FAQ's

FAQ's

How can I tell which way the pool faces ?

On every listing look at the icon strip under the photos where you will see a pool icon showing the compass heading of the pool deck - this is accurate based on Google mapping.

Represents a SOUTH facing pool and represents a NORTH EAST facing pool

Will the pool deck get plenty of sun ?

The sun rises in the East, tracks towards the south and sets in the West - this means that in the cooler months when the sun is lower in the sky, a double storey home with an East facing pool will get direct sun in the morning, but as the sun tracks around during the day, an ever-increasing shadow will appear on the pool deck. If the villa is single storey and/or the pool deck is extended, this should extend the length of the day you will get sun on the deck. A northerly facing pool deck will get sun from the right in the morning and from the left in the late afternoon and as long as the pool is extended and/or the home is a single storey, you will still get sun on the extremities of the pool deck. For the best situation in the cooler months is to select a Southerly facing pool deck which will ensure maximum sun on the deck. In the summer months, the sun is so high in the sky (almost vertically above - 86 degrees to be accurate) due to Florida being so close to the equator, that the direction the pool faces is of little relevance - see illustration below explaining how the sun tracks in winter & summer months. You will notice that Northeerly facing pools have more shadow in the winter months but not much shadow in summer months, so a single storey home is more desirable in winter months if the pool has a Northerly direction.

How the sun tracks in summer & winter months in Florida

Do I need pool heating ?

Pool heating is only really necessary between the months of October to April inclusive when you may find the pool water cooler than you would be comfortable with. Obviously the water would be very cold in the winter months and you also have to consider what the air temperature would be like when you get out of the heated pool and you are wet - you will be diving for towels and dressing gowns ASAP. To retain the heat in a heated pool, the owner will provide a floating insulated pool blacket which is placed over the pool to prevent heat loss from the water and to help the pool heater maintain a comfortable temperature. If left off when you are not using the pool, the pool heater may struggle to maintain the desired water temperature as heat loss will be high if the air temperature is low, resulting in you not enjoying the benefit of pool heating.

Why can't I see the address of the vacation home ?

For security purposes, we do not publish the physical address of any of our vacation homes as we do display the availability calendars for each home, so if we did display the addresses of each home, we would be giving any criminally minded person all the information they need to know when a property is empty. If you would like to know the address of a particular home or homes, please email us and we will happily provide the information to you.

We are a large group and would like to rent 2 or more homes close together - how do we do this ?

Through our unique Multiple Villa Search Facility, we can even accommodate for large group bookings with multiple Orlando villa rental homes - many even being next door or very close to each other. This unique search facility is ideal for a large group who can now all stay close to each other in 2 or more villas without any hassle - we make it very easy !! Simply search for the number of homes you require, how close you want them to be to each other and our search results will provide a list of all available groups of villas which match your search request.

Can I trust that when I book a home through your website that I am not being scammed ?

We have been providing quality vacation homes for rent since 2002 and have 100% satisfied clients. We take great care to ensure that every owner and their rental homes listed on our website is first fully vetted and checked that they have all required licenses before being added to the website. This ensures that when we can offer the home we can be 100% confident that our clients will not be disappointed and will have their holiday of a lifetime. We have numerous guest reviews from past clients, most of which repeat book through our website year after year. We pride ourselves in offering our clients the best service possible and are always available if a client needs any help or has any questions - you won't find that level of service with any of the other large faceless corporate booking websites.

In the booking form it requests our ages - do I enter ages now or at the date of travel ?

Please enter the ages of each guest at the date of travel.

Can I pay with a Credit Card as I don't feel safe paying by bank transfer or check

We offer a secure payment facility WITH NO SURCHARGE where with the majority of our homes you can pay through the very secure STRIPE Credit Card Payment facility. Failing that, the rest of the owners who are not signed up to STRIPE, offer a secure PayPal facility to enable you to pay them by credit card through the website. Some of our homes the owner has set it up that their management company will contact you to request your credit card details - in this case you will find this mentioned in their full description on the respective listing - you may be charged a surcharge by the management company as there are different laws in USA.

How do I pay the owner for the rental of their home ?

Payment is very simple - you can either pay by check, bank transfer or debit/credit card. Most owners can accept payment by debit or credit card directly through the website using Stripe or PayPal's secure card payment portal or through their management company's secure credit card payment facility. When booking a villa, if you are booking more than 10 weeks in advance you will only have to pay a 25% deposit to secure the booking with the balance payable 10 weeks before. If less than 10 weeks, the full balance is payable. If an owner accepts payment by debit/credit card (note credit card icon under photos) you will be given the option to pay by this method during the booking process - all you need to do is tick the relevant box in the booking form and after you submit the booking form, you will be taken to a secure payment screen where you can select to securely pay by card and enter your details. If in the unlikely event, an owner does not offer this facility, you will receive payment instructions from the owner once they reply to your online booking by email.

What do I do if I have a problem with the villa I have rented ?

All owners employ friendly and easily contactable management companies who are on hand to deal with any problems quickly and efficiently. In your information pack provided by the owner in the home will be the contact details of their management company should you need to contact them. Please do not hesitate to contact them if you have a problem or emergency - they are paid by the owner to be available to help you. Obviously, if your problem is not an emergency, please do not call the management company out of hours as this could result in a call-out charge. Please call the next day after 8am and you will be responded to ASAP.

What if the owner sells their villa after we have booked it ?

We subscribe to a live realtor website feed which informs us when a new home goes on the market for sale. We cross-reference the information we receive and then mark the home as for sale on our system (not public). When we receive a booking for the home for dates well in advance we warn the client that the booking is too risky and try and steer the client onto an alternative home.  We do tend to find that most owners warn us when they put their home up for sale and when they get an offer, at which point we contact the renter to inform them that their booking may be affected. On most occasions, the new owner is happy to accept some or all the forward bookings and any affected are immediately contacted to find suitable alternative homes from our large inventory. We very rarely are unsuccessful in finding suitable alternative homes for our clients. Any funds already paid to the owner are refunded back to the client as soon as practically possible (subject to the original payment method used which may have inherent delays) in the event a booking has to be moved to a different home so the client can reassign the funds to the new home.

Do you have an ATOL/ABTA licence ?

We don’t qualify for ATOL/ABTA registration as we supply accommodation only - to qualify we would have to provide flights and car hire as well and package everything for you. We do however work with ATOL/ABTA tour operators like Travel Counsellors who can offer the fly-drive element of your holiday but cannot package our villas under their licence. By paying for the villa rental through us using your credit card you are effectively financially protected anyway.

What if I need to cancel my booking, what is the cancellation policy ?

You can see the cancellation policy by reviewing our easy to read online Terms & Conditions of Rental by clicking on Terms & Conditions. We also have details in our T&C's on how we resolve issues regarding viral pandemics.