Family Resorts in Orlando

There are over 80 different family oriented vacation home resorts available in Central Florida. With so many choices, finding one that matches your specific needs is very possible.

A brief list of reasons why vacation home rentals in Orlando make a solid choice:

• Value – Depending on the size required, vacation villas can be reserved for the mere cost of a standard hotel room (or rooms). It also pays to be an educated consumer when evaluating all the plethora of local rental options.
• Quality/Cleanliness – Perhaps the best evidence of the quality that  rental homes offer is the  number of repeat guests that stay in a resort villa. Vacation home accommodations are a growing national phenomena. This website is one of the few to review individual resorts in a variety of areas. Our reviews of resorts and vacation communities are designed to help provide information.
• Location – Many Orlando area vacation resorts for families are located within minutes of major attractions. Consulting the individual resort profiles on our main page indicates dozens of resorts within 10-15 miles of the major theme parks.
• Privacy – Many vacation home resorts have private gated grounds and amenities. This gives any family a sense of safety, seclusion and solitude after a long day at the parks. Many rental homes and condos also have private pools for a family’s pleasure and enjoyment.

If all of this sounds good to you, check-out our resort community profiles on our main page. There are many unique choices that will meet you or your family’s needs while vacationing in Central Florida.

In a sense, Ms. Higgins boils her main points down to 4 core areas. Positioning themselves more as hotels for product differentiation, offering upgrades and services along with reservation flexibility, and providing an experiential travel alternative that makes vacation rentals a viable  and competitive option.

Upon the inception of this blog, one thing we indicated was that vacation rentals and especially resort communities are not created equal. Vacation homes are often perceived as a ”one size fits all” product and that is not the case in reality for the consumer. Our viewpoint has always been that the subdivision or community (at least in the Orlando/Kissimmee/Davenport/Clermont market)  is more akin to a brand as we indicated in a recent post.

Villa Rentals

There would simply be too many brands for the consumer to evaluate if each home in and of itself were the brand. Consequently, one could also argue that the management company is a big part of the “brand” because the management company has so much impact on the quality of the home (i.e. maintenance, cleanliness, etc….). This is why we always recommend booking with a professional management company over a “vacation rental by owner”. Just like hotels, quality for vacation rentals does vary.

Second, the services available and increasing booking flexibility do make vacation rentals look  like hotels in the eyes of the consumer. However, in the latter point, this may be more of an economic reality due to the fact that duration of stay has dropped, and that rental home managers need to be more nimble to maintain the pace of bookings. As the economy recovers and demand rises, it remains to be seen whether shorter term stays for rental guests will be a longer term phenomenoa. We believe that in this case, and on average, longer length of stays will return for vacation homes as demand and occupancies rise.

Lastly, Ms. Higgins does correctly identify that the huge advantage of vacation rentals over hotels is the fact that they do lend themselves to more of an experiential vacation. Relaxing in your own pool, sitting at your own dining table, cooking with the family, playing games in the living room, etc… do help make house rentals in Florida a great alternative. Hotels will never be able to compete with the experiential nature of vacation home accommodations, especially for larger families.

If you want to get the “scoop” on over 80 resorts in Central Florida, check-out the villa reviews section of our main page. Each review contains detailed information including resort maintenance, amenities and facilities, home quality and location. Overall, our ratings criteria is stringent and only a select few make it to the 4 or 5 star level. Be an educated consumer, read our blog!

We have received several reader questions lately regarding a detailed explanation of the “community reviews” area of our website. Although we consider the exact ratings formula award weightings to be proprietary, our community quality awards are based on the following:

• The quality of common area amenities (playground, pool, clubhouse, tennis courts, etc…) as defined by the cleanliness and maintenance of those amenities at the time of the on-site evaluation.
• The cleanliness and general maintenance of other common area grounds including buildings, landscaping, etc… at  the time of on-site evaluation.
• The cleanliness and maintenance of homes in the resort subdivision.
• Location to major parks and restaurants with an emphasis on proximity to the Disney parks.
• Other factors are also considered including whether the resort community is gated and/or guarded. The ratings system is dynamic in the sense that we will re-review each of the communities every six months in case of major community refurbishment which happens from time-to-time.
• The “overall” rating for a resort community is derived from all of the factors above.

Vacation Home Rentals

Our system is similar to the Mobil 5-Star Awards and AAA Diamond Awards for restaurants, spas and hotels albeit an adapted format for vacation homes. The critical component is that these awards should be based on objectivity as much as possible to the benefit of the individual travel consumer. The award system is also formulated to reward resorts for maintaining quality amenities also to the benefit of Orlando vacation rental guests. 

Vacation Home Ratings

Since word-of-mouth and referrals are key to building the repuatation of the industry, our 80+ independent community reviews and profiles are compiled to achieve this goal. The quality of the actual vacation experience with this product will ultimately be the reason whether vacation home rentals continue to emerge in the mainstream of travel and tourism accommodations.

Orlando Vacation Rentals - Do Your Research

1. Know Your Customer – These times demand changing tactics. As we have indicated on another blog post, international travel may make up a smaller percentage of your overall occupancy than they did in 2008. However, as we write this, the tourism and travel market is very dynamic and always stay attuned to your customers. Always segment your customer base to better understand their tastes and preferences.
2. Emphasize Family Values – Don’t stray from the competitive advantages that vacation homes have over other traditional means of lodging. These include, but are not limited to privacy, value, and quality. A sacrifice in any of these core values will impact your core business significantly. Moreover, referral marketing based on past rental experience is a low cost way to generate value as well.
3. Flexible Pricing Strategies – As we have indicated on other posts(1), the general travel market is quite uncertain moving into 2009. Price cuts may need to be on the table for a temporary promotion to boost the bottom line. However, clearly establishing and communicating a strong value proposition for your rental home should always be the primary and first driver of any strategy.
4. Maintain Marketing Spending – Although difficult to do, it is not advisable to cut marketing spending during a business downturn. It is also not the time to pull support from vacation home management companies who may be able to garner high visibility on the internet which is often the lifeline for Orlando vacation home rentals.

There is possibly no better time for prospective vacationers to visit Orlando than in the coming year. Promotions for area theme parks and attractions abound. As we have established on several other posts(2), there is also no better value for Orlando lodging than renting area vacation homes. As always, do your own due diligence using the appropriate independent professionals when making a decision of any kind.