1. Information & Assistance

The owner will have travelled to Florida on many occasions and in the majority of cases will be more than happy to help you with any aspect of your trip. He or she will provide you with a full information pack and will be happy to answer any questions about the home, the resort or Florida in general.

2. Know where you are going

If you happen to book a villa through a Travel Agent you will more then likely be ‘allocated on arrival’. How can you plan your vacation if you don’t know exactly where you will be staying before your travel? Also, you will need to quickly follow directions to find the Management Company’s office and then the villa. Not ideal after a long flight to Florida! If you book with the owner direct, you’ll find that in most cases you will be able to go direct to the villa to collect the key at the door and you will have seen directions / maps before you even stepped on the plane.

3. Comfort & Space

So, after a long trip and you are still adjusting to the time difference, do you really want woken up by kids in the next hotel room at 5am? No? Then book a villa. You have your own spacious house with its own pool, kitchen, laundry facilities etc etc. Its home from home and you can spend as much or as little time there as you want. The kids can play all day in the pool if they want and you can relax and watch. No need to gather all your belongings & make the trek to the pool and if you forget the sun cream …. just nip back inside. No need to trek all the way back to your room or apartment at the other side of the hotel.

4. Extras

Many vacation homes have games rooms, ADSL, safes and free phone calls included as well as many other extras. The games rooms often have pool tables, foosball and or table tennis. These are fantastic facilities to keep the kids entertained (and the parents!) on the odd rainy day. If you need to keep in touch by e-mail, most home now include wireless internet connections and some even have a PC for you to use.

5. Price

If you are travelling with just your own family then a 3 Bed villa will often work out at a similar price to a hotel room for a week. If there is a bigger group (6 or more), you will often find a villa works out at great value for money. Consider this ….

You rent a 5 bedroom villa at $1,000 per week for 10 people. That’s only $100 each per week or $14.29 per night!! That has to be fantastic value for money in any language when you consider the size & quality of facility you are renting.

Have a great vacation!