Orlando Vacation Homes Rentals

posted by orlandovacationhome on Jun 7

Since the beginning of this blog’s inception, we’ve promoted the advantages of booking with a professional rental management company in Orlando.

Trust in terms of the quality of accommodations with a professional rental management company is critical. Although we have mentioned ways to authenticate vacation home management companies in the past, there is one step every prospective Orlando vacation home renter must do before booking. It will only take a few minutes and will assist anyone wishing to verify and authenticate rental management companies.

I must first admit I failed to do this before I booked the services of an online professional design firm recently, and this omission cost me several hundreds of dollars.

We suggest you always consult the Central Florida Better Business Bureau (BBB) website and put in the name of the rental management company. Click here to be go to this website.

Keep in mind that just because a website displays a BBB logo does not necessarily mean a company has a good track record.

Some additional notes on checking Orlando vacation rental companies:

• Over 100 Central Florida vacation rental business ratings are available on the website.
• Be sure and check the company’s official BBB rating on the website.
• One of the other important elements to check is the BBB accreditation which includes the customer complaint history as well as issue resolution.

In conclusion, if you only do one thing to verify a company’s reputation before reserving an Orlando vacation rental, check the rental management company’s customer complaint history and BBB accreditation using the Florida Better Business Bureau business reviews.

 You’ll certainly find that most area vacation rental companies have excellent track records (A+ to A- ratings). This one necessary step is worth your time checking online.

Moreover, to learn about the many vacation home choices you have in the Central Florida area, click on the community reviews section of this website.

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posted by orlandovacationhome on Aug 3

Some friends of ours from the UK rented a vacation home in Orlando recently, and were shocked at the calibre of service. A few examples for the holiday rental included:

1. They were called in the afternoon after checking-in (by the management company) to make sure everything was okay with their home.

2. There was a welcome kit waiting for them in the house that included:

-Complimentary tea, milk and a pack of “Rich Tea” cookies

-Three UK stamped blank post cards to send to their friends back home

-A personalized welcome letter, guidebook and contact information

3. Two weeks after their stay they received a “thank you for your business” card in the mail from the management company plus a Christmas card six months later.

After a long flight and drive from the Orlando airport, it was a delight to see friends taken care of in such a thoughtful manner. Hotels could learn a lot from this. As always, booking with a great local Orlando vacation home management company can make for a great experience. Choose your management company wisely.

Orlando Vacation Home

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posted by orlandovacationhome on Apr 1

Orlando Vacation Homes Go Mainstream – A Force to be Reckoned With?

Hotels in Orlando have gone into shock. In February 2009, hotel revenues were reportedly down dramatically (1).

Orlando vacation homes, although affected by the economic downturn, have some very powerful factors now in their favor.

1. Of the 200 +/- hotels in Orlando, there are as few as 400+/- full time sales managers at the property level promoting their product.
2. With 30,000 +/- vacation homes in the Orlando market, each owner becomes their properties’ best sales manager. You could argue there is an army of 30,000+/- part time sales managers/owners promoting Orlando vacation homes all over the globe on a daily basis.
3. Tour operators are now selling Orlando vacation home product with as much fervor as they do hotels. Such premium accommodations as Emerald Island Resort and Windsor Hills Resort are well know for their quality amenities.
4. In Orlando, there are hundreds of vacation home management companies aggressively promoting vacation home rentals for owners. The databases of management companies also include thousands of satisfied consumers who refer potential renters.
5. Orlando vacation home rentals have become very competitive in rate, and can often offer a better value proposition than a traditional hotel. Hence, their popularity with travelers.
6. Once the domain of Europeans, the domestic American consumer is becoming very educated on vacation homes and the benefits they offer including the ease with which the homes can be booked.

Orlando vacation home marketing has become organically powerful and has so much “hidden” muscle that a significant gain in market share against the hotel industry looks inevitable. The Orlando vacation home idustry segment is  now a force to be reckoned with.

Orlando Vacation Homes

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posted by orlandovacationhome on Nov 26

Property and casualty insurance premiums will almost assuredly rise throughout the coming year for Orlando vacation homes and vacation home owners. Many Orlando vacation home management companies had hoped that with the recent financial credit crisis and signs pointing towards overall price deflation, vacation home premiums would decline.  The main reasons that Orlando vacation villa premiums will most likely rise in 2009:

1) Tremendous casualty losses all over the United States, but partly due to losses in the Midwest.  For example, states like Arkansas and Missouri had more losses in 2008 than any on record.

2) It has been a very soft market for several years for premiums as insurance companies continued cutting prices to win market share. This was good for homeowners and investors, but profit margins on recently underwritten policies have now dried up.  All insurers now recognize they must price accordingly based on risk demands and let the business go where it may.  Insurers will fall back on reserves and tried and true business lines that they’ve developed in the past.  All insurers have generally trimmed their business projections drastically. 

However, the quality of your Orlando vacation home management and the actions you take as a prudent vacation home owner do matter. These actions include:

1) Street appeal/appearance does matter to the insurer.  Insurance companies have definitely been known to not renew if the appearance of the exterior and the interior is not up to par.  Larger insurers do worry about this aspect, especially with the state of the local vacation home rental market. Small firms are hired in all areas that inspect insured properties regularly to decrease losses and take them off the books.

2) Updating your vacation home can be expensive and some owners may try to avoid, but losses do occur from defective features, lack of saftey items and other various factors on a frequent basis. These updates can save an owner significantly on premiums if they make the insurance agent aware when these improvements to the home are done for renewal considerations.

3) Community associations are helpful if they have legal “teeth” in terms of owner accountability.  As they say, it’s the bad apple that ruins a whole bunch and causes others to lose interest in the state of their vacation home. Insurers take into account that home fires and other catastrophes do spread because of physical proximity and the likelihood that you are affected by someone else’s negligence.

If you are looking for additional insurance news visit HERE  a great source of information for professional managers and vacation home management companies.

As always, consult an insurance expert/professional who is licensed in the state of Florida and specifically familiar with vacation homes and vacation home management in the Orlando area.

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posted by orlandovacationhome on Nov 20

Let’s be clear, no one can predict the future. If we could, we wouldn’t be writing a blog. This post is  just an opinion. DISCLAIMER. As with any economic opinion, take it with a grain of salt. The authors of this blog are not professionals and do not give out professional advice.

The Orlando vacation house market has been hit hard, especially for many buyers who purchased vacation homes around the years 2005-2006. Prices have dropped in some vacation home subdivisions over 30% from their peak 2 to 3 years ago. For the metro Orlando area as whole, prices appear to have dropped. Click HERE STATISTICS(1).

There are arguments that prices will continue to DROP(2):

Vacation homes are much harder to finance than primary homes, and in the current market even primary homes are now hard to finance (2A).

Foreclosures are piling up. As people struggle with their primary home mortgage, they may give up their second homes.(2B)

There are large inventories (2C).

A few vacation home subdivisions struggle with upkeep of resident exterior areas. Vacation home managment struggles to keep this under aesthetic control for vacationers.(2D)

Banks will begin to compete against each other to sell foreclosed homes, and this could negatively effect vacation home pricing (2E)

Tourists are cutting back big time on Orlando (2F).  Thus, the demand for vacation rentals is also dropping. This means that owners have less income to pay the current mortgage which increases the risk of foreclosure.

In a depressed economy, the last thing people often want to do is buy a vacation home, but the first thing they may want to do is sell if they own one (2G).

Homeowners unable to refinance their vacation homes (they may owe more than the home is now worth) might let the home foreclose if they are unable to modify the loan terms (2G1)

When the world is facing an economic crisis (2I), discretionary items such as vacation homes are no longer in demand. If the USA enters a severe recession, the demand for some vacation home products could dry up.

There are arguments that prices will STABILIZE(3):

It would appear that the rate of price decline in some subdivisions is SLOWING(4) down, but prices are still dropping.

Some subdivisions are making the transition from primarily a short term rental market to subdivisions that cater to full-time owner occupiers as the prices drop, and the vacation homes become affordable relative to regular homes.

The government is reacting on a massive scale to solve the problem(4A).

There are some SIGNS(5) that the number of home sales has been increasing.

In conclusion, vacation homes in the Orlando and Kissimmee area face a unique set of circumstances that has allowed for significant price drops from their peak prices over the last 2 to 3 years. Forecasting the future with absolute certainty is an impossibility.

Subscribe to our blog for in depth graphical analysis and forecasts scheduled to be released next month. Click here to subscribe.

As always, please consider the people writing this post/bog to be unprofessional and incompetent at all times. Due to your own due diligence at all times use an Orlando appraisal company, real estate attorney and other professionals accordingly.

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posted by orlandovacationhome on Nov 10

Eyebrows were raised earlier this week when HomeAway, an Austin, Texas based vacation tech company, was able to raise $250 million through venture capital sources for what CEO Brian Sharples termed opportunities for the company to pay down debt, insiders to cash in a little equity, and for the vacation home rental company to perhaps pursue additional vacation home acquisitions. This comes on top of a $209 funding several months ago.

HomeAway owns the homeaway.com, vrbo.com, vacationrentals.com, a1vacations.com, cyberrentals.com and ownersdirect.co.uk websites. They are the proverbial 900 pound gorilla in the vacation home rental and vacation home management niche of hospitality lodging. They maintain some of the best vacation villa rental inventory in the Orlando area within several luxurious vacation home communities with a plethora of pools and other amenities. Inside sources indicate that roughly 30% of its revenues come from overseas which makes its domains a prime fit for Orlando tourism and travel. These brands certainly have a strong presence in the Orlando, Disney area and Kissimmee vacation home rental markets.

The ability for the firm to acquire capital in such a rough market does indicate that the clout and respect for the vacation home management and that the vacation home rental business model is growing. Strong consistent growth and a relatively stable cash flow model has now shown to be a valuation premium in this difficult market. My guess is that the funding will in time be used to:

1. Help HomeAway and its online brands to strengthen their market positioning in Orlando and other vacation home rental markets in the Central Florida area and elsewhere

2. Make additional prudent acquisions as the dust settles during this recessionary period. This additional funding might allow the company to expand its Orlando footprint in more “drive to” vs. “fly to” destinations that may come back quicker as a result of lower gas pricing for consumers.

3. Grow its presence in the vacation home managment area where cash flows tend to be stable and where its brand presence will give the company clear competitive advantage and leverage with homeowners

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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.

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