You may be considering a private home vacation rental, rather than staying in a standard hotel or motel room, for your next trip. A vacation home rental can have many advantages, from a lower cost to a greater amount of space to a better location to more amenities. However, it is important to know just what to expect before you sign on the dotted line so that you can be sure that you are getting a fair deal and that you will be staying in a home that is well maintained and appropriately located.

Once you have decided that staying in our vacation rental is the right choice for you and your traveling companions, you will discover that the process of finding the right property should go very smoothly.

Finalizing the Deal

When you have found a vacation home rental that suits your needs and with which you feel comfortable, you can then finalize the deal. The owner or management company will have you submit a deposit to hold the vacation rental – usually 10 to 20% of the final cost. Note that you will not receive an actual address or access information until the booking is paid in full.

You will then fill out a rental agreement. Make sure to be honest in this agreement about the number of people and the ages staying in the vacation rental. What happens next may vary depending on whether you are working with an owner or a company. The owner may send you all of the information you will need to access the vacation home rental – including access codes for the lock box and the alarm, so that you can go directly from the road or the airport right into the house. The management company may simply provide you with directions to its offices so that you can pick up the keys and additional important information about the home.