Cable and Wifi costs for VRs

[Bernee Brawn]

Hi all... I purchased my first property that will be used for short term vacation rentals. We are fixing it up now, and it should be on the market in another month or two. 

It is located in St James City, Florida, an island off of Ft Myers. The market here is mostly 3-5 months for snow birds.

My question is for others who rent in this sort of market- how do you handle cable TV and Wifi? The costs are outrageous on a month to month basis if the property is empty.... ouch! Wondering if anyone only offers Netflix and such with an antenna to pick up local stations? If so, do you get complaints from your renters? 

Trying to figure out the best way to handle this.... thanks for any help or suggestions!

[Michael Greenberg]

This is a good question.  Yes it is silly expensive but there are options.  I have Dish network on one of my properties.  I then purchased multiple ROKU devices (it's an internet enabled streaming device) and enabled the various networks that are active on my Dish network account.  I am now able to stream a lot of entertainment to multiple properties and pay only one Dish account.  If you're not technical, you'll want to find someone that is so they can help you set this up.  I also pay the monthly Netflix family plan which allows me to stream to 5 connected devices at one time.  Finally, I have digital antennas for local stations.  This all seems to work very well and I have never received a complaint from any guest.  Hope that helps.

Mike