Vacation Rental By Owner Review

The last two times we went to Disneyworld, we rented a house from Vacation Rental by Owner Online Service or VRBO. I had heard about the site from CyndiA, and thought I'd try them. We had such a great experience with them, we not only used them the next time we went to Florida but also when we went back East.

One of the main reasons I was looking at renting a house over staying in a hotel is that there would be seven of us. Most hotels hold four and a few up to six but it is very hard to find one that will take seven. This means we have to get two rooms, doubling our hotel cost.

The other reason was that with a house, we would have full kitchen access allowing us to cook our own meals. This is great for us because we have a variety of eaters from vegetarian to no red meat to dairy sensitive to downright fussy! Therefore, it isn't always the easiest thing to find restaurants that please everyone. Add in the advantage of not eating out every breakfast, lunch and dinner and it was a great option for us.

I was pleased to see that not only were there many choices available in the Orlando area but there were plenty of homes with 4-6 bedrooms. They offer a one-night rate as well as weekly rates. Some of the places have a 5-night minimum, others a 7 night.

I quickly found a few places and after some discussion, agreed on one. I checked for availability and dropped a note to the owners. They also list the owner's phone if you prefer to call. I wanted to check on the price - to get a final price after taxes and pool heating. I received a prompt reply.

I then contacted the owner again to and arranged payment: which included a $500 refundable deposit. She then sent me an email with the property address, the code to get the key and the directions from the airport. A quick stop at map quest and I was set!

Why VRBO Was A Great Choice

I really like VRBO for a number of reasons. First off, I appreciate getting to see pictures of the place. For the house that we rented, we were able to see a picture of the front of the house, the living room, the kitchen, the master bedroom, one of the bedrooms and the pool area. The owners were happy to supply additional pictures if we needed them. I am happy to say, the pictures were accurate and there were no surprises after arrival.

I also like the fact that there is a competition on the site. With so many houses to choose from, the owners have marked them down (or offered extras such as Internet, car rental etc) to get you to choose theirs. It really is a renters market there and that is an always a nice bonus.

We got a four bedroom, 1,800 sq foot house: a large master and three smaller ones, two of which had two beds each. If we had needed to sleep more, there was a double size pull out couch. There were televisions (with VCRs) in the master bedroom, the family room and one of the smaller bedrooms. The kitchen was nice size and fully equipped other than lack of any paper towels. The nicest part of the house would have to be the pool. We had a private, fenced pool off the family room. It had a safety lock and alarm, which was a nice safety feature. Since it was December, we had paid the optional $100 to heat the pool.

Another nice thing was that we were able to get into the house much earlier than we would have had we been staying in a hotel. By flying on the red-eye, we were at the Orlando airport before 7:00AM. We were able to pick up our rental car and head straight to the house, pick up the keys and settle in.

Kristy's final Viewpoint:

We ended up paying less than $90 a night for a fully furnished, four bedrooms, 3-bath house with a private pool. It was a lot less than we would have paid for two hotel rooms with an overcrowded pool. We were less than 5 miles from Disneyworld and enjoyed being away from all the crowds at the end of the day.

Before you take your next trip - anywhere - check out VRBO and see what they have available. You might end up saving yourself a lot of money.