Remember back to the old days – the times when we went on vacation and stayed in a hotel or motel in whatever area we were in. Many people still do that, but the numbers of vacationers in hotels is dropping because more and more people want to stay in an actual “home” while on vacation. We don’t blame you; we try to do the same thing.
In our minds, there are two types of vacation homes, or maybe we should say two types of vacation home owners:
- Rental Investment Property Owners
- “Second Home” Owners that rent their homes when they are not there
We at Junonia Dreams do not recommend one over the other. There are just as many good Rental Investment Property Owners and homes as there are bad and just as many good Second Home Owners and homes as there are bad. We do make it plain, however, that we (Junonia Dreams) are “Second Home” Owners.
What Is The Difference?
That’s a great question and one that might be a little difficult to answer, because in some cases, there are no differences. But, it’s been our experience that there are some differences and those differences might take your vacation from “that was a good vacation experience” to “that was a fantastic vacation experience. We couldn’t have asked for more!”
At Junonia Dreams, we want every single guest of ours to fall into the latter category. And that seems to be the mindset of many, if not all, Second Home Owners.
Rental Investment Property Owners are in it for the money and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Their properties have to make money. Otherwise, why own the home (unless they’re looking for some sort of business tax write-off)? At the same time, the more they put in their homes, the more it takes from their profits
Second Home Owners, on the other hand, are looking to rent out their homes to help offset the costs of having a second home in an area where they love to vacation, but still have it available to them when it comes time for them to get away from it all.
When we bought our first vacation home, we thought of all the places we have stayed in the past and listed everything we could think of that we wished those places had. We then set out to find a home and fill it with all the items on our list.
With all this in mind, there are a few tips we want to pass on to all potential vacation home guests that may make your search for the perfect vacation home a little easier and your vacation a little more carefree and rewarding. It doesn’t matter if you’re staying at a Rental Investment Property or a “Second Home” property. These tips apply to all vacation homes.
Here we go …
Tip #1 – Book EARLY!
Peak season for renting the Shorebird, our vacation home, is December through March, with even more emphasis on February and March. If you wait until November to book your home, you are going to have a tough time not only finding one available, but an even worse time finding the “perfect” home, whatever you think that might be.
At the Shorebird, a guest during one season is given the first opportunity to book the home for the same time period the following year. Many Vacation Homeowners have this same policy. In order for this to happen, our guests have until their checkout date in one year to book it for the following year. That means if you want February of next year, you should be contacting us March 1 of this year. If our most recent guest already has the home booked, you can immediately continue on your search for other vacation homes in the area. If not, congratulations, you called at the exact perfect time. Even if the home is booked, we can put you on a waiting list right away. After all, cancellations do happen, although not all that often. By all means, even if you are on our waiting list, keep searching for other homes. Don’t wait on ours to open up because chances are by the time it does become available, many, if not all the other vacation homes in the area will be filled.
Tip #2 – Deal ONLY with the Owner of the Vacation Home
When we bought, remodeled, and decorated the Shorebird, our goal was to provide a vacation home rental opportunity at an affordable price for our friends 55 years of age and up. One of the best ways to cut the costs of renting a vacation home is to deal directly with the owner of the home ONLY, if it is at all possible.
If it’s not possible, why not? If the owner is not available to answer your questions, will they be available when you’re staying there and have a problem? If, for whatever reason, a home owner isn’t as responsive as you would like them to be, how much do you think they had guests forefront in their minds when they equipped, remodeled, or decorated their home?
If you have to go through a third-party website to find out about and book the home, keep a couple of things in mind. Third-party websites such as AirBnB, VRBO, and the like charge extra fees at the point of sale; that’s how they make their money. Who do you think pays those extra fees? You do!
We’ve done some research into these “extra fees” and it looks like they range from about $200 to more than $400. To us, that’s a significant amount of money. We’re sure it is to you as well.
Some of these third-party sites won’t even give you the exact location of the home until your booking is complete! In vacation homes, just like real estate in general, it’s location, location, location. We see a red flag waving frantically in our minds when we can’t even tell exactly where a home is located.
Tip #3 – Raise Your Standards
Remember back when we said we wanted our vacation home to have all the things we missed at hotels, motels and other places we stayed over the years? You should expect the same things. Why settle for second-rate? Why settle for cracked coffee cups? Why settle for mediocre WiFi? Why settle for no place to sit outside to watch the sunset with a glass of your favorite wine? Why settle for a place that has no corkscrew to open that favorite bottle of wine?
The answer is simple – you shouldn’t!
A quick story: When we first bought the Shorebird, the kitchen was fully outfitted with all kinds of dishes, pots, pans, and silverware. And we mean all kinds – there were not two of anything that matched. Is that the way we want our second home to be equipped? Absolutely not. Should we expect any of our guests to just overlook this mis-matched cornucopia of kitchen amenities? Again, absolutely not! We boxed everything up, donated it to Teen Challenge in Fort Myers and went out and purchased new everything. That’s what we demanded and what we expect our guests to demand as well.
So, raise your standards. Make sure your potential vacation home has everything you want. It’s just another way of turning your “good” vacation into “the best vacation you’ve ever had.”
Tip #4 – Take Care of Your Vacation Home
Many people take their vacations to the same place year after year. That is especially true in the southwest Florida market. And, as we noted above (see Tip #1), it can be difficult to find just the right vacation home for you. Once you find it, however, there’s a good chance you can return there year after year after year – if you take care of the home.
Returning guests are pretty much the Holy Grail for vacation home owners. We love our great guests and look forward to hearing from them year after year. It’s a win-win situation: Our homes get rented with fantastic guests and those guests have no problem finding a very nice place to spend their vacations.
Tip #5 – Expect Problems!
We all want a totally problem-free vacation. In reality, however, problems can occur. Whether it’s car problems, restaurant reservation problems, parking problems at your favorite beach, and, yes, problems with your vacation home.
We’re not saying that you should go into your vacation home and right off the bat, expect floor tiles to be missing, carpet to be wet, or refrigerator not working. These are all part of the “bones” of the house and should be in good working order when you arrive.
What we’re talking about is something that quits working while you’re there. The water heater quits working. The A/C unit starts blowing hot air. The heat, assuming you’re there on one of those unusual nights in the winter when the temperature drops below about 50 degrees, won’t come on.
These things happen in virtually every home in the entire country and they may happen in your vacation home as well. As vacation home owners, we certainly don’t want our guests to have any of these types of problems.
So, what can you do?
Call the owner as quickly as possible. If the home owner follows policies and tips for vacation home owners advocated by Junonia Dreams, they have already played the “What If” game and have a plan for taking care of your problem. No, they won’t be able to get a new water heater purchased, delivered, and installed in a half-hour. But they can certainly get the ball rolling on exactly that type of thing, while guiding you to the next best solution in the meantime. And that is exactly what you should expect from any vacation home owner.
Expect things to go wrong; expect something to quit working. If it doesn’t happen, fantastic! Enjoy your vacation! If it does happen, don’t let it ruin your vacation. Expect it to be taken care of by a vacation home owner that really cares about providing a good vacation experience for each and every one of their guests, not to mention their home as well.
Tip #6 – Stay Safe!
When most people go on vacation, they don’t expect to have their only access to the area to be inundated with flood waters that washed out the road. But, nonetheless, it happened to us.
We were staying in Estes Park, Colorado a few years ago, staying in a hotel on the east side of town. When we went to bed, it was raining, pretty hard at times. When we woke up the next morning and went out on the balcony, we noticed emergency vehicles blocking the road leading down the canyon to one of only two roads leading east out of the Estes Valley. We looked farther to the south on the other side of Lake Estes and saw more emergency vehicles blocking the only other road that headed to the east. We turned on the TV and found out that while it was raining hard in town where we were, it was much, much worse in both the Big Thompson and St. Vrain canyons leading to the eastern plains, our route home. We were plenty safe with our hotel sitting on the side of a mountain, but the town of Estes Park and the canyons above and below town were devastated. By a stroke of luck, we weren’t staying in the “cabin by the river” that we usually stayed in. That’s a good thing because we would have been rousted out of bed about 2:00 a.m. that morning and scrambling to get across the bridge before flood waters entered our cabin.
Weather emergencies happen in southwest Florida, too. Thunderstorms can crop up daily and some may have a “severe” component to them. Lightning is another threat with these storms – never be on the beach when lightning is in the area. We won’t even mention hurricanes. You should be well aware of any approaching hurricane as they take several days, even a week to get there. Here, we’re talking about more sudden types of emergencies. Luckily, Lee County has a very easy way to stay on top of any threats happening or even approaching the area. It’s called AlertLee.
AlertLee is the FREE service that we use and have found it to be very reliable. We also recommend it to all of our guests at the Shorebird. By going to www.alertlee.com and signing up to receive their FREE alerts, you will get immediate notification, via text and email, of any threatening weather or alert that is issued for the area. You do not have to live in Lee County to sign up for this valuable service. You should also expect a phone call or text from the vacation homeowner as they, too, should be making use of this service and contacting you whenever a situation warrants. You will receive these notifications no matter where you are as long as you have cell phone service.
These are just six tips for new (or not-so-new) guests of vacation home rentals. Since questions keep popping up in our heads, and as other guests and owners relate their experiences to us, we’ll add more tips so we can all share in the knowledge.
To get immediate notification when we publish new tips, or any other useful information, go to our website, www.junoniadreams.com, and sign up for our newsletter in the right-hand sidebar on any page on the site.
Here’s wishing you a very safe, relaxing, and overall fantastic vacation in your vacation home in Paradise.