St. Augustine Vacations is a small family business, so we take pride in being completely upfront and honest about all the charges we include. Most of our bookings are from return renters, so we try and eliminate all surprises. We charge only for the rent, a standard cleaning fee ($100 for the condos/townhouses, $75 for the homes), and state bed taxes. Everything else (electric, cable, internet, local phone calling, washer/dryer, grill, etc...) is totally free.
**Let me mention please right off the bat that we pride ourselves in being a "Family business for families." Primarily, that means that we have a real in-house network of management that we feel offers a fantastic experience. It also means that we cater almost exclusively to families big and small. In fact, most of our rental homes (and most of St. Augustine) is zoned by the county as residential areas which means we can only rent to related parties (sorry college and high-school spring-breakers--you'll have to look elsewhere!!). We hate to put it so bluntly, but misleading us about the ages and make-up of a rental group will result in an immediate eviction and forfeiture of both the balance paid and the deposit (as we are fined heavily and have families to support as well ^_^).
The payment for the condo/townhouse/beach house is due about five weeks before you arrive. I'll contact you through email to remind you. Mail payment to my St. Augustine address. We include the price for the rental, the cleaning fee ($100 for the condos/townhouses, $175 for homes), and the 10% tax. Please note that the security deposit is not included in the total price since it is refunded after your stay. There are, of course, no hidden fees, no electric/internet/cable/telephone bills you have to worry about. We are fairly patient with our balance requests, but we do cancel stays (only after contacting renters) if the balances are not taken care of in a timely manner. When we receive a cancellation a week before check-in, it really hurts us. At that point we are normally not able to re-rent the week we had been holding off the calendars.
During the high season (March to Labor Day) we usually rent for 7 nights at a time so that we can rent back to back (we consider a week in the high season if four or more nights of the Saturday to Saturday week are in a high-season month and vice versa for the low-season). Check in is at 4:00 PM on Saturday afternoon, and check out is 10:00 AM the following Saturday morning. We've had a couple of problems with prompt check-outs this season--please remember that we only have six hours to get all sixteen of our properties cleaned and prepped for the next wave of renters. Extremely late renters will forfeit part or all of their deposit to pay for the extra cleaning crews we'll have to hire to get it all done in shorter time frames. During the off season (roughly Sept. 11 - March 1, excluding the holidays) things cool down and deals are to be had! In addition to offering substantial 20-40% discounts on the price, we have been known to throw in an extra day for free and generally have no problems with letting you check in earlier or leave later if there is not another family coming in right after you. Just give us a call a few days before you come!
Similarly, we cannot refund balances for last minute cancellations. Cancellations made after the five week mark are always unfortunate (we understand that emergencies do happen). But we, and those friends and clients for whom we manage property, have enormous costs in these properties that have to be met. Refunding cancelled revenue, then, often involves asking for funds that have already gone toward mortgages, utilities, insurance, and property taxes. At the same time, it is perhaps the least pleasant aspect of the business to have to tell someone that we cannot refund their balance even in the face of a very legitimate emergency. What we like to do in these cases is to immediately throw open the week on our calendars and push that property like nothing else. In the event that we can rent the week at the last minute, we always refund that entire amount back to the original renters--we'd never think of trying to make double money on the same week. Even if we can't rent that week, we then contact the renters and offer them credits toward off-season stays. That way we can provide value for their rent without having to recall funds from our clients. This policy has worked really well over the past few years and seems to provide a workable compromise for everyone. Honestly, we're proud to be the only company in town, to our knowledge, that does this!
After you relax like you've never relaxed before, you'll pack up and head back to your homes already wistfully thinking about your next beach vacation. We'll contact you again to make sure that all was to your liking and refund your security deposit within ten days of your check-out (we're pretty easy-going with the post-stay cleaning and only ask that you take any unused food with you, wash any dirty dishes, and throw all used towels and bed sheets into a pile so we know to wash them).