“This was our second time staying in one of your florida spirit homes. We love the Windwood bay community and we love the homes. We had 12 of us and it was so nice not being scrunched in hotel room. Stepping right outside your back door to the pool is wonderful. There was everything in the kitchen you would ever hope for. Now everyone wants to find a bigger home for the next time because they want to bring their friends.”
The Lloyd family – Springfield, OH
Woodland View

Recently my family and I went on vacation to St Thomas and St John’s in the US Virgin Islands.  My job was to book the accommodations and flights and my wife would do all the research about places to go and things to do.  I have a 6 year old daughter and 10 year old son which never want to sit still, so booking the right place to stay is very important.

I read reviews on the major travel websites and chose a great 5 star property on St John’s that people raved about.  I booked through American Express travel since I was using some travel points and the wonderful agent with American Express called the resort to confirm the bedding arrangements for the rooms.  I love my kids but I don’t want to share a hotel bed with them for a week.  Sure enough they were not able to accommodate me and I had to change resorts.  Did I forget to mention I waited to the last minute to book my accommodations?  After changing resorts my wife checked Trip advisor reviews on the new resort and they were not very favorable.  At this point I was very happy that there was not a website for writing reviews about husbands.

It turns out the resort on St Thomas was wonderful.  Everything the negative reviews said about the resort we found the complete opposite when we arrived.  The reviews complained about the resort staff.  My family loved them, they were great fun and helpful with everything.  Another review complained the resort was run down.  The resort must have done an episode of extreme makeover before we arrived.  Was it brand new?  Of course not!  Most of the resorts on St Thomas have been around a few years but it was well maintained and very clean.  One negative review complained about the beach being too small and little water activities.  My family snorkeled, rented waver runners and paddle boats.  We even chartered a sail boat with a crew to take us to the British Virgin Islands and back for a day.  The beach had plenty of sun lounge chairs available and room for my kids to build sand sculptures. The resort even had a sand sculpture contest for kids on the beach. My family would go back in a minute.

This makes me wonder just who wrote the negative reviews about this resort? Was it real guest at all or former disgruntled employees?  Could the negative reviews be competing hotels and condo resorts trying to cause people to book elsewhere?  The sad thing is I can’t find out.  Most review sites don’t even require proof that someone was even a customer of a hotel to write a review.  Before this happened I would have believed the reviews and would not have booked with this resort, which would have been a shame because this vacation was one of our best ever! User reviews of places to stay should be a great source of information for consumers not completely familiar with a property before they book it, but only if they are honest and fair.

I know that with my Orlando vacation home rental company Florida Spirit Vacation Homes we post consumer reviews on our website.  We request from our guest to write a review of the property they stayed in.  Currently someone cannot just go to the site and add a review, which perhaps is limiting site users from sharing more of their experiences with us.  Should websites that post reviews of business of any kind be required to authenticate that the person writing the review is truly a customer and not a competitor.  Not of just the businesses best interest but also the consumers, because without it can we really trust what people are writting?   

Walt Disney World Animal Kingdom now offers guest a picnic in the park for lunch.  Guest can get a picnic location map to find areas to sit down and enjoy the beautiful scenery of Animal Kingdom.The theme park that celebrates nature and all its amazing creatures now lets people have a picnic with a reusable bag, eating plates, utensils and bottled water.  Guest can pre-order the picnic meals in front of the Animal Kingdom guest relations office. The meals start from $24.99 for 3 people up to $59.99 for a 6 people.

This week Florida Spirit’s new site was launched. We are really excited with our new look on the web and we hope to improve our guest’s experience as they search for the ideal vacation home rental on their Orlando / Disney Vacation!

The new site includes video features with Orlando attractions experiences; a display of our Platinum, Gold and Silver Series Homes and lots of our Guest’s testimonials!  Other features include the ability to compare up to 3 properties as you make your vacation home selection; the rental prices are shown on the search results making it easier for the decision maker; the specials page  have a brand new look and it’s easier than ever to navigate and calculate your special discount!

To start the New Year Florida Spirit is offering 15% discount on all new reservations booked in January!

We wish everyone a wonderful 2009 and a GREAT vacation in a Florida Spirit Vacation Home!

Do the reviews of a product or service that people post online really matter? In the online world of travel, do people really read the reviews other guest write and take their opinion in to consideration?

For several years Florida Sprit Vacation Homes have posted emails from past guest thanking us for a wonderful time in the vacation home. We wanted to let people know that guests who stayed with us had a great time and they could also expect the same on their vacation. Sure we had control of the emails, but we have posted hundreds of them on the website over the years.

Florida Spirit has had several really nice travel articles written about us, where we invited the travel writer to stay with us, and we also had some really nice things written on yahoo travel and trip advisor, that we have no idea who wrote such nice things since it is by a first name or login name only.

I was recently shopping for a new car for my family and found a great car site called www.edmunds.com. On this site they had every detail about all kinds of cars including editor’s ratings. I found the editor ratings really for the car enthusiast, which I am not. I also found buyer reviews from people that have bought the cars and shared their opinion.

The buyer reviews were really helpful and seemed to look at the car from a similar view point as mine. I found that most of the reviews talked about items that the car experts did not even cover. I also found interesting that in most cases at least on review was too good to be true, almost as if it was written by the car manufacturer and a review so bad that it may have been written by a competitor. I did find that most reviews had overall similar opinions of the cars and I was very comfortable with that information.

I had another situation looking for a new lens for my digital camera. The lens details were very confusing for me since I am very basic with a camera. I only wanted a better lens to take close up shots of my children playing sports and to take better photos of the vacation homes for the website. Again the consumer reviews helped me out the most. In one lens review a buyer explained the lens was a disappointment to him but if you only wanted a great lens to take photos of kids playing sports it was a great value. He actually said that the best use of the camera lens was perfect for what I was looking for. I bought the lens and it is perfect for me.

I felt that the consumer reviews were so helpful in my last few personal purchases that I have added reviews by our past renters by an unbiased third party called Flipkey.com. Flipkey contacts our past rental guest by email and asked them if they would be interested in doing a review of the vacation home they stayed in and it would be posted on Flipkey.com. The reviews are unedited and Florida Spirit has no control of what people say other than by providing a very good vacation rental home at a good value in the first place.

Since we started a good number of our guests have taken the time to write a review and rate the homes. Florida Spirit has a 4.5 star rating out of a possible 5 stars with Flipkey. We had one less than wonderful review that pointed out that some of the homes furnishing were looking a little tired and that they had trouble with the dish washer and pool heater while staying in the home. Both the dishwasher and pool heater were serviced while the guest were in the home, even though it was understandable it was still frustrating to the guests and affected their vacation. Florida Spirit did use the review to ask the homeowner to make updates to the furnishing of the home which they agreed. Without consumer reviews we would not have had the guest comments to share with the property owner and improve the home for future guests.

Please share your thoughts if you feel that consumer reviews of products and services help you decide what to buy and even where to stay on your vacation.

Thank you,

Florida Spirit Vacation Homes