AAA or Military Discounts – Why we don’t offer them

Do you provide AAA discounts or anything like that? What is the best price we can get?

Our two vacation homes are privately owned, and self-managed.

We don’t provide AAA or ‘military’ discounts because we give everyone the best price that we can.

For a hotel to be able to give discounts, they have a ‘rack’ rate, which is the published ‘list price’ for their rooms. And that price has to be higher than what they actually want/need for the room, so they can provide a discount off of it and not go broke doing so.

But then they usually have a whole bunch of different rates or discounts based on things like AAA memberships or other affiliations. In one way, it’s kind of frustrating for the guests, because they never know if they are getting the best possible price for a room or not.

As vacation rental owner/managers for over a decade, I can tell you that we often get people sending us a message like “Give us your best price for…” but it makes no sense. We don’t have different prices. Having one home to offer is like having one single hotel room to rent, and there is only one price for it. We don’t discriminate or anything like that… Everyone gets that same price. It’s based on the home, not who’s renting it.

That price is based on what it costs us to operate the house and provide the best experience we can for our guests. Isn’t that the better way?

So, no we don’t provide AAA discounts. If you really want, I can raise the price $50 per night and then give you a $50 per night discount, but that’s silly. And yet, it is precisely what every hotel chain or organization that provides discounts does. In business, nothing is ever free. If you’re getting a discount, it’s because the first price you were told was more than what they actually need to be in business and make their markup. That’s the simple reality of it.

Every guest gets the best price we can provide, and the only discounts we ever provide are incentives for guests to book dates which won’t leave a gap in our booking calendar. But we provide those discounts to everyone as an incentive for certain dates, and not based on a membership or affiliation. We prefer treating everyone straight up, fairly and equally.

Hopefully that is part of the reason why we’re booked an average of 88% of the entire year, far higher than the average 65% occupancy rate for vacation rental homes in the Orlando area. I hope it’s part of what we’re doing right, which allows us to continue to enjoy the ongoing success we have.

Thanks for your inquiry! We look forward to welcoming you to our Florida home!

Robert
Breezy Oak Villas