Will there be any deals to be had?

[Diana2]

When we were on STJ in May we noticed that there seemed to be fewer people there compared to previous years. I understand that villa rentals for 2009 are slow. With today's soft economy I'm wondering if there might be some good deals for the 2009 season. It won't really do me personally any good since I have already booked our villa for June. Any thoughts on this??

[Lumiere]

I can tell you that we got some very good last minute deals for our trip in a few days.

[RickG]

Well, with electricity prices at $0.42 per kilowatt hour vs. $0.07 per kilowatt hour here in VA I'm expecting to see discounts on villas without a/c. Maybe we'll start seeing pay-for-use on electricity eventually?

Cheers, RickG

[Teresa_Rae]

It was pretty busy when we were there in June...no sign of a slow-down that we could see...I'd say it seemed pretty busy for summer on STJ.

[Xislandgirl]

I think that more and more people are travelling in the off season to save money. I know that it was very busy when I was there in June.

The owners are the ones that make the decisions on discounts. If they don't want to discount the rental agent can only waive their fee if they want to give you $$ off.
When I was a rental manager, we very seldom discounted properties, we had a few owners that said they would not discount at all and a few that would give a last minute, but they were rare.

I guess it never hurts to ask, if you are renting direct from the owner, I would think that you would have a better chance.