Wow! Ok, first, let me start by saying, this was by far the busiest peek season we have ever had. Not just because we added Magnolia to the portfolio, but it was the most booked from March through October that we have ever had! Just in those months we hosted 134 families between the three units!
Of course with hosting 134 families comes a lot of wear and tear and A LOT of replacing of items that we provide. Spoons and forks, and charging cords, bath towels, plates, and drinking glasses have all needed replaced here and there from damage, getting broke, or disappearing. We have personally replaced over 15 boogie boards, and all 3 beach umbrellas have all had to be replaced at least once this year, and beach chairs have also had to be replaced as well! Now, keep in mind we replace boogie boards, beach chairs, and beach umbrella's at the beginning of each season so we start fresh. 2022 will have new beach chairs, new umbrellas in all three units, and new wagons in Three 20s and Flip Floppin' Fun.
I have also not written a blog in a while because I don't ever want it to sound like I'm complaining or venting lol. But this year has been ROUGH! Lots of rules being broken and a lot of entitlement from guests, from over occupancy to allowing kids to be in bedrooms with Cheeto fingers and red slushies and those things destroying bedding then being told that we need to not advertise as family friendly if we can't look past those things! Let's put it this way, we don't even let our kids eat in the bedrooms or run amuck in the condo with slushies or even drinks. This one was good.... being told that we need to provide MORE things for them in the beach supply closet because they flew.... We are very upfront with our expectations in our contract that is signed by each guest at the time of booking. And we give a list of what is provided to our guests before their arrival so they aren't surprised. Yes, this is a business, but we use our condos and these are our vacation homes. Our poor housekeeper has worked her tail end off this year making sure everyone is coming to a beautiful condo that is free of all of that crazy no matter how horrible it looked when she arrives earlier in the day.
This year was also busy with a lot of improvements through out the complex! The whole place has improved by like 100% with a new paint job to the whole place, new walk ways, adding a pool heater, new building sign, new dumpster enclosure, new fences along the sides of the building, and new surveillance cameras all over the property. Now, a lot of that is not noticed by those who haven't been to the property more than once, but believe me when I say, a lot of people familiar with the area use to know Sunrise Village as the "ugly mustard yellow building", our exterior is finally starting to reflect the interiors of our beautiful condos! There's a lot of 'behind the scenes" work that goes into having a vacation rental and one of those is the condo association itself! We are both on the board of ours and that is to make sure that things are ran the way we like them lol. Basically, it's to ensure that the complex looks great all the time, since we are "hands on owners" we are on property several times year and can see everything that is going on and can keep up with the work that is getting done, and we know what is involved. We are fully invested into this complex and would LOVE to get a couple more units when the time is right.
On top of all of that, I am working full time, still out of the home but it is full time work. I have had to make a few adjustments to how we do things in order to take something off my plate. So all Welcome Packets are now emailed out 10 days before your arrival. So be sure to check your email for all instructions for the condo from now on. This is a huge time saver for me, I realize it's not as personal but I need a better work/life balance and this helps me out tremendously!
Despite all the crazy and all the times that cause more/deeper wrinkles, my favorite time is getting those AMAZING 5 star reviews on the booking sites and on our FaceBook page and seeing pictures of the families having the time of their lives not on phones or iPads, but jumping in waves, building sand castles and enjoying ice cream! Those make all of this worth it!
So, here's to next year! We have our list of things we need to do in February to freshen up the condos and we'll be ready for another great year!
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