Orlando Vacation Homes Rentals

posted by orlandovacationhome on Mar 10

In the first bit of postive news for Florida tourism, travel to Orlando turned positive in January 2010. This is according to the most recent year over year volume comparisons for the Orlando International Airport. Please click on the following link for the latest report:   http://www.orlandoairports.net/press/2010/20100308.htm.

The latest report indicates the following air passenger results:

• Overall air passenger volume to the OIA was up 2.93% in January 2010 compared to January 2009
• Domestic volume increased 2.76% and international traffic increased 4.63% for that same period

Typically air passenger volumes have been a leading indicator for the local tourist economy along with an accurate predictor for resort and lodging occupancies. This is a good early sign. Other financial signs seem to indicate that we have reached a short term trough and that economic conditions should improve from here.

What does this mean for the average traveller wishing to visit Florida in 2010? With new attractions in Orlando opening for early summer, resorts should begin to fill quickly. We would recommend that one should not wait until the last minute or many highly desired communities will fill during the higher occupancy periods. As occupancies and bookings begin to rise, the cheap deals will also vanish. For a recent post on our advice for the best times to visit Orlando, click here.

For reviews on many resorts located in Central Florida, consult our ratings and profiles of over 80 area resort communities. Some of the top rated vacation rentals in 2010 include Bella Vida, Cumbrian Lakes, Encantada Resort, Oakwater Resort, Reunion Resort, Tuscan Hills and Watersong Resort. All of these resorts are comprehensively reviewed along with critical details to enjoy your stay.

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posted by orlandovacationhome on Feb 28

The Arnold Palmer Invitational staff recently announced a great new promotion on Friday, March 26th during the Bay Hill PGA tour golf event. The name for the promotion is Wine and Dine on 9 which will be held from 2:00 to 6:00 p.m. that day. The special event pass is sold separately and will entitle you to appetizer and wine samples from such great local restaurants as Morton’s, Flemings, Timpano’s and The Capital Grille. If you love food, you don’t have any excuses not to attend this event!

Player commitments for the Palmer Invitational continue to roll in. As of this date, player commitments include Phil Mickelson, Retief Goosen, local resident Zach Johnson, Ryan Palmer, Kenny Perry, Vijah Singh, Bubba Watson and rising star Brandt Snedeker. Daily player pairings for the Arnold Palmer Invitational are announced on the event website. Tournament proceeds benefit the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and the Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies.

If you are also looking to play a little golf in Orlando during the tournament, we suggest reviewing a recent post on the best golf villas in Orlando. We covered some of the best vacation rental communities located on or adjacent to area courses. These golfing communities in the Orlando area include Reunion Resort, Highlands Reserve, and Windsor Palms.  If you want to simply attend this great local event, consult our reviews of over 80 great resorts in Central Florida located on our main page. Most vacation home communities are located just 20-25 minutes away from this PGA tour event.

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posted by orlandovacationhome on Feb 8

We wanted to do a little research on flights from London to Orlando comparing the two major air passenger carriers, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. As the buzz builds for the opening day of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, international airline traffic is also on the rise to the Orlando airports.

The plethora of direct international service to Orlando, Florida now make travelling to the city much easier. Staying in a comfortable vacation villa will fully complement your vacation stay.

In fact, despite the slump in domestic air traffic, international passenger traffic to Orlando actually increased 11% in 2009. Flights from London to Orlando are an important part of the city’s overall tourist volume. Let’s look at two major carriers, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, based on their air schedules to Florida.

British Airways vs. Virgin Atlantic

Flight Comparison

Flights from London to Orlando Florida

• Flights Per Day - Bristish Airways (1), Virgin Atlantic (5);  Advantage: Virgin Atlantic
• Levels of Service - Bristish Airways (3), Virgin Atlantic (3);  Draw
• Departure Locations in London - British Airways (1), Virgin Atlantic (2); Advantage: Virgin Atlantic
• Skytrax Airline Quality Rating - British Airways (Four Stars), Virgin Atlantic (Four Stars): Draw

As you can see, both British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have excellent airline service ratings and multiple levels of service for the London to Orlando flights. However, Virgin Atlantic does edge British Airways based upon the number of flights per day and the availability of flight service schedules from two different London airports, Gatwick and Heathrow. Since flight pricing is quite dynamic, we’ll let the prospective traveller do their own due diligence to determine rate comparisons.

Regardless of which airline you choose, Orlando vacation villa rentals provide the best value for your vacation in Central Florida. Vacation villa homes in Orlando provide a variety of amenities and choices in location, price and quality. For reviews on over 80 vacation rental communities in the area, please consult the main page of this website.

Source: All figures are based on a review of the www.britishairways.com and www.virginatlantic.com airline websites. Please read the general disclaimer on our website for more information.

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posted by orlandovacationhome on Feb 5

We have been closely following developments as it relates to the Sunrail passenger schedule and the Orlando high speed rail plan. Kissimmee and South Poinciana are slated for stops on the commuter rail system. Curiously and to our selfish disappointment, the International Drive corridor, the Orlando International Airport, and such attractions as Disney World are not part of the existing Sunrail commuter rail plan.

We enthusiastically applaude efforts to improve the transportation infrastructure in Central Florida. However, there is great local disagreement on local demand for the new $4 billion rail system and the central focus on connecting Orlando and Tampa by high speed rail. Why are more efforts not being placed on adding more tourist connections such as those mentioned above to the plan? Perhaps we will learn more in the coming weeks and months.

Connecting the South Poinciana station and other tourist stops to Disney would be a huge success in our opinion. Disney cast members alone would provide thousands of additional daily passengers and would be a real boon to the industry. The inside buzz seems to be that government officials are banking on Disney funding this type of Sunrail expansion with private money. Although tourist passenger revenues and park employees would be a fraction of total system usage, this overall new programme could be the financial core of the whole system that reduces taxpayer funded operational deficits in other areas.

Nevertheless and selfishly speaking, Orlando vacation rental guests would also benefit greatly from such added passenger rail connections to Disney, I-Drive and the airport to the South Poinciana and Kissimmee Stations. Most of our international visitors are very familiar with travelling in this manner and the adoption rate would be quite high. International visitors to Orlando also spend the highest amount locally per capita. Let our government leaders reconsider a revised schedule that will add more tourist attraction related stops to the Sunrail passsenger rail system. For a direct link to the Sunrail website, please click here.

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posted by orlandovacationhome on Jan 25

Consumer travel information based websites, also known as infomediaries, have an increasing impact on Orlando Florida vacation planning. Some examples of these types of sites include the Trip Advisor reviews portal, Flip Key rentals, and of course this vacation reviews based website.

Our interest was piqued after a recent PriceWaterhouseCoopers travel research report revealed that these consumer information websites have a rising influence on online travel decision making. In fact, travel infomediaries show strong traffic growth trends, especially in Europe. Click here for this previous blog post.

For this trend to continue, we believe there are at least three ingredients that online travel “infomediary” sites must emphasize for the benefit of online travel consumers. These essential factors include consumer trust, content relevancy and information timeliness. Each of these in their own right have a great influence on Orlando Florida vacation planning, the focus of this website. Click here to connect to the City of Orlando’s official website.

The first and most important feature a consumer must maintain for any infomediary travel site is consumer trust. Any prospective consumer of web content should read the site’s disclaimer and then evaluate the advertising (if any) on the site. This may give one insight or balance for possible commercial conflicts. If the site is a blog, do the content editors disclose particular biases a reader will need to know? For instance, this website clearly indicates our bias towards vacation rentals over hotels. We also clearly indicate that our reviews are opinion based only.

Also, what percentage of the reviews receive 4 or 5 star ratings for an online reviews portal? Persistent high ratings throughout the site may indicate “score inflation”. Consumers should prefer sites with discerning travellers or professionals with variances in scoring to indicate a better indication of true quality designations and preferences.

Content relevancy also plays a key role in the rise of online consumer information websites. Does the content posted vis-a-vis reviews pertain to my own personal prospective vacation at that resort, hotel or vacation rental? A good example of a site doing great work in this arena is the Flipkey rentals site with reviews right down to a particular vacation home.

For a vacation home review site, it is important to look at the breakdown by resort or community variables. For instance, this site provides decision variables such as location, community facilities, amenities, and driving distances, and then let the consumer decide. This high level of interactivity ultimately has an impact on personal content relevancy for any successful online travel website.

Information timeliness is the third factor infomediaries must fulfill to be successful. For example, some consumer oriented websites retain posted reviews well over 18 months old. These may provide some insight, but we believe resort and community quality is dynamic over time. If new updates are not posted regularly the reviews lose relevancy. This particularly applies to smaller resorts or communities that often get less than five posted consumer reviews monthly.

As you move forward with your Orlando Florida vacation planning, evaluate information based travel websites carefully. With consumer trust, content relevancy and information timeliness, travel decisions can be strongly aided by online infomediaries.

Feel free to consult this website for vacation reviews of over 80+ resort communities along with news on what’s happening in the Central Florida area. We strive to fulfill traveller expectations with unbiased reviews, continuously updated interactive ratings and reliable information profiles.

Vacation Home Review Web Sites

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posted by orlandovacationhome on Jan 18

Capital One Bowl 2011 - Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium

The 2011 Capital One Bowl in Orlando will be held on January 1, 2011 at the Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium. This top tier college football bowl game features a representative of the Big Ten Conference versus the highly competitive Southeastern Conference. The final score from the 2010 Capital One Bowl was 19-17 in favor of Penn State over Louisiana State. Funds from the bowl game and associated activities benefit regional community affiliated charities.

The area Citrus Bowl festivities are supervised by a very diligent and hard-working volunteer community organization - Florida Citrus Sports. Vacation homes in the Central Florida area are a perfect fit for any football fans wanting to get close to the stadium along with all the fun bowl activities. The vacation home and Orlando resort reviews on this site will assist you with further information needed to book vacation rental accommodations.

The big news for the 2011 Capital One Bowl game will be the fact that ESPN has retained the rights for the bowl game in 2011 and beyond. The kick-off time will remain at 1:00 p.m. EST for 2011, but in subsequent years the actual start time could fluctuate between Noon and 12:30 p.m. This additional flexibility should bode well for improved viewer ratings.

Our initial prediction for the 2011 Capital One Bowl is the Arkansas Razorbacks vs. the Michigan Wolverines. The Razorbacks return Ryan Mallett, a 2010-2011 Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback after a successful 2009-10 season. He began his college career at Michigan after signing with the team out of high school. Ryan Mallett is also expected to be drafted into the NFL at some point.

Arkansas will be part of the very rugged Western Division of the SEC. We believe the Alabama Crimson Tide will ultimately win the SEC and be pushed into a BCS bowl game. The Crimson Tide under the coaching of Nick Saban won the 2010 National Championship trophy.

The Michigan Wolverines team should be much improved. Coach Rich Rodriguez returns many starters from a team looking to redeem itself after the 2010-11 campaign. However, keep an eye on rumors of possible NCAA sanctions for Michigan. We believe Ohio State will be pushed up into a BCS game of some kind after winning the Big Ten behind the leadership of much heralded Terrelle Pryor. Terrelle Pryor also has the potential to be a Heisman Trophy hopeful. Michigan has played in the Capital One Bowl before and should bring plenty of enthusiastic fans to Orlando. Arkansas vs. Michigan would indeed be a hot ticket for a 2011 Capital One Bowl match-up.

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posted by orlandovacationhome on Jan 15

Most Orlando resorts will be bolstered by increases in the European online travel market in 2010. A new study produced by PriceWaterhouseCoopers projects that although overall European travel will be stagnant, online travel booked by Europeans will increase roughly 15% in the coming year.  

The European market is a critical component for robust tourism in Florida. Orlando resorts that place themselves in a good strategic position to capture their fair share of the online market will survive and even prosper in this economic downturn.

The PriceWaterHouseCoopers study also indicates that by the latest numbers there are over 46 million internet users in the United Kingdom and 252 million in North America. The New Media Trend Watch, an influential newsletter published by the European Travel Commission, also noted the rise of “infomediaries” that add value vis-a-vis reviews, price comparisons, etc… and are critical to the success of online travel. Examples of these types of websites would be TripAdvisor Orlando and this website which is anchored by reviews of most resort communities in Orlando, Davenport and Kissimmee. Click here for a summary of the PriceWaterHouse report.

For online travel to grow and prosper, a continuous source of reliable and compatible consumer information is needed for online travellers. The same can be said for the Orlando vacation rentals market. This website is dedicated to professionally covering the vacation home market with credibility to the online consumer. Travellers to Orlando can expect reliable and trustworthy reviews of over 80 resorts and resort communities in the area. These reviews are also regularly updated and revised to best reflect changing conditions at each of the Orlando area resorts.

Orlando Resorts

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posted by orlandovacationhome on Jan 11

There is no better and satisfying recreational activity than Florida Spring Training Baseball in 2010. The Florida Grapefruit League spring training schedule 2010 is now posted online. Click here for the full schedules of all Florida based teams. Renting a vacation home in Central Florida makes a great “home base” for seeing major league spring baseball.

The 2010 Florida spring baseball training in Central Florida includes the Atlanta Braves, Houston Astros, Washington Nationals, Detroit Tigers and Philadephia Phillies. All five stadiums are within 90 minutes of Orlando. The Braves and Astros play their games in Kissimmee and Lake Buena Vista which are mere minutes of most vacation home communities. Moreover, vacation rentals in the four corners area of Florida are perfect if you want to see any of the Major League Baseball teams in Osceola County (Kissimmee) or Polk County (Lakeland - Davenport). 

The two closest teams to Orlando, Atlanta and Houston, play in very quaint and intimate venues. The weather is fabulous. The 2010 Florida Spring Training schedule for the Atlanta Braves and Houston Astros includes the NY Mets and Boston Red Sox. Circle your calendar for the Astros game with the Boston Red Sox on March 16th. The Red Sox rarely play spring baseball in Central Florida.

Check-out our reviews of over 80+ resorts and vacation home communities in the Central Florida region located on our main page. Vacation home rentals are a perfect place to settle down after a long, but enjoyable day at the theme parks. Vacation homes are centrally situated in the area to enjoy each of the spring training venues and Florida’s sunny weather this time of year.

Florida Spring Training - Vacation Home Rentals

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posted by orlandovacationhome on Dec 19

The AAA Travel Services Research department recently released projections for domestic holiday travel. Travel projections to Florida were not available, but AAA Travel Services did make some national projections based on a 1,350 household survey conducted by IHS Global Insight. Click here for the AAA survey results.

The AAA survey results prognosticate a 3.8% increase in holiday travelers for the 2009 holiday season. This is contrasted by an actual 4.7% drop for the 2008 holiday period vs. 2007 numbers. Although any growth in travel to Florida is welcome, the projected numbers would only roughly bring us back to 2007 levels.

Travel by air is expected to increase 2.9% domestically and 3.2% for Orlando. According to the Greater Orlando Airport Authority, holiday air travel to and from Orlando will peak on January 2, 2010. Due to decreases in available airline seat capacity nationally, this may ultimately lead to higher airline ticket prices. Although this is true nationally, the good news for Orlando is that many carriers have actually added direct airline flights to Florida. We blogged about the positive development for more direct flights to Orlando on a recent post.

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posted by orlandovacationhome on Nov 28

Orlando has thrown its hat in the ring for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup™. The USA Bid committee recently released the names of 27 cities in the United States as potential hosts for the global event. Orlando made the initial cut for a World Cup bid. A final list of cities will be delivered by the end of the year which will winnow the potential host list considerably. Four cities in Florida are on the list of potential host sites for both the 2018 and 2022 World Cup™ matches.

Orlando would be a great selection for either the 2018 or 2022 event. Orlando and Florida already attract visitors from across the globe. Ample lodging accommodations including vacation villas are in place to meet the rigorous supply demands of football fans. Four stadiums across the state of Florida would be convenient for World Cup™ fans with Orlando being the epicenter. Direct flights to Orlando are also a huge convenience for those wishing to attend the football matches from abroad.

The Greater Orlando area is home to some 110,000 hotel rooms and an estimated 25,000+ private bedrooms in existing area vacation home villas. Very few markets in the United States can boast these large numbers of lodging accommodations for special events of this kind. No other city can match the breadth of attractions and entertainment in the region as well. It is certainly not out of the realm of possibility that Orlando could be selected for the 2018 FIFA World Cup™ event.

If you are interested in supporting the effort to host the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cup™ in Orlando, Click here to sign the Orlando petition. Help get the word out by letting others know about the city’s application and forwarding the Orlando World Cup™ petition link to others.

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