Renting a St John villa...

[miksinitup]

Howdy VI travellers!

What a great forum for planning a VI vacation! I appreciate everyone's effort in making this a wondering source of information. I hope I can contribute to its success.

My fiance and I are looking into renting a villa on St John. The proposals that I've received from villa owners have been emails which instruct me to send them a check to reserve a spot. This may be a stupid question but should owners be sending contracts or other legally binding documents or are email proposals the way this works? I'm leary of sending a deposit check down to an individual without some sort of guarantee or official documentation.

Thanks for the help!

[mbw1024]

what company are you using? I have only used Carefree Getaways but both times they emailed me a full rental agreement that stated they were holding my reservation until a given date when they expected a deposit check.
Not sure how other rental places handle it but I would think it would be some what similar.

just read your post again and realize you are dealing directly with an owner. I rent a place in Maine every year directly from an owner and they a rental agreement on a web site. I print it and send it along with a security deposit. Going on just an email doesn't sound cool to me.

Congrats on the pending marriage. Is this your honeymoon trip?

[miksinitup]

Thanks Mary Beth. The website that I'm looking at is VI-Villas. http://web.archive.org/web/200605020808 ... /index.htm

This seems to be an individual and not a company. Anyone ever worked with them?

[mbw1024]

Some of those villas are also handled by other companies. IE Siempre Azul is also handled by Viva! which I know folks around here have used.

I'm never really sure how it works when more then one company lists a villa but you might want to look around for a place that has on island representation in the event of any problems.

Which villa are you considering?

[miksinitup]

Siempre Azul actually. Do you have any wisdom to share about it? I'll check into Viva! Thanks.

This will be the honeymoon, MB We can hardly wait to visit. This will be our first time to USVI.

Any other recommendations on villas similar to Siempre Azul would be appreciated! Thanks.

[mbw1024]

Sorry I don't know that particluar one. We have only been there once ourselves. My husband and I were married 9/30/06 and spent our honeymoon on STJ. 10 great days! And we are going back Nov. of this year.
You are going to have a great time! Good luck with all your research - this is a great place to do it!