Vacation homes on Ebay?

disneytriplets

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Mar 30, 2006
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121
I recently came across rental vacation homes on Ebay and I would like to know if anyone ever stayed in a home rented off Ebay? I'm a little concerned about renting a house I've never seen and at least Ebay has reviews. We will be traveling with other family in late summer or fall of 2008 (a total of 10 people). Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

Thank you!
 
Ebay has reviews of the seller, not the homes, big difference.

You're better off reading reviews from people here on the DIS...also, you can check people's online guestbooks for the homes you might be renting if they use a calendar from rentors.org (most homeowners do).
 
Lots of owners use e bay as an advertising medium and it works for some of them.One word of warning however apart from Georges words.A couple of years -maybe 18 months -ago a man was arrested for renting homes on ebay -all seemed above board he had all the home details to give bidders and took theor money for a home in Florida and in Canada.However after some digging by other owners -I believe -who felt something was wrong the guy was arrested as the homes didn't belong to him and the real owner knew nothing about the rentals.
It is probably better to ask around a board like this one and find somewhere or use a listing site that verifies its owners.
 
My brother and his family rented a home off Ebay and didn't have any problems. The person they rented from was just using Ebay to advertise, they also had there property on other rental sites as well,some of the owners are square trade members, if they are you will see that in the listing. I would also check there Ebay Feedback, people do leave feedback on the home after they have stayed there.
 

Before bidding ask to see if there are any other sites the home is on so you can see first hand if there is truly a home, get better pics and information, and price to make sure you do not over bid.

I am sure there are many homes on ebay that people are filling in extra days or just starting out and are filling there new home until word and advertisments have done the job.
 
I rented from an ebay seller, and it was great. I'm watching now hoping to get a week in Destin this summer.

We had three of the 2BR/2BA units at Cypress Pointe Grande Villas for last Dec. 16th-23rd for $300 each. We were very pleased.

I agree with what a previous poster said about SquareTrade. I also will only use somebody who takes Paypal, and I only pay with a credit card. I checked with my cc company before getting the unit, and they assured me that I was covered if I had a problem (check with your own company to be sure though).
 
Our experience with renting a home off eBay a few years back (July 2005) was not so great. The price was nice ($800/week for a 5 bedroom home with a pool in the Davenport area), but as the old saying goes, "you get what you pay for". While the pictures shown in the auction were an accurate representation of the home, it was the smaller details, that weren't so easily seen, that ruined it for us. The owners lived out of state, and we later learned that they did not have a property management company overseeing the home. Rather, they hired several "locals" to clean the house, handle maintenance issues, mow the lawn, clean the pool, etc. When we pulled into the driveway of the home for the first time, the trash cans were piled high with garbage from the previous guests. To make the situation worse, animals had gotten into the trash cans and created one heck of a mess! (Nothing like cleaning up someone else's garbage!) There were problems on the inside, too. Here are a few things I can remember:

-missing light bulbs in several rooms.
-broken mini-blinds in the kitchen and my bedroom.
-broken handle on the stove door.
-two crushed beer cans found in a dresser drawer in my bedroom.
-men's underwear found under the bed in my BIL and SIL's bedroom.
-excessive assortment of non-parishable foods left in the pantry and refrigerator by previous renters.
-shortage of towels. (My MIL, SIL and I had to go to Wal-Mart and each purchase additional towels just to get through the week.)

Despite our many disappointments from the trip, we made the most of everything and still had a great time. Would we ever rent a home from Ebay again? We're not sure. At the time, we felt we had done adequate research, and the person we rented from had perfect feedback. In other words, previous renters were apparently satisfied with their experience. If anything, our experience certainly gave us a better idea of what to look for (and what to steer clear of) in the future. We definitely have higher expectations and I can personally say that I am much more picky. I still continue to surf Ebay for Disney rentals...just to see what's out there.

On a side note:

We used Florida Sun Vacation Homes for our last trip (December 2006) and I can't say enough good things about our experience. We spent more money for this home ($2000/week for a 6 bedroom home with a pool, hot tub and game room in the Emerald Island community), but it was well worth it! The home was professionally managed by Florida Sun...our one small problem with the AC was immediately taken care of. The home itself was gorgeous and clean...inside and out. It was obvious that the owners spared no expense for the furnishings and the interior design. The pool and hot tub were accented with colorful fiber optic lighting, which made them both so pretty at night. Best of all, were literally 5 minutes from Disney World!

Best of luck in your search!

Michelle
 
Ebay can be good for some and not so good for others - as the reply posts show. All I would say is be careful and check it out on other sites as much as you can - it may work for you.

DisneyDadof4 had some major problems but some of these can happen anywhere - on our last villa rental all the last guests garbage was still in the garage and the pool wasn't heated or cleaned for our arrival :sad2: They did have a local management company aswell but my DH ended up sorting the pool himself as they were going to take too long to get it sorted.

Hope you find something good :)

Tracey
 
Thank you all for your help and suggestions!!! Staying off site is new to me and I better start researching since I'm the travel planner of my group.

Thanks again!

Denise
 
Most folks on this board will point you to the big VRBO sites...like:

www.vrbo.com

Or, there's sites specifically for the various resorts to rent directly from the owners:

www.windsorhillsrent.com
Windsor Palms
Emerald Island
Indian Creek

Here's a map of the offsite resorts in the area:
http://www.thedibb.co.uk/villa/map.htm

Those mentioned above are probably the closest, newest, and nicest (but I'm biased as we own townhomes in Windsor Hills). They are STR rental communities (meaning no one really lives there full time) with full resort facilities, pool, clubhouse, gated communities, etc, and they're all 5-10 minutes from Disney, as close as staying on the WDW property but you get a lot more for your $$!

You can rent some of the exact same properties you might find on ebay, and probably have a much better selection too. The various ad sites will have links to the owners private websites where you can check out the properties even further. There you can review their online guestbooks, etc. As the prior posters have mentioned, having a local property MC is VERY important! Equally important is having a GOOD local MC, one way to assess this is by looking at past reviews of the property, but you should also ask the owner who their MC is, and a good question to ask is how long they have been with their current MC (because if they're bad chances are the owners will fire them!). There are a few MCs I wouldn't rent from, and even if the home or the owner were great, I wouldn't stay there, period, I've been privy to "Horror" stories from other owners and guests being an owner.

You can also find reviews from DISboard members who have stayed in many of these various properties as well, click on the reviews boards up above!
 
Try excelvillarentals.com

I just returned from renting a home in Davenport from them, 10 mins from Animal Kingdom, 4 bedroom 3 bath home with private pool and lanai as well as gas grill. We paid $470 taxes in from March 21-28 for this home, it was an excellent deal, email me privately and I'll give you their contact info if you like!
 













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