In a recent feature article in the New York Times Travel section entitled “Vacation Rentals Pile on Luxuries”, author Michelle Higgins talks about the changing market for vacation rentals.

In a sense, Ms. Higgins boils her main points down to 4 core areas. Positioning themselves more as hotels for product differentiation, offering upgrades and services along with reservation flexibility, and providing an experiential travel alternative that makes vacation rentals a viable  and competitive option.

Upon the inception of this blog, one thing we indicated was that vacation rentals and especially resort communities are not created equal. Vacation homes are often perceived as a “one size fits all” product and that is not the case in reality for the consumer. Our viewpoint has always been that the subdivision or community (at least in the Orlando/Kissimmee/Davenport/Clermont market)  is more akin to a brand as we indicated in a recent post.

Villa Rentals

There would simply be too many brands for the consumer to evaluate if each vacation rental in and of itself were the brand. Consequently, one could also argue that the management company is a big part of the “brand” because the management company has so much impact on the quality of the home (i.e. maintenance, cleanliness, etc….). This is why we always recommend booking with a professional management company over a “vacation rental by owner”. Just like hotels, quality for vacation rentals does vary.

Second, the services available and increasing booking flexibility do make vacation rentals look  like hotels in the eyes of the consumer. However, in the latter point, this may be more of an economic reality due to the fact that duration of stay has dropped, and that rental home managers need to be more nimble to maintain the pace of bookings. As the economy recovers and demand rises, it remains to be seen whether shorter term stays for rental guests will be a longer term phenomena. We believe that in this case, and on average, longer length of stays will return for vacation rentals as demand and occupancies rise.

Lastly, Ms. Higgins does correctly identify that the huge advantage of vacation rentals over hotels is the fact that they do lend themselves to more of an experiential vacation. Relaxing in your own pool, sitting at your own dining table, cooking with the family, playing games in the living room, etc… do help make house rentals in Florida a great alternative. Hotels will never be able to compete with the experiential nature of vacation rental accommodations, especially for larger families.

If you want to get the “scoop” on over 80 resorts in Central Florida, check-out the villa reviews section of our main page. Each review contains detailed information including resort maintenance, amenities and facilities, home quality and location. Overall, our vacation rental ratings criteria is stringent and only a select few make it to the 4 or 5 star level. Be an educated consumer, read our blog!