Tag Archives: cyberrentals

Martha's Vineyard, MV Rentals, Services

Why is it important to use an agent to book your vacation rental?

Leave a comment

So, to recap, last week, when I was looking for a rental property off-island for myself, I couldn’t find one. I could only find a site that listed millions of properties – but didn’t offer an actual person up for customer service, for an inside look.

That just doesn’t work for me. It’s so important to be able to rent from a 3rd party, and I’ll tell you why. An agent:

  • …will have seen, personally, all of the houses that they list. They’ll be able to give you real details about size, feel, look, etc.
  • …has the ability to get a group of houses in the same area, say if you only want Lambert’s Cove – they can gather them all up.
  • …can be objective as a 3rd party and not the owner.
  • …customizes your search for you. Will know all of the houses that meet your exact needs.
  • …shares with you the benefits of geography of each of your rental choices (for example: This house has the perfect backyard, but it’s close to a main road).
  • …realistically tells you if some of your needs just aren’t possible and then can help you come up with a real solution.
  • …offers more choices.
  • …mediates if there is a disagreement or issue between the renter and the owner of the property in terms of security deposit, cleanliness, damage, etc…

I love the internet…but my process of trying to find a vacation rental, from the renters side, left me craving a real person that could really help me! Off to search some more…

Martha's Vineyard, MV Rentals, Services

Searching for a vacation rental agent…

1 Comment

This summer, my kids will be lucky enough to do a very cool and very Vineyard thing. They’ll go sailing on the Shenandoah sailboat…as in a real live, old-fashioned, top-sail schooner – the only one in operation in the United States.

But, more on that later.

While they’re out on the high seas, my husband and I are headed off for our own little vacation. But, where to go when you live in one of the best vacation destinations around? I’m choosing Cape Cod…because I’ve spent very little time on the Cape and it’s close enough that we can get to the kids if we need to.

But, as I searched the web, I couldn’t find an actual vacation rental agent…and I couldn’t  find a site that showed me all of their listings in a way that I could search them on my own. I wasn’t able to view the best of the best all at once, and I was wasting my time going to all of these sites to find what I needed.

I even went to the 3rd and 4th page of search results. I know, desperation!

What I did find was CyberRentals. CyberRentals is a world wide rental site, and an incredibly popular one. And, I’m not knocking it – our agency, Sandpiper, even lists certain properties there for the exposure. But they list directly for sellers – there’s no objective party, no customer service, no one to help you out.

It wasn’t what I wanted. I want to be able to talk to the person who does NOT own the property. Stay tuned because my next post is going to tell you WHY after this good dose of what it feels like from the renter side.