Off Site House/Condo (Not Saturday-Saturday)

[JayhawkFans]

We are looking at renting a condo / house for our trip in December. The problem I'm up against is our travel dates. Due to custody of my daughter and visitation over Christmas it's going to be impossible for us to be in Florida for 7 days (Saturday - Saturday). We are looking at Friday (12/16) - Wednesday (12/21). Am I just out of luck as far as finding anything other than "hotel rooms".

I understand the homeowners / management companies not wanting to have single days here and there .. but there is no way we can be there a Saturday - Saturday.

Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks

 

[dougsmom98]

Even though many owners will only do Sat-Sat, I think many of them are willing to be flexible too. The only way you will know is by researching and asking.

This house is further out in Davenport, but a quick drive to the parks on I-4 (from exit 58 to exits 62 or 63). We are staying Sunday-Sunday, so the owners may do Friday to Wednesday.
http://www.vrbo.com/46990

This is our second stay at this house. The owners are great.

 

[At World's End]

Since Christmas is on a Saturday, I would think most people would not be checking in/out on that day, JMO.

If you run into problems with booking only 5 nights, it might be worth it to book for 7 nights and just check out early. Most rentals will charge you the cleaning fee if you stay less than 7 nights, and you probably get a better rate for a week than for 5 nights.

 

[JayhawkFans]

Since Christmas is on a Saturday, I would think most people would not be checking in/out on that day, JMO.

If you run into problems with booking only 5 nights, it might be worth it to book for 7 nights and just check out early. Most rentals will charge you the cleaning fee if you stay less than 7 nights, and you probably get a better rate for a week than for 5 nights.

Very interesting .. hadn't thought about that yet. My problem is we are looking at arriving on a Thursday or Friday so with check-in on a Saturday that leaves us paying for multiple hotel rooms on the nights before we can check in. Why can't it ever be simple .. AAUGH!!!

 

[At World's End]

Have you had lots of owners say they only take Sat-Sat stays? I've only been there off season, so I don't know how it works over the holidays. But there are SO many rentals in the area that I would think someone would take your booking, even if it's 12/14-12/21, instead of 12/16-12/21.

If you haven't already, try using some of the booking sites like windsorhillsrent.com, vrbo.com and homeaway.com for your 5 nights. You can send out a ton of requests pretty quickly, but be prepared for a ton of emails back. Hope something works out for you.

 

[conniehar90]

Try www.disneyneighbor.com. They have never asked for Sat-Sat and we have stayed with them at least 4-5 times. They do charge a cleaning fee for stays less than 5 or 6 days.

 

[kinghorse]

I have been handling very popular vacation rental homes in FL for years, homes that are in demand and booked all the time. First in this economy I do not suggest that anyone book 1 year in advance since many of the homes are for sale or going into foreclosure and I get calls all the time from someone that rented one of these and at the last minute in peak season they are trying to find a home to rent and there are non. Do not rent a home for sale and this far in advance there are too many variables. The summer is a good time to rent for winter. Make sure you see pictures of every room and any pool homes have heaters. We will rent odd dates in off season but not peak season and we would not split up two holiday weeks. This past year Christmas was on a Saturday so all the rental went Sunday to Sunday. So an owner received two holiday weeks of rent with New Years being the most expensive of the year. This year Christmas is on Sunday but Christmas eve is and New years eve is Saturday so it also depends when the majority of kids get off school as to whether we are renting Fri to Fri or Mon to Mon I am not going to decide that till I see what the majority of people are looking for but no owner would ever lose a holiday week or let someone cros two holiday weeks unless they didn't know better

 

[loveysbydesign]

we've always booked though windsorhillsrent.com and not had any problem as we usually stay 9-10 nights. Last time we rented a home in Indian creek and LOVED it!(2 minutes from Windsor Hills)
We stayed in Happiness house http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p258654 but the owner does have 4 other rental homes in IC too! Highly recommend them!

 

[loveysbydesign]

Here is a link that shows all the IC houses that are owned by the person we rented from
http://www.houseforrentflorida.net/en/index.php
We chose Happiness house as it is on the 1st road inside the development and my kids liked the themed bedrooms!

 

[december]

http://disneyvisittownhome.com/

I'm staying in this townhouse in Windsor Hills for 10 nights this summer-Sunday through Wed of the following week. The cost is only $100 a night. I have checked the tax records. The owner has been wonderful to work with, and replies to all of my emails almost immediately.

 

[Dax]

My inlaws just stayed at Caribe Cove, they arrived on a Wed, and checked out on a Monday...This was in December, the week before Christmas. The resort was nice and clean, and the rooms were spacious.

 

[JayhawkFans]

Thank you SO much everybody. So many things I hadn't really considered yet. I thought it was imperative to get a jump on a reservation but sounds like I need to wait a couple of months. Will definitely check out the links that were shared.

 

[thereitis]

I'm also looking for a rental home - I like the www.homeaway.com website - there are lots there that do partial rentals.

 

[Darcy03231]

We stayed here:

http://www.vacationrentals.com/vacation-rentals/32411.html

and didn't rent Saturday to Saturday and there was no problem. I would stay at this home again. It was very easy to get to the parks, shopping and restaurants.