Helpful Tip Finding The Right Vacation Rental Property!
Finding the right vacation rental property has many challenges for rental guests. Unlike major hotel chains that have been around for years where many of us understand what to expect when making a reservation, booking an individual vacation rental home can greatly vary and leave a lot of uncertainties.
When you book online the photos look great and the reviews may be too good to be true and the price is right. But how do you know the property will be just right when you arrive and meet all of the expectations built up from the website? You need to ask!
Regardless if you are renting from an individual homeowner or a professional management company, you need to communicate to make sure the home is just like the home you booked online and properly prepared for your stay. Before deciding to book a home, you should know what kind of property inspection is completed for your family's arrival and when was it done. Having a 100-pt inspection of your rental home does no good if it was completed 3 weeks before you arrive! If no one has been to the home since the last guest departed, which may have been weeks, you may need to prepare yourself and lower your expectations of what the home will look like when you arrive.
Another bit of uncertainty when you book a vacation home is not just when the property was prepared for your stay but also who inspected the home and what did he check? In the Disney World area, where the majority of the vacation rentals have private swimming pools, game rooms, Wi-Fi and other amenities, the list of things to inspect and prepare for arriving guests is significant. To properly prepare a home can take anywhere from one to three hours depending on the size of the home and length of time since the last guest stayed to ensure a great guest experience.
To make sure you are booking a great vacation home where you can expect the home to be ready for you and your family, you will want to ask the management company or individual property owner a few questions:
1. When will the property be prepared for my stay? 2. What inspection process do you have to check the home? 3. Can I see a list of items checked before my stay?
If this information cannot be provided, it is likely there is not a proper property inspection process in place and there is no guarantee the home will live up to the expectations of the home you booked online.
Another way to tell if someone is going to the home specifically for your arrival is how you access the home. If the property has a lock box with a key inside at the home, is the code changed for you? Most quality management companies will change the lock box for each guest and will use part of the reservation number for security. Having a unique code for each guest requires property care staff to go to every home before a guest arrives to ensure the code is properly set and chances are, if they are at the home anyway, they will be inspecting the property while they are there too.
About the Author
For over 12 years Florida Spirit Vacation Homes has been managing and renting quality vacation homes in the Walt Disney World area. http://www.floridaspiritvacationhome.com/
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