Vacation decision time ?
By Sonja van der Drift
A wonderful decision indeed, however, you must have thousands of questions such as, “Where does one start as Caribbean vacation villa rentals increased in popularity and has led to hundreds of thousands of properties listed online”
At BlueOceanVillas we try to simplify the process for you.
First and foremost, you need to ask yourself, “Is a St Martin vacation villa rental something for me?”
Belair Beach, St Maarten. Picture courtesy of Binkie
Start by visiting some of the Caribbean vacation villa rental sites like www.blueoceanvillas.com and narrow down the Island of St Maarten that appeal to you most and what you can expect to find there.
There are websites out there by owners of these properties, like VBRO and FlipKey. However, we are actively involved in the decision-making process as we are available if something would go wrong with your villa rental.
There are so travel websites on the Internet for vacation villa rentals, but the smaller ones are specialized specifically to your destination. Secondly, the ones specialized for your destination have personal and local knowledge and are familiar with the properties they are renting out.
Find your dream vacation villa rental
Start planning your summer vacation early in the year and search for early booking discounts. Sometimes securing a property early could save you money. like the 7th night free or 10 % discount.
Know what you want
Do you want to bring the kids, friends or family, is the house save for children ? Is the property on a steep hillside ?
Waiting until last moment
Difficult call, as supply outweighs demand as once we getting closer to high season and keep in mind the cost of the airfare. Wintertime in St Maarten, St Martin and St Barth is always packed and in high demand. Now, this is not true the low season, you will find great savings on your vacation rental.
Decisions, decisions ……
It’s never too soon to book a vacation villa rental in St Maarten ! Look at property details, make sure the property is in good shape or call BlueOceanVillas directly.
Finding out who you’re renting from. Most villa rental agencies have an excellent reputation, but you never know.
Check if there is local representation on the Island, because what do you need to do if your air conditioning brakes. Is there a property manager that you can call ? As for any villa you rent from BlueOceanVillas local property managers are available.
Swimming pool at Villa Chianti, Pointe Pirouette, St Maarten
Keep in mind that everybody in your travel group needs its space, so small villas will not work.
Reviewing your rental contract and ask questions if you are confused. Flexibility, remember you’re renting a St Maarten villa this is the Caribbean, things are handled different in these parts of the world and we know it has its challenges. Power, water and internet outages are typical. We deal with it every day and it is out of our control unfortunately, but guess what the reward at the end is wonderful……
Finally, keep in mind there are several travel agencies out there and some of them are very good business friends of us and we also know a lot of them personally. We can not speak for the all the sites out there that cover every single island in the world. It is very hard to believe that they have local knowledge, but we for sure do !
We have lived and worked on this island for over 20 years and some of you have met me at one point in the Oyster Pond office.
With the warmest regards,
Sonja
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