Vacation Homes/Family First

[disney0928]

Has anyone stayed in a "Family First" vacation home? Their rates look great, about 90 per night for a 2 bedrrom 2 bath with pool. Just wondering if anyone had reviews..... TIA!

 

[FLeisure]

They are a booking agency.

 

[cem]

We stayed in a Families First vacation home earlier this year. While the house was very nice, it did not have all the presidential (their highest level) amenities listed on the website that we requested and paid for. After a phone call to them, some advertised items still never arrived. Families First still has not responded to a (polite) letter I faxed to them, later mailed to them & later e-mailed to them in which I requested a refund of the difference between the presidential and basic level of amenities. I just recieved a letter from my credit card company stating it hasn't gotten any response from Families First to their inquiry either.

 

[disney0928]

CEM, thanks for the imput! I think we will stay on WDW property this time, but take a day trip around the area to check out some of the vacation homes. Sounds like you saved us the trip to see Families First! The pictures looked very nice, but knowing that they have not handled a customer situation well casts some serious doubts.

And good luck fighting them for your deserved refund!

 

[FLeisure]

Disney 0928,

I'm sorry that you feel Families First are a reflection on all companies that do vacation homes. I can inform you that there are a lot of very decent companies offering these accommodations and at far better rates than you would imagine.

For example, did you know you could get a 3 bed room home with private pool for $ 89 per night ? Compare this with room charges at hotels and you will quickly see how much of a saving you can make. Additionally, these homes are fully equipped with kitchen, washer, dryer, tv's, video etc. You can save even more money by eating in occassionally rather than venturing out to restaurants.

I know this won't be for everyone but it is rather nice to go to the parks for a few hours, return back to your own home and your own space and then go back to the parks later on feeling fully refreshed.

The decision is yours but I'd look around a little more if I was you

 

[disney0928]

This trip, we will stay somewhere that we have stayed before, but while we are down in Florida, we plan to check out properties for future trips. We will be travelling with our 2 small children, and I just don't have the patience to try something new this trip. I am not ruling it out for future trips, I just need to do some in person research for my own peace of mind. Thanks for all the imput!

 

[JºoºhnG]

Yes Families First is a booking agency much like Homes4UU and so on. I booked through them and had no problems. Well one problem but it was not their fault.

I arrived rather late in Kississme after their regular hours so I had to pick up my Package and keys from the answering service. Due to heavy traffic on 192 and construction it took close to 45 minutes to get from the office to our home. We had requested a 3 bedroom home, much to our surprise the home we got was a 4 bedroom, beautiful home. The only problem is once we got there I realized the girl at the service had given us someone elses package and keys. Luckily we had not brought all our stuff in so we headed back to the office. They were very apologetic but after being on the road since 6 AM and it was now midnite I was less than happy. They gave us our new package and keys and out we headed. This house was even further than the one we had just come from.

Well we got to our house and discovered I guess that they had no 3 bedroom houses left...This house was a 5 bedroon house, 4 bathrooms, pool, two car garage, it was beautiful.. Everyone had their own room and bathroom, the kids thought this was great. There was no extra charge for the upgrade. We enjoyed the home so much we actually phoned and asked to stay an extra day, this was done with no hassles. We did have a couple of small problems, plugged toilet, they forgot to turn on pool heat, but all these problems were taken care of promptly and the necessary adjustments made to our bill.

We also enjoyed returning to "our" home in the afternoon and swimming in our private pool and having snacks on the patio and then returning refreshed to the parks. Our drive depending on traffic to the parks was around 15 to 30 minutes. For us the vacation rental homes our the way to go, but that isn't to say we will never stay on site again, in fact one time we split between on site at POR and the house.

So if you are thinking of Vacation homes, this may be the way for you to go.