Off- Property Accomodation Deals?

Planning a bonus trip in March because we had a Southwest airfare credit to use. Now I am tasked with finding an affordable 1 bedroom villa for 4 during Spring Break. Any advice? I’m looking at Sheraton Vistana, Blue Heron… something under $150/night. I don’t want to end up at a sketchy timeshare, and the photos can be misleading.

WBC. You can rent through here for cheap.

http://vacationupgrades.com/pricing.html

Someone on here recommended the Wyndham at Bonnet Creek Vacation Rentals through Vacation Strategy. I got a quote for a 1 Bedroom Deluxe, May 6-13, 2020 for $759. But it doesn’t have Disney Perks. :frowning_face: But I believe it doesn’t have a parking or resort fee.

Correct, no parking fees.
Very convenient to the parks too (it’s next to CBR), and lots of pools, lazy river, etc.

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Thanks for providing the liner link!

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We usually book our stays doing condo or house rentals through Homeaway.com.

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Yes, we did a video review and tour of this resort. We stayed In June 2019 with a family of 6, including our daughter who uses a wheelchair. We booked through Tripbound on VRBO. When you book that way, you are a guest of the condo owner, so they won’t bother you about a timeshare presentation.

Loved this resort, and will stay again!

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I can vouch for vacationupgrades.com also, we rented through them twice and both times great stays with no problems. The first time, they even reduced our cost by dropping and then picking up our reservation again less then 2 months out (after temporarily holding an alternate room and confirming I was ok with taking the risk). You need a car but WBC is very close to parks.

Check out the Mousesavers preferred hotels:

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Not sure I understand - were they simply rebooking? How could you lose your room?

Given proximity, could you get away with just ride share rather than renting a car?

We stayed at the Sheraton Vistana this past Summer through my parents timeshare and I really enjoyed it. It’s clean, lots of space, there are several large pools. It’s down the block from a Publix, so we did an Instacart order and since I had a rental car we just picked up the groceries ourselves.

Yes, they cancelled and rebooked my reservation at a lower rate, I’m guessing because it was inside 60 days, but it was 5 years ago. If they didn’t get my res back we would have had to change rooms mid-stay but it all worked out. We stayed again one year ago. Uber/Lyft would be perfect for WBC if you didn’t want to rent a car. Their shuttle cost per ride and left from one location far from our building, so was not practical for us.

This summer I was pricing Wyndham BC villas and Vacation Strategy’s quote for that resort lost out to WBC listings I found on VRBO.

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I suppose it is worth mentioning that HomeAway and VRBO are one and the same entity. They used to be different, years ago, but they the same company now. So you can get to them through either homeaway.com or vrbo.com. Same properties are available either way.

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But if you can find it in Floridarentals.com you can still bypass the agency and get the same house for less.

I found the same house on three sites and by going through flordiarentals I got it for 60% of what was offered elsewhere.

We’ve stayed twice at Sheraton Vistana Villages and it was exactly as advertised.

I think this is for @Copasopey

I rented a condo a few years back through Homeaway. The owner of the condo let me know that if I booked through their private website rather that Homeaway, I could get a cheaper price. I compared, and it was true.

However, it was when I read the fine print that I decided to stick to Homeaway. For example, the cancellation policy through Homeaway was far more forgiving. There are some other protections Homeaway provided as well.

So I decided I’d rather pay a little extra through Homeaway for those added protections. Of course, each condo/rental owner will have their own rules that may or may not match what Homeaway has.

Interesting.
I’ve always had better conditions without the umbrella companies.
Good to dig deeply in all directions if time allows and always read the small print. :+1: