6/26/2017
Hotels are overpriced, grimy, and crowded. When you stay in a destination town like Orlando, the hotels get pricier, grimier, and even more crowded. Our vacation rentals offer privacy, private pools, and accommodations to fit any budget. When you stay at a Vacation Pool Home, you know you are getting the most bang for your buck (just wait until we compare square footage), and are staying in safe neighborhoods perfect for the whole family!
Don’t believe us? We broke down some numbers for you.
Let’s say you want to take your family of four on a week-long Disney World vacation. For a hotel near Disney, you can expect to pay between $150-250 per night for an average room with two queen sized beds. The average hotel room size is around 350 square feet. With four people and four suitcases, this starts to feel crowded pretty quickly.
Lodging
Unlike hotels, our rentals are not “one size fits all.” We offer dozens of properties to match exactly what your family is looking for. We can even accommodate fifteen or twenty people in some of our rentals. But in this example, you only need room for four people – two parents and two kids. Depending on when you take your vacation, the price of the rental will vary. For example, during the off season, this three bedroom, 1295 square foot townhouse with a private pool is only $80 per night! During the high seasons, this spacious home is only $120. For the purpose of this example, we’ll say that your family is traveling during the high season – usually times that match up with the kids’ breaks from school. Even during the high season, you’re paying significantly less than you would at any hotel – and you get FOUR times the amount of space! Each kid can have their own bedroom with their own bed – because we’ve all had to witness the fighting match about who gets which side of the bed in the hotel room. And the parents can get a little privacy, too. Your kiddos will feel like royalty when they find out they get their own bedroom on a vacation!
Food
Food is a MAJOR cost of any vacation – and it’s often a part that people forget to budget in. People think, “Well, we have to eat no matter what!” But feeding a family of four while on vacation can add up fast, especially while staying in a hotel room. Hotels often are not equipped with the necessary tools to feed a family – like plates, silverware, ovens, or stoves. Most hotel rooms don’t even have a microwave or refrigerator! We call our rentals Vacation Homes for a reason – they feel like home, meaning they are ready for you to cook like normal.
According to statistics, it costs around $150 per week to feed a family of four. Now, we’re not unrealistic. We know that you’ll want to experience the local cuisine, buy churros and turkey legs at Disney World, and treat the family to ice cream a few times – you’re on vacation after all! Let’s say that on a seven-day vacation, you eat out for 5 meals. This could be anything from grabbing McDonald’s for lunch, to eating at one of Disney’s fancy restaurants. We’ll guess an average cost will be $15 per meal, per person. That equates to about $300 in eating out costs for the week. That may sound like a lot, but families who stay in hotels without a kitchen and eat out for 100% of their meals could spend more than $1260 in one week on eating out!
Internet
Yes, we went there. It’s 2017, and most people are accustomed to having internet access. These days, most kids have a phone, tablet, laptop, or other device that connects to wireless internet that they refuse to travel without. Even adults don’t like to leave their technology at home, or sometimes have to do work while on vacation and will need their laptop. Hotels usually charge around $10 for wifi access per day. Most of our Vacation Pool Homes are equipped with free access to high-speed wireless internet, so you can expect to save about $70 on wifi alone!
Let’s recap:
Potential Cost Of Weeklong Hotel Vacation
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Lodging: $1400
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Food: $1260
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Wifi: $70
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Total: $2730
Potential Cost Of Weeklong Vacation Pool Home Rental
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Lodging: $840
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Food: $120 from home-cooked food, $300 for eating out.
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Wifi: $0
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Total: $1260
Total Savings: $1,545 – You are saving more than you are spending!
Of course, every vacation will vary depending on how big your starting budget is. Lodging, food, and internet only make up part of the costs of taking your family on a getaway. But a vacation seems a lot more feasible when you’re spending half the amount of money at a Vacation Pool Home than you would in a tiny hotel room. This leaves room in the budget to do more fun things. For example, you could go to both Disney World and Universal Studios, instead of having to pick just one. You could extend your vacation for a few days, and have more time to explore our beautiful state. Whatever you choose to do on your vacation, you know you’ll be saving money where it counts with a Vacation Pool Home. Check out what rentals are available, and book now to start your vacation right!
