Windsor Hills vs. other resorts?

[wdw-ocd]

Ok, Disers, I need your help (again! )

So far I'm 0 for 2 1/2 in trying to rent a condo or townhouse in Windsor Hills-The first owner wanted the total amount in 72 hours, the 2nd owner I'd contacted decided she wouldn't rent to us when I'd asked for references or other pictures (there were only 3 pictures on the windsorhillsrents site), and I'm still waiting for the third person to get back to me. (By the way, thanks Disers, for all of your good advice on what to ask to ensure the owner is on the up and up! I realize that there needs to be an element of trust between owners and renters, but this is still a business transaction and your advice has been great! )

Now DH is questioning if staying in Windsor Hills is really better than any other resort. I like the fact that Windsor Hills has the slide and the other amenities. Are there other resorts out there that are equally good but don't cost an arm and a leg? (We stayed at Reunion last year. It was ok but for the price we paid, we might as well have stayed at onsite at a moderate resort).

TIA

 

[JANNYANS]

I suppose it really depends on what facilities you are looking for.Most communities will have some type of recreation area ranging from tennis ,basketball and tot lots to lazy rivers .Most rental homes will have a pool so they will be on those that have tennis courts ,basketball, volleyball condos may be on those that will have a lazy river as they may not have the pool.
Good luck choosing .

 

[Cruz91]

But for my money, it is absolutely worth it. We've never stayed on site, so that could disqualify us from a non-biased view. We have, however, stayed at WH several times. I've given this link out before, but the two owners we've stayed with and had great luck with are:

http://www.vrbo.com/83238 (Stayed here several times, and we're going back TOMORROW!!!)

http://www.vrbo.com/72901 (Stayed here once)

 

[wdw-ocd]

But for my money, it is absolutely worth it. We've never stayed on site, so that could disqualify us from a non-biased view. We have, however, stayed at WH several times. I've given this link out before, but the two owners we've stayed with and had great luck with are:

http://www.vrbo.com/83238 (Stayed here several times, and we're going back TOMORROW!!!)

http://www.vrbo.com/72901 (Stayed here once)

Thanks for the links, I'll be sure to check them out!

Lucky you! Have a blast on your trip!

 

[AllesonWonderland]

We stayed at this townhome for our first disney vacation:

http://www.disneyvisittownhome.com/

Great owners who were very helpful and answered all of my bazillion questions. LOL We're planning on going back to WDW again with more family, so I'm already scoping out bigger houses in Windsor Hills to rent. We LOVED the resort and it was so close to Disney! Good luck with your planning!

 

[Brian Noble]

There's no reason not to look around. My experience has been that, as long as you are booking far enough in advance, there's not a lot of money to be saved by going a little further out.

But, the responses you've gotten so far suggest to me that both of those owners are either (a) new, or (b) won't have trouble renting their units to someone else. When are you thinking about going?

 

[sympatico]

These WH townhouses and condos have gotten good reviews:
http://www.5mins2disney.com/
http://www.vrbo.com/53573
http://www.mickeyscondo.com/ along with a couple of others they own listed on the bottom left

 

[FayeW]

We are staying at Windsor Hills for the first time in a few weeks. We chose to go through a management company, Florida Sun Vacation Homes, and so far I am very pleased with them. They get excellent reviews here so that's why we chose them. Their website is www.floridasunvacationhomes.com

 

[GraceLuvsWDW]

I stayed at the Wishes townhome by 5mins2disney in Windsor Hills, it was very nice and they were very easy to work with. I am staying at Terra Verde this December. While it is farther from Disney it does have many of the same amenities (and usually a cheaper price than WH) and I found them on VRBO. It is #188120 and while I can't review them yet, the home seems just as nice as WH.

We used to always stay onsite and now that we've found 3 br/3ba townhomes for under $100 per night I doubt if I'll ever stay onsite again (except for a really great deal).

 

[northriver]

I just sent a blanket query through windsorhillsrent and received many dozen responses. There are multitudes of rental sides that owners use, just do a basic internet serach for 'Windsor Hills Condo' or maybe add Disney if you get too many. I have not rented offsite before but I found it easy to weed out the unprofessional websites - outdated information, spelling errors, poor quality pictures and poorly functioning websites, wishy washy terms of service. I had one offer too good to be true and I'm guessing it probably was, so I didn't respond. Some of them have very strict policies, so find one that works for you, but keep in mind - if you owned the home, what would your policies be? I'd be pretty strict, too, to protect myself as an owner.

I rented a house this week but I probably looked at 100 before I chose the one I did. The FIRST thing I did was check availibility. The ones that fit my needs and were available, I made an excel spreadsheet with the property name, website, price, and terms. Once I had them side by side on the spreadsheet, I had a really good idea which one I wanted!

 

[3BoysRDisneyFreaks]

We just rented through www.vacationcentralflorida.com.
There have been discussions before about the Dave Robinson properties.
We had no issues with the owners we used. Very easy.

As for the common pool at WH, it was nice. Not the best I have been in. The slide, according to my 10 & 7 year old was OK. At first they didn't like it because it wouldn't "shoot" them out at the end they had to scoot themselves out, but by the end they figured out the exact body angle they had to be at to make the slide work. It was actually funny. They had never had that issue before.

Good luck!

Sarah

 

[TinkerbellNYC]

This was also who we rented from http://www.vacationcentralflorida.com and they have just started a club among owners called Windsor Hills Club http://www.windsorhillsclub.com that offers like 16 condos at very low rates just for signing up by your email address. I have received offers of specials for Windsor Hills Condos at $199 and $299 per week since signing up. We are coming in December, so I will report back, but so far Dave has answered every question and they have been great to deal with. Can't wait for December!!

 

[two*little*birds]

I highly recommend WH as we just returned from a 12 night stay, and would recommend staying there to anyone! We plan on returning next year as well.

We rented from Story Time - www dot storytimeorlandorental.com/index.html

I also posted on the DIS board here about WH - http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=27474822

Good luck, and if you do decide to stay at WH you'll LOVE it!

 

[IWANNAGOTODISNEY]

This development is down the street from Windsor Hills. It was gated and had a private heated pool. Grand Reserve. I like it because, it had sliding glass doors out to the pool so I didn't have to pack up the kids and go back and forth. One could be sleeping while the other was swimming. It also had kids floats and tv's in every bedroom. rentalatdisneyarea.com It's also on VRBO.COM, but I don't know the number. It was very clean and had strollers, high chairs,etc.