Hurricane and Storm Policy
St. Augustine rarely has a hurricane hit it directly. They usually loop around the Western side of Florida and come up through the panhandle, come in over Miami and make their way up the center of Florida (losing steam all the way because they're on land), or miss Florida and make landfall in the Carolinas. Even when storms do approach St. Augustine/Jacksonville directly (and I couldn't find any record of these in decades), they are rarely very bad because of the long shallow continental shelf off shore--it's as if the storm already hits land before it even gets to us.
But recent events have got us thinking about posting an official storm policy for our renters. I called around the beach at St. Augustine and no condo complexes I talked to offer any sort of cancellation refund for "acts of god" beyond their control. I can see their point, as we're never able to re-rent a week when renters cancel on us at the last minute. If the area is evacuated then they, and we, would certainly offer you a full refund, since we would be unable to provide our promised services in those circumstances.
Aside from evacuation, though, no one in our area refunds a purchase if there is a bad storm system on the way (including hurricanes that make landfall and then pass over after being downgraded). But we always like to think of ourselves as offering better service than the other guys, so here's what we came up with. In the event of a hurricane (a declared hurricance, not tropical storms which are fairly common "bad weather"), if you find that you just can't make it to your reservation on time or at all, we'll offer you a "store credit" with us for those nights you can't use. Then you can redeem those at face value for any non-holiday off-season stay, or at 50% for a high-season stay.
Take for example, this coming weekend (August 13-14, 2004). Hurricane Charley is going to make land in South Florida sometime Friday, then roll his way up the peninsula, and pass over Jacksonville on his way up the Eastern seaboard. By Sunday morning he's supposed to be up near Pennsylvania, but Friday night and Saturday morning will be pretty stormy and windy (lots of rain and 15-25 mph winds with gusts in the 40-50 mph range). Now for a seasoned Florida boy, this is the perfect time to go to the beach and catch the waves, dude! But I can certainly understand many people not wanting to drive on the roads during such an event, possibly pulling a trailer behind them.
We have a renter family staying at our Luxury Beach House this coming week for $2400, and they're thinking they might have to sacrifice Saturday night and arrive on Sunday. Now we can't encourage people to cancel just because the weather is bad, of course, but we agree that this weekend merits special consideration. So we'll offer them a credit of $342.86 ($2400/7) toward a future stay at any of our properties in the off-season (or certain summer months like March or May), or half of that $171.43 for a high-season stay. We always want to treat our renters fairly and, with any luck, turn them into regular customers!
Mainly, though, we'd encourage you to just give us a call and discuss your concerns with us. Talk to anyone that has ever stayed with us and they'll tell you that we are almost always able to work with our renters to make sure they have a great experience. A lot of the time the news and weather channels are constantly making it seem like the apocalypse is rolling into town rather than the fairly common fall storm. I've lived in Florida through dozens of these things and unless you're sitting right where they come in off the ocean, they're never as bad as you'd think. Some crazy folks even consider a nice howling storm with plenty of lightning and thunder, dozens of candles, and a warm body holding you tight awfully romantic . . . What loonies! All the best,
Brandon
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