One time too many

[Beach Runner]

JB you are welcome at our home anytime.

BR -- have you considered advertising through VRBO and screening your own renters, then referring them to your management company? Initial personal contact with you might result in some people treating your home better. Also, I'm sure you have been told to put up personal photos in the home. Have you tried that? Perhaps a notebook or small binder with a warmly welcoming cover letter from you, possibly paired with Katie Blue's excellent renters' guide. Just some ideas.

I must say I have been impressed so far with our new management company. We had one group in April that left a fairly small pink stain on the carpeting on the third floor. It was caught and cleaned right away. I am told our company reps (not just housekeepers) inspect every unit before it is rented to a new party. This is a great system if done right. We have not had a cleaning complaint yet.

Ditto to JB.

We are listed on VRBO, but the recent rentals were all through the rental company. Do you think it'd tick off a potential renter if you asked for references? And really, since none of the renters who have damaged my place have gotten caught by our rental company, if someone did contact our rental company for a reference for them, they'd be clear.

And JB, not only do people destroy things, but they do other outrageous things. When we arrived at the house on June 26, the pool heat was on and set at 95 degrees! And no one had been there for a day and a half, wasting our money and the earth's natural energy resources. It's unconscionable to me that someone would leave the pool heat on 95 degrees. They had to have done that out of spite and meanness because they couldn't possibly have been comfortable in the pool at that temperature. One day that week the pool was 91 degrees naturally (with no heat on), and it was unbearable for us. We went to the Gulf to get cooled off.

Another example: we only had one renter last August, and in one week they used 18,000 gallons of water (whereas last month with the house totally rented, a total of 15,000 gallons was used that month). Our guess is that the reason that the water bill got so high last August is that the renters were filling up the pool with the water hose to cool it off, yet another piggish waste of natural resources.

 

[pgurney]

We don't currently rent our townhome, but you guys are reminding me of one of the reasons we stopped. It was so difficult coming in and seeing the things people would do and the things they would take.

We were considering putting it back on a rental program, but after this thread and watching the renters two doors down over the July 4th week....I'm having some doubts about doing it. Most of the folks are good/great, but when you get one bad bunch....OUCH. I guess if you are going to rent you just have to take the emotions out of it and set back a certain amount of your budget for maintenance and repairs...and don't leave anything you really like in your home.

 

[ktmeadows]

Luv,



Me?...I would have had the family clean up the mess and then issued their marching orders--party is over for them. While they were wiping down the walls, I would have colllected up all of their belongings and stuffed them in their suitcases along with what was left of the cake.

Don't think that didn't cross my mind! But as my sons are trying to keep some type of relationship going with their deceased dad's family, I decided to bite my tongue. I have resolved not to ever invite them again, however. They kept going on about how great it was to visit again after all these years, reminded them of all the good memories of the past (must have been their good memories, because all I can remember is the chaos!) Truthfully, although I was hesitant about inviting them, I truly believed that now that they were teenagers (one nearly 20!) that they would surely have outgrown their destructiveness. I haven't been to their home in years, but I can only begin to imagine......

As they were leaving, I did suggest they take the remainder of the cake to either eat or finish off their food fight with. The 18 year old lowered her eyes and said "no thanks". As they walked out the door, I kept repeating over and over in my mind that the only way they'd ever set foot inside my home again was if they decided to buy the house themselves if and when I ever decide to sell!

 

[ktmeadows]

Sounds like that family needed the SUPER NANNY a long time ago!!!

They may have had to cancel the show after nanny landed herself in jail for strangling the little snots!

 

[ktmeadows]

We don't currently rent our townhome, but you guys are reminding me of one of the reasons we stopped. It was so difficult coming in and seeing the things people would do and the things they would take.

We were considering putting it back on a rental program, but after this thread and watching the renters two doors down over the July 4th week....I'm having some doubts about doing it. Most of the folks are good/great, but when you get one bad bunch....OUCH. I guess if you are going to rent you just have to take the emotions out of it and set back a certain amount of your budget for maintenance and repairs...and don't leave anything you really like in your home.

That's what's so sad about the whole thing - all it takes is one really bad renter to make you distrust all renters. There are so many good renters out there who treat their vacation rentals with the same TLC they exhibit in their own homes...but unless they're repeat customers, it's impossible to know who the good ones are!

 

[spinDrAtl]

Just to put things in perspective, we have been renting our place for 9 years and have really only had minor incidents - broken lamp, the aforementioned coffee table, some marks on the walls.

We have some really good repeat renters and also repeat snowbirds that have been using our place for 5 years or so.

This has really been the only year that the management company has screwed some things up, aside from the nickel and diming of maintenance charges whenever housekeeping decides to boost the bottom line.