What is Best Vacation Villa Rental Agency?

[TwoAtDisney]

I've seen some mentioned on disboards, but don't remember them all, such as, Home Away, VRBO. Our concerns (DH & I) are unit quality, integrity of company, & response of company.

Also, are there any that don't require all money upfront with no refund?

Another concern we have is getting a prompt response if we have a problem with the unit.

We've already reserved Marriott's Grande Vista for 1/2 of our trip & we went directly thru Marriott.

The second half we would like to stay in a rental at The Villages. This means the unit will be owned by a person rather than a hotel/resort corp. Don't want to get a "ragged" unit & no response to problems, or worse yet, someone scam us out of our money!

Thanks in advance. Julie

 

[Ametista]

Well first of all vrbo, homeaway, flipkey etc are not agencies, they are vacation rental listing sites. They are sort of like Craig's list, only they thoroughly screen owners and verify ownership before a person can list their home, for a fee.

If you go to homeaway and look at the community you are interested in (are you talking about Vistana Villages? Not sure where you are talking about) you will find several homes/townhomes/condos. Some are advertised by their owner, which you can usually tell because a private owner may have a photo of themselves and usually their calendar will actually show you which days are already booked. A management company will leave the calendar blank so they can get as many inquiries as possible and maybe rent you a different home if they need to.

If the home is rented directly through the owner, they still have to have a management company in Orlando/Kissimmee. The MC will keep the pool and home clean between guests and also handle any problems (toilet backed up, etc.)

We always rent directly through owners, whether we are going to Sonoma or Kissimmee or Steamboat Springs. We have never had a problem. If a property has a good review rating you should be safe. If you are worried, once you get a bid from somebody (and you like the property) you can post the property link up and all of us off-site vets can make sure it looks legit. You should be safe as long as you book through one of the major sites.

 

[TwoAtDisney]

Thanks Ametista for your help here & on my other thread.

Julie

 

[Kellydelly]

We have rented through this company three times with great results:

http://floridasunshineholidayhomes.com/blog/home/

We have also rented through vrbo or homeaway twice and had mixed results. The first house we rented through private owners we showed up and the water was shut off (good thing my husband is handy). The second time we rented through an owner from the UK we showed up the house was in the middle of being cleaned, and the person cleaning it was nowhere to be found (took an hour to get a hold of someone and get them back to the home to get it ready for us).

 

[BDBufford]

For anyone that is searching for a way to list your vacation property rental is urvacationspot.com There are many advantages in signing up for this service and it much cheaper than advertising expenses.