Share your experience: Vacation Pool Homes & Townhouses

[djkeenan]

After wondering about it for several years, we've decided to rent a vacation home w/ pool mid January 2006. There will be 4 adults and 2 pre-teen boys.

Sure would be helpful if those of you with experience would offer advice on what to look for, where to stay, places you loved and those you didn't.

I'd also welcome PMs from owners or others recommending a particular property. THANKS!

 

[kaylajr]

We have tried a few places and last Oct we found our "Home Away from Home"
this is a Great pool home
with plenty of space for all

we are going back in Dec 2006

the owner is here on the boards so contact is very easy

here is the link to the home

feel free to PM any questions to me about our stay if you want

http://www.jansfloridavilla.co.uk/

 

[tednvon]

Hi, as you know there are so many options for you. Jan of 2006 is low season for rentals, so a great time for choice and bargains. I trust the 4 adults are in two pairs so 3 bathrooms would be a great start.

One of the new setups for condos is at Windsor Hills. These are 3 bedroom 3 bath condos, all with private baths off the bedrooms. They have a little splash pool and then a big master pool and spa at the club house. Just search either www.vrbo.com or www.villas2000.com or google "winsdor hills orlando"
These should be about $600/week or less.

If you want a big private pool go to the above www sites and add www.vacationrentals.com and look for 3-4 bedroom homes with two master suites. Again, I cannot emphasize enough not to short yourself on bathrooms. It will make the whole week great if everyone has their own private bath and no one is running around the house from bath to bedroom in towels!!! Unless that is your thing, of course!!!

Enjoy shopping. There are literally thousands of homes and condos so rent.
There are great bargains, especially direct from the owners...let us know if any other questions...


Ted

 

[SeattleMark]

We always rent through www.VillaDirect.com . We rent the Sunshine Bay Villa in Oak Island Cove - great house with fantastic furnishings (classy without being stuffy). Private pool with spa, house back to wetlands, 4br/3 bath (two master bedrooms and two with 2 twins each) themed kids rooms (Disney in one, Spiderman in the other), big screen TV, DVD player, garden tub in one master, big walk-in shower in the other, built-in safe, video games, etc, etc. It's about 2 minutes to Disney World too.

We love it and will be there in about 3 weeks!

 

[tednvon]

Hi, www.villadirect.com does a lot of rentals in the area...you can shop for any size home on the website. Many of their homes are also on the "by owner" sites I gave you above, and both parties work to rent the same home.

Ted

 

[Gillian]

Ted, is the 3Br/3 bath unit a townhouse?

We stayed in a 3br/3bath townhouse with a splash pool in windsor palms and loved it! It had a king bedroom upstairs plus another br with a double bed & bath. Downstairs the bedroom had 2 twins and a full bath.

The pool was the perfect size for our kids - then 3 3/4 and almost 1. It would probably be boring for older kids, but the community pool is big, and was fun for my social DS.

If you are going to rent a specific unit, I'd check on the beds. Our townhouse had a double and a king upstairs, with the twins downstairs. That doesn't sound like a good arrangement for you. Also, if DH & I got stuck with a double bed, one of us would be sleeping on the floor (not me, LOL)!!

Happy hunting! There are so many great homes, I don't think you can go wrong.

 

[mbb]

http://www.vrbo.com/55883

Games room is going in this summer, and high speed internet is available. We rented through www.orlandovillas.com and their sister sites, www.villasflorida.com , and www.onlinefloridavillas.com

The owner is fantastic

USKing bed, US Queen bed, and two twin bedrooms.

HTH!!

 

[tednvon]

Hi..yes the 3BR/3BA is a townhouse. I know they are all brand new at Windsor Hills and they may have similar units at Windsor Palms...two very separate developements.

Ted

 

[Gillian]

Thanks Ted! I looked at some Windsor Hills units on VRBO and the inside pictures look like the layout is similar to Windsor Palms, but it's hard to tell.

Our next trip will be in a pop up at fort wilderness, but maybe next time!

 

[bamajill]

We stayed here in April....it was great! It's in Davenport and takes about 15 minutes to get to Disney...not bad at all. We got a 'last minute' rate of $785 for the week, and that included pool heat and all taxes.

The house was beautiful, the pool was clean and the price was great. We had nine staying (4 adults, five children) and everyone had plenty of room.

Would stay again in a heartbeat! The owners live in UK, but have a local management co. in Orlando. The owner was great, too. The photo gallery has tons of pics. If you have any questions, feel free to ask or send a pm!

Good luck deciding!

 

[djkeenan]

I really do appreciate the comments. With so many places to chose from it helps a great deal to get some recommendations. I think by renting a pool home or townhouse it will become a much more relaxing vaccation: not on the run every day.

The prices are amazingly resonable and with what we will save by cooking our own meals (for two families) we're hoping it will allows another such trip in 2007.

Anyone else with personal experience is invited to post below. THANKS!

 

[califred]

Last year we went with 19 people (husbands whole family plus two friends families) and rented a 5 bdr and 4 bdr home in the same neighborhood it was fabulous. The kids had their own pool to swim in, we could cook and breakfast at home and everyone had space to spread out.

Unfortunately none of us remember where we stayed and we used a company, next time we will rent direct from owners. (we did hvae a great experience and loved the homes, but would have liked to know exactly what we were getting)

 

[Mainebound]

After wondering about it for several years, we've decided to rent a vacation home w/ pool mid January 2006. There will be 4 adults and 2 pre-teen boys.

Sure would be helpful if those of you with experience would offer advice on what to look for, where to stay, places you loved and those you didn't.

I'd also welcome PMs from owners or others recommending a particular property. THANKS!

We stayed at emerald footprints in emerald island in March 2005 for a week with me, DH, DS5, DS3, Grandma and it was one of our best WDW vacations ever. We found the home on www.orlandovillas.com, but you can go directly to the website www.emeraldfootprints.com to see the four bed home we rented or their new larger one (it is a very nice U.K. family, whom we actually met while there).

PM me for more info on this home or our experience. It has a gamesroom, PS2, computer with broadband, indoor and outdoor spas, which your boys would love.


I heartily recommend the pool home for a WDW vacation. We have gone to WDW every year and had always styed onsite in two connected deluxe rooms. Many pool homes are clean, beautiful, with easy access to parks. But I also strongly recommend getting good trip insurance as the cancellation penalties for pool homes are very different from hotels (usually you have to pay in full 8 weeks prior to the trip and lose it all if you cancel for any reason).

Best of luck!

 

[horseshowmom]

We recently returned from a stay in Davenport and were very pleased with the house we had. While we've rented houses before, this time we did it at the last minute (within a month of leaving) and were VERY pleased with the cost savings.

I went to vrbo.com and looked only at the houses that had a calendar and that took credit cards. The calendar helped me quickly see who had availability for my dates, and the credit card meant that the credit card company would give me a safety net if there did happen to be a problem (which I have NEVER encountered when renting a vacation home).

I emailed the owners who had properties that looked like they would be acceptable, and asked for their lowest TOTAL price (kind of like taking bids). Generally, owners know that if their property isn't rented that close to the date, it probably won't rent, so you're able to negotiate some great deals.

We wound up with a 4 BR 3 BA house in the Westridge Manors (a gated community). The house had a separate LR and Den plus the screened pool and spa. We paid $480 total for the week.

We had several other good offers, but we liked this one the best. There are so many houses in the area that there's no way that all of them can rent.

 

[djkeenan]

I emailed the owners who had properties that looked like they would be acceptable, and asked for their lowest TOTAL price (kind of like taking bids). Generally, owners know that if their property isn't rented that close to the date, it probably won't rent, so you're able to negotiate some great deals.

Now THAT is a good idea! We're going mid January which is always a low season week. I'm wondering how early I could do this (or how long I should wait)?

THANKS!

 

[JANNYANS]

Sometimes it is cheaper to leave it empty than to have it rented at a low rate as you have no taxes to pay and no increased utility bills -although there are onwers out there who do not see it this way and you may get a bargain but if there is a home you definitely like the look of and it has all the facilities you need then if you wait it may well be gone .I cannot tell you how many last minute requests from people saying my home is exactly what they want I turn away because I am booked.

 

[kaylajr]

Sometimes it is cheaper to leave it empty than to have it rented at a low rate as you have no taxes to pay and no increased utility bills -although there are onwers out there who do not see it this way and you may get a bargain but if there is a home you definitely like the look of and it has all the facilities you need then if you wait it may well be gone .I cannot tell you how many last minute requests from people saying my home is exactly what they want I turn away because I am booked.

Which is exactly why we rebooked with Jannyans 16 months in advanve

Didn"t want to risk it being booked