Disney Vacation Best Deals

Finding a home with bunk beds can be challenging, at best.  However, if it’s extra space you’re looking for in a vacation rental property, watch out that you don’t set yourself up for some real disappointment.

Interested?  Read on.

What Is A Vacation Rental?

Think of all the homeowners living in the vicinity of Disney.  For years they’ve seen families pay huge rates for disney resorts and nearby hotels.  Eventually, it crosses the homeowner’s mind: “I’m going on vacation for two weeks this summer.  Why not rent out my home and make money while I’m on vacation?”  Sounds good to the homeowner, doesn’t it?  Of course, it does.

What you DON’T get is maid service, the thrill of being in a swanky resort and  valet service.  What you DO get is a full kitchen, lots of room, maybe even a swimming pool, jacuzi, a play area in the backyard for the kids and probably also some privacy.
Some homeowners leave the job of renting their place out to a professional management company.  If you find this kind of rental home, you probably won’t have any worries.

The problem comes when you rent directly from a homeowner.  You can have either the best vacation of your life, or the worst nightmare.

Dangers of Renting a Home From The Owner

Damage Deposit Fraud

Ever heard of  “damage deposit fraud”?  it works like this.  You leave the rental unit in good shape and go home.  You expect the homeowner to send you your $500 damage deposit but you don’t get it.  Not many homeowever are unscrupulous like this.  But the ones that are know that you’re not likely to fly back to his hometown and file a claim in small claims court, and fly back again on the court date.   Even if you report it to the police, they’ll consider it a “civil matter” and not bother with it.
So this kind of homeowner has you “over the barrel”, so to speak.  In cases like this, the homeowner simply ignores your request, or pretends that something was damaged.

Bait and Switch

What a horrifying feeling to show up on the day of your rental and you discover that the property is NOT what the picture showed on the Internet.  It’s either a picture of years ago when the property was more well-cared for than at present, or it’s been “photo-shoped”.

In a case like this, you can’t very well start looking for a new place, can you?  You can try to get a refund, should you decide to stay, but hey… if the homeowner pulled a bait and switch, don’t be surprised if they also have trouble giving you your damage depost back.

Pulling a “Fast One” on You

A remote chance exists that you’ll show up at your rental property and discover it’s actually an address for a laundromat!  Or if it is actually a home, the owner doesn’t have a clue who YOU are, and has never rented their place out to anyone.
If you don’t believe me, Google “vacation rentals by owner”, and you’ll see that the website posts the disclaimer that they provide NO guarantee that the properties they list actually exist, or are as they are pictured on the website by the person saying they are the owner.

Privacy Crisis.  E-book Shows How To Prevent Identity Theft. Contains Proven Legal Strategies On How To Bank, Travel, Work And Live Anonymously.

So, How Can You Protect Yourself?

Try to rent through an established property management company.  They should be more than ready to document any claims the owner make about the property.

Look for feedback on the website property listing.  It’s easy to find a good website that lists this kind of feedback from previous renters.  Better yet if the website includes some kind of contact info for the previous renters.

Some travel agencies or association of property owners will list vacation rentals.  These might even offer some kind of rating system for the various properties they represent.  These agencies and associations are very responsive to complaints from renters about properties these agencies and associations rented.  They’ll either try to correct the problem between the owner and the renter, or they’ll drop the owner’s property completely.  Also, if things can’t be worked out between you and the owner, you could consider legal action against these agencies and associations.

Protect your investment.  Get the Disney Insider’s Guide to huge savings on your next Disney vacation.

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Tags: disney vacation homes, disney vacation rentals, disney world vacation homes, disney world vacation rental

This entry was posted on Monday, April 27th, 2009 at 11:34 pm and is filed under Lodging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.