What it's like as an owner
Ever wonder what it’s like to be an owner of a vacation rental property? Let me tell you, sometimes it’s really tough. Recently we wrote a blog our experience as the renter of the property. This was one of the most popular blog posts that we’ve written yet (you can read about it on our blog post entitled Being on the Other Side). While we normally post blogs about events, activities and restaurants on SGI, the next few weeks are going to be a little different as we talk specifically about our St. George Island vacation rental homes. This week we’re going to talk about our experience as the owner.
There are many readers of our blog that are vacation rental owners themselves. Unfortunately, being a vacation rental owner means that a vacation is often not really a vacation. We often spend vacation time doing routine maintenance, improving the look and feel of our homes and trying to constantly improve our homes to make it a great experience for our renters over the coming months. In this post, I wanted to share a few of the things that we have done over the last six months or so to continue to improve Sand Dollar, Sea Dunes, and Serene Dream.
When we were on St. George Island in December, we spent a significant amount of time doing work on our homes. One of the biggest things we have to do is to re-stock supplies. Below is a great picture of Krista when we were out shopping. We bought about 150 rolls of paper towels to stock up the houses for the year. You should have seen the looks we were getting as we pushed boxes and carts of paper towels to the check out line. It was absolutely hilarious, and, as you can see, we basically filled up the rental minivan with paper towels.
We also spend time doing regular maintenance on our homes. We’ve sanded and painted handrails, re-caulked showers and tubs, and put new screws in decks. Below is a great picture of Krista pressure washing our dune boardwalk at Sea Dunes.
Sometimes we even create more work for ourselves. For example, last winter, while trying to remove a seized hose from a spigot, I sliced open the supply line and took a lot of pressurized water to the face! It was just awesome! (Are you sensing the sarcasm?)
We don’t do all of the work ourselves though. We decided it was time to do a full interior paint job at both Sand Dollar and Sea Dunes this spring. We hired a great guy to do the job, and it turned out fantastic! Below are before (green) and after (bluish gray) pictures of Sea Dunes.
If you’ve stayed at our homes, and you have a suggestion, please send us an email and let us know! We always appreciate the feedback. Some of the best ideas have come from renters that have stayed in our homes.
Are you a vacation rental home owner? We’d love to hear about your experience in the comment section below.
