posted by orlandovacationhome on Nov 15

Cheap Orlando Vacation Homes

Expect the Orlando vacation home rental rates to drop further for the following reasons:

1. Many current owners are now cash strapped and are willing to rent their homes for less
2. As the recession sets in, less people are visiting driving demand down to rent these homes for their Orlando vacation. Please see our POST on this topic.
3. There are large amounts of these vacation villas entering foreclosure and are being picked up for a fraction of their original price, thus the new owners can rent them out more affordably.

Many of these expansive villas can now be rented at a lesser price than most cramped hotel rooms.

Don’t be afraid to shop around for vacation villas in Orlando, and feel free to ask a lot of questions. Remember, all vacation villas and vacation home management companies are not created equal, so do your homework.

posted by orlandovacationhome on Nov 12

When booking an Orlando vacation home rental via the internet, part of your decision will include selection a quality vacation home management company. There are plenty of Orlando vacaction managment companies to choose from in the Central Florida area.

1. Professionally run with 24/7 customer service
2. A professional easy to navigate web site to select your Orlando villa
3. The vacation homes have a quality assurance program in place to maintain top notch vacation home standards (Please see our blog post on this topic).
4. The Orlando vacaction villa management company has their own service trucks and maintenance staff and are always on call.
5. Location of the vacation home.The home should be in a completed and well maintained vacation home community subdivision. No vacant lots and overgrown lawns in the area. Please consult our site often for updated vacation home community reviews and ratings.
6. Great vacation villa community facilities (i.e. pool, clubhouse, community activities)
7. Internet access or WiFi in the Orlando area villa
8. Crystal clear pool/spa
9. Fully furnished includes items like blenders and other amenities in the kitchen – not just the basics
10. A game room for the kids

Ultimately, you will decide what’s important to you and your family’s Orlando vacation experience. Always try and book the homes with the best location (as close as possible to the parks if that’s where you want to be). Ask the management comany a lot of questions and consult our independent vacation home community ratings. The best run companies are always happy to answer all your questions.

posted by orlandovacationhome on Nov 12

1. Call the Orlando vacation home management company directly- This will give you a feel of the type of customer service the company offers. Are the individuals that answer the phone courteous, professional and knowledgeable? Are you treated like a number or does the staff really try to make suggestions based on your Orlando vacation villa rental needs?
2. Homeowners are not always the best source for directly booking an Orlando vacation villa rental - This often is the cheapest route in terms of rental rate, but if something goes wrong, an owner may not be in town to help you. So if renting by owner, do your homework. If they do not have staff personnel to respond quickly and often the quality assurance of your stay could be in question.(see other related blog posting on this topic).
3. Better Business Bureau Linkage - Look for the BBB sign on the Orlando vacation home management company’s website. You should be able to click on the logo and see the company’s history with vacation home consumer comments. Without this important feature, the vacation villa management company may not be fully disclosing its operational history.
4. Other Affiliations - Look for the vacation home management company to be well established and be members of various other professional organizations in their area. Often these affiliations are clearly shown on their web site. 

Again, there are lots of vacation home management companies in the Orlando area. If you do a little shopping of Orlando vacation home reviews and ratings on this blog, you will greatly increase your odds of having a great Orlando vacation home rental experience with no surprises. Chances are that your overall Orlando vacation will be positive as well.

posted by orlandovacationhome on Nov 11

If you are visiting Orlando Florida and looking for a vacation villa rental, there is great news. There is a huge oversupply of Orlando luxury vacation homes for rent. This means deals to be had abound for your Orlando vacation.

 For about the price of a mid-market hotel room, you can rent a fully equipped vacation villa home with your own private pool and do as much self-catering in a full kitchen as you like.  This would certainly help you cut down on your dining and entertainment bills..

Thousands of homes were built over the last ten years, and now many owners need to rent them. On any single night in Orlando, many of these homes sit empty.

Occupancies Dropping

In Orlando, the hotel industry will be the first to tell you their occupancies plunged in September 2008 over 2007, with room revenues dropping by as much 20-25%.

Many Owners Need to Rent

Many vacation homeowners are now feeling the pinch of the housing crisis, and many of the speculators who bought now need to generate additional income to the pay the mortgage.

What does this mean to you, the renter?

1. Shop around. There are thousands of Orlando villas and hundreds of vacation home rental management companies. Make sure you rent a good home, get a great deal and stay in a great location for your Orlando vacation.
2. Always pay by credit card.
   

   Orlando Vacation Homes - Great Deals for Renters!

posted by orlandovacationhome on Nov 11

SNAD: Significantly Not As Described.

Yes, there is a term for it! You rent an Orlando vacation home or condo that looks great in the photos, but when you get there, the subdivision is less than desired and the house is dirty and has stained carpets.

This is a major problem. The community reviews contained on this blog should give you a leg up on making sure your vacation home meets your expectations.

Your Orlando vacation home management company should be able to provide you with a detailed standardized score of your specific vacation home or condo before you book it. Further, they should warranty the cleanliness of the Orlando vacation home and that the property was inspected the morning of your check-in. You can then pair up this home specific information to the vacation home community reviews we post regularly.

Without this information this can be a difficult process, as some vacation home companies have a vested interest in you booking the homes they manage over someone else’s. As we describe on another blog, absentee homeowners who do not employ a management company may not be in town to inspect the property before it’s occupied by the next guest.

In Orlando, some of the vacation home communities are less than desirable, and some of the homes are just plain poor. If you know where to look, some of the Orlando vacation home community subdivisions are amazing and the homes are wonderful. Please consult our vacation home reviews contained on this site as a reference when booking your Orlando vacation.

Some sites try to provide you information on the homes, but they have vested interests by the owners and managers, as described above. This vacation home blog will continue to provide you with information that will help you make the right choice for your Orlando villa.

Booking with a well managed and professional vacation home management company is key. Ask them what type of quality assurance practices they have in place to assure your vacation home rental is the pinnacle of quality. A well managed vacation home management company will not hesitate to tell you.

The best way to learn is to ask questions. Got a question on a vacation home or a community subdivision? Email us. We respond for free.

posted by orlandovacationhome on Oct 31

We think good Vacation Home Management includes, but is not limited to:

1. All rental mark ups are fully disclosed to owners
2. All repair costs are fully disclosed in detail
3. Accounts can be accessed on line at anytime to see all bookings, fees and revenues
4. Any conflicts of interest are always fully disclosed by the managing entity
5. The cost of property maintenance is clearly broken down
6. The ability to opt out of the management agreement at any time
7. Quality assurance scores and complete inspection photos are disclosed monthly
8. Quarterly contacts to go over the scores by the manager
9. Realistic estimates formulated on the level and type of rental income the home can generate
10. Enabling owners to escrow for capital (major repairs) in an account the owner controls

Please see our other blog posts for additional tips and suggestions for choosing a vacation home management company.

posted by orlandovacationhome on Oct 29

At a dinner party in our home town of Frome, England, we recently met a couple who told us they just bought a vacation home in Orlando, Florida.

As we go to Orlando all the time and our mum owns two vacation homes, we had a lot in common. Our new friends told us where they bought the home, so we looked it up on the Internet. When we visited Kissimmee the following week, we met with our management company and started talking about the home. The owners told us they paid $220K cash for the house. Our property manager said this was ridiculous, because there were at least 8 homes of the same model selling for less than $160K (all bank owned).

If you are from out of town, it is an easy mistake to pay above market value for a vacation home. With the foreclosure crisis in full swing in Central Florida, this same mistake would be very expensive.

In America, there are various real estate professionals that can help you. To ensure you are getting the best deal possible, directly hire your own independent professional advisors. Your cost for this type of advice will be several hundred dollars for an appraiser as an example. Hiring a professional to do some market research could have saved our friends almost $60,000. Don’t make the same mistake!

So if you are looking to buy a vacation home in the Orlando, Kissimmee, Clermont or Davenport area, do your homework and directly hire a team of independent professionals these might include CPAs, Appraisers and Attorneys. As always we just express an opinion and don’t offer professional advice. We are incompetent.

posted by orlandovacationhome on Oct 25

With a fragmented industry with lots of players and no strong “branded” presence, the consumer for vacation homes is left to make some decisions with little or no information regarding the maintenance and cleanliness of the home they will eventually be staying in. Quality assurance in the mind of the consumer will be the ultmate differentiator after staying in the home or referrring

Orlando Vacation Home Management Quality Assurance

How Clean is your Vacation Home

others to frequent that management company again. Along those lines, and before booking any vacation home, one should make sure that the management company has a program in place to proactively manage maintenance and cleanliness of each vacation home.

A quality program for housekeeping may include training methods, graded inspections and employee recognition to deliver a home that is clean and well maintained for each inbound guest. All three elements and others are part of an overall strategy to compete with the cleanest hotels, and to deliver a pleasurable experience.

From a maintenance perspective, regular and thorough inspections of the entire home are an important part of the process. Too many companies use the guests as their de facto QA team, which should not be the case, and is

All Vacation Homes Should be Quality Inspected

certainly not what you paid for. Performing needed maintenance and preventive maintenance at appropriate intervals before the guest arrives keep the home and its collective infrastructure operating effectively to the benefit of the occupants.

Before you book your vacation home, make sure the management company has a quality program in place as evidenced by testimonials, referrals or a program mentioned on their website. Although this might seem a given as a consumer, it is surprising to see the number of companies that don’t see the guest experience as part of their “brand”. Why? They put their time and efforts into other areas of the business or they purposely cut corners to reduce expenses. Make sure you never book with a company in the latter group.

posted by orlandovacationhome on Oct 12

Renting an Orlando Vacation Home Rental in the Foreclosure Crisis - 10 Tips

Orlando vacation home foreclosure

Renting an Orlando Vacation Home - In Foreclosure?

1. Try and book the home rental as close to your travel date as possible.
2. Ask if the home you are reserving is behind on its mortgage
3. Ask how many homes in the subdivision have been abandoned
4. Ask what percentage of the development you are staying in contains vacant lots
5. Ask if the community facilities have been completed
6. Ask what percentage of homes in the community have overgrown lawns
7. Pay by credit card only
8. Use a reputable rental management company. If a home they manage is repossessed, they have others.
9. If booking direct from an owner, you must be able to verify the rental home will not be repossessed by the bank by the time your stay comes around.
10. If in doubt, keep asking questions. There are hundreds of management companies handling rental homes - so pick a good one!

posted by orlandovacationhome on Oct 5

Good Vacation Home Management

So you own a vacation home? Join about 40,000 other owners in the Orlando, Kissimmee, Disney, Clermont or Davenport area.

What Homeowners should demand from their management company:

1. The option to opt out of the management contract at any time if you are not happy with the company.
2. The ability to rent out your home at least 65% of the year.
3. A quarterly quality assurance and inspection report with photos and scores for all aspects of your home from the AC system to pool.
4. Assurance that home repairs are completed at cost, and that a detailed report is provided of work completed
5. All capital projects are bid out in writing to at least three bidders for items such as roof repair, ac replacement, pool resurfacing etc.
6. Minor repairs are billed at a rate no higher than $35 an hour.
7. You can login-in to your account 24 hours a day to view all bookings, maintenance and account details.
8. They are licensed and insured, and can provide all documentation
9. They provide resumes of their key staff
10. They respond quickly and professionally to your requests and answer their phones by the third ring 24/7