How are your bookings going for 2011?

All I'm getting are VRBO inquiries for 2 adults and 8 children for spring break. Uh, no. Don't want a bunch of high school or college kids in my home. I don't respond to those emails.

On second thought maybe Octomom is one of the people who emailed me.:lol:

We are doing about average for this time of year. We have some weeks booked for Spring Break and we're starting to fill May and June, with a week in July. I can't remember if this is better or worse than this time last year. We'll see in March, when we had the whole summer booked by that time last year, which was phenomenal. But we all know what happened after that...

BTW Beach Runner - We had our fill of teenagers this week when they were playing beer pong in the garage! Who knew that NYE would be a "spring break" hazard time. Thanks to our neighbors for giving us the heads up!

So far so good for us. Summer is almost booked up. Spring is starting to fill in nicely as well.

We are doing about average for this time of year. We have some weeks booked for Spring Break and we're starting to fill May and June, with a week in July. I can't remember if this is better or worse than this time last year. We'll see in March, when we had the whole summer booked by that time last year, which was phenomenal. But we all know what happened after that...

BTW Beach Runner - We had our fill of teenagers this week when they were playing beer pong in the garage! Who knew that NYE would be a "spring break" hazard time. Thanks to our neighbors for giving us the heads up!

I did see several groups of teens at Seaside whenever we'd drive by. Dressed in baggy clothes and knit caps, not like the stylish teens I see during spreak break and in the summer.

Hope you didn't have any damage.

We ask a lot of questions to our potential spring break renters and make them aware that the neighbors are full-time residents (as in, they will call us if they see partying kids at our home). So we don't get many spring rentals which is fine with us. Without exception, even families with younger children do damage during spring break; the summer renters are much easier on the house. Our late spring and summer rentals usually come in all at once in early April. Note to self: need to block a summer week for ourselves before this happens.

I did see several groups of teens at Seaside whenever we'd drive by. Dressed in baggy clothes and knit caps, not like the stylish teens I see during spreak break and in the summer.

Hope you didn't have any damage.

We ask a lot of questions to our potential spring break renters and make them aware that the neighbors are full-time residents (as in, they will call us if they see partying kids at our home). So we don't get many spring rentals which is fine with us. Without exception, even families with younger children do damage during spring break; the summer renters are much easier on the house. Our late spring and summer rentals usually come in all at once in early April. Note to self: need to block a summer week for ourselves before this happens.

No damage except for a garage that smells like beer. The house was actually very clean and neat. My daughter says that at least they were partying respectfully. I guess if they're going to party, the garage is where we'd like them to be. They didn't even need to go in the house to use the bathroom. They apparently watered our neighbor's lawn for them.

We haven't had any spring breakers since our first year renting out the house. We really cater to families with small children and have been very lucky over the years.

The condo next to me rents to spring breakers and I already vowed that I am just going to call the police this year instead of putting up with their crap. I can't imagine anyone knowingly renting to spring breakers while caring about their property and neighbors.

I'm starting to get a few requests every day for spring or summer rentals. This usually starts happening after Christmas when families have gotten together and talked about their spring/summer vacation plans. Not too many official bookings yet, but I know a few of these will turn into official bookings because they're former guests or they've been referred by former guests. I usually start seeing more bookings by the end of February for spring/summer and I'm usually almost completely booked for summer by the end of April.

Can someone confirm that school is out in the southeast by May 21? It seems like that's the start of summer vacation this year. Thanks.

This is Castaway's first year, and I must say I am satisfied with the inquiries we are starting to get. We need a few more houses!! But the ones we have are great!!!
Vacation Rentals Beaches of South Walton Castaway Vacation Rentals

All I'm getting are VRBO inquiries for 2 adults and 8 children for spring break. Uh, no. Don't want a bunch of high school or college kids in my home. I don't respond to those emails.

On second thought maybe Octomom is one of the people who emailed me.:lol:

OMG! One of the suspected groups of kids CALLED me. I happened to remember the name from the email. An 18-yo-sounding voice said, "I'd totally like to rent your house for the first week of March. Is it, like, rented? It looks awesome!" I said that it is unavailable then (internal voice saying "to you"), but I haven't updated the calendar recently (that's true).

OMG! One of the suspected groups of kids CALLED me. I happened to remember the name from the email. An 18-yo-sounding voice said, "I'd totally like to rent your house for the first week of March. Is it, like, rented? It looks awesome!" I said that it is unavailable then (internal voice saying "to you"), but I haven't updated the calendar recently (that's true).

OMG, like, tote-ully :floor:

Last year at this time bookings were a bit slow but heated up quickly for spring break and summer, and everyone was saying 2010 was going to be a huge year for rentals. I'm just wondering what is happening now and how things are looking.

Rentals suck!

We have blocked the Alabama/Auburn spring break week

Rentals suck!

We have blocked the Alabama/Auburn spring break week

Good idea. BTW the girl who called me had an Auburn cell phone prefix.

We are new condo owners that are going to rent. How

do we know the dates for Spring Break of most Southern Colleges? If you block those dates, do most of you also block those in Kentucky, Ohio etc. that are a little later in April. Thanks so much and can't wait til we move everything in next week. Will be needing lots of advice.

OMG! One of the suspected groups of kids CALLED me. I happened to remember the name from the email. An 18-yo-sounding voice said, "I'd totally like to rent your house for the first week of March. Is it, like, rented? It looks awesome!" I said that it is unavailable then (internal voice saying "to you"), but I haven't updated the calendar recently (that's true).

If they really are college students, then the operative word is "awesome"...

Rentals suck!

We have blocked the Alabama/Auburn spring break week

Depends on who you get in your rental. We focus on advertising for families, and they've been great guests so far. Our places are smaller one-story cottages (with no balconies so we don't get the beer and balcony crowd, just the sit-on-the-porch crowd), so they don't attract the partying crowd with 18 people - usually 3-6 people. And our community isn't in an area where there's a lot happening other than pool/porch/beach so people who want a lot of action right near by go elsewhere. Owners in the community keep an eye on what's happening and let each other know if there's something an owner needs to know, including if any renters are causing problems.

So, from my experience, renters rock and I'm glad to share our little piece of heaven with families. In fact, we have the dining room table in one cottage that I ate off of when I was little, and I like the idea that other people are enjoying family meals off that table, too, now. I don't worry about little nicks because I figure each has a little story to tell. And I probably couldn't tell one of the new little nicks from the old little nicks! We have a family with 4 boys who have rented from us over the years (including when there were just 2-3 boys) and I like the idea that those boys are having a good time running around and making memories with their parents and each other. I think families add good karma to a place.

(perhaps my day is coming when I eat those words, but so far it has been great)

do we know the dates for Spring Break of most Southern Colleges? If you block those dates, do most of you also block those in Kentucky, Ohio etc. that are a little later in April. Thanks so much and can't wait til we move everything in next week. Will be needing lots of advice.

Some info here - http://www.sowal.com/bb/all-about-sowal/52399-when-does-spring-break-start-end-2011-a.html

Rentals suck!

We have blocked the Alabama/Auburn spring break week

So your bookings are down compared to last year or other years? Or do you mean owning a rental sucks in reference to spring break?

So your bookings are down compared to last year or other years? Or do you mean owning a rental sucks in reference to spring break?

I meant that bookings are down compared to previous years.

It is also true that owning a rental in the past year or two is much more challenging when it comes to spring break. The college kids have moved west from PCB.

Since the inception of this thread, inquiries have increased dramatically and I have been booking. I think this will be a better than expected year.

As far as spring breakers, I've only received a few inquiries from the college crowd, but mainly families thus far.... as far as I can tell. I've been in the game 7 years now and I hope I can sniff out the trouble. I think it is really important to call people directly for those weeks and ask pointed questions like: how many adults and children, ages, # of cars,...things people will regularly tell you before you even ask. if they don't, they seem to get thrown off balance and you got trouble lurking.