Oh the Joys of Renting Out Our Vacation Home

We along with another couple arrived at our vacation home in Florida on May 8.  I seriously was embarrassed!  The resort takes care of any rental arrangements for us but believe me that is going to change.  It has been nothing but problems this year what with late rent payments and bogus repair charges.  Then we arrive to find a house that was dirty even though the cleaners had been in three times.  Apparently the cleaners don't do sinks, toilets, the wall behind the stove, or floors.  I was beyond ticked!  I should have called them right then but it was well after 10 PM so the next day I got busy cleaning then we flew out to Aruba.  When we returned from Aruba and our friends left, I had a good chance to assess our home.

Two bath towels had somehow become violet, not white, violet.  Two hand towels looked like they had been used to clean up axial grease.  Every cabinet had been rearranged and someone had plastered stickers all over our patio doors.  The microwave oven was beyond being disgusted, it was down right filthy.  The drip pans on the stove were equally dirty.  The hard flooring was quite dirty and clearly the mirrors had not been cleaned at all.  I actually had to clean toothpaste splatters off one of the mirrors.

I spoke with the resort.  They were very apologetic and reassured me it will not happen again.  They are replacing our towels.  Clearly, we cannot leave out good towels or anything else we don't want ruined.  That includes some small kitchen appliances.  We have a locked storage closet but need to add personal storage in the shed.  The thing is we have rented plenty of condos, time shares, and cottages where there is a fully equipped kitchen.  I wouldn't dream of rearranging the kitchen or leaving the place dirty or destroying what was left there to make life easier during the rental period.  Apparently others do not feel the same way!


Garden Gnome
©2006-2012

Renting Out Our Vacation Home

Renting out our vacation home is considerably different than simply renting a house out as a rental property.  We hope to rent our vacation home during the periods of time we are not using it.  That means it may be rented for a week or two at a time to as long as three months.  We have to options available to us.  We can rent the property out ourselves or we can use the rental agent.  There are pros and cons to both options but using the rental agent is the lower risk option even though we pay them a monthly fee.  In return they do the credit and security checks, security deposit, collect the rent, ensure the tenant is following the rules we set out (eg. no smoking, no pets), arrange for cleaning when the tenant leaves and in short do all the things we would be doing if we were renting it ourselves.  The real plus is they are on site within the community to take care of any problems as they arise.

We have rented vacation homes on several occasions so already had a fairly good idea of what tenants need in a rental vacation home.  In order for our vacation home to go into the rental program the home must look like a home which means it has both function and decor but it doesn't need to be extravagant or fancy.  The furniture must be good working condition and there is a minimum amount of furniture required in each room.  There is also a listing as the minimum specific extras (eg. towels, bakeware, cookware, small kitchen appliances, etc.) that must be provided.  A vacuum cleaner, washer, dryer, iron, ironing board and telephone must be provided.  The telephone is in our name but we have to put a #2 block on it restricting use to local calls only.  Long distance calls can be made by the tenant only through their own calling card or major credit card.  A golf cart must be provided and if one is not available the rental agency arranges for one with the cost coming out of the rent paid to us.  We can provide extras if desired but it isn't mandatory.  For example a popcorn maker is not on the list of required small appliances but I added one because it is a nice option to have.

Common to all the vacation homes in our community that are rented out when the owners are not using them is one or more locked closets.  Personal effects that we don't want tenants to use can be stored in the locked closet.  We can put things like non-perishable foods, clothing, toiletries and any other extras as we need which eliminates us having to bring them with us each time.  Ideally we would like our personal storage to be stocked to the point when flying all we have to bring is a carryon.  The closet we are using for this is 29" deep, 44" wide and 8' high at it's highest point.  The is one open wire shelf for hanging clothes and shelf storage but with good organization it will provide ample storage for our needs.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010