Has anyone ever rented out their points to stay at a vacation home?

[HeatherPage]

I was just looking at this website vrbo.com and the pictures they had looked gorgeous, basically a private home with 2-3 bedrooms, 2 baths, private enclosed pool, etc. (basically I guess someone's 3 bedroom house that they rent out as a vacation property) and the rates said starting at $55-65 dollars per night. Say what!?! Well we are toying with the idea of moving down to the Kissimmee area in a few years and I was thinking - hey! that would be a good way to check the area out in kind of a trial run mode (yes I know in the real world, we'd have jobs to go to and bills to pay, etc) but I thought maybe we could get a feel for what life might be like living in that area as opposed to the wonderful rose-colored glasses version we get when we stay onsite. Plus once I'm on Disney property we RARELY ever leave until it's time to go back home, so I thought this way would force us out and about and maybe be a good trip for research. Of course, we'd still go back for a second trip later on in whatever year we decided to do this. So my question is, has anyone ever foregone using their DVC points in lieu of one of these vacation homes? Thanks for any input!

 

[HeatherPage]

trying again...

 

[spiceycat]

most of these are in Kissimmee - I happen to love that area - which is why I brought Westgate - bad mistake - but now I have a SA timeshare that I will use to trade into the area.

 

[Deb & Bill]

I don't understand why you would want to stay somewhere else? I bought into DVC to stay on WDW property.

 

[HeatherPage]

Well...as I said in my initial post above, we are thinking about moving down there in a few years and I thought renting a house would be a more realistic way of researching the area (though still not in any way close to actually living there-we could never afford to buy one of these houses any time soon that we could rent for a week). But it would be nice to pretend for a week.

 

[poj7]

?

 

[mbw12]

while we haven't personally stayed at one of these....I know of many of my friends that have and they LOVED it! Some even did package deals that included the park tickets and the rent-a-car. They consistently raved about the accomodations (and enclosed pool!) the same way that we rave about DVC. You might want to post this question on a different forum to find out more feedback from others that have tried them. But from those that I talked to, everything sounded wonderful!.

 

[vernon]

I used to own a vacation home in Kissimmee so I can answer pretty much any questions you're likely to come up with. I would say that $55-60 a night looks a little on the low side I used to rent mine out in the range of $500-600 a week but it's been a difficult market for hotels as well over the last 2 years so I guess there could be top quality places for those sort of rates. I think it will give you some idea of what "life" is like, but you'll still be on vaca and having a lot of "play time" . IMHO if you're thinking of relocating at some time it's a sensible option.

You'll get a lot of information about homes on the UK boards as vacation homes are probably the preferred accommodation of the majority of the Brits.

Generally the cheaper a home the further it is away from Disney, If you can find out where a house is it will help you to decide if it's a viable option for your vacation. IMHO the best "location" is in the area along the 192 that is West of WDW towards (but not as far as I27. Somewhere near to Splendid China. The areas I know best are Lindfields, Formosa Gardens,Indian Ridge and Indian Ridge Oaks but there are a number of other developments in that area. Here is a link to the website of Premier Vacation homes, which was the company I used to rent out my home and who also advertise on this site. There is a "locator map" which will give you some idea of the locations.
http://www.pr-vacation.com/indexpage.html

Location is important when renting a vacation home, how important does depend on how you vacation. If you like to take a break midday and go for a swim/relax then you do not want to be more than 20 minutes drive away, many of the cheaper homes could be 30-40 minutes drive, X that by two ( there and back) You could be spending 3 hours driving each day. Another thing to take into consideration is if you like to go home to freshen up before going out to eat. The homes that are further out ( along I 27 ) will mean you have a good 30 minutes drive from the house to get to a restaurant and the same drive back home. If you tend to just go out in the morning and not return home until you're ready to go to bed, then location isn't quite such an issue.

 

[Lisa P.]

HeatherPage, people rent out their points for a wide variety of reasons. Your idea seems very reasonable to me, to cover your accommodations expenses for the "research" trip and use up points which may have gone unused otherwise.

To see many, many posts regarding vacation home experiences, do a search (or just browse) the Orlando Hotels and Attractions forum. There are a LOT of folks on that forum who use the vacation homes repeatedly and love them. HTH.

 

[HeatherPage]

thanks for the input everyone! I was looking again at that vrbo site and there were quite a few homes for rent in Celebration (this would definitely be the only way I could stay in one any time soon or ever - as opposed to owning one, some people have the life!) Anyways, I fell in love with one that has a Mickey head shaped screened in pool. The main part of the head is the pool, the left ear is a child's shallow pool and the right hear is the hot tub, there is a picture of it at night lit up with purple fiber optic lighting and all I can say is WOW! I'm not sure if these people are just renting it out until they pay it off and then will move back, but if money was no object, I know where I'd be, not to mention the house itself was not to shabby. Well thanks again for the input, and Lisa, I'll have to go browse the Orlando board (I've not been able to get the search function to work in forever).

Thanks again!

 

[sratay]

Heather,
I think your idea to stay in a home to see if you like the area is a good idea. I looked at the home on VRBO.COM you mention and became a bit skeptical. 1) If you go to their web site it states ALL their homes are in Indian Creek Community. This may be near Celebration, but I don't think it is the same. 2) They talk about watching Disney fireworks from the deck. Heck I have a tough time catching fireworks from property, much less 5-10 miles away. Maybe everything they say is legit, but I'd get an unsolicited opinion. Whatever you do enjoy and good luck! BTW I've rented a few places in Hilton Head and Indian Shores, FL using VRBO and have never been disappointed.
Steve in Iowa