Community : Discussion List - Amenities

Flexible dining room arrangements

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:32:48 GMT

I have a good sized dining room -- about 13'x15' -- and I am trying to figure out how to make my seating arrangement more flexible. The house can sleep about 16, but often guests will host a dinner party with a few more visitors. (I know some of you don't allow this -- I do for special occasions).

Currently, I have one table that seats 8 plus an old dropleaf table that can seat another 8. The dropleaf came with the house when I bought it and isn't the most attractive of tables, so I've been thinking about replacing it. One of my guests suggested that I think about replacing both the tables with smaller restaurant-type tables that can be moved around easily to change the seating arrangement. If I purchase four 30"x45" tables, I could probably seat 16-20 depending on how friendly people are. Plus, the tables could be placed end-to-end to run into the living room, banquet style. These tables would be far less complicated to rearrange than the dropleaf table or a regular dining table with leaves.

What dining room arrangements do you have, especially if you have a bigger house or allow dinner parties? Do any of you use commercial, restaurant-style tables or are they not sufficiently "nice" for a home?

Here's a link to the tables I'm looking at:

http://www.acitydiscount.com/All-About-Furniture-Restaurant-Dining-Table-Top-30-x-45-Single-Color-Options-RT3045-1C.0.117652.1.1.htm

(the bases are sold separately)

Do you supply firewood for your wood burning fireplace?

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 15:22:29 GMT

With fall and winter coming our guests love having a wood burning fire in our fireplace. It is a sought after amenity. Because of the high cost of supplying wood, we have changed our policy this year to supplying the guests evening fire (4 logs of wood) only. So, if they stay for 2 nights we would supply them with 8 logs. If they would like to burn more they are welcome to purchase additional bundles @ $7 per bundle (4 logs).

Last year we didn't limit the supply and we went through 3 chords of wood because the guests burned wood ALL day long for the ambiance. Homeowners that live on the Island don't even use a chord of wood in a year. After the 3rd chord we just didn't buy anymore wood as it was late winter, the dry wood supply in the area was nearly gone and what was left was very expensive.

What are your firewood policies?

Renting your car with your property

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:15:36 GMT

I have a rental property that I rent out by the month or longer. My question, does anyone rent a car along with their property? If so how do you handle the insurance on the car?

White or dark towels?

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 19:40:21 GMT

We have a place in Hawaii, which we try to furnish like a high end hotel. All our dishes coordinate and are white. All our sheets and towels are white. However, now I am wondering if dark darker towels might wear better. Or maybe for housekeeping's sake, it is better to keep everything white. What do you think?

Shipping Home Decor?

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 13:00:10 GMT

Not sure anyone can help, but here goes. When we need things for our house there are limited shopping options where we are - the US Virgin Islands. Most things we can get at the nearby (ferry trip) KMart or Home Depot. But when we need something they don't carry, it has to be shipped from the continental US. More and more we are finding that companies won't ship at all to the VI or PR. If we have to mail large or heavy things ourselves it is prohibitively expensive.

Right now we are trying to replace our blinds. Last time we purchased them at JC Penney's and they would ship, but now they won't. We can order some at one of the interior design places in St. Thomas, but the cost is outrageous. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Here's The Future...

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 07:40:53 GMT

Hello everone,

Here's something that I published today.

It really is one of the best ideas that I have seen for some time.

What do you think?

Villa Rental Photography - Photo Of The Week - No 13

Here's a great idea this week.

Raising the bar to it's limit.

Oh boy, if I had a luxury villa, condo, penthouse or whatever...

Two birds with one stone

As you know by now I'm a huge advocate of using Pinterest to promote your vacation rental and showcase your photographs.

I've written 4 articles about how to go about it (you can read them here, vacation-rental-owners-raise-interest-with-pinterest/, vacation-rental-marketing-nailing-more-bookings-with-pinterest-part-two/, vacation-rental-marketing-using-pinterest-and-video/ and vacation-rental-marketing-and-pinterest-update/.

Anyway the reason that I'm mentioning this is that Villa Punto de Vista dropped me a line in connection with these articles to show me how they are using Pinterest.

Have a look at what they have done so far - http://pinterest.com/costaricavilla/

I had a good look around and not only did I see photos of the hotel, it's stunning bedrooms and surroundings. I also learned about the available activities, the national park and the wildlife AND I came across this photo which really fired up my imagination.

Here's the photo

Now I will be the first to admit that there are better photos on the boards that costaricavilla have put together but I love this idea.

An interactive welcome note that adds a huge degree of class, style and trust.

Then I started thinking about further uses.

Such as showcasing the Pinterest photos on the tablet. A folder of local maps. The menus of, and directions to, local restaurants. The instructions to the television and cable box, the washing machine, etc. Emergency phone numbers. An Eguestbook. An alarm clock app. Skype (they can call friends and relatives and tell them all about your fantastic property). Facebook (ditto). Links to the local tourist office and info on the best attractions. Bla Bla Bla.

What ideas can you come up with?

What are your vacation rental photographs like?

Come on show us yours. Would you like to enter other images for this weekly blog? Send us your photos, your name and a link to your property and each week we will pick the best from those sent.

yours,

rentmoreweeks.com

Linen Advice

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 20:49:05 GMT

I'd like to be able to advertise that my home is furnished with luxury linens, but the tropics (and frequent use) have been ******* my 600 thread-count sheets. I even tried bamboo sheets, but guests complained they were too warm. Does anyone have a recommendation for a sturdy linen that could still be described as luxurious?

Many thanks...

Pros/cons of including car with house rental

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 21:16:25 GMT

Hi,

We lease out our house in Los Angeles and were considering including a car in the rental as a convenience to guests. Does anyone have any experience with doing so? Any pros/cons that you can think of or have experienced?

Thank you!

Lisa

Which type of mattress is best to buy?

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 00:54:53 GMT

I am in the process of furnishing a new rental, and I'm wondering which type of mattress is best to buy.I don't like the idea of buying a mattress I'm not able to test out, but Costco has such good prices. Also, Groupon currently has a good deal on a memory foam mattress~ would that hold up well in a rental?

Guest access to controls for Heat/Air Conditioning?

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 22:56:23 GMT

I just got an email from a guest who said the air never really cooled down during their stay. Obviously not enough of a problem for them to call the management company or me during their stay but still I hate for guests to feel that something isn't working properly. So I contact my property management company who check and say they don't think the guests had it set so the air conditioner was on - just air flow... And I had another issue a few weeks before that I suspect may also have been user error.

So I am wondering does anyone have the HVAC controller in their rental home preset and locked off or some other way of controlling the unit. I want my guests to be comfortable but wish their was some way of assuring that the unit is being used appropriately.

Any thoughts/suggestions appreciated.