Reviews you can Trust

At Oliver’s Travels, we are extremely proud of our holiday homes. Each and every one of our chateaux and villas have been hand-picked by our Destination Experts for their quirkiness and unique character. That’s why we love hearing from our customers post-holiday to find out if they loved it as much as we do!

In an effort to get the most authentic reviews possible, we scoured far and wide to find the most honest critics around to rate our villas. In the end, the answer was staring us in the face, we realised the toughest critics out there were, of course, the kids! After all, if the kids love the place, then you can all breathe a collective sigh of relief. The more fun they have, the more fun you can have.

Well, they've spoken and the reviews are in! Check out what our mini-critics had to say:

View them all in our channel >

See Noam, Olivia, Max and more!

Isabella

Reviewing Chateau Seiguier (Loire Valley, France)

Toby

Reviewing Maison Lucq (Aquitaine, South-West France)

Rossana

Reviewing Waterside House (Sussex, England)

Get your kids to feature!

If you want to make your child the star of our YouTube Channel then just ask them these 10 questions and film the interview on your smartphone. Once you're back from your holiday, just send us the unedited videos and we'll professionally edit them and upload them to our YouTube channel.

  1. What did you think of the place when you arrive?
  2. What do you think of your bedroom and why?
  3. What’s your favourite thing about the house?
  4. Do you think your parents like it? How can you tell?
  5. What have you been doing since being here? What have your parents been doing?
  6. What’s been the best moment? What’s been the most fun?
  7. Have you seen any cool animals? Any other cool things?
  8. How does this compare to your house at home?
  9. In one word describe your holiday home!
  10. Using your hands – what’s your holiday out of 10?

 

Interviewing your child

Think about making this exercise fun! Being on camera is all about being energetic so try and get your child excited about being on video – and about being on YouTube! Although that may mean you need to promise an ice cream afterwards!

Don’t worry about speaking yourself, or your answers overlapping with theirs, that is absolutely fine. And don’t worry if you need to ask more questions to lead them into giving more detailed or fuller responses. The 10 questions below are just a guide, so feel free to improvise!

We are looking for honest answers, if your child says that their favourite thing is playing with the spiders in the cupboard, then that is perfectly acceptable. All answers welcome!

Chloe

Reviewing Villa La Fratta (Tuscany, Italy)

Louis & Matilda

Reviewing Manoir de Trebuchet (Vendee & Charente, France)

Lucas

Reviewing Chateau Anais (Loire Valley, France)



A Quick Guide to Filming

  • Landscape not portrait: Hold your camera on its side when filming – not upright!
  • Don’t use the camera’s digital zoom: Don’t be tempted to use the zoom – the quality always suffers! Instead just stand closer – this is better for sound too.
  • Get your microphone close to your child: Think about the sound where you are. Wait for the kettle to stop boiling, make sure there isn’t music playing in the background etc. The closer you are with your camera the better the sound will be.
  • Think about the light: Filming outside is usually best but if you’re filming inside, have your back facing the window and the subject facing it – you want to see the natural light on their face.
  • Use the exposure lock: If you press and hold on the screen – a yellow box will flash and then lock. This will mean the shot will remain consistent whilst you’re recording. Hold it steady, whilst leaning against something, or keeping your arms by your side all help to keep the camera steady. Have the kit? Great! Use a tripod or stabiliser.
  • Multiple videos or one: It doesn’t matter if you want to send lots of individual videos or one long one. Just make sure you send us everything you’ve done! 

Sending us your Videos

We’ll do all the hard work of editing the videos, just make sure you send us everything you’ve filmed to video@oliverstravels.com. The easiest way to send all the videos is using WeTransfer. Simply download the “WeTransfer” app from the App Store (it’s free!) and follow the very simple steps:

  • Select all videos
  • Fill in the email fields
  • Click “Transfer”. Easy peasy!

Remember, it’s all about having fun! We hope you’re as excited to get involved as we are, and we can’t wait to see some awesome videos.

Good luck!