Renting from VRBO Windsor Hills??

[Veeham]

I am planning our next trip to WDW for next year and we are looking at renting a house in Windsor Hills. I have heard great things about WH. I am concerned about renting from someone I do not know though. I have found a house I am interested in. The price seems great, almost too great. How does one go about renting from a stranger? How do you know if you are getting ripped off? What are steps owners take to prove they are legit? I'm just trying to protect myself and my family. Thanks

[nolarookie]

I hear ya, dude, I'm trying to do the same thing. I think I'll rent from a rental or property management company, I do this all the time on the Gulf Coast, so I have a comfort level. THe rates are still good, but not as good as an owner. I'm willing to pay for peace of mind. I'm sure others can tell you more. Here's an intriguing link: http://vacationcentralflorida.com/

[Claire]

We have always had great luck with VRBO in other areas. I haven't tried it in Orlando yet.

[Pampered Mom]

I'm renting through VRBO in San Francisco for next week. On the VRBO site they have some recommendations to prevent fraud. One recommendation is to speak to the owner over the phone. There was one place I was looking at. The listing said they had other properties available. For some reason, I Googled the location or the owner or something and found scathing reviews of the company. They did a lot of bait and switch. I have talked to the owner of the place we're renting. He lives upstairs and clearly only rents the one unit.

I think the FL market is different. I had asked folks for feedback in another thread. One person said that with some other timeshare rental sites you run the risk that the owner has let the property go under foreclosure or have not paid their maintenance fees. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. I think I lucked out with my SF rental because he just started renting it and really should be charging more. I keep checking back to read reviews from people who have been there recently. If you can't find any reviews on a site that does have reviews, I wouldn't consider it.

[bnoble]

I've rented directly from owners in Orlando several times. In the process of renting, you will exchange a few email message, and might even make a phone call, though I don't think I ever did. I find that I get a pretty good sense of an owner in this early email-exchange process: are they responsive? Do they provide important details? And as silly as it sounds, do they spell correctly and use proper grammar? It's worth noting that the owner is probably doing the same thing with you, to see if you will be a reasonable tenant or not. In both cases, I was renting from folks who owned a single home that they used for their own vacations, and rented out other times. That's what most of these are---owners who own just a single place. Such homes are generally a little bit more interesting and "homey" than those owned for "an investment".

The foreclosure wave has mostly come and gone in Orlando. I personally would probably not go to the effort of looking up liens if I got a good email vibe, but some people still do.

As for 'too good to be true' prices---you really only need to compare against similar homes in that general area. If you are trying to compare against hotel rates, particularly Disney hotel rates, almost anything on VRBO is too good to be true. But, the vast vast majority of these transactions go without a hitch.

[Rhonda]

Here's an intriguing link: http://vacationcentralflorida.com/

I booked through them and cancelled. I had booked a townhouse not owned by Dave and when I cancelled I was not happy with the "attitude" I got from the woman who owned the unit and it took awhile to get my refund. I sent Dave an email and he apologized profusely and then I received a fruit basket at my doorstep from a local florist as an apology.
For that I would rent with Dave if I were to go off site. I would make sure it was his unit and not Debbie's though. Im sure she is fine, and I did get my money back, I just personally wouldnt want to deal with her again after my borderline nasty emails

[Veeham]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm glad to hear everyone has mostly had good results renting on VRBO. I emailed the owner over 24 hours ago and haven't heard back yet. I'm not sure what the appropriate wait time is but if I don't hear back this week, then I know it's a no go. I also just received an email from VRBO that states "At
VRBO we want to help ensure you rent your next vacation home with confidence. When you book your vacation rental through us, you are automatically protected up to $1,000 by our basic guarantee.* For even more peace of mind, enhance your coverage up to $10,000 with the Carefree Rental Guarantee by HomeAway."
They also offer further coveage for a bit more. I do think I will use this just to be safe.
The part where I stated "sounds to good to be true" is because they are offering a 5 bedroom for $1000/week in October all taxes and cleaning included. Reviews are good. Everything else I've looked at has been at least $300 more a week for a nice house. I guess time will tell. Thanks again.

[bnoble]

One thing to keep in mind: these are individual owners, who probably only own this one house in addition to their primary residence, and have "day jobs" and other responsibilities. So, you won't necessarily get back immediate responses from anyone. I think your "sometime this week" metric is probably about right, but even then you might well end up catching them while they are on vacation themselves somewhere.

Also, nothing says you can't contact more than one owner at a time. You should not put down more than one deposit at a time (particularly because they are usually non-refundable).

[nolarookie]

I booked through them and cancelled. I had booked a townhouse not owned by Dave and when I cancelled I was not happy with the "attitude" I got from the woman who owned the unit and it took awhile to get my refund. I sent Dave an email and he apologized profusely and then I received a fruit basket at my doorstep from a local florist as an apology.
For that I would rent with Dave if I were to go off site. I would make sure it was his unit and not Debbie's though. Im sure she is fine, and I did get my money back, I just personally wouldnt want to deal with her again after my borderline nasty emails

Thanks for the tip with this site. I really lke what they have to offer, and the prices are pretty good. I've just been hesitate to pull the trigger and book. Of course the two condos I'm interested in are not owned by Dave, but by another guy whose last name is Cline. I'm glad you had a good experience with Dave anyway, and it gives me more confidence in their claims that your deposit is refundable.

[vatmark]

We've rented through VRBO twice now and haven't had any problems although I am still waiting on my security deposits that owner told me they were going to post June 25th. They are from the UK so i am not sure if it takes longer. Anyway we rented in Emerald Island not Windsor Hills. I agree with what bnoble says in that you may not always get immediate responses. I would also contact more then one owner. I have found that the price that may be listed on VRBO is not the price you can actually get. We usually get a quote back that is less then the price listed. It can't hurt to get quotes from several owners on units you may be interested in even though one may be a little more expensive then another.

Ann

[Pampered Mom]

George has also reported that he has been able to negotiate away the cleaning fee on some (all?) VRBO rentals.

[BlountFam5]

I emailed the owner over 24 hours ago and haven't heard back yet. I'm not sure what the appropriate wait time is but if I don't hear back this week, then I know it's a no go.

I wouldn't be too worried about this. It's "technically" a holiday weekend and summertime - they might be away. I'd also give them a within the week timeframe to respond.

[rellinge]

As someone who has rented multiple times through VRBO and is now a Windsor Hills homeowner who advertises on VRBO, I agree with what most of the others have been telling you. You really are pretty safe. VRBO is not cheap and there are plenty of easier ways to scam someone than to take out a $300-$500 ad. If you are really worried, pay with your credit card or Paypal. With the credit card, you have 6 months to request a chargeback if something were to go wrong. I would not pay HomeAway for insurance.

In terms of the price, I will tell you that there is wide variability in the pricing in Windsor Hills. As best I can tell, some of this is because of differences in the interior quality of the homes and some is simply due to less savvy owners under-pricing their properties. Good luck and enjoy your trip. Windsor Hills is a great property.

[Disneydadben]

We had great luck with Romancingthemouse.com. They are a family thatopen and rent 4 or 5 homes in Windsor Hills/Palms and live in one of them. Their prices for a 7 day rental are hard to beat and they meet you when you check in with strawberries and cookies when you check out.
As for owners on vrbo, we've had excellent luck renting from owners there as well. I've more than once rented one of the least expensive properties in an area by finding an individual owner of a single property. I echo the sentiment above in that I trust a good vibe that I get from the owner and it hasn't let me down. I usually do place a phone call however. Good luck! I think you will love Windsor Hills.

[George]

George has also reported that he has been able to negotiate away the cleaning fee on some (all?) VRBO rentals.

Anything is up for negotiation, including the cleaning fee.

We've used VRBO for Kauai properties, and have had nothing but flawless experiences. But then again, we did our due diligence.

I believe VRBO does some kind of screening of the people who post properties to their website. You may be able to find out about this process on vrbo.com. I'd still make sure I did my homework to familiarize myself with the property I was interested in. For example, the place we like to stay in Kauai has many different types of view, from parking strip to ocean front. We'll make sure we know exactly which unit we're getting a price quote for before committing to a contract.

[Deb]

I believe VRBO does some kind of screening of the people who post properties to their website.

I just set up Southbriar on VRBO. I'm not exactly sure what type of screening they do, but I know they make sure the address you enter does indeed exist. They also have to approve your listing before it gets published. This took them almost 48 hours. Not real long but long enough to think they are doing something besides checking syntax for bad words.

As an owner, I actually like vacationhomerentals.com a little better. Time will tell and I certainly will continue to use vrbo since it gets more traffic. One of the things I like about vacationhomerentals is the ability to put up more than 1 rate with specific date ranges. On vrbo I have to say x to y. Maybe I just haven't found the right place to put it yet.

[Deb]

I booked through them and cancelled. I had booked a townhouse not owned by Dave and when I cancelled I was not happy with the "attitude" I got from the woman who owned the unit and it took awhile to get my refund. I sent Dave an email and he apologized profusely and then I received a fruit basket at my doorstep from a local florist as an apology.
For that I would rent with Dave if I were to go off site. I would make sure it was his unit and not Debbie's though. Im sure she is fine, and I did get my money back, I just personally wouldnt want to deal with her again after my borderline nasty emails

Because I am a little paranoid, I just want to point out that I am not the Debbie referred to here. I do not own at WH.

[mccollsk]

We absolutely love Romancingthemouse. Couldn't be happier with their prices or with the way they take care of you when you get there. Their houses are kept up wonderfully. HOWEVER...they aren't the world's best communicators. I get it though, Mark has another job - but sometimes it gets frustrating as the date gets closer and there are still questions to be answered...

Even so, I wholeheartedly recommend them. One of the best experiences I've ever had with a vacation rental. Every place you choose, whether on site or off site, is going to be less than perfect in some manner. Heck, we had a frog in our toilet the last time we stayed on property. Romancingthemouse is about as close to a perfect experience as we've ever had.