Villa Direct

[hinodis]

I have heard some not so good stuff about some management companies. I am renting a home in windsor hills and the management company is Villa Direct. How are they? Do they kep the homes clean, ant free and in good repair?

 

[5mins2disney]

I have heard some not so good stuff about some management companies. I am renting a home in windsor hills and the management company is Villa Direct. How are they? Do they kep the homes clean, ant free and in good repair?

xx

 

[isla bonita]

I hate to say anything negative but we have had problems not with our home but with the home next door that has villa direct.

The guests were very unhappy that I spoke to.

We also have been unhappy with the mess villa direst never seems to clean up after their guests.

 

[FLParadisevilla]

I have to say I agree the homes they manage in Indian Creek are a mess as well.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

We've rented from them 3 times between May 2004-April 2005. We never had a problem and the homes were exactly as pictured on their website. Their fees were getting a bit outrageous and we ended up buying a timeshare so we haven't rented a pool house since. Obviously things have gone downhill since then.
Slightly OT but our 1st rental experience was thru Families First and I hope they're out of business. We didn't get to choose the house and even though we requested the Formosa Gardens Blvd. area, they stuck us several miles down Rt. 27. The house was bare bones equipped... bare white walls, beige sofa, beige carpet (completely stained and disgusting too) There was a dead frog in the pool filter and they never turned on the pool heat until 3 days later and wouldn't refund the 3 days that we didn't have pool heat (was a 10 nt. stay) They said there was no other home we could switch to even though it was Nov. not during T-giving.
The next Easter my neighbor was in Orlando and while watching the news they were reporting that Familes 1st had overbooked and there were about 30 families without accommodations who were all very angry and upset!
Are they still around? I hope not!!

 

[starwishing]

I agree that their fees are high, all the extras they tack on. We rented from them in 2003 & 2006 once in Windsor Palms & once in Windsor Hills....both places were clean though & looked exactly like the pictures on the website. My one peev with them is their customer service is lacking. Everyone seemed annoyed when I called, and when I would fax something, it would take like 2 or 3 days for them to let me know if they got it because their faxes go to an email.

 

[FLParadisevilla]

Customer Service is very important and as a home owner I count on my MC to make sure our guests are happy and ok. If I have ever gotten any info from the MC about a problem with the house I also call to make sure its taken care of in a timely manner. But my MC is so on top of things it never been a problem for me. I guess thats why I like the smaller MC's.

 

[luvmy3jewels]

We just got back from a home that is managed by Villa Direct. The house was clean and appeared to be well maintained, however my dh noticed that the air filter (for the heat pump) was absolutely filthy and had not been changed in a LONG time. Dh took it outside and cleaned it off as best as he could...but if I were the owner of rental property I would consider replacement of air filters an important maintenance responsibility for the management company!

 

[isla bonita]

There are many things that are not apparent when you first arrive.

Pool may look clean but if not maintained can make guests very ill.
Air filters should be changed once a month again poor air quality can make guests ill.
Until you need pots, pans, towels, bed linen you may not notice.

As owners we need to know our man/co's are keeping up with these items and more. That is part of the job also. Our jobs are many faceted. We need our fingers in all the pies. My advice to any potential guests is ask many questions and ask if they spend any time in their homes. I think that makes a difference. Many homes are just that a rental home. Ours is our second home and we try to spend as much time down as possible. I think that is the difference

 

[ShariVT]

We just returned from a 10 day trip and rented from the same managment company we have use for the last 3 trips. On the third day of our trip the power to house was disconnected. We called and they said the lines were down and it would be fixed soon after telling them we had seen the electic company at the box they again said that it would be fixed soon so we waited about 30 mins and called again and were told by the answering service that we were one of 5 homes without power and they had left the office for the day. It was 4 hours before the power was on again and not one time did they return our call the entire trip. This was not villa direct however I would love to find a great managment company to rent from on our next trip as this is my last with this company. Should I email the home owner and let her know even though I didnt rent from her dirctly?

 

[5mins2disney]

We just returned from a 10 day trip and rented from the same managment company we have use for the last 3 trips. On the third day of our trip the power to house was disconnected. We called and they said the lines were down and it would be fixed soon after telling them we had seen the electic company at the box they again said that it would be fixed soon so we waited about 30 mins and called again and were told by the answering service that we were one of 5 homes without power and they had left the office for the day. It was 4 hours before the power was on again and not one time did they return our call the entire trip. This was not villa direct however I would love to find a great managment company to rent from on our next trip as this is my last with this company. Should I email the home owner and let her know even though I didnt rent from her dirctly?

I wouldn't, only because you didn't deal with them to book it, but you booked through the MC. In this case, I would let the MC know that in your opinion, the situation could have handled better through more effective communication back to you (the guests) as to what was going on. Hey, is it THAT hard to call someone and let them know what's going on ? If you have their email let them know nicely that this could have been improved upon in your opinion. People really do want to know sometimes how they could do better, but if you do it nicely, it doesn't come across as a complaint, more of a suggestion for improvement!

The owner would feel more like it's the MC's booking, therefore any guest issues or things along these lines would be better handled by the MC. If there were something seriously wrong with the home or the MC I'd let them know, but not because of a situation like this, this is just an electrical outage, it's something that's mostly outside of both of their control, they should have just called you back is all to see if all was ok, etc.

 

[orchidvilla]

Hi...our villa was managed by Homes of America and we sacked them due to gross incompitence and bad managment, i posted the state of our villa on an owners webiste and as a result of other owners having problems this MC lost a lot of owners.
I had a fire at my villa and contacted them to see whats going on and their out of hours emergency number was disconected, when i did get hold of them some several hours later they said they had been to the villa and no fire, i then had contact from the fire department and 2 neighbours about the fire and one sent me pictures so i knew they were not telling me the truth, also i had mail in the mail box for over 3 weeks so that proved they hadnt been round to do any security checks, so i got on a plane and went out and sacked them
Its very hard to be an owner and find a good MC, they are few and far between.

 

[isla bonita]

I would contact the own directly for sure. I do not get involved with our man/co's bookings. But if some one had a bad time at our home I would want them to call and explain. If they treat their own guests so shabby how are they going to treat mine and I am paying good money for them to be attentive.

I had a similar problem with my home and my guests. Our third line to our home burned. They asked if any one had seen a blue flame on the front lawn that was arching? Ah no I live in RI. Well our man/co had the guests stay in an open home they had until ours was fixed. It was only 2 hours but they were comfortable.

When renting just like at home things happen. It is how we as owners and our man/co's deal with the that makes a world of difference.
Our fridge went it was only 2.6 years old. Our man/co had one in the same day. I have heard on this site that some one had to use a cooler and ice. That is just not right.

 

[ShariVT]

The owner would feel more like it's the MC's booking, therefore any guest issues or things along these lines would be better handled by the MC. If there were something seriously wrong with the home or the MC I'd let them know, but not because of a situation like this, this is just an electrical outage, it's something that's mostly outside of both of their control, they should have just called you back is all to see if all was ok, etc.

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. There was Not an electrical outage. They failed to pay the electric bills on 5 of there homes. So this was somthing totally within there control.
If I was paying a company to take care of my house and they weren't paying the bills I would want to know. We have enjoyed both of the last 2 houses we rented from them and would have stayed at either of them again but now I don 't want to deal with that company anymore. So they have lost alot of future bookings.

 

[Pooki]

Our family stayed at Windsor Hills, managed by Villa Direct, back in December, and I absolutely will go again and again! Our condo was extremely clean and gorgeous...it looked just like it did in the photos. I was hesitant about renting through them, but a friend of mine was the one who let me know about them, and she has gone 5+ times and has never had a problem. I hope you have as good as an experience as we did

 

[VillaDirect]

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. There was Not an electrical outage. They failed to pay the electric bills on 5 of there homes. So this was somthing totally within there control.
If I was paying a company to take care of my house and they weren't paying the bills I would want to know. We have enjoyed both of the last 2 houses we rented from them and would have stayed at either of them again but now I don 't want to deal with that company anymore. So they have lost alot of future bookings.

Shari

Thank you for your post. We have checked through our records and can't find any occasion where this company has failed to pay an owners electricity (or other utility bill). Reading your posts on this thread, we note that there may be some confusion....are you saying that you stayed at a VillaDirect managed home?

 

[5mins2disney]

This was not villa direct however I would love to find a great managment company to rent from on our next trip as this is my last with this company. Should I email the home owner and let her know even though I didnt rent from her dirctly?

Read the posts.

 

[VillaDirect]

Read the posts.

Thank you.