Payment Procedures and Fees
St. Augustine Vacations (previously Hartley and Sons) is just a small family business, so we take pride in being as 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, $125 for our smaller homes such as Matanzas and Beach Breeze, $175 for all other homes), and state bed taxes. Everything else (electric, cable, internet, local phone [and normally state, national, and some international calling], washer/dryer, grill, etc...) is totally free.
**Let me mention please right off the pat that we pride ourselves in being a "Family business for families." That means first 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 out 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 ^_^).
Here's how the typical renting experience plays out:
1) We receive a heartwarming email from John or Jane Doe: "Oh! We saw the charming webpage at www.staugvacations.com (who designed it!?) and can't wait to have a blast on the beach!"
2) We'll respond to your email and we'll offer to hold your dates for a bit (up to a week depending on the week in question) while we wait on the security deposit ($300 for the condos and townhouses, $500 for the beach homes). Let me mention that we always notate stays in all our correspondence with the check-in and check-out date (i.e. a typical Saturday to Saturday stay will often just appear as a March 10-17 stay). Monthly rentals are an additional 100% deposit per month (so two months at an apartment would be $900 deposit, $600 of which will come off of the balance when it comes due and $300 returned after your stay). The deposit both holds your reservation and protects against damages during your stay, so we do process them onto a card or deposit them into a bank before your stay (i.e. we don't hold the information or the check and then process or deposit it only if there's a problem). The initial inquiry, though, is not enough to reserve the week--you have to ask us to hold it before we adjust our calendars or jot you in. Let me stress this again, since some renters have gotten upset with us in the past when they ask a question or two, wait a couple of days, ask a few more questions, wait some more, then ask me to hold it only to find out that we booked the week a day earlier. For every booking we make we receive probably twenty inquries, so we only put you on the calendars when we hear those magic words, "Yes, please jot me down for this week and let's jump on the deposit process" (I'll certainly answer any questions you have while we're sorting out the deposit and your stay is nice and secure ^_^). The deposit can be made as a credit card payment or as a check/money order (which are always greatly preferred and appreciated). If the former, be sure to provide me your telephone number and a good time to contact you to collect your card information. If the latter, please make out a check or money order to St. Augustine Vacations and send it our office at:
St. Augustine Vacations 5401 A1A South St. Augustine, FL 32080
3) At this point, I'll mark you down on the books as "permanent." Please remember, though, we can't hold the reservation indefinitely without a deposit--we try to remind our renters to send it on if it is a bit tardy, but eventually we have to open it back up to the public. The deposit is fully refundable if you cancel your reservation at least six weeks in advance for summer weekly rentals or four months in advance for multi-week (three weeks or more)/monthly rentals (minus a $25 processing fee) -- no harm, no foul! However, since there is usually little chance that we'll be able to book a week to someone else on such short notice, we do keep the deposit if the reservation is cancelled after the four week mark (or four month mark for longer stays). This is NOT how we want to make our bread and butter, so we'll refund your deposit if another booking comes in for the week you cancelled.
4) 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. Then you can pay by card (again, though, checks will make us oh so happy!) or mail payment to my St. Augustine address. We include the price for the rental, the cleaning fee ($100 for the condos/townhouses, $125 or $150 for the houses), and the 9% State bed tax. For Calypso Breeze, for example, during the off season the fee is $1200. The cleaning fee is $100 and the state tax is $117 ($1300*9%)--sorry, but they make us charge tax on the cleaning fee as well (seems silly to us too, but we've triple checked with the Florida Dept. of Revenue). Please note that the security deposit ($300 in the case of Colony Reef) 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.
5) 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!
6) If possible, my father will meet you at the door, but this can get tricky during the high-season. We have, though, coded entry security boxes on the doors for occasions when things are just too hectic to come in person. All our keysafes work on the same principal. You input the code either by punching in the numbers or dialing them in. Then you press the button and while holding down the button you pull off the facing panel or pull down on the lower box. Some people have run into problems by inputing the code or pushing the button and expecting something to pop out at them. You have to hold the button down and pull open the panel or the bottom to get your keys. Then you'll find everything inside waiting for you!
7) We need to include a note here about refunds offered on check-in. Mainly, we never, EVER do this. Fortunately, it doesn't happen but once or twice a year. But as a management company, we cannot allow a renter to complain about something beyond our control or that is plainly advertised on our site or in our pictures (e.g. the weather, the color of the walls, the humidity) and expect a full refund. Much to our dismay, some groups have felt that doing this and then picking up another rental in the area that has been slashed to half-price at the last minute is acceptable. They seem to feel that, since they didn't stay at the home, this doesn't really hurt us that badly. On the contrary, when renters do this it puts us in a position where we cannot rent the week that we have held off of the calendars for months. We lose the entire rent and value for that week in the same manner that a typical shop-owner would lose the value of some goods that were shoplifted from his store. Of course, in the event that there is a legitimate problem with cleaning or some advertised aspect of the home, we always correct the problem or make appropriate amends. But we take a great deal of pride in providing accurate information about all of our homes so our renters know exactly what they're getting for their vacation ahead of time. If anything, we like our renters to be pleasantly surprised!
8) 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!
9) 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). Beware, though, we might have to pump you for flattering comments in our guestbooks!
10) As a personal favor for the person (ahem, me) that goes around and collects all the garbage on Friday or Saturday (since our garbage is picked up on Monday we don't want our renters to arrive to the previous weeks' trash), I'd like to request that everyone put a small box of large trash bags on their Walmart/Publix/Winn Dixie list and bag their trash. When I ride by to collect the trash and it's thrown loose into the trash cans, I have to pick through it by hand - yikes!
And that's it! Thank you so much for choosing us. There are many rentals and hotels on Florida beaches, but we'll wager you'll choose us again in the future. Have a great vacation!