Orlando vacation rental - an insiders guide on what to look for

Until a couple of years ago, I owned and managed an Orlando vacation rental company, taking care of single family homes and condos for absentee (mainly United Kingdom and Canadian) owners. The business was in the short-term rental market, which meant that renters came to Orlando and wanted a place to stay for time periods varying from four days (our minimum rental period) to three months. One or two weeks was the normal time. We set up a successful bookings website and most of our renters were from the USA and the UK, but we covered the world: I had rental clients from Canada, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Norway, Sweden , France, Switzerland and more. It's quite an international business!

One key objective was to make sure that every vacationing family who rented a place of ours, no matter where they came from, had the very best Orlando vacation possible. Whether the renter came through our booking system or had rented the property directly from the owner, we recognized that repeat bookings were the most effective form of marketing. Not only that, happy renters equaled good feedback to homeowners and they in turn recommended my company, so the business grew rapidly. We managed expensive luxury homes and basic condos and all types of property in between, but the aim was always the same: make the home as enjoyable for the renters as possible (plus, keep the costs down and the property in good shape so that the home owner is happy!).

We had some fascinating experiences dealing with all sorts of renters: 95% were polite, courteous and a pleasure to meet. A tiny minority were unbelievable: some could not follow even the most basic of instructions such as how to turn on the television, how to keep the air conditioning set to the right level and even how to use the key lock box to get in and out of the place. Some left the place cleaner than it was when they arrived. Others treated the home they stayed in like a trash dump and left us wondering whether they lived in such squalor at their own home. More of that in other blog posts, let's just note here that you meet all sorts of people when dealing with the general public!

But as a potential renter (because I'm guessing that's why you're reading this) you need to understand that the same "some are a pleasure to meet / some are unbelievable" scenario applies to property managers and vacation homeowners: there are all sorts of companies and homeowners out there who have different views on what they need to do to make an Orlando vacation rental home a pleasure to stay in. Some of them will have standards and expectations very different from yours. The odds are that, if your Orlando vacation is a family trip, it represents a high part of your annual spending and unless you're very unusual, you want to get the best value for money. So how do you make sure that you get exactly what you want? How do you find a rental property that's matches your budget and specification?

Well, first of all, make sure you understand the difference between renting a hotel room and booking an Orlando vacation rental home. With a hotel (or motel) you probably know the company involved: Disney has it's own hotels of course, but if you go for a Marriott, a Sheraton Hotel, a Quality Inn or Travelodge, you're putting your trust in the brand name. For example, standards vary from one Sheraton to another, but you know there's an organization behind the brand so you have some reason to believe that what you're promised is what you'll get. You can have some confidence.

With an Orlando vacation rental home, though, you're in an entirely different situation. You're most likely to be using a property that belongs to an individual so the branding doesn't apply and backup and integrity are more of a concern. Ultimately you're dependent on two things and each has a high degree of variability: the homeowner's standards and the professionalism (and standards!) of the property management company. Unless you're a risk-taker and you don't care how the vacation turns out, you need to do your homework and evaluate these. You need some idea of the questions to ask and some way of evaluating the responses to make a judgment.

I'll be covering all of that in later posts, so please check back soon for more Orlando vacation rental details.