posted by orlandovacationhome on Aug 9
We get occasional e-mails regarding the size of Orlando vacation home communities and the impact of size on our quality reviews.
The basic question is: Does size have any real impact on vacation home community or subdivision quality? The answer is both yes and no.
Let’s take a look at some of the top rated Kissimmee vacation home reviews and the size of these communities from a previous post. There are eight short term rental subdivisions in Kissimmee that we have rated Good or Excellent Overall. Of those resorts on that list, only Acadia Estates would be considered a small community. As a review, our vacation home ratings criteria considers several factors including location, home quality, common area amenities and maintenance of common areas.
Smaller communities are not disadvantaged to larger ones in the area of location or quality of the underlying homes. However, larger subdivisions typically have more extensive common area amenities due to the fact that they have a larger homeowner base to support those amenities financially speaking. This includes staff to regularly clean and maintain those amenities. Therefore, smaller communities can possibly be at a disadvantage in the area of resort amenities although some of the best communities are small ones.
Conversely, just because a subdivision is large does not necessarily mean that the resort amenities are extensive. If that particular aspect is important to you, consult our community reviews for specific information for each subdivision. Common area amenities including pools are an area we research for you.
The great thing about the Orlando vacation home rentals market is the variety of choices available. Please visit our community reviews section that profiles over eighty (80+) vacation home communities both large and small. This empowers you as the prospective renter to make your own decision as to which factor is most important - location, amenities, maintenance or cleanliness.
Does Orlando Vacation Home Community Size Matter?
Tweet This Post
posted by orlandovacationhome on Jul 17
We continue a theme from a previous post due to reader comments and e-mails. As a former hotelier, it was not uncommon for some media companies to actively solicit written reviews about our hotel on various travel web and review sites. At the time, it was described as “reputation management”. Packages typically came in number of reviews per month (i.e. 30 reviews a month would cost $150). A small price to pay for those who desired to drive reservations to their hotel via higher consumer rankings on the website. This may come as shocking news for some people.
Individuals expressed concern to the professional review writers that multiple reviews from one IP address (its like a computer phone number) would be detected by the review site, but managed review writing is now so advanced that every post can be written by the same author with a different IP address.
I always declined such offers due to ethical reasons, and often can spot anomalies when I personally review hotel ratings on some sites.
The UK Times Online recently exposed a similar practice in the hospitality industry (read here) putting into question the reliability of some consumer review sites.
As technology junkies, one of our favorite technology review sites is CNET. This site not only provides consumer reviews, but is balanced by a professional and independent review from CNET itself (see it here). As a technology consumer, we always look at the professional review first (given their purported independent level of knowledge and expertise), and then look at the consumer reviews for possible other nuggets of information.
As a result, we think it is credible for review sites in the vacation home industry to have an independent knowledgeable review / opinion first, and unbiased vacation reviews as a follow-up. This could be applied to reviews of Orlando, Clermont, Kissimmee and Davenport Fl vacation homes. Let us know if you have any comments.
Vacation Home Reviews
Tweet This Post
posted by orlandovacationhome on Jul 16
Like promoting any hospitality product, having great vacation home video and photography to highlight benefits are a must for any vacation home owner.
However, we always recommend the vacation home rental consumer check several reviews from the vacation home and/or community before they book in addition to reviewing the photography and video available. Today there many review sites on the internet.
It is easy to market Florida with pictures of beautiful blue skies, clear blue pools and great camera angles to make a standard holiday rental in Orlando look palatial. However, you want to make sure that what you see is what you get. Get on-line and check out the rental reviews.
One additional way get some assurance you are booking a great product is to reserve with a credible and reputable vacation home management company. Ask for references and check out their professional memberships and affiliations on their website.
Vacation Home Photos - Check out the Reviews First and Book with A Credible Vacation Home Management Company
Tweet This Post
posted by orlandovacationhome on Jul 14
After our recent post on monitoring Orlando vacation home community ratings, we were curious to see how stringent some travel review websites are for evaluating Orlando area vacation home communities.
After evaluating several travel website’s vacation home rating systems, here are our conclusions:
- Some sites need to be more comprehensive. We evaluate over 80 communities on our site based on various factors. Other travel review websites typically have less than half that number evaluated.
- Some sites could rate vacation home communities much more stringently. Our quality breakdown is roughly 25% Good or Best, 50% Average and 25% Value. Some other review based sites tend to be far more lenient with 35% 4 or 5 star and 65% 3 star on average. None rated communities at the 2 star level or less which seemed unusual.
- The other striking takeaway is the fact that some smaller vacation home communities are at a big disadvantage on major vacation home review sites. Many of the best vacation home communities near Disney are some of the smallest, at least in terms of the quality of the facilities. In fact, many of our readers often prefer the smaller communities.
Our conclusion after reviewing some of the travel review websites is a need to be far more comprehensive in terms of the number of communities evaluated, more stringent regarding quality designations, and to be more inclusive of the smaller vacation home community resorts.
We always strive to continuously improve the website, our blog and our evaluation opinions. If you do have any elements or areas you wish to see added, please provide us your feedback and ideas.
Tweet This Post
