Good, Bad, and Ugly about Renting Pool Homes and Town Homes

[Kay1]

We're renting a home near Disney for the first time this Christmas, but we stay in a beachside condo every summer. The condo is managed by a real estate company and we've never had a problem. A team of maids cleans it before we get there and they always do a great job. Once, the coffee maker died while we were there and the real estate company asked if we'd like to stop by for a new machine, which we did. I hope all goes as smoothly this Christmas.

We like having a kitchen, plenty of beds, three bathrooms, and three TV's. We like hotels and we like our little camper, but both can be a bit confining, especially in bad weather.

 

[mbb]

I used to feel bad about my endless questions too, until the last owner we rented from told me "don't worry about it! Knowing the answers makes your vacation go better"..

'Cause I figure I'm not only asking for us - I'm asking for everyone here too!! I think the owners on some sites cringe when the get an email/booking enquiry from me!

The facecloth thing is always an issue - minor, though - for us too... Why in a 5 bedroom house would you only have 4 facecloths??

Does the cleaning personnel take them?

And the remote controls - too funny Ted!

But we've had remote controls issues at deluxe resorts too..

I will say that the last home we rented was fabulous, the Managment company was great, a wonderful "welcome pack" greeted us, and our owner must have lived next to their computer..I sent them an email our first day, asking some questions about "housekeeping" stuff..

Phone was ringing 30 seconds later...

*That* kind of service makes my vacation go great!

 

[isla bonita]

mbb that's how everyones vacation should go. There will forever be tiny or sometimes major misshaps it is how they are handled.

Replacing a coffee pot Kay1 may be easier then replacing let say a fridge or stove. They will go and as much as we keep up with things it is emails after the stay that tell us what needs to be done. Let the owner know good bad or ugly. At least they were informed. I know it is better to have a heads up so we can avoid something that can be potentially very ugly.

 

[Robinrs]

The only bad and ugly I can come up with is having to tell family members a big fat ugly "NO!!!!" when they invite themselves to go down with you after you asked them back in January when you made all the plans and paid the deposit...but now that it's warm and sunny and they think they might get to come for free since the house is already paid for....well, NO!

I couldn't agree more!!

The minute I told people I was renting a 4 bedroom, all of a sudden they had a vacation around the 4th of July!! Uh...NO!

My sister HATES Orlando but LOVES to laze around the pool. The last time we rented a vacation home she decided to come down for the weekend. I didn't mind because she LOVES spoiling my son and I could use the rest. Well, she loved it so much she stayed FOUR days.... .... I love my sister but she is a complete nagging nuisance, needless to say she made that vacation a little less tolerable...ugh...

One night in my first house the alarm went off when I went to answer the phone late at night. I tried to find the box and type in the numbers but the police showed up lickety split. In the paperwork they pointed out that if the authorities are called out on a unwarranted call we would be charged $100! Needless to say I was on the phone with them in the morning and they told me that was added for people who sent out false alarms on purpose, mine was obviously an accident.

Another requirement of mine is a garage door opener... okay, I'm lazy... one house had one and the other didn't. I had my son running up to open and close the door, I guess he was like my own personal remote!

Also, I never rent poolhomes in the dead of winter. We rented once for my son's birthday and the heat of the day was in the 40s in Orlando in January. The pool was nice to look at but we couldn't get in it at all!

Other than that there is NOTHING like having a private pool and the privacy of not having other people's children running up and down the hallway outside your door is a PLEASURE!

 

[Gillian]

the good - king sized beds, lots of bathrooms, large fridge, freezer, driveway, no one else's kids (mine are trouble enough, thank you)

the bad - pilly sheets, having to run out for remote control batteries, pool that didn't stay clean

We're shopping for a large place with lots of bathrooms for a family trip, but I have a feeling that we might need 2 houses nearby instead. Several people (4 to 6, depending on who goes) are smokers and I know the non-smokers (also 4-6 people) are not going to want to hang by the pool with the smokers all the time. And there is one family who will want to bring their small dog. I think I might not want to plan this one!

 

[kbmoo]

I have rented 2 years in a row in the orlando area. Great experience. It is so nice to have your own pool and lots of bedrooms & bathrooms. The kitchen & washer & drier were nice too. Lots of tv's so we could watch something differnt. We always get last minute deals too. So a really good deal. The only disadvantage is that we spend alot of time driving to the parks. I am really looking forward to not having to spend so much time traveling to & from the parks.

 

[kilee]

Like DisneySteve, we've also rented in other places throughout the country. We really enjoy the space, the extra bathrooms, and the washer/dryer. It is a leap of faith, and I think that is the scariest part.

Someone mentioned pots and pans and such. We've yet to stay in a place that had a lot of dishes, pots, and pans. We don't cook much, so this was never an issue for us. I could see if someone was going to be doing a lot of cooking, this would be a problem.

 

[disneygirlatheart]

I have to say kimbac3 and disneygirlatheart you are brave to be doing it all again. Not sure I would have if it was a nightmare.

We are very nervous, but really wanted the extra room and the pool. Hope we are not disappointed!!

 

[RedSox1974]

We rented a pool home in Crescent Lakes in February 2005. The home was beautiful, convenient and had nearly everything we could want. But dealing with the management company was a dreadful experience. Prepaid for pool heat but upon arrival had to make several calls over 2 days to get it turned on. The management company was very hard to get hold of, and could not answer basic questions about the home. And though the home was fantastic, it was NOT the home we had chosen and were sent pictures of prior to our trip, making our mapquest directions and some plans useless.

We absolutely will rent a home on our next trip, but we will definately rent directly from the owner.

Having said that... I have been on VRBO.com and orlandoVillas.com. Does anyone know of any owner direct home listing web sites? Thanks in advance

 

[minnie29uk]

We rented a pool home in Crescent Lakes in February 2005. The home was beautiful, convenient and had nearly everything we could want. But dealing with the management company was a dreadful experience. Prepaid for pool heat but upon arrival had to make several calls over 2 days to get it turned on. The management company was very hard to get hold of, and could not answer basic questions about the home. And though the home was fantastic, it was NOT the home we had chosen and were sent pictures of prior to our trip, making our mapquest directions and some plans useless.

We absolutely will rent a home on our next trip, but we will definately rent directly from the owner.

Having said that... I have been on VRBO.com and orlandoVillas.com. Does anyone know of any owner direct home listing web sites? Thanks in advance

Hi!
You can try www.lastminutevillas.net

Happy hunting,
Lynn

 

[disneygirlatheart]

We rented a pool home in Crescent Lakes in February 2005. The home was beautiful, convenient and had nearly everything we could want. But dealing with the management company was a dreadful experience. Prepaid for pool heat but upon arrival had to make several calls over 2 days to get it turned on. The management company was very hard to get hold of, and could not answer basic questions about the home. And though the home was fantastic, it was NOT the home we had chosen and were sent pictures of prior to our trip, making our mapquest directions and some plans useless.

We absolutely will rent a home on our next trip, but we will definately rent directly from the owner.

Having said that... I have been on VRBO.com and orlandoVillas.com. Does anyone know of any owner direct home listing web sites? Thanks in advance

greatrentalsdotcom sorry can't post a link yet!!

 

[JANNYANS]

Owner listing sites

www.Floridapremiumvillas.com

www.Disneypremiervillas.com



www.Floridasupremevillas.com

 

[Bdadis]

We stayed at a beautiful pool home in Kissimmee last year. The subdivsion that we stayed at is Rolling Hills which is right next to Formosa Gardens. There is an awesome short cut to WDW from there. Funie Steed Rd. takes you to Sherberth Rd. (you actually cross RT 192)and you are at the AK entrance in literally 6 minutes!!! We will do this again in the future ,but this year we wanted to stay on-site.

 

[TravelinGal]

Here's what I posted yesterday - figured I'd copy it here since my individual post will get buried but this one might stay active

We just got back last Sunday and I wanted to tell you how lovely the rental house we stayed in was!

This is the rental I am discussing below:
http://www.vrbo.com/74118

There were a few glitches, but those were related to the management company. The owner said she is going with a new management company when this contract is up.

The home was clean and nicely furnished. Everything was as promised between the owners and myself.

The two problems we had were
1) the management company had removed HER pack n play (because they rent them out for more $ when booking through them instead of through the owner) - and when they brought me one (day 2) it was filthy (not the brand new one she had personally put in the home just 2 weeks prior). Had to call again and get a clean one. I called both the mgmt company and the owner. Owner was very helpful with this.
2) pool heat was not turned on. got that on, but they still didn't turn on the spa heat. That was done on day 3 (of a 10 day trip). Again, the owner was very helpful in dealing with the local management company.

My warning is to watch out for Fanfair Properties management company. They were the cause of the problems, not the home owner. Although, when we needed the brand new highchair put together, the man who came over to assemble it was very courteous and friendly. And the home was clean/well cared for, so I'd almost wager that the management of the management company is more to blame than the workers. (just thinking "out loud")

Anyway - we would gladly rent from them again.

This is the second time we've rented a pool home. We had no problems with the first rental, but wanted to be closer to WDW this time. Emerald Island fit the bill. (We were in Orange Tree last time)

I agree with those that say they prefer to drive even when they do stay on-site. It's just so much faster. Staying in Emerald Island, we could easily get from our home to the parks in less than 10 minutes. That's a LOT faster than the bus system etc!

Housekeeping isn't an issue for us. It is actually more relaxing for me to be able to leave in the morning without worrying that I need to tidy up before housekeeping comes in! LOL
It doesn't bother me to have an unmade bed on vacation. In a home you can just shut the bedroom door and not have to see it! (in a hotel room, it is necessary because that is your living space too) If I want it made, I can just pull the sheet up and toss the comforter over it. Not like making a bed is hard to do!

LOVED LOVED LOVED being able to throw our laundry in every couple of days and also being able to take 95% of our clothes home clean! (Loved the "Mount NeverRest" on the first page) No mountain for us this year!
Tip - Don't bother making/finding travel packs of laundry detergent to take with you! A full bottle of laundry detergent is under $5! I think we paid $2.75 for a standard size bottle of detergent (no fragrance/no colors). It was so cheap we just left the unused portion for the next guests. We did take dryer sheets with us because they are so small to pack.

Loved all the obvious points - more space - more bathrooms (no foot tapping or gotta go dancing) - could make meals IF WE WANTED (we didn't want to this trip - only made eggs for breakfast twice - never made dinner) - bought bottled water at the store and had them frozen, ready to take to the parks.

A big bonus for us was that when DS was napping, we could nap if we wanted, BUT if we didn't we had an entire house PLUS pool to spend awake relaxing time in without worrying about waking a toddler (unlike a hotel room where we are all in the same room).

Rental cars do not have to be that expensive. Heck - get an economy car if it's all you can afford! As long as you all fit and your luggage fits from/to the airport, you're good to go! Many car rental places are now taking check/debit cards now. You just need to call them to ask if your card qualifies. (We got rid of all credit cards a couple of years ago. If we don't have the money, we don't need it. [whatever "it" may be])

TIP - If you have an ice maker check right away to see if it's turned on. They usually shut them off and empty the bucket between guests. Get it on so you have ice!