My experience with Caribbean Villas!

[Marcia (Mrs. Pete)]

Thank you for asking about our 5% service charge. I will take this opportunity to answer your question.

There are several companies on St. John that do have a 5% service charge. To name a few: Suite St. John, St. John Ultimate Villas, stjohnvillas.us, along with several wholesalers. Other companies have other operating fees such as non-refundable security deposit waivers and/or booking fees. Every management company on St. John or elsewhere has operating expenses and these types of fees cover these types of costs.

Caribbean Villas both markets and manages properties on the island of St. John and Tortola. For the homes we market we are obligated to charge the same rates and fees that the island managers require. For the homes we manage these homes are located all over the island of St. John and each villa has different operating costs and expenses associated with check-ins, cleaning costs, supplies, staff, etc.

Every business whether it is located on St. John or in the Continental US has their own business model and it is up to them to decide how to operate their business. These decisions are well thought out and implemented accordingly. When a company does this hopefully the company will be a success. We understand not everyone will agree with our policies and procedures but it would be our hope they would respect them.

Diane
Caribbean Villas

Thank you for piping in here. I've always wondered about something and it's good to go to the source, so to speak.

We have rented through CV in the past and other agencies, as well. I have no issue with CV other than the 5% charge. Many villas are available through more than one agency, at the same price. Except, CV charges an extra 5%.

Please explain to me, why I would rent villa XYZ through you, versus renting the exact same villa, through another agency that has no fee? Do you offer special services?

Thank you.

[Gromit]

Petepie- I think you've got that exactly right. At least that's the impression I have been left with over the years of renting from various agencies.

[dctac]

petepie wrote
The owner is ultimately the one who decides what gets repaired or not, by who, when, and makes decisions on upgrading furnishings, providing towels etc. I think the key is to try to find a mgmt company that has a good working relationship with their owners and holds the owners to keeping the house to a certain standard.

What p pie wrote is pretty much correct. The 5% i'm sure is a way to increase revenue to pay for (I would think) overhead in the rental company that they can offer quality services, It's hard to please both sides when there is a dispute. We've found , sometimes it's better to satisfy the tenant and not deal with the negotiations. If it is a problem property we normally drop it. Any quality rental company will put the $ towards making the tenant right when they are dealing with a situation where the owner is not the best or hard to deal with, We drop problem rentals if they don't meet our standard's in service.

The internet is a double edge sword......
The rental company has a contract to rent the property and be sure it is not abused by the tenants,but it also has a legal contract to ensure that if a problem does occur.
Bottom line is greed sucks.................

[Margy Z]

Dctac – that’s what I was getting a in my previous post. To me, it’s a customer service issue. The management company charges the owner for their services to manage the property but they also earn a commission for the rental. Assuming they represent more than one property I would think it is in their best interests to take care of the renter to the extent they are able to do so and have them rent through their company again or give them a good recommendation or review. If that means stocking some extra towels or beach chairs to hand out when needed or sending their maintenance people out to solve a problem for the renter on their own dime then I would think that works better for them in the long run than standing back claiming the property owner is cheap or difficult to work with and that their hands are tied. There’s a way to do it that doesn’t involve bashing the villa’s owner or sharing the back story of maintenance problems at the villa that the owner won’t let them resolve – a way to do it that will leave the guest with a favorable impression of the management company, if not that particular villa which, after all, the renter himself chose and, after being there for a time now knows they will not return. I think that the management company is not doing their job for the owner, either, if they don’t try to educate the owner and help them have a successful rental by taking care of maintenance issues and stocking what’s needed for the guest. But I think some management companies assume that the renters will return to them if they just do a Pontius Pilate and blame the owners – that’s certainly easier for them and they don’t have to extend themselves or eat into their profit on the rental. Been through a few of those - won't rent through them again.

[PA Girl]

Dctac – that’s what I was getting a in my previous post. To me, it’s a customer service issue. The management company charges the owner for their services to manage the property but they also earn a commission for the rental. Assuming they represent more than one property I would think it is in their best interests to take care of the renter to the extent they are able to do so and have them rent through their company again or give them a good recommendation or review. If that means stocking some extra towels or beach chairs to hand out when needed or sending their maintenance people out to solve a problem for the renter on their own dime then I would think that works better for them in the long run than standing back claiming the property owner is cheap or difficult to work with and that their hands are tied. There’s a way to do it that doesn’t involve bashing the villa’s owner or sharing the back story of maintenance problems at the villa that the owner won’t let them resolve – a way to do it that will leave the guest with a favorable impression of the management company, if not that particular villa which, after all, the renter himself chose and, after being there for a time now knows they will not return. I think that the management company is not doing their job for the owner, either, if they don’t try to educate the owner and help them have a successful rental by taking care of maintenance issues and stocking what’s needed for the guest. But I think some management companies assume that the renters will return to them if they just do a Pontius Pilate and blame the owners – that’s certainly easier for them and they don’t have to extend themselves or eat into their profit on the rental. Been through a few of those - won't rent through them again.

Amen! Here I go bitching about the towels (it was so much more than the towels, honestly) again but that is exactly what my husband said to (management company)- Why don't you have a stack of standard issue beach towels to hand out when the prior tenants stole/left the others go missing? Work it out with the owners later (or not) just stop passing the buck.

That was a $10,500 week rental, give or take a few bucks. This past trip, I would not even have considered that agency again because it was all "its not our faulty, the owners won't do this and that."

This year, we rented a comparablely priced house directly from the owners.

[PSUWethr]

Wow...what a discussion. No one deserved to be treated that way and I am sorry you had such a bad experience. Do the actual villa owners knew what happened and have your side of the story? If not, is there any way to talk to them. It is hard for property owners to always know what is going on at their house. You get and pay the bills, but sometimes you don't always know if the bug guy actually showed up, if the landscaping got done, if the repairs are being made. I know my parents have a great property manager that passes along all the information and she personally checks the house before and after every rental. They also get a detailed report of what has been used so everything is always stocked and my mom is always buying and sending down tons of bath and beach towels, toiletries and other necessities so the guests always have all they need. (Since the beach towels always get so gross, my parents villa always have at least 3 beach towels out per person, and more are always available).


Again...sorry you had such a sucky experience. I hope youget reimbursed for your troubles!

[petepie]

Ok, so building on this thread -- which villa management companies have pretty consistent standards for their properties? In other words, you don't have to fear that even if you rented a great house one year, you might a real dump the next. Not talking about features or luxury vs. low-budget -- more about maintenance, cleanliness, etc.

[promoguy]

Thank you for asking about our 5% service charge. I will take this opportunity to answer your question.

There are several companies on St. John that do have a 5% service charge. To name a few: Suite St. John, St. John Ultimate Villas, stjohnvillas.us, along with several wholesalers. Other companies have other operating fees such as non-refundable security deposit waivers and/or booking fees. Every management company on St. John or elsewhere has operating expenses and these types of fees cover these types of costs.

Caribbean Villas both markets and manages properties on the island of St. John and Tortola. For the homes we market we are obligated to charge the same rates and fees that the island managers require. For the homes we manage these homes are located all over the island of St. John and each villa has different operating costs and expenses associated with check-ins, cleaning costs, supplies, staff, etc.

Every business whether it is located on St. John or in the Continental US has their own business model and it is up to them to decide how to operate their business. These decisions are well thought out and implemented accordingly. When a company does this hopefully the company will be a success. We understand not everyone will agree with our policies and procedures but it would be our hope they would respect them.

Diane
Caribbean Villas

I have rented numerous times from Suite St John, both at Lavender Hill and numerous times at Gallows. I have NEVER PAID an additional 5 pct.

[JerseyDad]

Rent from VRBO and you won't pay a service charge no matter who is the management company.

[JT]

Windspree doesn't charge additional fees and we always have more towels then we could possibly use, loads of beach chairs, and great service. CV's 5 percent fee was a deal breaker for us years ago,mainly because they were sneaky about it.

[surfnh]

well, this is funny, I find myself defending CV again, maybe I'm feeling sorry for them? ...but the bottom line issue is, what is the total cost for a villa rented through CV when compared to similarly equiped villas rented through other agencies. I don't have the exact answer to that one, but we have shopped around and the price we were paying never seemed higher than other villas that were similar. The 5% was never hidden from us, its right in their quotes.

We've always had clean sheets, tons of beach towels, lots of beach chairs (new ones this year), etc, etc. CV has also gone beyond the call of duty at times....some examples:

1. One year we ran out of water, it took over 24 hours to get the water truck to our villa. CV cut us a check for 2 days rental fee before I even mentioned it.

2. One year our two blenders in the kitchen both died. Now that's about the biggest emergency I could imagine! I got to the CV office, they had like a stack of blenders in their back room and gave us a new one immediately. Seems this is a common problem, and they were totally prepared.

3. One year I felt the villa was getting old and made a list of things I thought needed to be fixed....told CV we wouldn't come back unless it got updated, and I requested to speak to the owner. They put me in direct contact with the owner, who agreed, put alot of cash into the villa that year, and asked us to please come back and check it out. CV didn't hide the owner but made us and them part of the process of improvement.

4. This year we had internet problems. Complained to CV, immediately got a call back from their technical dude, who helped us troubleshoot it over the phone....we didn't want to wait to meet him at the villa, we wanted beach time, so this worked out perfectly.

I could go on and on. Villas have issues, just like our own homes. CV has always responded well for us. Things aren't black and white, we have to be careful to see both sides.

[Pickle]

Regarding Caribbean Villas' 5% service charge, we don't mind paying it for renting villas that they manage, as long as the total costs are comparable to the same type of villas other companies offer, and as long as we get sufficient services from CV. (I understand the annoyance of the fee and wish it were just included in the villa price in the first place.) That said, we do feel odd paying CV the 5% service charge for renting villas they don't actually manage.

CV has an extensive list of villas on their website but not all of them are managed by them. The villa we rented for this past trip was listed on a few different websites including CV's. We rented it through a different company and ended up avoiding the 5% service charge (the base costs of renting the villa are the same). We asked the company upfront if they would charge the 5% fee like CV does and if CV was the property manager. They said "no" to both questions. They didn't even charge us a booking fee, which is a common fee to charge among many other companies. Same as CV, they don't manage the villa we rented either, but told us who does and we would be dealing with the actual management co. once we were on island. It worked out fine. We could even use our credit card to pay (CV doesn't take credit cards), which is our preferred method of payment since we earn mileage from it.

In case villa-renting newbies don't realize this... if you are reluctant to pay the 5% service charge, a little research might help you avoid the fee, like it did for us, though it doesn't "always" work out that way. As for the villas listed only on CV's website, I imagine you have to rent them from CV.

Speaking strictly from our personal experiences, we've never had a bad experience with CV - though I may add that when we started visiting St. John about 10 years ago, we were renting exclusively from CV, and we feel they provided us more personal services back then... to be honest with you.

[nothintolose]

We rented Seawatch through CV's a few summers ago and knew about the 5% fee but the villa rental fee was low enough that it kind of balanced out.

The company itself was fine to deal with, but we did come home to the find the landscapers drinking our beer and sitting on the deck. The kitchen at Seawatch is in it's own outdoor pod that we didn't bother to think to lock up.

We also had leaks in one of the pods but just stuck buckets under the leaks as they was nothing under where the leaks were.

[Jo Ann - VA]

The company itself was fine to deal with, but we did come home to the find the landscapers drinking our beer and sitting on the deck.

Are you kidding?

[Marcia (Mrs. Pete)]

Regarding Caribbean Villas' 5% service charge, we don't mind paying it for renting villas that they manage, as long as the total costs are comparable to the same type of villas other companies offer, and as long as we get sufficient services from CV. (I understand the annoyance of the fee and wish it were just included in the villa price in the first place.) That said, we do feel odd paying CV the 5% service charge for renting villas they don't actually manage.

CV has an extensive list of villas on their website but not all of them are managed by them. The villa we rented for this past trip was listed on a few different websites including CV's. We rented it through a different company and ended up avoiding the 5% service charge (the base costs of renting the villa are the same). We asked the company upfront if they would charge the 5% fee like CV does and if CV was the property manager. They said "no" to both questions. They didn't even charge us a booking fee, which is a common fee to charge among many other companies. Same as CV, they don't manage the villa we rented either, but told us who does and we would be dealing with the actual management co. once we were on island. It worked out fine. We could even use our credit card to pay (CV doesn't take credit cards), which is our preferred method of payment since we earn mileage from it.

In case villa-renting newbies don't realize this... if you are reluctant to pay the 5% service charge, a little research might help you avoid the fee, like it did for us, though it doesn't "always" work out that way. As for the villas listed only on CV's website, I imagine you have to rent them from CV.

Speaking strictly from our personal experiences, we've never had a bad experience with CV - though I may add that when we started visiting St. John about 10 years ago, we were renting exclusively from CV, and we feel they provided us more personal services back then... to be honest with you.

EXACTLY on point with what I'm asking CV to respond to. Where did that person go? I'm so curious on these issues.