Vacation Rental Information

Miami Beach is in a state of disarray, the homeowners have engaged in a huge row over their homes being rented out to visitors for several days. While some are of the opinion that they have the right to decide the matters about their homes others feel that their neighborhood being rented out is also a case of nuisance for them. Finally, the authorities are also participating in this debate in order to help homeowners reach agreeable consensus.

Due to the falling real estate rates, home owners are not able to get a desirable value for their homes, on the other hand buyers are not ready to dispose high amounts of their income for new homes and hence renting is becoming a very popular option. In Southern Florida, especially the Miami Beach region this has become a bigger issue as neighbors are facing serious issues with home owners renting out their properties to others.

Donna Bloom, a resident at Miami Beach was annoyed with the decisions that other home owners make while renting out their place. She is strongly against the renting out of premises and is harassed due to the ongoing trends where in people renting the neighborhood homes over the weekends or even on weekdays use the homes for partying and other noisy activities.

Jonah Wolfson, Miami Beach commissioner came out in support of the residents saying that the residents should be allowed to live in a peaceful environment and newer laws should be introduced in order to safeguard the interests of the resident. He also agreed to a possibility of a law being introduced to help define the short term rentals and pointed towards its importance during these times for protection of civilian rights.

While the residents are complaining, the real estate brokers are having a busy time fixing newer appointments every week and at times every day. They are of the opinion that even the homeowners can have parties on weekends so why get annoyed with the people who rent these houses! There is also a very strong feeling that the introduction of a new law might have an impact on the Miami Beach economy. This could be bad news in an already suffering economy.

As the tension in the area builds up, the city commission is trying to find a solution to this possibly threatening problem at the soonest!

Image Courtesy Of www.ultimatetaxi.com

Source: Florida Vacation Rental BlogSpot

A few decades ago, vacation homes were usually second homes for the wealthy that they would visit once every so often. If they rented it, it would usually not be their primary source of income. 

These days, things have obviously changed dramatically. Among the hundreds of Florida vacation rental home owners that we've talked to, we see several that actually treat it as their primary bread and butter job. They usually have more than one vacation rental home, some have up to a dozen or more. They treat it very seriously, have a budget for marketing, maintenance, staffing, taxes, etc. and maintain a balance sheet.

That approach is critical for the success of any vacation rental in my opinion, especially in Florida, given the competition.

One organization that has caught our attention recently and can help with such affairs is  FVRMA – Florida Vacation Rental Mangers' Association. Their website is at http://www.floridavacationrentalmanagers.com/fvrma.asp

They are quite a useful resource and can help significantly with keeping abreast of the latest developments in this industry. In any business, it is important to keep up to date with market news and change/adapt accordingly. For vacation rental owners that understand that, this might be worth the membership money. But only if you will actually spend the time to utilize the membership benefit. Aha, there's the catch .

Source: Florida Vacation Rental BlogSpot

No other state in the country can boast of the kind of services that Florida provides to tourits. We travel around the state on a regular basis and we are always amazed that creativity and the variety of offerings for tourists.

Take Baby Bike and Beach Rentals company http://www.funandmorerentals.com/ for instance. They have a great website and provide some awesome rental services for tourists to the Florida Keys areas.Their baby care services are a unique offering and something that you only find rarely in rental shops.They've been around for a while and recently launched their blog at http://blog.funandmorerentals.com. Just FYI, we are not affiliated to them in any way, we just like their site and wish them good luck.

Source: Florida Vacation Rental BlogSpot

We've tried to find vacation rental deals when we go on vacations outside Florida ourselves and one thing that we've constantly had a problem with, is finding vacation rental availability!

Take Bryce Canyon or Zion National part in Utah for instance. There are very few hotels in that area and several vacation rentals with unbelieveable locations that are so awesome, but many are not listed on vacation rental sites! Pardon the plug, but that's so unlike Florida where we have over 500 listings now at our site http://www.vacationrentalhotspots.com.

Now say you do find some rentals that you like online, many of them have no availability information or even a website that you can look at pictures! That doesn't make it easy to make reservations. We found three places that we liked and called and left messages for all of them on a Friday, only to know by Tuesday that none had any availability for the dates that we were looking for.

VacationRentalHotspots.com offers availablitiy information for our rentals. Owners benefit just as much as visitors. To view availablity information, just scroll down to the bottom of a listing and there are sevearl calendars. Happy 2009!

Source: Florida Vacation Rental BlogSpot

Vacation rental deals are all over the place in Florida. Every year, at this time of the year, business usually slows down relatively since fewer tourists visit the place in Winter. However, to compensate for that, local businesses offer unbelievable deals. Sometimes, up to 75% off compared to peak Summer weekend rates. In a  time of recession, these discounts can get even steeper.

On VacationRentalHotSpots.com, we are seeing some fabulous offers as well. For example:

Daytona Beach Vacation Rental Deal – http://vacationrentalhotspots.com/pro_detail.php?lid=100079 . Huge 2 Bed/2 Bath Vacation rental home with stainless steel appliances, walking distance to the beach, recently remodeled, pets allowed, close to the Nascar Speedway, FREE high speed Internet, Etc. All that for $135/night or $895/week. That’s cheaper than a hotel rate which usually offers you just one cramped room that has no personality.

Take this other deal for instance – 3 Bed 2 Bath 1550 Sq.Ft. Vacation Rental at Ormond Beach. I love this place  because it’s at a beach but close enough to Orlando and the Disney Resorts so you could do both in one trip. And this place is available for $135/night and sleeps up to 8 people. Honestly, that’s less than $16 per person per day. For large families or a trip down to Florida with friends, this is the perfect solution.

The right sidebar on http://www.vacationrentalhotspots.com has more such amazing deals.

Source: Florida Vacation Rental BlogSpot

Holidays always make me lazier. Corporations usually slow down a little bit. Everyone is tired from a full year of work and before I make resolutions for the new year, might as well take a break. May be I’ll add working harder to my next year’s resolution . But anyway, the point is that holidays are about relaxing and taking a break. This year especially, Christmas is on 25th , 27-28 Is a weekend, 31 is New Year’s eve, 1st is usually a holiday for most for New Year’s  and again 3rd-4th is a weekend. So, really, if you take 29th-31st and 2nd off, you coud have a 11 day break with just 4 days off officially on paid/unpaid leave. That’s a really good deal!

And to add to the good deals, there are several vacation rentals that are offering unbelievable discounts making it even more tempting to take a break. We wrote a full post about this here.

Airline prices are dropping too. They have to. Noone is buying tickets at the current rates with the recession. Jet Blue had some awesome specials recently. Southwest is always pretty cheap. Gas prices are on an all-time low as well. I am dreading summer next year when the prices will be back up at $4/gallon possibly. So is that more reason for you and me to take that break? Yay….I am going for it!

Source: Florida Vacation Rental BlogSpot

Are you traveling with a Group?

If you are a group of three or more, vacation rentals are an obvious choice. Yet, people around the country shell out hundreds of extra dollars just because they don’t even think about a vacation rental and simply regard hotels as the default choice. Many hotels boost their rates if a room has more than two occupants, while most vacation homes maintain the same nightly, weekend or weekly rate regardless of the number of guests. And room, yes isn’t that reason enough just by itself? A vacation rental can often provide you two to three times the space that a hotel room can.

Do you have special food needs?

Are you a vegetarian? Do you have food allergies? Do you hate sea-food but love the Florida Keys? Whatever your food preference may be, a vacation rental can accommodate it, because you can do the cooking yourself! Also, if you are traveling in a group, restaurant bills can cost hundreds of dollars over the course of a few days. You can save money and spend the extra $$$ on more activities during your vacation. And your family will love the “new setting” for your home-cooked food and stay healthy too.

Want to Take a Break From the Outdoors?

During most family vacations, there’s always a day or two that you want to take a break from the outdoors and hang out indoors.  Curling up to read a book, to watching your home team on TV, to taking a break and sipping a cup of tea…you just might want to get out of the sun. Most vacation rentals come stocked with a TV, VCR or DVD player, movies, books, board games, puzzles, playing cards and other fun activities for families with kids. So if it starts pouring outside, it won’t necessarily be the end of the world.There are many more reasons? A more romantic experience for couples and more personalized amenities are benefits many value in a vacation rental. No wonder the market grew 17% last year when the rest of the real estate market slipped sharply.

Jump on board…Vacation Rentals are a No-Brainer!

Source: Florida Vacation Rental BlogSpot

Lauderdale-By-the-Sea– that sounds like the name of a Restaurant, doesn’t it? If you are a Florida local though, you’ll recognize that it’s actually a town! Don’t believe me, check it out on the map here. Located just north of the more famous Fort Lauderdale, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea is a charming seaside town offering a typical beach-and-sun Florida experience. If you are a fan of ocean views and fishing piers, you might just fall for this town. Watersports are an attraction at most sea-side Florida towns, and Lauderdale-by-the-Sea is no exception. The Butterfly World, The GulfStream Park and TradeWinds Park are places you might want to visit during your vacation here. It’s a lesser popular international vacation destination than say Orlando or Miami, and as a result, it offers a much more serene lesser-crowded peaceful vacation experience.

Your vacation at this gorgeous town can be even more special in a cozy vacation rental home, by the sea. A wide selection of Lauderdale by the Sea vacation rentals and motels is available at http://www.vacationrentalhotspots.com. With over a thousand rentals listed across Florida, you can either choose to stay at this town or near-by areas depending on availability. You can check it out availability and prices at http://vacationrentalhotspots.com/florida/lauderdale-by-the-sea-vacati on-rentals.php

With a population of only 6,000 people, you are assured of a unique experience here. If you’ve done Disneyland and other crowded Resort-destinations in Florida, chances are that your opinion of Florida is a bit skewed. Lauderdale-by-the-Sea is what Floridans would call their kind of vacation. So the next time you visit Florida, live it like Floridans do at this little magical town.

Source: Florida Vacation Rental BlogSpot

New York times talks about a lot of things, just like any other newspaper of magazine. There is a big difference though, when NYT says something, people actually listen. This month, they released an article about the profitability and the rapidly expanding vacation rental market. We have been saying the same thing for over a year now and predicting this trend. It feels good to have someone like NYT confirm our thoughts. Read their full article at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/15/greathomesanddestinations/15Your.htm l?8dpc.

Vacation rental market is over $80B in the US now and growing rapidly. People are actively thinking about renting a vacation home for their vacations compared to the boring same-old same-old hotel rooms with an an uptight atmosphere and impersonal experience. Vacation rentals often cost lesser and have more amenities like a kitchen, living room, more space, a backyard and locale-specific amenities. None of that is available in hotels. And of course, vacation rentals are personal. People treat hotels as the place to go sleep at night during their vacation. On the other hand, your vacation home can be the place where you actually spend time, play board games with your family, cook a quick meal or order in from a local restaurant and create memories. No wonder their popularity is growing. Good for vacationers. However, there is another takeaway from this trend. If you are looking to invest in real estate, getting a vacation rental may be a great idea today.

On the other hand, to add to the incentive, real estate prices for vacation rentals are going down. Costa Rica vacation rental prices are down 40% according to a news release in August. http://www.emediawire.com/releases/costa-rica/real-estate/prweb1225124 .htm 

Florida vacation rental prices are also down by about 5-25% depending on locale. This is a great time to get into the market. Buying a home may not be such a good idea because they might be hard to sell. With a vacation home you can’t go wrong because people are looking for them to rent temporarily. It’s like getting into a business at the right time. In business, it’s all about that, isn’t it. And to add icing to the cake, you can go stay at your vacation rental for a free vacation once in a while. However, a word of caution, I would treat it as a business if you want your venture to be profitable. People haven’t caught on to this trend in a big way just yet. When everyone does, these vacation rentals will start becoming expensive to buy and it will start getting harder and harder to get into the market. We’ve been in this market for a long time and we think now is the time. Good luck!

 - Kenny Doucette

Vacation Rentals in Florida

Source: Florida Vacation Rental BlogSpot

Vacation rentals are gaining popularity very quickly and the best testimony to that is when a major site such as Orbitz shows interest in them. Orbitz, traditionally a flights search engine, added hotels, rental cars, etc. over time. But in  August 2008, they started vacation rentals too. However, the chances that their initiative will succeed is limited. The big problem? – they are trying to be everything to everyone. When customers look for a vacation rental, they don’t think Orbitz. They only think ‘vacation ‘. They think about the specific place that they are going to stay at and want rentals and information that are relevant to that area.

With flights, it’s alright because flights take you places so you can’t really be specialized. Rentals cars are fine too, afterall a rental car in Las Vegas is the same as a rental car in the Florida Keys. However, not everything works that way. Vacation rentals are a very specific thing to the locale. A vacation rental in Florida looks nothing like one on Phoenix, Arizona. Specialized sites such as http://vacationrentalhotspots.com focus on Florida and thereby provide information that is specific to these locales. From watching out for weather-specific information to information about rentals that only locals could know, these specialist sites make your life easier and your vacation all the more enjoyable. If you are trying to sell a vacation rental, the same argument applies. Generalist sites impose huge fees and involve too much competition. You are just a commodity. Do you really care whether you stayed at the Marriott or the Hilton. Unless you are worried about points, there really is not much of a difference. That’s not true with vacation rentals though. Your rental has a personality and you know it. The best way to bring that out is to diversify your marketing efforts but remember to focus on local area-speciific marketing.

However, vacation rentals are becoming a big thing in the US slowly and steadily. People are tired of renting hotels that all look the same and are impersonal and expensive. Good news for owners and vacationers alike!

 - Kenny Doucette

Florida Vacation Rentals

Source: Florida Vacation Rental BlogSpot