UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hello everyone!

I received a great deal of help the first time I shared my problem years ago and was hoping you could advise me now as well. Much appreciated!

I am a foreigner living abroad and I will be coming back to UK shortly. I have been looking for a room to rent just for a short period of time, somewhere to stay before me and my bf get jobs and find new accommodation. I found a good room on the certain website where landlords advertise their properties.

The landlord and us agreed on minimum 2 weeks stay, 2 weeks deposit and a weekly rent, that we will pay every time me and my partner decide to stay another week. Now, I didn´t think this through and I can understand landlord´s point of view but I am also cautious and am wondering how to protect myself.
I don´t know the landlord, I have seen the property only on the pics, obviously can´t do so in person as I am abroad but today I ran the Land Registry check and it confirmed her and her husband to be the owners of the property.
I have a photo of her husband´s ID, I have her employer´s address but I don´t have a contract as she is out of town for few days and I was wondering how much security would an emailed tenancy agreement give me before making a payment of £200 that she wants from me to secure the room? I have signed tenancy agreements before with private landlords and an agency. It is easy in person but how can I protect my money when she wants me to send it from abroad and I don´t have a contract yet? If I insisted on one being sent by email first, would it be valid at all? Is it going to make a difference if she emails me a signed one or without a signature?
Now probably the naive question.. if I didn´t have the contract emailed to me, should I make the payment anyway and have the conversation from that website and payment on my bank account as a proof that we agreed on the tenancy...? I feel stupid just asking this...
Simply, can anyone tell me how to protect my money when paying upfront and be sure I have the room available once we arrive? Also, am I right to think the 2 weeks´ deposit should go into one of the protection schemes, even though we are not staying for a certain period of time like month, 6 months etc? Should the contract state that the money that she wants to be sent upfront should go towards the rent or deposit and that it is just not a random one-off payment to secure the room?

Thanks guys! :*