How TV Streaming Works and Solving Streaming Problems

How TV Streaming Works and Solving Streaming Problems

About TV Streaming Like everything in the digital age, TV Streaming is more complex than old-style cable TV (which was complicated enough!). To assist you, here is a guide to how the systems work, and what may be necessary to do if things aren’t working right. For a general guide

A Vacation Rental is still a House!

A Vacation Rental is still a House!

When staying in a vacation rental, remember that you’re renting someone’s home. It’s not a hotel. Nor a commercial building. It doesn’t have cleaning and maintenance going on every month, every week, every day, around the clock. It is someone’s home that comes with all of the quirks and challenges

Every guest should be able to leave a 5-Star review

Every guest should be able to leave a 5-Star review

Every guest should be able to leave a 5-Star review. Here’s why: A 5-Star review for a vacation rental property is not an indication of the quality of the property. It has nothing to do with 4-Star or 5-Star Hotel System you may have heard of. Rather, it is an

Must I clean when I leave?

Must I clean when I leave?

It has become fashionable in recent years to complain about having to ‘clean up’ when leaving a vacation rental. The typical comment is “I’ve paid a cleaning fee as part of my rental, why do I have to clean the place before I leave?” First of all, you don’t. But you

Hey! Where’s my Security Deposit Refund?

Hey! Where’s my Security Deposit Refund?

Hi Robert. I’m just wondering when my security deposit will be refunded. I haven’t seen it on my credit card statement… Thanks for your question. Unfortunately, you are sort of catching us in the midst of some long-term policy changes and the process of updating our information for guests, so

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

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

Differences in Rates Explained

Differences in Rates Explained

I’m trying to decide between your properties, and it appears that they rent for similar rates, but my quotes show a big discrepancy for the same dates at different homes. I thought one was bigger and nicer than the other? Why the difference in price? While what you say is

Breezy Oak Villas Wins 2020 TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Best of the Best Award

Breezy Oak Villas Wins 2020 TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Best of the Best Award

Breezy Oak Villa Recognized Among Best of the Best in Florida, USA, Based on Exceptional 2019 Traveler Reviews Orlando, FL – 1st, February, 2021 – Breezy Oak Villas today announced it has been recognized as a 2020 Travelers’ Choice Best of the Best award winner for vacation rentals. Based on

Introducing TV Streaming at the Villas

Introducing TV Streaming at the Villas

To our beloved guests! In the midst of the Covid-19 Pandemic Our Cable Television Provider declared Bankruptcy!! And what this meant for us and guests of our Florida properties, is NO TV cable service as of July 2020. Welcome to the Digital Age! We are completing our transition to Streaming

Our Smoking Policy

Our Smoking Policy

We ask those guests who simply must smoke to please do so off the villa property. Here’s why… We have a pretty strict non-smoking policy, and we are aware that it presents a challenge for some guests. We get asked questions about it periodically, so here are some details of

The Plum Guide – How would THEY rank? – Part 3

The Plum Guide – How would THEY rank? – Part 3

If you’re not familiar with Plum Guide, before you devour this information, please go back to the beginning and read the article that is the first part of this series. In the first article of this series, we took a look at the Plum Guide and introduced the concept. In

The Plum Guide – How would we rank? – Part 2

The Plum Guide – How would we rank? – Part 2

If you’re not familiar with Plum Guide*, before you devour this information, please go back to the beginning and read the article that is the first part of this series. Before we get into things in detail, know that the Plum Guide is very AirBnB centric; some of their expectations

The Plum Guide – Would we Pass the Test? – Part 1

The Plum Guide – Would we Pass the Test? – Part 1

The Plum Guide* is a London, England based curated website of vacation rental homes. It’s produced by a company which personally evaluates homes using a 150-point test criteria, and then presents them on their own listing site. Their purpose is to do an ‘honest’ assessment of vacation rental homes (reviews

Help coming to ease traffic congestion on I4 in Walt Disney World area

Help is coming for I4, but we will have to be patient, just like anyone must be lately if they use I4 between Highway 27 and Walt Disney World. UPDATE: There is a LOT of good news recently which affects the information in this article. A new post will be

Pool Heating

Pool Heating

About pool heating at Breezy Oak Villas, and why we charge extra for it. Pool Heating is the most common optional item that our guests choose, and yes we do charge extra for it, beyond our seasonal nightly rates. There are a number of reasons for this, but one of

Why we Use Our Own Booking Form for Indirect Bookings

Why we Use Our Own Booking Form for Indirect Bookings

Thank you for choosing to book our property and stay with us. As our guest, you and your booking are very important to us, and we want to provide you with the best in service and accommodations. In order to book our property, you must complete our own booking form

The Best Surprise is NO Surprises at all!

The Best Surprise is NO Surprises at all!

When it comes to booking a vacation rental, and the charges and fees you pay, the best surprise you can get with your rental is this: No Surprises! We do have some extra charges for optional items that our guests may choose to add to their booking. We realize that

Vacation Rental Fees and Add-ons Beyond the Nightly Rates

Vacation Rental Fees and Add-ons Beyond the Nightly Rates

Hi Robert. My husband and I are both retired and are planning a trip in the hopes that at sometime during the four week stay some of our children can visit for short intervals. That’s why we are looking for a house this size. Some of the websites advertise a

Why are there less reviews for the villas each year?

After a decade of renting out our properties, we just don’t get as many reviews as we used to. It doesn’t mean we are off our game. In fact, we keep improving the properties and our service all the time! I would love to get more reviews, but it keeps

How to write a Great Vacation Rental Review

How to write a Great Vacation Rental Review

Ask any vacation rental owner what the best part of owning and renting their property is, and most likely they will reply it is when they get a ‘5-Star’ review from an appreciative guest! There is nothing like that positive pat-on-the-back that tells a VR owner that they contributed to

What… no pool blanket?

What… no pool blanket?

A few years ago, during the winter months we would place out for our guest’s use a large floating pool blanket to cover the pool water at night. The blanket would float on the surface and reduce the temperature drop in the pool water over night. We no longer use

Questions about Non-Refundable Payments

Questions about Non-Refundable Payments

Thanks for your message and your interest in our property. First of all, please understand that our normal booking deposit is 20% of the value of the rental. However some listing sites, such as HomeAway/VRBO or TripAdvisor do not give us that option. The minimum percentage they will allow is

Early Check-Ins and Late Check-Outs

Requesting an Early Arrival or a Late Check Out?

Requesting an Early Arrival or a Late Check Out? Unless you want to book the additional nights, we can not at this time offer you an early check-in or late check-out, however if we get very close to the dates and those nights have not been booked by other guests,

Christmas Decorating for your Villa!

Christmas Decorating for your Villa!

Occasionally guests who will be staying over the  Christmas season ask us about seasonal decorating. This is not something that we have ‘traditionally’ done at our vacation rental properties. Now before you declare us the ‘Grinch’ who stole Christmas, please understand two things: We LOVE Christmas Decorations! We go CRAZY

How far away are the villas from the Theme Parks?

How far away are the villas from the Theme Parks?

Ah… a simple question, but a tricky one to answer! In truth, you likely don’t want to be close to the theme parks nearly so much as you want to be able to get to and from them fast, and hassle free. One doesn’t necessarily equal the other. This is

Why we don’t give out or promote the address of the villa

Periodically, I get asked for the specific address of the villa, either by someone curious about booking, or by a guest asking far in advance of their arrival.  This always presents a challenge for us… we don’t want to be secretive, about where the villa is… but in a way,

Best price? No… We’re out to provide the best value!

Every once in a while, I get asked about our rates… because, well… frankly, we’re not the cheapest vacation rentals in the Orlando area. We’re also not the most expensive either.  Frankly, what others charge is of little importance to us. We’re out to provide the best value in a

Breezy Oak Villa vs. Pleasant Oak Villa: What’s the difference?

Breezy Oak Villa vs. Pleasant Oak Villa: What’s the difference?

If you have seen both of our properties, and are wondering what the differences are between them, this information is for you. Talking about the differences between the two is a bit strange – because in truth, they are far more alike than they are different. So what do they

Staying in a vacation rental ‘off-site’ vs. ‘on-site’ at a Disney Resort: What happens to the ‘magic’?

Staying in a vacation rental ‘off-site’ vs. ‘on-site’ at a Disney Resort: What happens to the ‘magic’?

I received the following question from a prospective guest a few weeks ago.  It covers a lot of ground and turns over a lot of worms!  Her question: “I’m curious about one thing, most families go and stay on property with Disney (we did our first time too) and claim

About our Reviews

About our Reviews

One day, in a brief moment of brilliance, it occurred to me that this blog format would be a perfect place to organize and ‘store’ our reviews.  We are constantly hearing back from our guests for various reasons, and most of them are very positive communications where they simply want