Florida Vacation Rentals

So you have searched on the internet for your perfect vacation home close to Disney World. You have stared at the computer screen for hours to learn where the houses are, the prices, which vacation homes look as though they are right for your family. You are excited about your family vacation to Disney World.

You send out some emails to Orlando vacation home owners for houses on your short list. You wait. You really had one special home in mind that you liked the look of more than any other.  It was close to Disney World, had a great pool, a game room. Everything you wanted in an Orlando villa.

You wait. And you wait some more. A day passes and you don’t hear from the owner. You had your heart set on that home. You have taken the time to find it and you don’t really want to start your search again. Another day passes. Nothing.

You open your email one morning and there it is. An answer about your dream home. But the owner gives you a couple of ’standard’ sentences and refers you back to their website which you had already seen anyway. But they are too late. You have already booked another home.

So, I hear you ask what is my point? Vacation home owners are human. Even I move away from my computer screen sometimes!You are communicating with people on the internet. You have no idea who they really are because all they have is a website with some pictures of their home. You are trusting them with a big part of your vacation and you know nothing about them. And then they ignore you!

I am speaking from personal experience as I just spend many hours looking for a vacation home in California. What a very frustrating experience! Vacation home owners that don’t get back to you, send you one line answers, don’t answer your questions……… Now there were some who were polite and friendly. And these are the ones that I noticed.

There is no way I would rent a home from someone who does not take their customer service seriously at this stage. How would it be if there is a problem somewhere along the line if I don’t trust them right now? You can have the nicest house at a bargain price but if I don’t trust you I am not going to book!

And I hope that my guests feel the same. They book my Orlando homes because I have a great selection of villas which are of a very high standard.  But my customer service is second to none.  I often have had people say to me - you are the only one who has answered or tried to help me.

Want to know where the best viewing places for the Magic Kingdom fireworks are? The best restaurant where you can dine with a Disney Princess. Want to know if going to EPCOT next Wednesday is a good idea? These are all things you can ask me and I will answer. Promptly. So you can stay in a great house, and have everything you need for your Disney World vacation.

Find an Orlando vacation home owner that you do know something about.  You will be glad that you did

It seems that everyone was looking for late availability vacation homes in Orlando.  Usually July is not that busy a month for vacation rental booking inquiries but this year I have been so busy. The only thing is that I just haven’t had anywhere to offer to the guests.  July was completely booked for all my Orlando holiday homes on Windsor Palms and Windsor Hills. So I began looking further afield with my many contacts to see if their homes were available. The answer was no. So it looks like July was a great month for vacation home owners but not good at all for those looking for a last minute bargain.

I know that many guests feel that if they wait until the last minute they will get an Orlando vacation home much cheaper. This may sometimes be true. If they are lucky with finding exactly what they want for the right dates. But you really are limiting your choices. Yes you can be lucky and get a bargain. Of course this can happen. Sometimes I get a late cancellation, or there are a few days between bookings which I really want to fill for a great price for the guest. But usually it just pays to book ahead as far as you can. You will simply have more choice of the more popular homes.  Remember, usually they are popular for a reason. They are the cream of the crop.

So if you decide on a last minute trip to Orlando get looking as quickly as you can for a vacation rental home. The more time you have, the better deal you are likely to get.

I now have a fabulous Windsor Palms 6 bed home available. So if you are looking for a larger home on Windsor Palms then this is the one for you. The larger homes on this resort can be difficult to find so I am very pleased that this owner has asked me to add this home to the others that I have available on Windsor Palms.

The house is located just steps away from the clubhouse so you are never going to be far away from the fabulous resort facilities. The large swimming pool and spa is south facing and is very private.

The house has 2 Master suites with king size beds, 2 Queen suites and 2 Twin rooms. All the bedrooms of this luxury home have cable TV and DVD players.

This house has a magnificent Games Room/Family room with 8ft solid wood 1″slate bed Billiard table, high grade Foosball table, Electronic Darts board,TV, DVD/VCR & Playstation 2 with selection of games,DVD’s and books. Everything that you need for your luxury Orlando vacation home on the best resort close to Disney World.

The house also has the benefit of wireless internet access - so you never need to be out of touch. Unless you want to be of course!

So if you are interested in booking this luxury Windsor Palms 6 bed 3.5 bath home just contact me using the big envelope at the top of the screen and I will get back to you straight away with more details.

Just how do you choose a holiday home in Orlando? Need some help? There is so much choice - and once you start an internet search for an Orlando villa it can be time consuming and overwhelming. So how do you narrow down your search for your prefect Orlando holiday home?

I have owned vacation homes in Orlando for many years. I now have a number of holiday homes to offer and communicate every day with guests looking for the ideal vacation villa. Sometimes you need to see things from the other side just to appreciate how difficult the process is. It should be easy to find a home - there are a lot of Disney vacation homes out there. And that is just the problem. How do you know which Disney holiday home is going to suit your family?

This week I have been searching for a vacation home in another part of the US for my family. I admit it has been driving me crazy and at this point I almost want to give up! All I want to do is have one site with someone there to help just so I can ask the 4 or 5 questions I really need to know the answers to. I need to know exactly where the house is, what does it look like, how much is it, is it available and do I trust the person who I am renting from? The last question is probably the most difficult one - even for me and I have been a holiday home owner for so long I really know how to do this more than most.

So I started thinking again about what people really want when they are looking for a holiday home in Orlando. They want to know where it is. You need to be close to the Disney theme parks, Universal, SeaWorld. All the Orlando attractions.

You need to know if the house is good value for your family. So if you have a limited budget you don’t want to be told about ones you can’t afford. Or if you only want the best Orlando villas then you want to see the best.

You want someone who you can trust to help you choose. Of course we are all trying to persuade you that our homes are the best! But I can honestly say that if I do not have what you are looking for then I will tell you and try and point you in the right direction.

So if you are looking for the perfect Orlando holiday home for your next Disney World Orlando vacation then contact me and I will help you find your way through the maze! You may like to reserve one of my Windsor Palms, Windsor Hills or Solana resort homes. Or if they are not the right ones for you I can give you the benefit of my many years of experience and point you in the right direction.

I have some great late availability offers for my Orlando vacation homes. For a couple of the houses that I have on Windsor Palms and Windsor Hills the best offers are for August. So if you are looking for a great late availability deal on luxury Orlando homes on thes great resorts then contact me with the dates that you need and I will send you all the details that you need.

It is funny that I am talking about late availability deals on my Windsor Palms and Windsor Hills homes for August. Because I am taking so many bookings for Christmas 2008 and also throughout 2009 at the moment. People often ask me if it is better to wait to book an Orlando vacation home until the last moment. In general I would say that it always pays to book as far ahead as you can. Particularly if you have a first choice of Orlando home ( say you have been to one before and loved it so much you want to go back). I do sometimes have to disappoint previous guests who have been to my Windsor Palms and Solana homes as they are already booked. I can usually find them something else but I always want guests to have their first choice if possible.

Can you get bargains by waiting until the last minute to book an Orlando vacation home? Sometimes yes! And a good example of this is the luxury Windsor Palms and Windsor Hills homes I have available for select dates on offer in August. So if you are planning an Orlando family vacation just contact me and I will let you know all the best deals!

The Wall-e movie is going to be the big hit of the summer. And the toys and books are already a big hit with my family. Even my 2 year old who doesn’t know many words but he can say Wall-e.

Already the toys are a hot commodity and can be difficult to find. If it is like this before the Wall-e movie is released just imagine how it will be this summer and particularly Christmas time.

The Wall-e movie promises to be another great Disney Pixar hit. The story is that humans have messed up the earth so much they have to leave the planet and wait for the robots to clean it up. But the robots aren’t very well designed and they all break down. Except for Wall-e.

A lot of you will know that I write as EverythingMouse on Squidoo. I am really proud to say that I am a finalist in the Squidoo eBay Challenge competition with my Wall-e movie feature. The prize is to be featured in a speech by Seth Godin at the eBay Conference.

You will find all the latest Wall-e toys, video clips and movie trivia, as well as information on how to find the difficult to get Wall-e and Eve interactive robot toys.

Find Wall-e Toys 

Owning a vacation home is not always easy. It sometimes takes a long time to get established and generate as many bookings as you need. You probably use the internet to advertise your vacation home and have a website to attract guests. Do you wish you had more traffic, more inquiries, even more bookings?

Perhaps you’ve spent some time looking at ways to improve your website. There’s certainly plenty of information out there - SEO, building content, blogging, social networks are just a start.

The internet is pretty complicated and there are a lot of offers of help out there. Which ones do you choose? Which ones do you try first?

I am fortunate. I have my website designer sitting right next to me. My husband Richard.

We have built several successful vacation rental websites (this is one of them). Along the way we’ve written down the ideas and techniques that really work. You’ll find some of our favorites in this guide: Squeeze More Results From Your Website.

You can download the guide free via the signup page on www.infinite42.com

Or, if you like oranges, just click on the picture!

At last the game room in our Windsor Palms home is finished. I wanted it to be just that bit better than most ( don’t I always?) and I am really pleased with the result.

I have to confess that I waited a while before I decided to create a game room. They have become increasingly popular in Orlando vacation homes, but I wanted this one to be just right so I spent a lot of time talking to different suppliers and looking at the design that I wanted for the house.

It has a pool table, foosball and air hockey. I also decided to include some toys for the children. I discovered pretty quickly that it is difficult to play pool even in the ideal game room if you have a one year old literally hanging on your every move. So there are toys in there too to keep the younger kids happy.

All in all I think it is one of the best game rooms on Windsor Palms!

Beauty and the Beast has to be one of my favorite movies of all time. I think I first discovered it around 5 years ago when my daughter was so into all the Disney Princess movies - sadly these favorites are giving way to more ‘tween’ tastes as Hannah Montanah and High School Musical, but I still love the Disney movie classics.

As with many of the Disney Princess movies the story is based on a classic fairytale. The strong moral of the story is that appearance isn’t everything and that love can overcome all barriers. We can think in this cynical world that such sentiment has few places but I have to confess I am an optimist and think this is exactly the kind of message that we should be listening to.

One of my favorite shows at Disney World is the Beauty and the Beast show. I have lost count of just how many times I must have seen it. I know the words to the songs and the dialogue. I even know ( although there is no way I could do) all the dance routines. The Beauty and the Beast show at Disney World is one of the most popular shows and is at Disney Hollywood studios. Make sure you arrive early to get the best seats. Try to sit in the middle and as close to the front as you possibly can. The Beauty and the Beast theater is not huge so every seat is great but if you really want to feel part of the show then get as close as you can. This really is a Broadway quality show and it should be on your list of must sees in Disney Hollywood Studios.

If you want to know more about the Beauty and the Beast movie and the Disney show then check out this celebration of Beauty and the Beast.

Vacation homes in Orlando - I am so overwhelmed by choice where do I start? This is something that I hear time and time again from people.

You start out thinking that renting a home for your Orlando vacation is a great idea (it is) but then you start looking and wish you had never started! I think I only truly realised this when I looked for a rental home for my last vacation in California. There the choice is small compared to Orlando. Even though I spend my life on the internet I felt like tearing my hair out after the first hour of searching for a vacation home.
Most people start their search for a vacation home, whether in Orlando or anywhere else in the world by looking on the internet. This is of course the best place to find one - I would say that wouldn’t I? But perhaps this isn’t the place to start. So what should you do to find the right Orlando vacation home for your family?

Start off with a wish list. Then search.

You will have narrowed down your search for a vacation home even before you sit down at the computer. Start with basic questions about what you want from your Orlando vacation home.

The obvious question is how close to you want to be to Disney World. Most vacation homes are pretty close but some are almost on Mickeys doorstep ( Windsor Hills and Windsor Palms are 2 of the closest). How many bedrooms? Don’t forget how many bathrooms you need either - you don’t want to waste time in the morning waiting for a slot in the shower! Do you want a home on a resort, a home with a view, a newer home, one with things for the kids, internet access, free calls. All of these things are available in some homes.

If you have it in your mind what you would like from a home even before you switch on the computer then you will cut down your search time. And frustration.