Paying for Private Vacation Rentals?

[Mixalot27]

I'm taking a vacation to Florida on Jan 18th. I'm looking to rent a house in Orlando for 11 nights. I have found a 4 bedroom house with private pool and hot tub for $900US including taxes and Pool heating. With exchange it works out to just over $100 Canadian per night. This seems like a pretty good deal for a really nice house.

My question for those of you who have rented a vacation property before, is how do I protect myself when paying for the rental? Most of the rentals I have been looking at require payment ahead of time. Most don't accept credit card and seem to want you to wire the money or send a bank draft. A few of them allow payment by Paypal which might add some protection. The odd one also allows credit card payment but then they usually charge a 4 - 5% fee. What is the safest way to rent the property to make sure I don't get scammed? How do I even know the person I am sending the money to actually owns the house? Or that it is how it described on the website?

Also does anyone know of any good sites for vacation rentals? I've been mostly looking at Homeaway.com and vrbo.com but wouldn't mind knowing some other sites to look at.

[dannie]

We rent homes in Tucson all the time for one of our companies. I have used homeaway and vrbo as well as two people who were listed on craigslist.

You are taking a chance. Its that simple. I personally wont deal with them without paypal, because at least that way I have some guarantee that I could get the cash back. We rent a house at least one week every 5 weeks in Tucson and I have yet to be burned. I also ask for a rental contract from the person too.

The other thing you could do is check house swapping. Its where you swap your house for theirs for no cost. You basically fly there, live in the persons house for the week and they fly here and live in yours. I havent done this yet though, but the responses that I have heard from others are positive.

[Mixalot27]

I just found on the homeaway.com site, that they offer a rental guarantee as follows:

The HomeAway Rental Guarantee is FREE for travelers and provides up to $5,000 of payment protection so you can rest easy and rent with confidence on your next vacation.
Read Additional Details.

In the event that a listing is determined not to be legitimate in accordance with our Terms & Conditions and you have registered your trip, we’ll reimburse you for actual amounts that the owner refuses to refund (up to $5,000).

If we learn that a listing is not legitimate after you have registered your trip online, we will contact you and use reasonable efforts to find you alternative accommodations.

How to get the guarantee:
1
Reserve Your Vacation Rental

Confirm availability with the homeowner and reserve your dates.
2
Register Your Trip

Register your trip online with us BEFORE sending payment to the homeowner.
3
Send Your Payment

Send your payment to the homeowner and have a worry-free vacation knowing you're protected.

So it sounds like there is some protection anyways. However I don't know how easy it is to collect on that guarantee should there be a problem.

I'm not really interested in the home swapping thing. I don't really feel comfortable having strangers stay in my house. Plus I don't know how many people there are who own property in Florida and want to stay in Calgary in the dead of winter.

[dannie]

The home swapping thing isnt for everybody. For sure. Just another idea.

Like I said though, I rent A LOT. And I have yet to get screwed over.

[Mixalot27]

^^Do you usually just pay the posted rate on Homeaway and VRBO or do you negotiate a better price?

I already asked for the best price available and he gave me the $900us price, which I actually think is pretty good compared to other properties I was looking at. However I'm tempted to offer $800 or something, just cause its always nice to save money. I don't want to offend the guy by lowballing him though. Maybe I should just try to wait till last minute to get a better price. But then I will have less selection to choose from. decisions, decisions.

[dannie]

I find that most are reasonably priced. I negotiate a price if we are there for more than a week.

For the amount you are paying, I would take it. You could sit on it until closer to the date, but I have found most don't adjust their prices very much at the last minute.

If this is the house you want to stay in, get a contract sent to you and pay thru paypal.