Renting A Vacation House With Friends

The Perks Of Owning A Vacation Rental

First up: The good stuff. There are obviously many advantages to owning a vacation rental, or millions of people wouldnt do it. Its why platforms like Airbnb and VRBO have grown exponentially over the last decade. Its probably why youre reading this article in the first place.

Lets look at a few of those perks now:

Make Time For Family In Richmond Hill

Richmond Hill has plenty to keep you entertained. If youre traveling with kids, the skateboard park, baseball diamonds, and inline skating trail at Richmond Green Sports Center are guaranteed to bring a smile. Keep the fun factor at maximum pace by paying a visit to Canadas largest public pool, the Wave Pool on Hopkins Street, where features include a thrilling water slide with translucent sections and rainbow effects. One of the most eye-catching landmarks in the area is the David Dunlap Observatory, home to one of the biggest telescopes in the world.

Inside The Beach House

Inside the house, Lisa Nass Grabelle likes a good kitchen stocked with everything she needs for cooking and eating: Pots, pans, dishware and cooking and eating utensils.

Use travel spice tins like these to take your familys favorite flavors wherever you go.

Totarolikes to have a nice, big living room or family room where everyone can gather. We often rent a house with friends and want space where we can congregate.

But there can be too much togetherness even on vacation. So Wagaralso likes to have enough space for the family to crash out at the end of the day. For kids and adults me time is just as important on vacation as family time.

Totaroalso does an inventory of bathrooms to make sure there are for all the adults and kids that will be there.

Just about every mom said they like to see a washer/dryer to freshen up towels and bathing suits.

I like to have a place outside or at least where there is sunlight to hang bathing suits and towels to dry.

Wifi is essential for most families, for evening and rainy day entertainment and keeping up with work.

I like to see a DVD player. Its handy for kids on rainy days or to unwind post-beach. Also, if you have small kids who go to bed early this is an opportunity to catch up on your movies.

You can also bring your or Roku stick for easy access to your Netflix or Prime videos

Butterfield appreciates it when the owners leave beach towels as well as linens for the house.

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Option : Splitting Vacation Rental Expenses By Room

The simplest way to split a three-family vacation rental is in thirds, of course, even if each family is a different size. This works if everyone is pretty relaxed about money. You can offer other compensation to make things fair, such as giving the single traveler/smallest family the master bedroom.

And if theyre not so relaxed? One method is to treat the beach house like a hotel and have everyone pay a nightly rate per room. So, in the example above, the nightly room rate would be $107. Sister A, with the three kids, would pay around $1500 for using two rooms. Sister B, with no kids, would pay $750. And sister C, whos staying for five days, would pay $535. Easy, right?

But whos going to pay the remaining $215 for the two nights sister Cs bedroom is empty? And will sister A agree to pay fully half the cost of the beach house just because her family is the largest? This is harder than it looks.

The Ideal Beach House Location

At the top of everyones list was a location on or near the beach.

My rule of thumb is that if the house isnt beachfront I would prefer to not have to cross a road to get to and from the beach, especially if you have kids old enough to be coming and going on their own a bit.

More Planning Tools:Our Road-Trip Check list

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Navigating Friends And Family Using Your Vacation Rental

Owning a vacation home can mean a lot of things. It can mean a place to escape off to during the holidays and a place you can rent out to supplement your income. It can also mean another mortgage, more repairs, and, sometimes, inviting and sharing with family and friends.

Imagine getting a call from a distant relative, asking you if they can use your beautiful beach home during 4th of July weekend. Youre torn you want to share your home with your family but you also want to generate income on one of the most popular beach weekends of the summer.

Theres a bit of a gray area when it comes to letting your friends and family use your rental home for free or even a discounted rate. It can be uncomfortable telling your cousin to pay your full nightly rate for the weekend they want to use your rental or to tell a sibling they cant use your home at all.

When you have a beautiful vacation home, sometimes you want to share it with everyone you know. Its an invitation for family vacations, events, or reunions.

Here are 5 tips to help you when renting to your friends or family. These are items that wont only protect your relationship they will protect your property and those renting your home.

Use a Rental AgreementThis may seem like a no-brainer, but many people forget this aspect when it comes to people they know using their vacation rental. Thoughts like, Ill skip the agreement because I know them. If anything happens, Ill just talk to them, may creep into your mind.

Scheduling And House Rules For A Shared Vacation House

Because only one owner uses the home at a time, scheduling is an important issue for a fractional home, particularly if the home is likely to be most popular during one season or time of year .

Your group can use any system that works for you. A typical scheduling method is to assign certain weeks or months to each owner every year. You can use the same schedule every yearâsome groups even include these dates in the deed or other recorded real estate documentâor you can rotate or otherwise change the dates each year.

If you want less formality and more spontaneity, you can simply sign up when you want to use the house, and pay the group based on the number of days you use it. At the end of the year, if the payments exceed the annual costs, then owners divide the surplus. If the amount falls short of the annual costs, each owner chips in extra money to cover the deficit. Of course, this method risks disputes when owners want to use the home at the same time. You could require owners to sign up well in advance, or perhaps rotate the most popular months or weeks, to solve this problem.

Your group should come up with rules about what kinds of alterations can be made on the property, whether there is a fixed decorative scheme, whether pets are allowed, whether there’s a limit on the number of guests, and so on.

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Who Gets Which Weekends And Holidays

People buying a home together should ask themselves if all parties plan on being there at the same time, or alternate in using it, since vacation homes generally have a prime time of only a few months.

Usually, everybody wants to go at the same timelike over school breaks, says broker Cara Ameer. Not talking about this beforehand can lead to everyone showing up on the same daywhich is not exactly the relaxing vacation home of your dreams.

If you decide to split, work out a yearly schedule well in advance and consider rotating who gets major holiday weekends. Agree that changes and swaps can be made only with the permission of all parties.

Large Rentals For A Group That Likes To Party

If you’re looking for a rental that can keep a crowd occupied for hours, check out the possibilities in Las Vegas and along the Florida coast. Both areas welcome visitors of all ages and during all seasons, but they offer more than flashy rooms in casino hotels and cozy condos by the beach. You can treat your small army to a different side of Vegas with a large home featuring an outdoor pool and hot tub. Roomy properties in the city often come with games rooms, home theaters, and saunas, too. In Florida, you can find rentals with similar features, plus sea breezes and ocean views.

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You Need To Market It And Find Guests

Theres no if-you-build-it-they-will-come strategy here. You need to:

• list your home on all the top rental platforms,
• optimize your listings to appeal to the right audience,
• fill the home with comfortable and on-trend furnishings and decor, and
• most importantly, price the property just right for the market its in.

You might even need to run occasional discounts and promotions in order to fill the home during seasonal lulls.

Should I Send A Friend To Inspect My Rental

Yes, if you can. If you are staying in an area to visit friends, ask them to contact the owner or management company, and inspect the property before you rent. If the unit is unoccupied, theres a good chance theyll be able to do a quick inspection. This can even result in a lower price since the owner/management company will know the local can refer future customers.

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Why Travel Insurance Is Crucial For Multi

If youre planning a domestic vacation with multiple family members and/or friends, you need a travel insurance plan with two key benefits: trip cancellation and trip interruption.

These benefits can save your budget in case you must cancel the trip or cut it short due to a covered reason. Heres one example: A few days before the trip, what if your daughter becomes seriously ill and is hospitalized? Of course, you decide to stay home and care for her but your other relatives are still going on vacation, and youll be on the hook for your share of the rental costs. If you have trip cancellation benefits, you can be reimbursed for your pre-paid, nonrefundable trip costs when you must cancel for a covered reason.

Trip cancellation insurance doesnt have to be expensive. If youre traveling within the U.S., and your main concern is protecting your financial investment, consider the affordable OneTrip Cancellation Plus plan. Get a quote to see which plan best fits your vacation budget.

Now, whats the best way to split those vacation costs?

Charge Your Friends And Family The Cleaning Fee

You want to charge them the cleaning fee, and heres the reason why. If theyre paying for something, theyre going to be more respectful of your space.

If you give them everything for free, including the cleaning, they might treat you like family. They might move in on top of you and leave all their stuff lying about, and food left out on the counters, and what have you. They might break something expensive, like a tv.

Then youve got this horrendous mess that you have to clean up, and theyve paid you nothing for it. So you might say, We dont do our own cleaning. We hire that out. Weve got to pay that either way, so thats nonnegotiable. There are strings attached because that prevents you from being taken advantage of as a host. It also prevents you from being taken advantage of as a house cleaner.

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Resale Issues For Shared Vacation Homes

Make sure that you can resell your share of a shared vacation home without too many hassles. Some co-owners might want a right of first refusal or even a right to reject a proposed buyer if they can articulate a good reason why.

If you have a shared mortgage on the property, the group might have to refinance if one person sells a share. In some states, selling a share could also mean the property is reassessed for property tax purposesâsomething your group no doubt wants to avoid.

It can be hard to sell a share of a fractional, which means some owners might eventually feel stuck with a share of a home they no longer use . To avoid this problem, the group might want to set a future date, in their sharing agreement, when owners who want out can either force a sale of the whole property or require other owners to buy them out at the then-current market price.

Dont Bring Friends And Family On A Job

So, the answer is I wouldnt bring friends and relatives along on a job. Unless you have proper clearance, because if something malfunctions on that property, and it can.

Then there are lawsuits. There are people getting fired. There are all kinds of problems that go on, and youre like, Well, it was my sister.

It doesnt matter. This is your business, and youre acting as a paid service provider. So, if you bring another paid service provider on-site, theyve got to follow all those rules and regulations.

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Do Your Share Of Cooking And Cleaning

Part of renting a vacation home is agreeing to do your fair share of cooking and cleaning. If one person in the house gets stuck taking on the majority of these tasks, theyll likely start to get angry.

Make sure youre cleaning up after yourself and cooking when its your turn. If your group is renting for a few weeks, youll also have to worry about cleaning the house and taking the trash out. Its a good idea to create a cleaning plan to ensure everyone is doing their fair share.

If youre only staying for a week, be sure to check your lease agreement. Some rental properties expect you to clean the house upon departure while others hire a cleaning service. Again, if you need to clean before you leave, come up with a plan so everyone is chipping in.

Whats Fair For Splitting Costs On Group Trips Plus Tips On Tipping For Takeout Orders

Are there any rules for renting a vacation house with large groups of friends? Should the people in the master bedroom pay more than the people stuck in the room with four single beds? Should room assignments be random? Should the person organizing and putting their credit card down get first pick? Its a recurring issue in my life and I was hoping for some insight.

Anonymous / Boston

If there were standard operating procedures, you and your friends would have encountered or figured them out by now. Splitting up expenses is always tricky because there are so many ways fair can be defined, as youve experienced procedure versus result, equity versus equality.

Pro-rating the rent makes sense if the differences in room quality are large dont go crazy trying to calculate the relative value of a good view versus a Jacuzzi tub. Random room assignments also make sense. Some people might prefer to choose, especially if the rooms are different prices, but you can always let the choosers choose and assign the remaining rooms randomly for the dont-cares.

Having the organizer get first pick of rooms may be reasonable if the entire group agrees to it, and everyone gets an equal chance to be that organizer over time. Its not the kind of prerogative organizers should simply take for themselves, unless they want to be whispered about resentfully by those in the lesser suites.

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Everyone Should Help Out With The Cleaning And Treat The House Like It’s Their Own

Having a big group of people in one house can get messy very quickly. For example, With the sand being tracked in from the beach or wine nights on the porch you need to set ground rules ASAP.First of all, everyone in the crew should agree to leave the common areas as clean as possible. Then, set up a cleaning time on the days that everyone can help out with. Regular tasks such as mowing the lawn or cleaning windows should also be included in this plan.

Enjoy A Mild Climate In Richmond Hill

Temperatures here start to pick up from around May and tend to hover around the high 70s throughout July and August. These sunny days coincide with the lowest rainfall of the year and offer the perfect backdrop to enjoy the towns numerous parks and natural areas. Winter naturally means a fall in temperature, although it very rarely falls below zero and the towns annual Winter Carnival and Santa Claus Parade makes having to wrap up warm worth the effort. The shoulder seasons of spring and fall have their own appeal, boasting blooming flowers and changing foliage together with a wider choice of Richmond Hill vacation rentals.

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Whats A Vacation Rental Survival Kit

Did I already mention that a vacation rental isnt a hotel? A time or two, maybe. Really, it isnt. For some properties, you need a vacation rental survival kit.

• Toilet paper. Every vacation rental should have full rolls of toilet paper in every bathroom. Extras? Dont count on it.
• Tinfoil, plastic wrap, and garbage bags. If youre planning to cook, youll need a few basic items. Some vacation rentals are stocked with these, but you cant count on it. Ask before you check in.
• Knives. Every vacation rental Ive ever stayed in has the dullest kitchen knives. If you plan to cook, pack your favorites in a checked bag .
• Oils and spices. Again, some homes may have these basic cooking ingredients, but they might not.
• Laundry liquid and dish detergent. Some rentals come with more than you can use others dont even have a bar of soap. You can ask about the supplies, but the best plan is to swing by the rental, do an inventory, and head for the supermarket.
• Wi-Fi hotspot. Many vacation rentals claim to have wireless Internet, but its sometimes slow or nonexistent. If you positively need to stay in touch with the outside world, bring your own hotspot on your phone, or tether your cell phone to your laptop or tablet. Better yet, make sure they have cell phone reception in the area. Otherwise, you could be out of touch.