Abiding By The Rules Of Your Vacation Villa

Renting a villa is far preferable to cramming a whole family into one hotel room - more space, much more comfort, a real home from home. But villas by their very nature are part of real communities, especially those on mixed residency estates where your short term rental vacation rental may well be next door to an American who works at Disney, proudly displaying his stars and stripes outside of his home. I use that word advisedly for whereas it may be your holiday home, it is where he actually lives.
Whilst not by any means advocating regimentation of the villa renters stay (it is meant to be a holiday, for heaven's sake), it can help all concerned if the renter can try and abide by the rules of his villa.

These rules are set by the owners and their management companies, by the homeowners of the estates and by state and county law. Some of the rules only apply to short term rental villas and not to real American homes which can sometimes lead to confusion.

The rules will vary from villa to villa, from estate to estate, and the renter will be informed of the applicable ones by the villa owner or his management company.

The rules set by the owners often concern the safety and comfort of the renter. For example, pool regulations. Typical ones are no jumping, no diving, no unaccompanied children, no glass ware in the pool area. Houses with a Jacuzzi spa may have more regulations governing the minimum age of users and the maximum time of use.

Rules set by Homeowners Associations in general are intended to keep up standards on the estates and to preserve a good relationship between rental homes and the local residents. Examples of these may be not to use the pool very early in the morning and late at night. Because of the time difference, UK renters are up very early in the morning during the first few days of their holiday, often before 7 am when the American next door neighbour is still in bed. They will also come back from the parks very late and may fancy a dip. Check on your homes regulations on this. If you must do it, please try not to make too much noise. The same applies to playing loud music in the pool area in the daytime.

Some estates also insist that vehicles are parked off the road, preferably in the garage and that the garage doors are kept shut.
It is worth fitting in with your US neighbours as a happy neighbour can be a source of a wealth of insider information about what is going on in Orlando, can help sort out any problems and can make you feel like you are really part of America during your stay rather than a mere onlooker.

The final rules to consider are state and county legislation. These should be displayed on the wall of your villa. An example of these would be the strict garbage disposal code imposed in some counties which state that all garbage must be placed in a sealed garbage can and prohibits putting rubbish out in plastic bags. This is to prevent littering as if a bag bursts, no-one is on hand to pick the debris up.

If you can abide by the rules of your villa, it will not only make you more popular with your neighbours but will also be a big help for the owner of your villa. I am not saying that the renter, who is after all there to enjoy himself, should become obsessed by rules and regulations, just bear them (and the reasons behind them) generally in mind.