Greetings Renters!!
Description of Amenities!
We get many inquiries about what types of equipment and amenities we provide at the homes or apartments, and what folks should bring on their own. In general, our properties are well equipped--much more so than the average, we like to think! And we'll never charge you for anything in the home (the only exception is the heated pool, see below)--what on earth is a linen charge? And why should you pay to watch TV, use the towels, or take a bath! But, sadly, we've found that it's just not economical for us to supply certain items that break too quickly or too often go "missing." So this page is a concerted effort to guide you on what you'll want to bring and what you can leave behind!
Entertainment: On the electronic side of things we provide multiple TVs and DVDs throughout the home. All of our units will have at least two TVs (one in the living room and the master bedroom) and some of our larger homes have as many as five. We always include a DVD player on at least one TV as well. All of our properties have a mini-stereo system as well for those inevitable parties!
Internet/Phone: We carry internet access in all our homes, and most have high-speed wireless with an accessible broadband router (only Pirate's Reserve, Ocean village Club, Colony Reef 3, and Ocean Vista are dial-up). Those properties with dial-up are strictly local lines, so please bring a calling card if you need to call outside of our area. The nearly all of the homes with broadband internet also carry Vonage, which gives you unlimited state, local, and national/Canadian/Mexican phone calls for free! We have one old-style corded phone in each home for 911 calls in case there's a power outage, but for normal calls you'll just need to use the wireless phones in each home. For our international guests, feel free to request that we open up international calling. Vonage has super-cheap rates (4-6 cents per minute to most countries) and we're happy to provide that service for you!
Kitchen: All of our kitchens are well stocked with dish and silverware. We also carry a wide range of essential kitchen appliances such as can openers, coffee-makers, blenders, pots and pans. Some of our homes have a bit more than this, but they all have the essentials to be very functional.
AC/Heater: All of our properties come with heating and air-conditioning for those rare times along the beach when the weather isn't beautifully mild ^_^. However, we have had to take steps to control the settings on the thermometers because of problems in the past during the warm, wet summers. We understand how nice it is to visit a vacation home or room and crank down the AC as low as it will go. This might not be a problem were folks to stay indoors as much as the average homeowner. However, at the beach everyone is constantly moving in and out of the home and even leaving windows and doors wide open. As our guest, we urge you to make a decision about whether you'd like to cool the inside of the home, or have the ocean breeze. Either one is fine by us, but there's no way to leave the windows and doors open and leave the AC running. This will inevitably -- every single time -- suck in warm moist air to the AC condenser and create a block of ice, damaging the unit and stopping its function until it thaws (and the only way to fix this is to leave the AC off for a number of hours, inconvenient at best). We have thermometers that cannot be set below 72 degrees in the summer and 78 degrees in the winter, but they will still run non-stop if the windows are open. Please help us out by heating and cooling the home efficiently. Thanks!
Soaps/Toilet Paper/Paper Towels: We supply a number of these items to get you started on your trip! All the homes and apartments will have soap in the kitchen and bathrooms for your first few nights, and toilet paper will be on the roll and one undert he sink in each bathroom. There'll also be one roll of paper towels and a dishwashing tablet provided in the kitchen. After this you'll want to add these items to your first shopping list based on your needs.
Baby Supplies: All of the homes (not the apartments as they're more commonly couples and families with older children) come with one high chair. Unless otherwise stated, though, this is all we supply in the way of high-chairs, pack-n-plays, or port-o-cribs. We were very surprised when we tallied it up last year, but we bought 17 pack-n-plays and port-o-cribs in 2005 and wound up with only 3 when the new year rolled around. As much as we wanted to provide these in all our units (your faithful web-designer is a father of an energy-filled one year old, so I know it's a pain to take this stuff from home), it wound up being impractical. The good news, though, is we've made a great contact in Big Bill's Beach Rentals!! In addition to the typical beach bikes, chairs, and umbrellas, he's got a ton of useful gadgets you might have to bring otherwise--and the weekly rates are substantially lower than it costs to buy it yourself. Give him a call and tell him St. Augustine Vacations sent you! www.bigbillsbeachstuff.com local: 904-461-5755 or toll free 877-307-8833.
Linens/Towels: All of our homes and apartments come with plenty of towels and fresh bed linens based on allowed occupancy. Of course, vacationing can call for lots of baths/linen changes, so please use the washer/dryer when needed. We keep a few blankets around as well. We don't supply beach towels, so there's something you might want to bring.
Washer/Dryer: All the properties have a washer and dryer in the home, free to use. We supply a starter bag of detergent but you will want to add this to your shopping list for an entire weeks' use. Frequently renters buy and leave detergent at the home when they leave, so feel free to check before buying a new box. Also, occasionally our cleaners run a bit short on time if they find the home particularly messy from previous renters. It doesn't happen often, but in this unfortunate case they sometimes leave a load of towels washing or drying in the machines. Please do us a favor and check the washer/dryer when you arrive. Thanks!
Hot-tubs/Pools: All hot-tubs and pools are there for your enjoyment, but there are a few requests we'd like to make on this point:
- The spas and pools are usually cleaned every Monday. On the beach it is inevitable that they'll collect a good deal of sand throughout the previous week (that stuff gets everywhere as you'll soon find out ^_^), so sand in the bottom of the pool or hot-tub does not usually mean that it hasn't been cleaned. Also, a slightly greenish hue to the water usually indicates that the water has the proper chemicals in it rather than that it hasn't been cleaned.
- Please don't drain the hot-tubs or the pools. Feel free, though, to add water from the hose if you notice it is a bit low. All of them have a filter area (on pools it's usually a rectangular hole along one side and on the spas it will be in one corner), and the water level should always be about three inches above the edge of the filter for the pump to draw water in through the filter. When pools and hot-tubs fall below this level (whether through evaporation or folks jumping in and out) the water won't self-clean and the pump can burn up. We'll thank you in advance for keeping an eye on this during your stay!
- The Luxury Beach House, Atlantic View, Full Moon Rising, The Bohemian, and Pelican Way all have heated pools. However, this does not, NOT mean that the pools should be treated as hot-tubs. Between mid-April and mid-September, we disable this function as the pool water will naturally be in the seventies or eighties. During the winter, feel free to request that we heat the pool for you. However, the only way to do this efficiently is to leave the pool pump running the majority of each day, which will raise our electricity bills for the week by roughly $100. We do add that fee onto the total rent for those desiring the heated pool. Also, please keep in mind the outside air temperature when requesting the pool to be heated. We've found that, even running non-stop, the pool heaters aren't capable of raising the water temperature beyond 25 degrees above the average air temperature. That's usually not a problem here as the temperature rarely dips below 60 at the midpoint between high and low. But I have to mention that if the average temp dips below 60 and certainly if it approaches 50 degrees, the pool will just lose too much heat for the pool heaters to keep up - sorry! Please do just ask us to turn on the pool heater for you a couple of days before your arrival as it takes a while to heat that much water - thanks!!
Grills: All of the homes come with either a gas or charcoal grill (we're moving toward nice stainless charcoal grills with a smokestack-lighter--one of mankind's greatest inventions as far as we're concerned!). The cottages come with propane grills, but the apartments at Ocean Village Club and Colony Reef don't have a grill. The complexes mandated that charcoal and the large grills be banned, and we've found that the smaller grills just don't last more than a couple of months. You can rent grills at www.bigbillsbeachstuff.com, though! Of the homes, Matanzas, Turtle Cove, and Ocean Spray have gas grills--the rest are charcoal or one of each. We don't supply charcoal or lighter fluid, so that would be something to bring or buy when you arrive.
Beach supplies: Normally we have quite a few beach and pool toys on hand since many are left left behind by previous guests. If additional/different toys or beach chairs are needed, we'll defer to our good buddy Big Bill and his wonderful rental shop! Again, give him a call and tell him St. Augustine Vacations sent you! www.bigbillsbeachstuff.com local: 904-461-5755 or toll free 877-307-8833.
And there you go!! We hope we've helped provide everything you might need and know you'll enjoy your time thoroughly!