USVI-On-Line

Ouch, Genral. That's horrible. Its just way too much money to pay (the house and the fees) to be treated like they are doing you a favor. No thanks, I'll stick with Destination St. John. I am one of those who is EXTREMELY loyal to those who deserve it and HAPPY to spread the word when done wrong.

Maybe they have so much business that they don't care but you'd think in the long run it would catch up to them. I wonder if any of the home owners who have CV rep them read this board. You'd think they would want to know.

I have no clue as to how to highlight and reiterate various passages from previous posts but, IF WE SIMPLY LET THE AGENCIES KNOW WE ARE TALKING ABOUT THIS, this whole issue might get resolved.

That was the gist of my lunch hour post.

I love the idea of the sticky post on this issue and I would like it very much if Anthony would only support the rental agencies that give truly good service.

Marcia (Mrs. Pete) ~

I have to say that the "welcome basket" we got when we arrived at Ristaba appeared to be leftover alcohol that previous renters had left in the fridge. There were about 12 bottles of several different beers.

If I recall correctly (Cat would probably know better), the table was decorated nicely with some bottles of wine on it. I don't think we ever actually opened any of those bottles of wine

None of the places/houses we have ever rented have had a welcome basket so it's not something we expect either; although, I wouldn't knock it if it was there.

nothintolose

CG, I'm not sure the complaint has anything to do with whether or not you receive a welcome gift for the extra 5 pct. If what you say is true about them managing the lesser expensive villas, that 5 pct becomes even more ludicrous. The villa owners lower their price and/or the management fee they pay to CV. CV then, to make up for this differential adds 5 pct none of which goes back to the owner. The owner's property is less on basis of price and pays less to the management company. Management company gets it back from renter.

As a free market kind of guy, I say okay but I would also have the right to say no.

And the idiotic answer that Mia received would also make me wonder of their business brain.

I am sure that much has changed in the almost 7 years since I left the island but I asm still scratving my head over the service fee and most importantly over the e-mail that Mia received.
I am going to try and play out a hypothetical to see if this makes sense:

I own a house on STJ. I hire a management company named X Rentals to manage my house. They take care of all maintenance and rent my house out as well. I pay them $200 a month plus the hourly rate of any cleaning and repairs for the management and I pay 20% percent of all rentals to X Rentals.

I decide that I would like to get more exposure for my house so I tell Y and Z rentals that I would like them to rent my house as well. I will give them 15% of all rentals that they book.

Y and Z have to do nothing other than pick up the guests at the ferry dock. If there is a problem with the house itself, X Rentals will take care of it. The cleaning will be taken care of by X Rentals.

Where does the extra 5% come in? X Rentals does everything and gets paid by the owner. Y and Z Rentlas get 15% percent for sending a contract, collecting money and one ferry pick up. The 5% is for nothing. Why pay for something with no value?

The gas comment is ridiculous, that is a business expense. The renter should not be responsible for helping to pay for business expenses for the management company.

I don't really care about a welcome basket either. But I have enjoyed them in the past from other companies, and since we are going to walk into our condo at 11:00p.m., I was hoping there would be something to eat, since our trip is short and we are only taking carry on baggage. I guess that's why I assumed for an extra 5% we might expect a few snack and sodas. But I agree their homes do seem to be less expensive, and I've wondered why. They sure have MANY more on their list than the other rental companies.

Xislandgirl is correct. There is always a good deal of confusion about how it works. These villas are not being managed by various agents from whom you rent.

There is ONE management company for a particular home, most likely. You may or may not rent from that management company. Many, many firms are ONLY doing advertising and rentals - but not management of that same villa they're renting.

Let's say I own "Blue's Island Rentals"...and I have a fancy website with a calendar and other search functions. I have pretty photos and a description. YOU can rent the villa from me. I am likely to NOT be the manager of the villa. I am just a marketing person. I get a % of the rental price for being successful in marketing it.

In addition to me, there is a Villa Manager. This is the agent who greets you at the ferry, arranges to have the villa cleaned, answers calls about maintenance problems, etc.

The rental agent (the marketing person) might be in Maine. Doesn't matter. You want the managing agent to be local.

In some cases, the rental agent (also known as the booking agent) and the management firm are one in the same. Look at VIVA's site. Not sure if they have changed this....but they used to designate which of their advertised villas were "A VIVA MANAGED PROPERTY". This tells you that they are advertising some homes that are NOT managed by them.

Why would an agent charge a service fee? Not sure. I'll have to ask around about that.

I want to state for the record that Caribbean Villas is NOT the agency we are using for our next trip to St. John. We are renting from a different agency who also charges a 5% service fee; this is where the "explanation" regarding the reasons for the added fee came from. Having said that, I would also like to say that we will avoid using CV again....but certainly not because they don't provide a welcome basket. We used them for our first rental and found them to be lacking in service rendered. The 5% wasn't even an issue then, because as newbies we thought that it was the norm.

I am not here to bash an agency or ruin business for another. You will notice that I have not mentioned the name of the agency or gender of the agent we are using. I shared the email because it was relevant to the discussion on this thread....mia

I noticed that you did not name the agency and I think that was a smart choice. I don't think that we should be bashing any company directly. This is a relevant topic and your e-mail gave a bit of insight into the 5% fee (vague, but insight none the less)

I have a discussion with a co-worker almost weekly about grocery stores. I shop at the store that is less than a mile from my house. I know where everything is and the people are friendly. She shops at another store that is further away and does not have a great selection but is cheaper than the store I shop at.

She doesn't understand why I willingly pay more. I can't undertand going out of my way and settling for less options just to save a few dollars each week.

We will all pay for what we want at a price that we are comfortable paying. Villa, groceries, cars, etc. No one wants to pay more than they have to, but some people do, for many reasons.

We had a great experience with CV, so I wanted to offer another view. I was surprised to hear of the bad experiences with CV and feel bad for you since it can give you a bad feeling during precious vacation time.

We rented through CV last year and again this year (for April trip). We received very good service from both the Maine office and the on-island folks. CV gave us a cute tote bag with some drinks and snacks. (OK, I am a sucker for cute tote bags, like other forumites). It was unexpected, but a nice touch. We were staying at Concordia the first week of our trip and when we called CV in the morning on our day to check in to the villa, they let us come right over to the villa and check in early. Then we had a place to leave our bags rather than having to hang out somewhere between checkout time at Concordia and check-in to the villa. The villa was very clean and had spices, sodas and beer left over from previous visitors. The folks in the office on STJ were very nice to deal with when we stopped in a few times. We didn't have any problems with the villa, so can't judge how things would go if we did.

I have to agree with Calif girl that the welcome basket is not a big deal to us, but we arrive in late afternoon and can go to the store on the way to villa so we have food after the long trip. We decide on the price we want to pay for a villa, then factor in whatever other charges as part of the overall price. I suspect different companies break out or lump in various charges, so I just look at the bottom line cost to us.

But CG, that $98.00 could have been enough for an invite for Angie and I for another brunch in Dana Point.

And I agree, people understand about the 5 pct.

The reality is that if you are a new renter then you may not realize that most companies do not charge that 5%. But even as a person who has rented before, I wasn't aware of the 5% additional till after it was booked. Another person in my group booked it and he wasn't aware of the situation. Having said that, what in the world is the 5% for?? To me it is gouging the renter and really pretty tacky. It's not the amount it's the cheap way or making a buck.