February 7 is Book Direct Day!

Today, we celebrate and encourage the savvy vacationer’s practice of booking direct.

In a world of big booking platforms, dominated by the likes of Vrbo, AirBnB and Booking.com, its easy to think that these technology giants offer the best way to book a vacation.

However, that’s simply not the case! There are many powerful reasons why you should book a vacation direct with the vacation company. The best deals and the most unusual and treasured experiences are often only accessible when you book direct.

Here’s our top eight reasons why you should always book your vacation home direct.

#1. Save money

Often, the best prices are only available when you book direct. They won’t be found on the booking platforms because these booking platforms charge additional fees which are added into the overall price.

Vacation rental property management companies can offer much better prices when they don’t have a factor in these additional fees and charges. So you get the best price when you book direct.

#2. Get extra rewards

Many vacation rental businesses, including Ellis Exclusive Villas, offer special discounts for repeat bookings. This way, you can save even more money every time you book direct. Your loyalty is rewarded directly.

#3. Support the local economy

Most vacation rental businesses are small businesses and an important part of the local economy. By booking direct, you keep the revenue directly in the local economy, helping to support the places you visit. It’s great to be part of a more sustainable and local approach to booking your vacation.

#4. Personalised service and local travel tips

When you book direct, you will be in touch with the people responsible for managing the property in which you stay. They’ll be able to tell you all about the property and the local area. For example, you can find lots of tips for Florida events and attractions, including making the most of your time in the theme parks, on the Ellis Exclusive Villas Blog.

Plus, you can talk to our team direct to ask for advice. We’re always happy to answer your questions, share our tips and tricks so you can benefit from our experience and local knowledge to get the most from your vacation.

#5. Faster and better responses

Because you are dealing directly with the team responsible for managing the property in which you stay, you are going to get better and faster responses to any queries or complaints.

Instead of sending messages to bots, you can reach a real person on the ground where you are staying. You won’t have to wrangle with rigid processes or annoying technology. We’re here to help directly.

#6. More opportunity for custom packages

When you book direct, you can talk to us about your needs and we can build a package especially for you. For example, if you have accessibility needs we can direct you to the properties that would be most suited to your needs.

If you want to arrange multiple stays or longer stays, for example, booking direct enables to offer the most flexibility and the most competitive pricing.

#7. Your data stays with us

Your personal information and browsing history isn’t going to be sold and shared with multiple platforms, boosting your data privacy.

#8. Feel like a VIP

When you book direct, the personalised service you receive is a step up from the generic, automated messages of the big platforms. You’ll enjoy a much more memorable, personalised and authentic stay.

Ready to book?

View our homes.

Ellis Exclusive Villas has always worked hard to ensure our homes are pristine, well maintained and spotlessly clean. It’s a vital part of our commitment to ensure guest comfort.

With the travel industry still reeling from the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic, we know that restoring people’s faith in travel is going to take careful and sustained effort.  We believe that rebuilding this trust must be based on safeguarding our guests in the best possible way.

For this reason, we have decided to introduce further enhanced cleaning regimes for all our properties to ensure our practices meet the latest recommendations for guest protection.

The new SafeHome scheme for vacation rental properties

We’ve decided to follow the guidelines of the SafeHome initiative.  This is a new scheme designed to ensure safe cleaning standards in response to the pandemic which has been launched by the two vacation industry associations: the Vacaton Rental Housekeeping Professionals (VRHP) and the Vacation Rental Management Association (VRMA).

Our enhanced cleaning measures include:

• Providing our staff with personal protective equipment, including masks and gloves
• Asking staff to stay at home if they have any signs of symptoms, as stated in official guidance
• All surfaces will be cleaned with hospital-grade EPA-approved disinfectants
• Special care will be paid to high touch areas, such as light switches and door handles and TV controllers, etc.
• Dining tables and breakfast bars will no longer be set, all dishes will be washed and put away
• Throws and cushions will be washed and put away in closets
• Staff will wear new gloves when handling disinfected items
• Strict waste removal processes
• Handwash and extra soap will be left for each guest arrival
• Cleaning spray and cloths will also be left in the property for guest use
• All our staff will enact strict social distancing rules

We have introduced a new cleaning checklist to help our staff adjust to the new cleaning procedures and embed the new practices.  We are happy to share this with you on request.

Our pre-arrival home inspections are continuing, so you can be sure that your vacation property meets your expectations.  These will be conducted by staff wearing the appropriate PPE and sanitising door handles, light switches, etc. as they go.

New virtual processes for safe, socially distanced contact with our team

In addition to the new cleaning regime, we have also made some changes to the way we communicate with our guests.

We have now switched to a virtual meet and greet process.  You simply need to schedule a welcome call with our team at a post-arrival time to suit you and we will talk you through all the great features of your rental home over a virtual team meeting.

We’re also shifting all first responses to maintenance issues to a virtual system.  This means we can troubleshoot issues with you over a virtual video call, rather than coming out to the property.  Many issues will be resolved over this video chat.

For those issues that do require a visit to your vacation home to resolve, our staff will be enforcing strict social distancing rules.  We ask that you help them to do this and remain at least two metres (six feet) away from them at all times.

While there is no evidence that COVID-19 can be spread through pools or hot tubs, our staff will use clean gloves whenever they are conducting maintenance in these areas.

Please help us to keep you safe

Please respect our staff if they do need to visit your property and remain the safe distance away at all times.

It is important that you also strictly adhere to the standard check out time of 10am.  Prompt guest checkouts are vital if we are going to maintain these higher cleaning standards for all our guests.  They also play an important role in enabling us to ensure a 72-hour vacant period before check-in for our guests.

If you know that you are likely to want a late checkout, this must be booked and paid for in advance.  Please show consideration to our team and the guests that follow you by checking out promptly.

Thank you for consideration.  We look forward to hosting you in Florida soon.

I’m always surprised just how much creativity and ingenuity is required in the day-to-day life of a property manager.  That’s one of the reasons we enjoy our work so much here at Ellis Exclusive Villas – not one day is the same.

Part of our job is to keep the properties top notch so that we make sure that they are going to attract the most bookings. Repurposing an under-used room into a fun kids’ bedroom is all in a day’s work!

My sister Sonya had some inspired creative thinking to create these fun accents out of a few bits she had lying around.  They look great in this Mickey Mouse themed children’s bedroom.  There’s definitely a Mickey theme without it being a too full-on mouse overload!

Both ideas are really simple.  First, she covered an old piece of hardboard with some quilting foam and some black spotty fabric using just glue and a staple gun.

Second, she updated an old picture frame which she spray-painted black to match the other (fabric) accent.  She stretched an old Mickey Mouse tshirt over a rectangle of cardboard and inserted it into frame (replacing the tired old floral picture it used to house).  I think they look fab.

Framing an old tshirt is a great idea I plan to steal for in my own home (thanks Sonya!).  How good would an old college shirt look framed on the wall of an office?  Thinking back to the optimism of my college self would help me get inspired by some great memories every day…

I hope Sonya’s handiwork inspires you too… we’d love to see your own creative projects if it does!  Please share them below.