I am tired of RUDE villa guests!!!

Jac · Post by **Jac** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 10:33 am

We also try to leave gifts for the villa, even if it is not something elegant. I try to plan ahead and bring something I'd like to find. The last trip (with huge family) I brought along two sets of the plastic icepop forms (the kind you pour juice into and freeze for the kids). For our next trip (back to our favorite villa) we've already decided it needs a crossword puzzle dictionary and I'm deciding between a pepper grinder or a mandoline.

LysaC · Post by **LysaC** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 11:29 am

We always end up leaving alcohol of some kind. Our eyes are always bigger than our livers.

Last time it was just hubby and I and we left a bottle of Chocolate Banana Liqueur, Vodka and some kind of rum.
We bought waaaayy too much for just the two of us.

jakester · Post by **jakester** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 12:19 pm

It's tough renting out your "Dream House" and seeing people not take care of it to the degree that you would. We have rented for about 15 years and always, always leave the villa spotless. WE think of St. John as our own little piece of heaven and we think of ourselves being so lucky to visit every year. I couldn't imagine trashing a villa or taking extensive showers or not reporting a broken item to the home owner or agent. My husband is a plumber and when we go he always takes channel locks and a shower head - just in case there's a bad shower or a leak. Weird I know. I think we view our vacations in St. John as more than just renting a place for a couple of weeks.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 12:57 pm

We never leave anything, nor do we ever take anything. Hubby often fixes something while there, but that's it.

It makes me sick to think that people would be careless or inconsiderate towards the property they are renting. And the thought of taking things and stealing, I just don't get that. But it doesn't surprise me, just saddens me.

So much thought, money, and time are put into these villas by the owners. We've all enjoyed the Bongo Bongo blog, I've been educated in how much the owners really care. Not to mention the costs of putting together "beautiful pieces of paradise" for us to partake of. We will continue to take care of whatever villa we are lucky enough to enjoy for a week, maybe this time we'll do something extra.

Jan (aka Charlie)
67 days till wheels up

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 12:59 pm

Whoops! I didn't mean to sign in as a guest, I'll try this again!

Jan (aka Charlie)

Owner too · Post by **Owner too** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 2:26 pm

We are also a villa owner. We have had both great renters and nightmares. We had one renter leave 20 bags of trash in the house another moved the a mattress into the livingroom and another left ALL our beach towels at the beach. I could go on and on with things stolen and broken. The security deposit helps but sometimes it is more the hassle which is just rude and unfair to the next guest and cleaning folks.
However, the one that really bugs me are the renters who will bad mouth the house to the booking company in order to get a refund or discount on next years rental. We had a family rave about our house the entire time during their stay to our property manager. Never heard a single complaint but then trashed us in the booking companies survey. It's just unfair and petty.

However, we did have one family that left the house in exactly the shape the found it. The cleaning crew barely did a thing.There is an unofficial black list out there with bad renters. Thus, renters beware!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 2:29 pm

Disgruntled Villa Owners..

Is now a good time to sell your villas? .

Will you also be stressed when your property taxes DOUBLE within the next year?

Email your buyout price, and I will try to relieve your stress.

olockhart@gmail.com

Bluwater · Post by **Bluwater** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 10:20 pm

For everyone who wants to own one...perhaps the current owners on here can fill us in.

I have heard this from owners and agents "Villas operate at a loss"....

Meaning..the cost to maintain the villa, utilities, housekeepers, insurance, etc is more than the rental income. Unless the deal is really good when you bought it (hurricane damaged home that you can rebuild yourself), you will lose money on it year after year.

I hear that people still buy them for tax write-offs and becuase of their dream to own one and have a place to go of their own.

Is it true?

Bob & Anita · Post by **Bob & Anita** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 12:08 am

Bluwater wrote:For everyone who wants to own one...perhaps the current owners on here can fill us in.

I have heard this from owners and agents "Villas operate at a loss"....

Meaning..the cost to maintain the villa, utilities, housekeepers, insurance, etc is more than the rental income. Unless the deal is really good when you bought it (hurricane damaged home that you can rebuild yourself), you will lose money on it year after year.

I hear that people still buy them for tax write-offs and becuase of their dream to own one and have a place to go of their own.

Is it true?

We've roughly gone through the numbers of the annual costs (mortgage, taxes, maintenance, cleaners and other monthly costs, etc. - doubtful we captured all costs) versus expected "net" rental income. Just using rough numbers we determined that the rental income would cover at best about half of the annual costs. We think someone would only buy a villa to enjoy it themselves when they could, rent it out to recoup some of their costs and then hope to gain some appreciation on their investment when it comes time to sell.

Bluwater · Post by **Bluwater** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 12:13 am

Thank you Bob & Anita (are you Bob or Anita??) - smile

I wish you the best in making your dream come true!!I get the sense that this will happen for you.

liamsaunt · Post by **liamsaunt** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 11:02 am

John and I picked up some paperwork and looked at the numbers for purchasing when we were there in June, just out of curiousity. We thought that when you factor in everything--all the utilities, the insurances, the taxes, the cost of the villa rep, water, pest control, gardener, housekeeping, maintenance, etc...we could not see how you would come close to breaking even from renting it out, in fact far from it.

We wondered if many people who buy are planning to retire down there at some point and it's a way to lock in a price before they get even more outrageous (if that is possible). It doesn't come across as a profitable investment, that's for sure!

jmarstonpa · Post by **jmarstonpa** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 8:12 pm

There is no question that, if you 'do it right', you will operate at a loss. By 'do it right', I mean keep the villa properly maintained, upgrade regularly, in short, treat it like a beloved home. When we bought, our villa manager (from whom we had rented) was almost brutally honest about what we were in for, financially, for which we were grateful, and we went in with eyes wide open. It is, in short, a labor of love. We love it when we go; we try to go more each year, and yes, perhaps, if things go right, we hope to use it several months a year eventually. Meanwhile, the beauty of the villa, the endless view of the sea, the flowers, and, of course, the island provide lots and lots of psychic income. And when we aren:t there, we live vicariously through our guests. (By the way, reading this thread was a shocker -- we have been very fortunate in our guests, who have treated our home very tenderly and regularly keep the liquor cabinet filled! Any damage has clearly been inadvertant, and anyone can forget they have suntan lotion on when they use the towels.... especially if you are on vacation!

bert · Post by **bert** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 8:58 pm

If you live on island and self-manage your villa, you can make a profit. That means doing your own maintenance, landscaping, booking, advertising, greeting and orientation, over seeing the cleaners, responding to crisis calls (e.g., broken blenders), etc. If you use a villa management service (which you must if you live off island), it is much more difficult to turn a profit with 20% - 30% going to the management services.

peace.... bert

Bob & Anita · Post by **Bob & Anita** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 10:30 pm

jmarstonpa wrote:There is no question that, if you 'do it right', you will operate at a loss. By 'do it right', I mean keep the villa properly maintained, upgrade regularly, in short, treat it like a beloved home. When we bought, our villa manager (from whom we had rented) was almost brutally honest about what we were in for, financially, for which we were grateful, and we went in with eyes wide open. It is, in short, a labor of love. We love it when we go; we try to go more each year, and yes, perhaps, if things go right, we hope to use it several months a year eventually. Meanwhile, the beauty of the villa, the endless view of the sea, the flowers, and, of course, the island provide lots and lots of psychic income. And when we aren:t there, we live vicariously through our guests. (By the way, reading this thread was a shocker -- we have been very fortunate in our guests, who have treated our home very tenderly and regularly keep the liquor cabinet filled! Any damage has clearly been inadvertant, and anyone can forget they have suntan lotion on when they use the towels.... especially if you are on vacation!

You true life experience confirmed what our "back-of-the-envelope" calculations told us. We still have a dream of owning on STJ some day and using rental income to help defer some of the costs so that it possible that we could own a vacation home in paradise for our periodic pleasure. Hopefully Bob's company will go public someday and and his stock options will be worth enough to make that dream come true. For now, we continue to dream and visit STJ as often as we can.

Berlingirl · Post by **Berlingirl** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 11:55 pm

NEVER rented a villa anywhere before. Hope to do so someday. However, we've stayed at a number of different condos at Secret Harbour on STT and have stayed a Gallows on STJ back a few years ago (will add that was prior to the recent rate increases which would necessitate the robbery of a loaded Brinks truck on a Friday morning so we'd be able to afford it now...)

I can say from those experiences we do have, we have ALWAYS treated the places as our "own". I can't imagine anybody knowingly abusing others property. We leave assorted dishes, wine and champagne glasses, baskets...etc. That along with a decent daily trip for housekeeping is our contribution. (We give even more generously upon check-out at the front desk...LOL

)

Interesting thread...don't know what happened to set off Villa owner, but feel bad about his dream not working out. For us, it's merely a brief passing daydream and short at that. We have a recently acquired rental property here that has about busted us...LOL, tenant lost his job...I could go on and on, but it's seriously too sad.

We are SO NOT cut out to do that job. And we know we couldn't begin to do it (much less afford it) 3 thousand miles away.

Anyway, about our only chance of us getting in the villa action in the USVI is hoping Bob and Anita hit it big and let us know about their coming IPO...could use a little insider action I think...LOL

Hope it works out for them anyway!

usvi-on-line