Five Must Do Tasks when you arrive at your villa

You have just arrived at your vacation villa after a long journey. All you want to do is rest and relax. Before you do? Here are the five must do activities.

1. Inspect the Villa - I have previously written about the importance of a thorough inspection of the villa.

2. Mattress covers - This will cost around $10 per bed, and might be the best $10 you've ever spent.

3. Wash the linens - There is an excellent chance the bed sheets were washed before you arrived. Maybe. Or maybe not. To play it safe, I recommend stripping the beds and throwing them through the washer and dryer. Most Villas leave some sample detergent that you can use for this purpose. Alternatively, you can do what I do: I bring my own linens from home.

4. Move breakable decorations - The villas are usually decorated wonderfully. There may be plant units on coffee tables, vases, and other various items. Those decorations are in danger if you have children, and you'll have to pay for any damages. I recommend collecting decorations and putting them away someplace safe. I usually take pictures so I know how to put the items back in their original locations when I leave.

5. Wash The Dishes - You don't have to wash every dish in the cupboard. Just the ones you plan to use. There is no guaranty that anyone washed the dishes before you arrived, and, you don't know how long those dishes have been sitting in the cupboard. Simply load up the dishwasher and let it run. Most villas will leave some sample dish washer detergent that you can use for this purpose.

That's it! Do these five steps and then you are ready for some rest and relaxation!

Matress Protectors for Villas

So, you are renting a vacation villa. Congrats! Now, what will you need? Let me suggest that you invest in matress protectors. These are vinyl water proof cases that bed mattresses go into and then get zipped, sealing the matress.

When we arrive in Florida we stop by a Walmart and pick these up. We just buy the cheap ones - around $10 each.

These are a good idea because you don't know who has used these beds,  what they have done with them, nor how the matress was taken care of. God forbid there could be bugs in the matress! By sealing the matress in a protector, you will have nothing to worry about!

Next, bed mattresses are very expensive. I recently bought a new matress for my bedroom and it was so expensive that I had to pay for it in installments! 

When you are renting a villa, you are financially responsible for any damages to the villa. That includes damaged to the beds.

Spill a drink? Have a child have a bathroom accident? Or any of the thousand other possibilities and your security deposit could be looking at a very expensive fee for matress replacement.

$10 per bed is a small price to pay for peace of mind.

When you get ready to leave, you can take the matress protectors with you and use them next time. Instead, we leave the protectors. They are only $10, we are usually staying for a long time, and we consider that we are paying it forward.

So my advice? Use matress protectors.

Touring the Disney Resorts

I love touring the Disney Resorts. I came across the following Disney Resort Touring Itinerary posted by Kat_Cubs_Fan on tripadvisor:

Here's one route I take starting from Downtown Disney, but this one takes a long time:

1. Take a bus from DTD to Wilderness Lodge and tour that resort.

2. Take a boat from Wilderness Lodge over to Magic Kingdom OR

Take a boat from Wilderness Lodge over to the Contemporary resort and start your monorail resort tour from there instead of going to MK first.

3. Head for monorail station and take resort monorail around to the three monorail resorts: Contemporary, then Polynesian, then Grand Floridian and have look around all of them.

4. Head back to MK and catch a bus over to either the Boardwalk or the Yacht and Beach Club or even Hollywood Studios park.

5. Take the Friendship boats that run between Epcot and Hollywood Studios and tour the resorts around those two parks: Yacht and Beach Club, Boardwalk, and Swan/Dolphin.

6. Wind up back at Hollywood Studios via the Friendship boats and take a bus from there over to Animal Kingdom Lodge.

7. Finally, head back to DTD from AKL via bus.

8. If you still have time once back at DTD or are not too exhausted, take a boat from DTD over to the two Port Orleans resorts (French Quarter and Riverside) and see them as well, catching the boat back to DTD from their docks.

A similar route can be done beginning at Ft. Wilderness instead of DTD using the internal bus system there. Take a boat from Ft. Wilderness over to Wilderness Lodge and follow the same route from that point.

Just remember busses do not go to theme parks from DTD...only to resorts. Also, busses do not regularly go from resort to resort..only from resort to theme park/water park or resort to DTD.

Bug Free In The Villa

Florida is known for bugs: everything from giant spiders to roaches, Florida has it all. But just because you are visiting Florida, it doesn't mean you need to put up with them! In this post, I am going to give you some tips to be bug free.

Tip #1: Before selecting your villa, understand what is done for pest control. Make sure they use a professional for pest control that sprays at least monthly, and is available to return if you have any problems. During your stay, don't hesitate to call the management company about pest concerns.

Tip #2: Love the geckos. You are going to find these little lizards scampering everywhere. They are a natural protection against bugs. The more geckos, the more bugs the eat, and the fewer bugs you need to deal with.

Tip #3: Clean up after yourself. Do not leave food crumbs, spilled beverages, or anything that many attract a bug.

Tips #4: Dry out the shower. Bugs might be attracted to warm moist areas. You can prevent this by simply
drying out the sink and shower after every use.

Tip #5: Vacuum often. I know, you are on vacation. The last thing you want to do on vacation is house work, right? Every villa has a vacuum and we get in the routine to vacuum every day. I usually make it a chore for one of the kids. Vacuuming is important because not only will you capture any bugs that may be roaming around, you'll clean up anything that might attract a bug.

Tip #6: Bag your food. If you open something, seal it into a plastic bag. If you don't seal it? You are inviting critters to come eat your food.

Tip #7: Store items in the microwave. The microwave can be a great place to store fruit such as bananas, or other items that you don't want to put in a plastic bag and that you don't want to put in the refrigerator.

Tip #8: Keep the garbage cleaned up. We take the garbage out every day when we leave for the parks. We also wipe the floor around the kitchen garbage just in case a child missed the garbage can when they threw something away. Leaving the garbage is a fast way to attract bugs.

Follow these tips and you should have a comfortable bug-free villa stay.

Security Deposit for a Villa

I feel uncomfortable calling a Villa owner or management company and giving them my credit card number.

Who knows how they are handle my number? They might scribble the number down on a notepad and then leave it sitting on their desk. They might fill out a form and put it in a filing cabinet for anyone to later retrieve. They could have a theft that steals the credit cards. Or, the individual could be less than trustworthy and could use my credit card number to order a new 80 inch TV.

I often tell people "Buyer be ware". You don't really know what you are renting nor who you are dealing with. Be careful, do your homework, and protect yourself!

I like using my credit card to pay through Pay Pal. Using this method, the Villa representatives never see my credit card number. I also protect myself by using a credit card should I need to dispute the charge later on. I never send my credit card number through email because email is not encrypted - sending it through email is allowing anyone who wants to get my credit card number to do so. I also do not like writing my credit card number and faxing it - who knows how long my credit card number is going to sit on the fax machine for everyone to see? Finally, I don't like reading my credit card number to someone over the phone for reasons already mentioned.

One year, I was working with a management company that I had never worked with before and I was very concerned. They accepted my payment through PayPal, but the required my credit card number for a $300 security deposit. According to their policy, I needed to put the credit card number on a form and fax it to them. That violates my rules, however, the management company refused to negotiate on this issue.

I developed a creative way around the problem. I purchased a credit card gift card for $300 at Walmart. There is a small fee for a credit card gift card, but I considered the fee was worth the security. I provided the credit card gift card onto the form and faxed it. If my credit card number was going to be misused either immediately or years into the future, my exposure was only $300.  

After my stay and after a positive Villa inspection, I took my gift card to the store and spent it.

That was my creative solution to the credit card issue. Some might argue that if my credit card had been misused, FCBA limits exposure to $50, and I increased my exposure by using a $300 gift card. However, claiming loss is a lot of work, something I didn't want to deal with while on a vacation, and is something I have to watch for years. Also, most villa security deposits will place a $300 lock on your credit card, but will charge whatever they want to cover whatever damages they believe you caused. Through my method, the management company would need to contact me to discuss any damages beyond $300 rather than automatically charging me.  The $300 gift card was a great alternative and worked perfectly for me. It allowed me to comply with the Villa rules without risking credit card compromise. 

Inspecting The Villa

You have survived a long journey and finally arrived at your vacation villa! All you want to do is unload your luggage, relax, and begin your vacation. But wait! There are some essential tasks that must be done before bringing one bag of luggage into the villa. You have to perform an inspection!

Many Villa rental agreements state that you must report any problems to the management company within 24 hours, otherwise, you become responsible for those problems. For example, suppose a window is broken and you didn't report it. The assumption will become that you broke that window and now you have to pay for it!

There are many things to look at, the most common are: broken floor tiles, broken blinds, broken refrigerator shelves, broken patio furniture, and carpet stains. While those are the most common, you have to do a thorough inspection.

When I do an inspection, I create a video record of the villa. I walk through the villa with camera in hand and document anything broken, scratched, dented, and in poor shape. While I record, my wife walks behind me and makes a list of all the problems we find.

When done, we email the list to the owner and/or management company. We identify
the items that we are reporting simply for awareness, and we highlight anything that we want repaired immediately. In one villa, we arrived and the villa cleaning hadn't been completed. We called the management company and they apologized and sent someone over immediately. We went to dinner and when we returned, the Villa was in top shape. In another villa, the fire extinguisher was empty. We couldn't tell where it had been used, regardless, this is important information for the owner to know.

Once your vacation is done and it is time to leave? You should perform one more inspection. Again, I use a video camera and go through the villa to make a recording of how we are leaving the rental. I don't want any confusion about any damage that my family might have done.

Performing these inspections and doing proper documentation is the only way to protect yourself and your security deposit.

To see an example of our most recent villa inspection, click here: https://youtu.be/Yr-xzaRTdnw

Sixteen Questions To Ask Before Renting A Villa

I recommend contacting a villa in three stages.

• Stage One - Initial contact to check on availability, rates, prices, etc.
• Stage Two - Follow-up with more questions that will help make your decision.
• Stage Three - Once you are fairly certain which villa you are interested in, talk to the owner on the phone to get any remaining questions answered. A phone conversation will allow you to pick up concerns about the owner that could be difficult to see in an email or an advertisement.

There are many questions to ask before renting a villa. If you have a baby, does the villa have a high chair, play pen, and is the house baby proof? How is the kitchen stocked? What games are in the game room? And more. You should look carefully at every picture and ask questions about anything uncertain. Pay attention to the floors, especially if they are carpeted. And realize the pictures are probably several years old, so, anything you see is probably more warn than showed.

Most Villa owners will not give you the address until after a commitment has been made, but you should be able to get a general idea on the area so you can use google maps to look at the neighborhood. Once you get the address, look it up on Zillow to make sure the information recorded matches what you have been told. Look on Zillow for any concerns about taxes being paid, foreclosure, or ownership. Do other searches on the internet and ask whatever questions concern you.

The following are the top sixteen questions I like to ask before I rent a villa before I sign the agreement:

1. What is the price? Are there discounts for long stays, seasonal discounts, or any flexibility in the price?

2. What is included in that price? You might find a charge for pool heat, which is important in winter, but not in the summer.

3. What are the additional costs? There could be additional optional costs for things such as using the grill or for not doing proper cleaning before leaving.

4. How do I get the key to the villa? Sometimes you need to go to an office and pick up the key. Usually, the key is in a lock box at the front door and you'll get the lock box combination shortly before your stay.

5. Who do I contact in the event of a problem? You should expect to find minor problems when you arrive, and that those problems will be quickly taken care of.

6. What are the pest control practices? Is it done by a professional company? How often? What if pests are detected during my stay? In one place I stayed, the management company did the pest control by ineffectively distributing poison and traps around the villa.

7. What forms of payment are accepted? Make sure you pay through a credit card so you an have recourse if there are problems.

8. What are the cancellation policies?

9. What is the layout of the villa? Sometime it is difficult to tell how the villa is laid out by only looking at the pictures. If you have children, you will want to understand how the bedrooms are distributed. Kitchen layout is often important. And if you plan to use the dinning room table to eat at? Many villas have the dinning room as part of the living room.

10. Free Internet? Does this include wifi?

11. What are the temperature limitations of the air conditioning and heating? Most of the Villa air conditioners are undersized and will struggle to maintain 75 degrees during the summer. In the Florida humidity, you may find 75 degrees is barely tolerable. If the Villa limits what you an set the air conditioning to, and you exceed that, the air conditioner can freeze up or become damaged and you will be charged for the repair. Make sure you understand the Villa's rules.

12. Does the Villa have a security system? Depending on the location of the villa, vacation villas can be great targets for break-ins. A security system could deter a thief and keep your possessions safe while you are out.

13. What is the policy for others to gain entry to the villa while we are renting it? Who else has keys? Often, the key for the villa is in a lock box outside the front door. If someone needs to do maintenance (perhaps the exterminator needs to spray) the maintenance company will provide them the lock box combination so they
can gain access to the house. If you are inside the house with the front door's bolt locked, that shouldn't be a problem. However, if you are gone for the day, the management company or others may come into the house. Very often, vacation villas are listed for sale or long term rentals and real estate agents will bring people through the villa on a tour when you aren't there. You want to make sure you understand the policies so you can protect your valuables.

14. How often is the pool cleaned?

15. What are the check-in and check-out times?

16. When will my security deposit be returned? For one villa we rented, it took 8 months.


There are many other questions you should consider depending on your particular situation. But I find this list to be the most useful and what I usually use.