dougsmom98
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2002
- Messages
- 2,333
We rented a 6 bedroom 5.5 bath home directly from an owner through www.homeaway.com property number 147530. The owner's website is www.disneypalmvilla.com.
We paid $1308 which included taxes and pool heat.
This house is located right across the street from the Solana clubhouse which was very convenient. You enter the home and there is a sitting room and dining area. The sitting room had two couches and MIL found it to be a great place to read. The dining area had a large table and six chairs. The table could seat more if chairs were brought in from the kitchen. Beyond the dining area, was the kitchen and living room area. The kitchen was well stocked with silverware, cups, glasses and dishes. They had some nice pots but their frying pans were not in good condition. For $20 we bought two nonstick fry pans and packed them in our luggage to go home. There were also some large plastic bowls with covers. My SIL made a large macaroni salad in that bowl and it stored well in the fridge. They also had some glass baking dishes and a baking sheet. The fridge had a water and ice dispenser. There was a small round table in the kitchen with four chairs that sits in front of the sliding glass doors leading out to the pool. Off the kitchen (open floor plan) was the living room with a large screen TV, DVD/VCR combo. Off the living room was one of three king suites. My in-laws had this room. There was a jacuzzi tub in their bathroom. Also downstairs was a half bath, laundry room with an extra large capacity washer and dryer. The home also had a games room with a full sized pool table, small air hockey table, and a foos (spelling?) ball table. We had fun in the game room but it was hot and loud since it was converted from the garage. I am guessing it would be unusable in the summer. Upstairs were two more king suite rooms, a princess themed twin bedroom, and a batman themed bed twin bedroom, and a den (sixth bedroom) with a pull out couch a dresser and a TV. All bedrooms had their own bath and TVs. The pool/spa area was nice. It had a small round table with four chairs and two lounge chairs. There was a mesh safety fence around the pool which made me feel better with the 2 year old. Half of the patio area was covered so there was plenty of shade. The pool got morning sun which was nice for a morning swim, but I would have liked more sun in the afternoon and now understand why some people advertise the orientation of their pool.
This house had the perfect set up for our group of 10-12. Each adult couple had their own master king bed suite with large walk in closets. My four kids shared the two twin bedrooms. My parents came over from St. Petersburg for 3 days and they took the den with the pull out couch and found it to be very comfortable. We all had our own space and that made traveling with a large group actually a lot of fun and not stressful.
Unfortunately, despite being the perfect house, we had some small problems over the course of the week that would make me think twice of renting with this owner again. When we arrived, we had been up since 1:30 in the morning. It was 3 pm and we were tired. All the kids wanted to do was take a quick swim and then relax in front of the TV. One of the requirements I had for this house was that there had to be Cable TV in each bedroom. Well, the cable was not working. We couldn't even get a non-cable signal on any of the TVs. We called the management company but they were not open on Saturdays and Sundays and they would only come out for emergencies. I called several times and tried to persuade them to do something for us because the first three days of our vacation were suppose to be relaxing days at the home and that put a damper on our relaxation. We checked with the people at the clubhouse and the cable in the area was working. I called the owner to make sure that I didn't misread the description of the home and to make sure we were suppose to have cable. He said yes and the only thing he could do was call the management company on Monday when they were open. I was so irritated. So, on Sunday we went to Wal Mart and bought a DVD player so that the kids would be able to watch movies in one of the bedroom and in the living room. We also bought my DD three Nick Jr. videos and my boys season 3 of Spongebob Square Pants. So, we spent close to $100 to make up for no cable. We packed all of it to bring home so it wasn't totally wasted, but just a pain. We found out the name of the cable company from the workers at the club house and I called to find out what the problem was. The owner probably should have done this for us. Oh well. The cable company said that the cable was turned off by the home owners' association three days prior. So, the owner didn't pay some fees and they turned his cable off. We finally got cable on Tuesday at 5 pm, nearly 4 days after we arrived.
The other problem we had was that the hot tub was not hot. It was no warmer than the pool. On Monday a maintenance person from the management company came out and turned it up and it was better. They said the filter needed to be changed and they would send someone out later that day or the next. Well, when we woke up the next day, the pool was green! The pool guy came out and said that the maintenance guy took the filter off completely and that was why it was green. He added lots of chemicals to the pool and it didn't turn clear again for more than 24 hours.
So, overall both of these things were just irritating especially since we planned to spend every day but two at the house relaxing. I learned that I will only rent from people who have a management company that work on the weekends. I felt like I had no one to turn to for help for the first two days. Even though both of these things were annoying, we learned that things could have been worse. We were talking to the maintenance guy and told him about our cable being turned off by the home owners' association and he said that he has been called to a few houses in the resort in the past because they had their electricity turned off by the home owners' association! Before I rented from this owner again, I would want a guarantee that this wouldn't happen again. I really wanted everything to work out perfectly because the home was perfect.
We paid $1308 which included taxes and pool heat.
This house is located right across the street from the Solana clubhouse which was very convenient. You enter the home and there is a sitting room and dining area. The sitting room had two couches and MIL found it to be a great place to read. The dining area had a large table and six chairs. The table could seat more if chairs were brought in from the kitchen. Beyond the dining area, was the kitchen and living room area. The kitchen was well stocked with silverware, cups, glasses and dishes. They had some nice pots but their frying pans were not in good condition. For $20 we bought two nonstick fry pans and packed them in our luggage to go home. There were also some large plastic bowls with covers. My SIL made a large macaroni salad in that bowl and it stored well in the fridge. They also had some glass baking dishes and a baking sheet. The fridge had a water and ice dispenser. There was a small round table in the kitchen with four chairs that sits in front of the sliding glass doors leading out to the pool. Off the kitchen (open floor plan) was the living room with a large screen TV, DVD/VCR combo. Off the living room was one of three king suites. My in-laws had this room. There was a jacuzzi tub in their bathroom. Also downstairs was a half bath, laundry room with an extra large capacity washer and dryer. The home also had a games room with a full sized pool table, small air hockey table, and a foos (spelling?) ball table. We had fun in the game room but it was hot and loud since it was converted from the garage. I am guessing it would be unusable in the summer. Upstairs were two more king suite rooms, a princess themed twin bedroom, and a batman themed bed twin bedroom, and a den (sixth bedroom) with a pull out couch a dresser and a TV. All bedrooms had their own bath and TVs. The pool/spa area was nice. It had a small round table with four chairs and two lounge chairs. There was a mesh safety fence around the pool which made me feel better with the 2 year old. Half of the patio area was covered so there was plenty of shade. The pool got morning sun which was nice for a morning swim, but I would have liked more sun in the afternoon and now understand why some people advertise the orientation of their pool.
This house had the perfect set up for our group of 10-12. Each adult couple had their own master king bed suite with large walk in closets. My four kids shared the two twin bedrooms. My parents came over from St. Petersburg for 3 days and they took the den with the pull out couch and found it to be very comfortable. We all had our own space and that made traveling with a large group actually a lot of fun and not stressful.
Unfortunately, despite being the perfect house, we had some small problems over the course of the week that would make me think twice of renting with this owner again. When we arrived, we had been up since 1:30 in the morning. It was 3 pm and we were tired. All the kids wanted to do was take a quick swim and then relax in front of the TV. One of the requirements I had for this house was that there had to be Cable TV in each bedroom. Well, the cable was not working. We couldn't even get a non-cable signal on any of the TVs. We called the management company but they were not open on Saturdays and Sundays and they would only come out for emergencies. I called several times and tried to persuade them to do something for us because the first three days of our vacation were suppose to be relaxing days at the home and that put a damper on our relaxation. We checked with the people at the clubhouse and the cable in the area was working. I called the owner to make sure that I didn't misread the description of the home and to make sure we were suppose to have cable. He said yes and the only thing he could do was call the management company on Monday when they were open. I was so irritated. So, on Sunday we went to Wal Mart and bought a DVD player so that the kids would be able to watch movies in one of the bedroom and in the living room. We also bought my DD three Nick Jr. videos and my boys season 3 of Spongebob Square Pants. So, we spent close to $100 to make up for no cable. We packed all of it to bring home so it wasn't totally wasted, but just a pain. We found out the name of the cable company from the workers at the club house and I called to find out what the problem was. The owner probably should have done this for us. Oh well. The cable company said that the cable was turned off by the home owners' association three days prior. So, the owner didn't pay some fees and they turned his cable off. We finally got cable on Tuesday at 5 pm, nearly 4 days after we arrived.
The other problem we had was that the hot tub was not hot. It was no warmer than the pool. On Monday a maintenance person from the management company came out and turned it up and it was better. They said the filter needed to be changed and they would send someone out later that day or the next. Well, when we woke up the next day, the pool was green! The pool guy came out and said that the maintenance guy took the filter off completely and that was why it was green. He added lots of chemicals to the pool and it didn't turn clear again for more than 24 hours.
So, overall both of these things were just irritating especially since we planned to spend every day but two at the house relaxing. I learned that I will only rent from people who have a management company that work on the weekends. I felt like I had no one to turn to for help for the first two days. Even though both of these things were annoying, we learned that things could have been worse. We were talking to the maintenance guy and told him about our cable being turned off by the home owners' association and he said that he has been called to a few houses in the resort in the past because they had their electricity turned off by the home owners' association! Before I rented from this owner again, I would want a guarantee that this wouldn't happen again. I really wanted everything to work out perfectly because the home was perfect.
I would've been beyond irritated. 
You didn't get what you paid for, and that it just wrong.
That would be a nightmare!!! What kind of recourse would people have in a situation like this? I would even chance renting from this person again.
