How To Pick Your Florida Short Term Rentals
April 6th, 2009 by Sue Stafford, under Vacations. No Comments
More and more people are choosing Florida short term rentals for their Central Florida vacation. These single family homes or condos are great if you are looking for a home away from home whether for a family or a group of friends. As with a hotel or motel they are available for daily, weekly or monthly rental.
Orlando in particular is one area where absentee owners have purchased homes and adopted the short term rental approach as a way to recover some or all of their running costs. More and more families and groups are building this type of accommodation into their Orlando vacation package to make the most of their time away from home.
Many of the bookings for Florida short term rentals come via the internet and are offered by the individual homeowner or by a booking agency or by a travel company. Seeing pictures on the internet is one thing but how can you be sure that the property is really as good as it looks? After weeks and months of looking forward to your dream vacation how do you make sure that the home will live up to expectations?
One way to minimize the risk of disappointment is to find out as much as you can about the property you are interested in renting. Few people would trust to chance that the hotel or motel room they have booked was okay without first doing some research on the motel/hotel. So when choosing your short term rental accommodation think about the following:
* They say you get what you pay for and this is usually true of vacation homes. If you book the cheapest rental home, chances are that it will be poorly maintained and certainly won’t be the dream home you imagined. After saving so hard for your vacation it would be a shame to spoil it by picking the cheapest home rather than a better one for just a few dollars more.
* To ensure the quality of the home you are thinking of booking, ask to see photos or a virtual tour of the property. Most owners have these on their websites so you can see exactly what you are getting. If you are booking through a company choose only those who allocate your home when you book it rather than one that assigns one when you arrive.
* To find the location of the property you are renting, ask the owner or booking company for the address then check it out on Google. If they won’t give you the full address ask for the zip code. Don’t rely on descriptions that state that the home is only “5 minutes from Disney World” because most of the rental homes are two to ten miles away from Disney. Travel times to the parks will obviously vary depending on time of day, season and traffic conditions.
* It’s a good idea to ask in advance how the owner or management company deal with issues such as the pool not getting hot enough, the air conditioning breaking down or the television not working. If the problem cannot be fixed straight away do they have another property you can move to?
* Self help: Even a five-star hotel is unlikely to meet your every single need, and if you’re going for a short-term rental home you’ll have to accept the principle of self reliance even more. So if the level of noise at 11pm in the vacation house next to yours is disturbing you, call the Sheriff instead of the Front Desk. If you can’t find the nearest restaurant, consult the Internet instead of the Concierge. And for almost anything else, find out from the management company how to deal with it!
The overall message is that, just like when you book a hotel or motel, you’re taking some sort of risk on what you find when you arrive at your destination and Florida short term rentals are no different. But up-front research and an understanding of how things work should mean that you get exactly what you need for a great vacation.
