complained and eventually got Airbnb involved. With my daughter's persistence we managed to get a 30% refund. Don't book with these villains. They are rude, unhelpful and have unsympathetic staff

I cannot stress enough how awful our experience was with Novasol and the villa they managed. I was a guest in a party that booked through Airbnb, and what was meant to be a relaxing stay turned into a stressful nightmare.

Even before arrival, we noticed discrepancies in the listing. It claimed to be 3 km from the beach, but it was actually over 26 km away. This was misleading and set the tone for what became a distressing experience.

The issues started as soon as we arrived. The villa’s gates stopped working or were damaged, and despite having no evidence, the host blamed us and immediately threatened to charge us. When we pushed back on this unfair accusation and mentioned the possibility of leaving a negative review, the host suggested we leave altogether – a clear threat that we would be kicked out if we didn’t comply.

Upon arrival, we were repeatedly asked for a €1,000 deposit in cash, with no receipt or documentation. Every time we spoke to the host, the amount seemed to increase, which made us feel very uneasy and suspicious.

The villa itself had a huge hole in the driveway, making access hazardous. On top of that, the property was riddled with mosquitoes and had no preventive measures in place, like nets or repellent. Because the nearest shop is about an hour away, getting supplies to cope with the mosquito problem was a nightmare.

When we left, they tried to deduct £80 from our deposit for alleged blood marks on the sheets and towels. In reality, any marks would have been tiny, caused by mosquito bites – a problem directly linked to the villa’s condition and lack of preventive measures, not guest negligence.

We also faced petty and unfair charges. For example, we brought our own coal for the barbecue, yet the host accused us of using their wood and tried to charge us for it. Given how differently coal and wood burn, it was absurd and seemed like yet another attempt to take advantage of guests.

My friend, the bride, was so distressed by all this that she was late to her pre-wedding event because she was busy dealing with these threats and unfair treatment – completely overshadowing what should have been a joyful celebration.

At every step, we felt threatened, manipulated, and taken advantage of. This was absolutely not the experience we expected or paid for. I cannot recommend this villa or Novasol as a host in any way. Our stay was riddled with stress, unfair accusations, and a total disregard for guest comfort and fairness.

The website was easy to navigate and we found a great property in Spain. Booking it was straightforward and easy. I had a couple of queries so used their online chat system. Very prompt replies were received and we were impressed with this.

Ease of booking and choice

Don’t trust. Made and paid for an apartment through booking.com. Are now being chased for more fees for the property that were not aligned and have sent me a email from debt collector now. No where on during booking did there say there were additional fees for electric

Easy to book would highly recommend

Took our money then email to say that it was cancelled and would not be returning the money? Have failed to effectively communicate with us

We had to make a change to our planned holiday due to illness. Everyone I dealt with were understanding, helpful & responded quickly. I would definitely use Novasol again.
Thank you

As the company responsible for letting the property, Novasol were somewhat cheaper than other agencies advertising the same apartment.

Disappointed that the contact details did not include an email address for the owner, just a phone number.

Very straight forward and easy to follow!

Website was easy to navigate and all relevant details were clearly shown. Speedy confirmation of booking.

There is no contact phone and no email for Novasol. We booked through its website anyway, as it was the cheapest option avaiable. Even after our booking (with confirmation sent from no-reply account), we were not given any contact info for Novasol (only the phone of the owner of the property). There is some chat option but we prefer other ways of communicating.

On booking our holiday rental, we received a good and prompt response.

Easy to use, booking confirmation instantaneous

Simple and easy to use, great 😊

Great service, quick reply to my questions.

Web site easy to use . Confirmation of stages completed and when to pay are clear and were given within reasonable timescales. I just hope the holiday matches standards achieved so far !

You cannot expect to ask for a client view and then manipulate the response you want by suggesting only a positive response. I found booking on line to be a problem and annoying but fortunately your chat guy came up trumps. You should have an option for us to call you but of course most companies these days do not want to provide this convenient service.