USVI-On-Line

When I got the itch to finally take the plunge and rent a villa on St. John I had not yet discovered this forum.

So, like countless other newbies before me, I began the painstaking but exciting task of searching the internet looking for the perfect villa for our trip. You know the routine - find a promising candidate, scour the internet looking for all of the reviews and comments you can find, and so forth.

I finally found one that looked like it would meet what I was looking for. Relatively new (as opposed to "charming" or "rustic"), sunset view, pool, not too far from "town" (Cruz Bay), priced reasonably, and most important, available for the dates I'd targeted.

The property, Cielo Vista, is listed by Carefree Getaways. I had originally tried to get Villa Capiz, listed by the same folks, but a series of emails confirmed that the dates it was available would not work for us this time around. Cielo Vista was among the alternative choices provided to me by Carefree that were available during the timeframe I was looking for.

Once I had confirmed the villa and dates I was sent by email some documents including confirmation instructions. In addition to the how to/where to/why to send the checks (one half of the rent plus 8% tax as a deposit, and a seperate check for $70 - non-refundable $35 Reservation and $35 Security Deposit Waiver fee) there was a sheet that stated that they would also arrange private taxi service from the STT airport to Red Hook, and car rental on St. John.

The last part caught my attention: Were they trying to help me by making things as easy as possible, or were they trying to force me to use particular vendors that they had "arrangements" (kickbacks) with? The documents I received after they got my deposit check allayed my fears. The new documents indicated that the private taxi and the designated car rental company were only options that I could choose to have them arrange for me, as were other services such as villa provisioning.

I suppose I won't be able to fully evaluate them until after my trip, but so far they have been up front, helpful but not pushy, and the $35 rental fee, while I don't know if that's out of the norm or not, sure is a sight less than the 5% fee I've read that some of the agencies are charging. Their literature states that they will meet us at the ferry and lead us to the villa. I have no idea what to expect in terms of a welcome basket, etc. I would think that if they do that sort of thing that not publishing that fact, and having it be a pleasant surprise to the guests may be more effective (of course in this day and age, when we internet geeks know that "so and so got one" they may want to consider advertising those types of perks to remain competitive).

I used Carefree for my honeymoon and we are returning this year to Villa Capiz. I have no complaints about their service. I appreciated the ability to have them book my car for me, one more thing off the check list!

Here's my view on these other fees, in your case the $35.00 non refundable fee. In the whole scheme of your STJ it probably is a drop in the bucket but when you find out others aren't paying this, I have to think that it leaves a bit of a bad taste.

I guess the question is always, why do they do it? I guess it's a fee that that doesn't have to be shared with the villa owner. Do you get any more of a service than using some other rental company that doesn't charge the fee? I doubt it.

/just my opinion

I don't get either of the two $35. fees. As to the security deposit, my experience has been to give Windspree a security deposit check that they don't cash unless you screw up. Seems fair to me. As to the $35.00 reservation fee? Gee, would you pay a "reservation fee" to a restaurant for reserving a table? As I said before: The villa owners are paying them to manage their property! This a self imposed tax by these companies that I feel is a form of screwing you out of $35.00, 5 percent or whatever.For me, it's not the amount, but the whole principle of honesty and integrity. I won't do business with them, and if I was a villa owner they wouldn't be my property managers.

Interesting, carefree has 38 villas for rent, so if they were occupied 80% of the time for 52 weeks out of the year that $35 fee adds up to ~56K

We have rented Villa Capiz for late April/early May. Our management company is Carefree also. So far I have only good things to say about them. Quick responses when I've asked questions and I didn't find the 35.00 fees outrageous at all. We did rent our vehicles through them also. I checked rates before deciding how to go about that reservation and the prices were the same so why not let someone else handle it. I've only heard good things about Carefree from other renters so far!

Enjoy your trip. I've read wonderful thngs about Cielo Vista!

We're renting from Cloud 9 and Marcy also offered to arrange for a car for us. The price was the same to I let her take care of it for me. If Cloud 9 gets a finder's fee or something from the rental company, that's fine. It didn't cost me anything extra.

We rented Villa Capiz (or Villa Vapiz if you're reading the review) through Carefree last June and were completely satisfied with their services. Of course right before we left, the owners had the greeting/maintenance part of the management changed to another company (Cimmaron). Don't know if that is still the case or not but we got a chance to meet Dave and Robin (Dave was great). Anyhoo, I don't remember if there was a gift basket or not. The owners gave us a Villa Capiz beach bag filled with booze and goodies and there was tons of stuff due to the provisioning so I don't know what came from where. There were gorgeous island flowers and a hand painted turtle oranment for my daughter who had just graduated so that was a nice surprise as well. I'm rambling; bottom line, I would definitely rent through Carefree again and that $35 was a lot less than some surcharges and damage deposits I've seen.