Why Settle? Five-Star Reviews are a Must!
When it comes to rental homes, photographers’ images and flowery descriptions can be very misleading. Most people can relate to showing up at a rental property and asking themselves if they have the wrong address. The best way to ensure that your rental looks exactly as you expect it to is by reading ratings and reviews. With something as important as time away to relax, don’t just Google “luxury home in Hilton Head” and choose at will. Make sure to go the extra mile to look for these five qualities.
Location, Location, Location
When you are on vacation, where you stay is as important as the rental home that you choose. In Hilton Head, finding a beach rental is all about location, location, location. Jumping in the car and finding parking is not something that you want to deal with on vacation, and maps can be misleading. Look through the reviews to get a gauge of where you are in relation to where you want to be, and then target an area like Palmetto Dunes.
Cleanliness
It has always been important for a rental to be clean. No one wants to show up to a luxury beach home to find that the bathroom is filled with mildew or that the carpets are stained and gross. The photographs are almost always taken after staging and cleaning, so the only real telltale sign of whether the house is well maintained is through reading the reviews closely. If one person was not impressed with the level of cleanliness, that might just be an outlier, but if it is a persistent problem, you might want to pass on booking that particular luxury beach rental.
Rundown
Just like on a dating site, photos can be deceiving. When reading the description and reviews on a rental property, pay attention to things like “remodeled” or “newly renovated.” Those are buzzwords that tell you that the property has been maintained and updated. Nothing is worse than showing up to a luxury rental that would have been great in the 80s but is not by today’s standards.
Responsiveness
No matter how well a rental is maintained or how new it is, there is always a chance that something can go wrong. Most of the time needed repairs or outages are not on the property owner; they are a part of owning a rental home. The thing to pay close attention to is that if there were problems, they were addressed as quickly as possible. Communication with the owner or the property management group is a must to make sure that a hiccup like the air conditioning going out doesn’t ruin your time away.
Amenities
Most people want to eat out and be served when they are on vacation, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want to eat meals at the rental. It is hard to enjoy a meal with your family when the kitchen is poorly stocked and you can’t find the necessary utensils and pots and pans to cook a meal from start to finish. Often, people will comment about how well the luxury beach house is equipped or not at all. It is definitely something to pay attention to. By reading thoroughly, you can also decipher what you may want to take along.
Ease of Check-In
Most rentals won’t allow you to check in until after 4. That is usually not on the owner, but a necessity due to the need for cleaning in between rentals. When you show up to the property tired and weary from your trip, the last thing you want to do is jump through hoops to find keys, wait forever for the person at the counter to find your reservation, or have the code or key not work. Those kinks are all ones that should not happen when you rent a luxury home.
Niceties
Most rentals don’t fully stock all that you will need in terms of paper towels, toilet paper, spices, and Keurig pods, but they do give you the basics so that you aren’t running to the general store ten times over your vacation. It doesn’t cost a whole lot to be generous with things like detergent and soap, and it makes a really great impression on those who don’t have to run out in the middle of the day when they would rather be at the beach.
When it comes to rental homes, the internet has given travelers a great option to look through hundreds of places and rentals, but it can be misleading if you don’t read the fine print. Pictures can be staged pretty easily, but ratings and reviews cannot. Before you choose your next luxury beach home for your family trip, make sure that you go through the customers’ responses to know that you are getting exactly what you want and are paying for. 6 Iron Clad caters to those looking for a true luxury vacation. It is in the highly coveted Palmetto Dunes neighborhood, on the ocean, and fully stocked with all that you need to have the time of your life. Check out our calendar and reserve your date today!