Price negotiation

[pnutallergymom]

Do you ever negotiate price when dealing with pool-home owners? Is it common, or frowned upon?? If yuu do, how much lower do you offer?

Thanks

 

[isla bonita]

All you can do is try it will be either a yay or nay. Its worth a shot.

 

[hinodis]

I did it when I was looking for a villa to rent. The first guy gave me a quote and I emailed him a response telling him it was slightly out of our lodging budget, but would he be willing to rent it for... It was only a matter of maybe $200 off. He wrote back and said sorry I can't do that. If you don't take it I have a friend who wants it for that same week and he is willing to pay that price. I said never mind let your friend have it. The next homeowner was very nice and gave me a great deal! Guess what??? I looked at the website and checked out his calender. He still has my week open and we leave in 13 days!! HA HA! It is better to rent a home at a discount then to have no income for that time period. DH and I own a business and we sometimes lowball our quotes because we would rather have the work then no work. Its all business.

 

[Mainebound]

Do you ever negotiate price when dealing with pool-home owners? Is it common, or frowned upon?? If yuu do, how much lower do you offer?

Thanks

I think it depends. The stronger case is when you see a home you like that is priced higher than comparable homes for the same dates. Or perhaps you are willing to fill in a gap neatly in the homeowner's calendar. Or maybe it is a larger home and you are a smaller quiet nonsmoking group. You can gently and nicely point these things out out and ask whether s/he is willing to come down.

Or you can ask for the price you can afford, regardless of what the home is "worth" (many people do this with home purchase offers). Sure, it may anger some homeowners, but others may bite. It's up to you whether you think "I might as well try it" or "I am wasting an owner's time".

I do know that when I make an inquiry I get LOTS of replies. I only respond back to some of them. A week or two later, several owners will inevitably email me offering much lower rates.

The bottom line is to be honest and courteous, whatever you decide.

Good luck!

 

[janeprice]

double post, sorry!

 

[janeprice]

No harm in asking but there are things you need to consider if you go for a home that is offered at a big discount.

Compare "Eggs with Eggs" and "Apples with Apples", some homes may be the same size and the assumption is that the price should be the same. However, it is like hotels, some are three star and some are five star, the prices will be different.

Some owners may offer to discount and meet other offers but you may find that they cannot afford to run their home properly, replace items, keep them well maintained etc. and you may not be too pleased when you get there and find a tatty house.

The over supply at the moment means that less experienced owners are struggling for bookings. Some are offering silly prices but they cannot afford to meet their fixed costs and the incidence of foreclosures is increasing! You want to makes sure that the old addage "If it looks too good to be true..." does not apply in your case!

Someone above has mentioned size of party. Whether a party is a small party and the house under consideration is bigger is not really relevant to the owner. Their mortgage and property taxes, etc., will not be reduced to reflect the fact that the guest parties in the home were not as big as the home could accommodate.

As Hinodis says, business is business but some businesses have fixed costs that they have to meet and cutting prices to the point that you cannot meet your fixed costs is the way to bankruptcy and foreclosure - that is not good business. Someone staying in an owner's house will mean an increase in the utiltiies (significant aircon costs in summer and significant pool and spa heat costs in winter) and it can be a fine line between meeting costs or it being cheaper to leave the home empty.

In the days when bookings were plentiful, it was possible to go for the business model of low margins and high volume. However, the model for any owner wanting to survive in today's over supply market is higher margins as volume is likley to be lower than in the past.

I suppose what I am saying is look for value for money, that may not be the cheapest but it is likley to be the safest. Ask for a discount by all means but do your homework: ask the owner about their replacement and maintenance policy, ask them how old the photo's are on their website (if they were taken when the home was new and it has had an army of cheap rentals through it, what the house looks like now may not bear any resemblance to those photo's) check they are licensed (some are illegal and not licensed meaning they have lower costs and can afford to discout but their home will not have been inspected).

A spoiled vacation is not a bargain.

Hope this helps.

 

[chris7]

I don't thing there is anything wrong with it as long as it's done respectfully. I don't think there is any need to say "this other place is charging $X less..." or "the decor is not as nice as some others...". When I narrowed my list down to two townhomes and had gotten quotes I just emailed and asked would you accept $X for our stay. I don't remember exactly, it was maybe 10% off the asking price for an 11 night stay over X-mas. Happily the one I liked the best accepted.

 

[Frothy]

My vacation time is very important to me and quality comes ahead of price everytime. I'll willingly pay more if I know what I'm getting and having had good and bad experiences in hotels I can easily say it's worth the extra.

When renting a home I have always used one of the better known vacation home companies because their homes are amongst the best out there. They aren't the cheapest but it's worth it because they always ensure I have a great time.

 

[janeprice]

I am not trying to frighten you but my worry would be that an owner who is willing to accept a booking at 10% discount over the busiest period in the year might be in trouble. They may well be fine but please use a little bit if caution. We have seen it with travel companies and major airlines, they cut their margins to unsustainable levels to try and compete on price alone and then end up having to file under Chapter 11 (unless of course they have a really solid business plan that guarantees volume business). However, many villa owners bought a dream and do not have a bsuiness plan as they do not see the house as a business.

I am sure all is well with your reservation but please make doubly sure by asking them the questions I have suggested you ask in my post above. Ask them to also confirm that the house is not up for sale or likely to be in the near future.

Remember an empty calendar may look like it is the right time to ask for a bargain but it may also be a cause for concern. It could be nothing to worry about and mean that the owner does not keep their calendar up to date, it could be that they do not need bookings as they can afford to rent out their home at a subsidised rate but it could mean that they are struggling to get bookings and are not meeting their overheads. In the long term this latter scenario has dangers for future guests as well as the owner.

No matter what you do in life there are always risks and you should not be put off from looking at renting a villla from an owner anymore than you would from a management company or a tour operator. There are many advantages to booking direct but, as with everything, there are things that you can do to make the process as risk free as it is possible to make it. Always look for quality and remember value for money is more important than being the cheapest.

So again I repeat, go ahead and ask for discounts (I would too as I always seek out bargains when I can) but follow some simple rules and reduce the risk that the bargain becomes the "Dog" that bites you in the rear.

 

[chris7]

Thank you for your concern. The townhome I booked was priced significantly higher than the norm (as far as I could gather by looking at numerous townhomes for the same timeframe). If it had been priced closer to what seemed to be the median I probably would not have even asked. But...I liked it, I wanted to stay there, so I asked for a price that was within our budget. The condo seems to be booked pretty solidly well in advance so the owner probably could have said no and waited for a full price booking, but I'm grateful they accepted my offer and I'm really looking forward to staying there.

 

[budicesi]

I have to agree with what I have read on here.

Yes there is nothing wrong with trying to negotiate a price for a home.

But you do get what you pay for so I think the advice Jane has given is 100% correct. Do not be afraid to ask questions.

I ahve stayed in many vacation homes and had past experience of this. There are some lovely homes to stay in so have a good look around.

I also agree with Frothy, its your vacation and you want nice not always the cheapest. Speaking from experience some of the bigger companies do not always have the best homes.

The bigger companies do not generaaly own homes they just do deals with management companies and rent villas from the owner which you could organise yourself. Obviously these companies are not stupid and know about the problems with a bigger supply than demand as Jane describes. Because of this they are forcing prices down, some owners are accepting this as they see some money being better than none. Then they end up with houses looking worse for wear and the downward spiral goes on.

This is just some observations I have noticed and by all means you are not too likely to get a bad house but it has been known on many occassion. Take the time and shop about, I have and I have stayed in some wonderful homes over the years and even made some good friends, which can help for furture return trips

 

[janeprice]

Thank you for your concern. The townhome I booked was priced significantly higher than the norm (as far as I could gather by looking at numerous townhomes for the same timeframe). If it had been priced closer to what seemed to be the median I probably would not have even asked. But...I liked it, I wanted to stay there, so I asked for a price that was within our budget. The condo seems to be booked pretty solidly well in advance so the owner probably could have said no and waited for a full price booking, but I'm grateful they accepted my offer and I'm really looking forward to staying there.

Hi Chris,

You are doing exactly the right thing, you have done your homework and I am sure all will be well because you have!

Have a wonderful vacation.

Best regards,

Jane

 

[Brian Noble]

It is better to rent a home at a discount then to have no income for that time period.

Not necessarily. Some owners are able to withstand cash flow problems, and are willing to invest more time to build a clientèle of repeat visitors willing to pay full price. Discounting begets discounting. If you book a guest with a discount, that guest will always expect that discount, even as market conditions improve for the homeowner. But, repeat guests have much lower marketing costs, because they already know you and your home.

Different homes can certainly be marketed differently---it all depends on the homeowner's goals.

 

[LglBlonde]

As many of you know, we have been looking for a rental for Dec 8-15 - we wanted a 4 BR 3 BA pool home w/ a games room + amenities that are kid-friendly. I also wanted within the Formosa Gardens area. I first found homes outside that area. Comparing all the homes, I've been quoted everything from $580 to $1200 for the same size house w/ substantially the same amenities, including taxes, fees, pool heat etc.

Houses I've been particularly interested in, I've responded with... "Our budget is $___, but thank you for your time." Some say, "Have a nice vacation." Some say, well, we will take $___, sometimes meeting my price, sometimes well above, or slightly above. Most owners were very nice about it, some were not. I figure it does not hurt to ask.

The week we are going is VERY slow - Disney has availability and has big room only promotions, etc., and it's not a peak time (which is the reason we picked it), so I don't think it would be out of the norm to offer a discount on a slow week.

 

[pnutallergymom]

Thank you all so much for your insight. This is exactly why I joined this forum!! Ya'll are great!!

 

[Darcy03231]

When I rented a home in August I sent an email to all the other owners who responded thanking them for their time and letting them know that we decided to rent another property mostly based on price (there were about 10 of them). My feeling was since they took the time to respond it was just polite to let them know we had made a decison on another property. Several of the emailed back and offered their properties at a discount. At that point it was too late as I already put a deposit on the house I was renting (and we were very happy with it). I guess it never hurts to ask.

 

[djkeenan]

Three years ago someone here gave me the following advice and it saved us a lot of money. The suggestion was to first identify just what features you really need (such as king size beds, heated pool) and those you want (such as a game room for the kids) and a general location or distance from the parks. Do your homework on the many vacation by owner sites and build a list of those that meet your needs. Then email the owners politely letting them know you are considering their home as one of the finalists of your search and would like to know what their best offer would be for the week(s) you are interested in.
We were looking during a very slow time, so your results may vary, but of the dozen we sent out, about a third came back with no discount, a third offered some discount and the remainder offered great discounts. We were thinking about a 3 or 4 bedroom townhome, but we ended up in a beautiful 6 bedroom pool home on a pond (they call it a lake) for far less than we expected.
This will be our third year and they haven’t gone up at all on the rent, although a reasonable increase would be fine with us. Discount or not, there is nothing better than a nice pool home for your Disney Vacation.

 

[englishteacha]

We were able to negotiate a good deal on a condo by asking politely. I'm sure it doesn't hurt to ask as long as you're respectful and polite.