Property Management in Orlando FAQs
What kind of rental occupancy should I expect in my home this year?
A home’s location, furnishing, and overall amenities affect it’s rental demand. Florida Spirit’s rental occupancy ranges from 40-70% annually with most of our homes averaging 55% occupancy each year. Homes that have been with Florida Spirit longer tend to have higher rental occupancy due to return rental guests and their referrals of friends and families that visit our homes. Every home’s occupancy is going to vary depending on the rental programs the home participates in as well if the home is booked by Florida Spirit, the owner, or a combination of both. We have also noticed homes with great guest reviews have a higher occupancy because people trust previous guest’s experiences in our homes.
What kind of rental return should I expect?
At Florida Spirit, we focus on retail rentals rather than high-volume tour company rentals. Since our homes are rented at higher nightly rates, our owners receive a much higher income return of 70-80%. Our renters are also responsible to pay all required tourism and sales taxes and all cleaning fee regardless of the number of nights they stay, adding thousands of dollars to our homeowners’ bottom line. A majority of management companies sign rental contracts with large tour companies offering deeply discounted rental rates that include all taxes and cleaning fees. With this, homeowners receive only 35-40% return on their home and additionally have to pay taxes and clean fees. Management companies that work with tour operations try to compensate for the low income with higher annual occupancy percentages. However, the higher occupancy of lower income rentals actually adds to owners’ expenses with higher utility costs and more wear and tear on the homes.
How are my rental rates set?
Like every property management company in Orlando, we regularly check our competition and compare previous years’ rates and performance to determine rental rates. We determine a home’s base rate through a personalized conversation evaluating your specific home and how it compares to other units under our management. We also utilize advanced yield management software to set competitive and desirable rates that vary based on availability and demand, just like an airline or major hotel chain. When rental demand and occupancy is rising, our software system automatically adjusts the rental rates to produce a higher income for our owners. When rental demand lowers and there is more availability, rates will automatically decrease to help drive more bookings.
How does Florida Spirit market my home for rental?
For the past 11 years, Florida Spirit has maintained a top ranking website for people searching for a Disney area vacation home rental. We do this through a combination of our own fulltime in-house marketing staff and outside leading travel industry internet marketing firms including BlueTent Marketing and More Visibility. Besides our own success with internet marketing, we realized we needed a large distribution network, similar to all major hotel chains. To achieve this, we have partnered with Escapia Software, the leading vacation rental software for retail rentals and a division of HomeAway.com, the world’s leading vacation rental website. Through this partnership, our homes are displayed on the largest network of vacation rental websites including, HomeAway.com, TripAdviosr.com, ClearStay.com, and FlipKey.com among others. Unlike other management companies that can pay for listings on these sites, our homes are automatically integrated and offer true online booking capability with accurate, real-time rates and availability. Our homes are all over the internet and easy for guests to book.
What kind of wear and tear should I expect from rental guests?
Just like your own home, some level of wear and tear should be expected on your vacation home. Guest are constantly in and out of our vacation homes using the furniture, bed linens, towels, and cookware so you can expect to periodically replace these items to keep the home well stocked. You will also have occasional maintenance issues that need to be addressed like plumbing, pool equipment, and air conditioning. Whenever larger household items need to be replaced or a repair needs to be made, Florida Spirit’s operations staff will always let you know. While there are maintenance and supplies that our homeowners are responsible, Florida Spirit is one of the only companies that offers our guests a Damage Waiver option during their stay. This waiver covers up to $1,000 of reported, accidental damage to the home and protects the homeowner from the rare occasion when a guest knocks over a lamp or spills on the carpet.
Since the majority of Florida Spirit’s guests are smaller families staying for an average of 7 nights, they are trying to see all of Orlando’s major attractions and spend little time in the homes. Longer stay guests, such as winter guests or European tour company guests tend to cause more wear and tear on the homes simply because they are spending much more time enjoying the homes and not our sightseeing every day. It is important for owners to place aside some of their annual rental income money to plan for future repairs and replacements of larger items like carpeting and furniture.
How do I know when my home is booked?
At Florida Spirit, we pride ourselves on our service and transparency to our homeowners. We use two ways to let our owners know they have a new rental booking in their home. First, we send our owners a confirmation each time their home is reserved. We also have a secure online owner section of our website where they can view the full availability of their home. This helps us work with our owners to ensure we don’t double book a house. Online, owners can also block dates and create reservations for themselves and personal guests and access monthly statements of income and expenses.
How does Florida Spirit manage the condition of my home?
Success in our business is all about quality! We work extremely hard to ensure your home is properly cleaned and maintained for each arriving guest. Unlike most property management companies in Orlando that rely on house cleaning companies and maintenance staff to ensure the quality of our homes, Florida Spirit also requires every home to be inspected after each cleaning and again the morning of a new arriving guest. Each time the home is inspected a detailed inspection report is completed with an inventory of all linens, towels, and cookware. Our property inspectors do the little things that add up to make the best first impression for arriving guests like sweeping the front walkway, hosing off the pool deck and sprucing the patio furniture and they even leave a few lights on for guests arriving after dark. Our property inspectors also set the lock box with the house key to each guest’s unique reservation code for added security. After each guest’s departure the home alarm is activated the lock box code is changed to a private internal code. We are always in your home to make sure you and your guests have the best experience possible.
What Guest Services does Florida Spirit offer?
For several years Florida Spirit has operated “Express Check-In & Express Check-Out” service to greatly improve the guest rental experience. Once our guests pay in full for their rental, they receive an email with instructions to access the home including the lock box code, information to purchase attraction tickets, and tips on how they can best enjoy their rental home. Florida Spirit’s phones are always answered by a live person and we never use voicemail; so whenever a guest calls with a questions or concern, someone will answer their call! After each guests departs, they receive an email from us thanking them for their stay and asking them to complete an online review of the home and our service. We post guest reviews on our website for future guests to read and hear about other people’s experiences. With all of our guest reviews and continued dedication to service, Florida Spirit was awarded the TripAdvisor.com Award for Excellence in the vacation rental industry.
If you would like to learn more about our property management services or want to have your property listed with Florida Spirit, request an information packet today!
