All Forum Posts by: Wesley Myers

@Wesley Myers We have 3 STRs in Florida and all 3 have a pool fence. One of the properties had just an alarm but we installed a fence.

One year ago we had an incident where a guests' child almost drowned in our pool. The baby sitter wasn't watching and the kid needed CPR to come back. Luckily he was fine and just spent one night in the hospital. Looking at the ring camera I saw our street filled with a fire truck, ambulance and a couple police cars ..... the neighbors must have loved it.

After this I did a lot of reading related to liability, etc. so to be in the safe side I would suggest fence, depth markings on outside of the pool, pool safety sign, and if pool has deep end mention in the house guide and welcome email.

And yeah to be competitive all rentals in Florida need a pool.

@Wesley Myers In Orlando, you are right, every house is built with pool and hot tub (if you are in one of the resort communities like Championsgate, Solara, Windsor and many others) Occupany on homes with pool and no spa are about 20% less according to my PM sources. 

My clients usually install automation for everything possible, lights, pool, garage a/c, thermostats etc. That way they can control things when its empty  and if desired, charge them if they want pool heat at a $XX per day rate or the whole stay for $XX. Some charge extra for using the grill too!

So I would say it's a must and will likely pay for itself pretty quickly whether you charge your guests for it or just save money on your gas bill. 

Hello Wesley,

I lived at a friends house in 2021 in Reunion, right next to Celebration, and almost every home had a hot tub there. My friends were on a vacation and then decided to stay long term - since the rates were so cheap during the pandemic. Remember this is a long term rental and he was paying the bills at this time. He mentioned to me several times that using the hot tub a lot was increasingly adding to the electric bill.

All the houses in this development had access to the hot tub controls, meaning the start and stop capabilities, etc. If the heat wanted to be turned up, he did have to call a property management company, which he did several times when it was too cool. I don't know of any wi-fi controls for a hot tub.

Does it add to more possible bookings, probably yes, but the bill, especially if the spa is on all the time, which it can be when people are on vacation will add up as well.