Vacation home for an event

[WhatJaneSays]

Unrelated to Disney but I figured some folks on here may have some insight:

The group I work with is starting to plan our holiday party and in years past one of us has always hosted it at their home. That has always been a fairly large hassle for whoever is hosting and no one really has a space that would accommodate 16-20 people for food, drinks, and general revelry. Outsiders have been suggesting renting event space somewhere but that’s really not what we’re looking for.

I thought of renting a vacation house instead but I have zero experience with the best way to go about finding one (or at least a good company that handles them) for our unique situation.

Our holiday party is more like 36-hour sleepover for adults rather than a dinner party. Because of that we might have some unusual criteria that fall into “this house has X bed rooms and X bathrooms” listings.

 

[Nemo14]

I think you might want to omit the words "general revelry" when inquiring about using someone's vacation home.

 

[WhatJaneSays]

I think you might want to omit the words "general revelry" when inquiring about using someone's vacation home.

I intend to be 100% honest in our inquiries. We're all professional people between the ages of 30 and 40, not frat boys. However we do want to find a property that is not going frown at us wanting to grill s'mores at midnight, has a large screen TV to marathon Star Wars on, a place we can park 3-5 vehicles without damaging someone's lawn, has a good kitchen for our caterer, and an open floor space for our sleeping bag "camping" time.

I want whoever we rent from to know what they are committing to.

 

[HRHPrincessAriel]

Vrbo.com

 

[R W B]

^^^I was about to post the same website.

 

[Chernaboggles]

We use HomeAway and VRBO.

When sending the initial email, be honest about your needs, but you don't need to go into great detail, because honestly, most owners don't care what movies you're going to watch or whether you cook at midnight or not. Any property large enough to suit you is going to be quite used to parties and large groups. You should be able to tell from the pictures what sort of space and amenities there are, but if you have specific questions, just ask.

Protip: do not mention sleeping bags, because they will assume you're bringing more people than the property officially sleeps. Ask about floor space for yoga mats - much less alarming.

Example:

Dear [Owners Name}

I'd like to learn more about your Orlando property (VRBO listing #5555). I'm planning this year's annual holiday gathering of extended family and friends. We are 16-20 adults ages 30-40. Our weekend activities will include board games, movie watching, local sight-seeing and conversation. A catering service will be providing the food.

Is your property suitable for a gathering of this type? Is there access to a grill? Is there sufficient floor space in the living room to lay out 7 yoga mats at once?

I can be reached at [email, phone]. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Once you get a sense of the owner, you can give more details if you want, but it's probably unnecessary.

 

[Figgy1]

all star vacation homes has houses large enough for your group. It's a company they generally just want to know how many people are staying. Their web sight has floor plans and sq. footage of the different houses. Usually lots of pics and A+ BBB rating