Tips for Choosing the Best Vacation Rentals in Orlando

Set a Budget for your Orlando Vacation– Before you start planning your vacation, first decide how much you want to spend. Your budget will determine how many days you are going to visit Orlando, what theme parks you are going to visit, and where you are going to stay.

By setting your budget beforehand will make the planning process much easier. The tickets to Disney World or Universal Studios is going to be your biggest expense, so you will want to decide on these first before you start the process of booking your vacation home. We recommend getting the base ticket or one park per day tickets to start off with, you can always upgrade your tickets when you are here. You will also want to order your tickets early. Disney and Universal tickets have a different price every day, and these prices are updated often. They always go up; in fact, we have never seen them go down. So book your tickets early to save money.

After your tickets have been purchased this will determine how much money you have left in your budget to book your vacation home.

Now that you have a budget here are some helpful tips to start to narrow your choices:

1. Vacation homes in the Champions Gate are going to be more expensive than vacation homes in Kissimmee, FL. The newer the vacation home the more the owner is going to want per night to rent it out, and vacation homes in Champions Gate, Solana, Solterra, and Windsor Westside are much newer than vacation homes in Windsor Palms or Windsor Hills.
2. Commute- If you are going to be at Disney World or Universal Studios, the commute from the Champions Gate area can take over an hour to get back to your vacation home during high season. Getting to the parks is not nearly as big of a hassle as it is to get back home. Interstate 4 narrows down to 2 lanes about ¾ of a mile from the Champions Gate exit and causes a bottleneck during high traffic times.
3. Water Parks- Are you looking for a vacation home community that offers a water park with a lazy river. If so check out our Orlando vacation home resorts with Water parks page for more information. The newer communities offer water parks and lazy rivers, plus most of the vacation
   homes near Disney World also have their own private pools so there is endless water fun to be had. If you are booking a vacation home in a resort with waterpark features, make sure the guests of these homes have access to the community facilities. Some owners, to cut cost, elect not to be part of the HOA and their guests are not allowed to use the community facilities.
4. Be on the lookout for hidden fees. In addition to the nightly rate, most vacation home guests also will be expected to pay the follow:
   1. Cleaning Fee- This fee is usually a one-time fee charged to the guests to pay for the home to be cleaned upon checkout. This fee ranges in cost depending upon how large the vacation home is.
   2. Property Protection Fee- This fee works just like insurance and protects the home against incidental damages should something occur while the guests are staying in the house. This fee ranges from $85 to $200 depending on the size and luxuriousness of the vacation home.
   3. Pool Heat- This is an optional charge, and it ranges from $25 a day to $50 a day depending on the size of the pool and type of heater (electric or natural gas). The only time we recommend getting pool is during February, March or early April, the rest of the year the weather is too hot for pool heat. Here is a great article about Orlando vacation homes and pool heat.
   4. Booking Fees- Airbnb and VRBO made these booking fees popular. The booking fee are usually 15% to 22% of the overall cost, and this is usually these vacation home booking engines commission.

These are the most popular fees, and they can add up to hundreds of extra dollars tacked onto your overall cost. It is important to look at the overall cost and not just the nightly rate.

Many guests are splitting up their days at the theme parks. Just a few years ago, nearly all guests to Disney World, would go from 9am in the morning and not leave til 9pm at night. Times are changing, we are now seeing guests plan an off day from the theme parks during the middle of their stay. These families are opting to spend one day of their vacation lounging out by their private pool or hanging out at the vacation home community clubhouse pool. This is smart, especially if you have young children…the average guests walk over 10 miles a day at the Orlando theme parks and this much walking really wears children out.

If you are going to be taking an off day and relaxing at your Orlando vacation pool home, then you might want a home with an outdoor kitchen (or at least a grill), a home with pool activities such as pool basketball or volleyball, or perhaps a TV outside.

Overall, the key to picking the right vacation home is planning. Set a budget, plan your days, decide what you are going to be doing at the vacation home, and then write down what amenities you want the vacation home to offer. If you are going to be going to the parks every day from 9am to 9pm the vacation home amenities might not mean as much to you as the price. While if you are going to be spending majority of your vacation to Orlando at the house then the amenities might mean more than price.

In closing, we know you have many options when booking you Orlando hotel stay, and we would like to thank-you for considering OrlandoVacation.com. Here are a few reasons why you should book with us:

1. We have been helping guests plan their Orlando vacations since 1993. We are the oldest and most reputable travel company in Orlando, and this is not a title we carry lightly.
2. We promise to do everything in our power to make sure you have a great Orlando hotel experience, and we promise to do everything in our power to make sure any issue that might come up gets corrected quickly and easily. We understand this is an expensive vacation, and we want this to be a vacation of a lifetime for all our Orlando hotel guests.
3. We are located right here in Orlando and Central Florida is the only market we represent. We have found being extremely focused on just one market allows us to provide better customer service and the lowest rates on the Orlando hotels we represent. If you find the nightly rate lower on a property represent, please bring it to our attention, and we will gladly match the nightly rate.