Trisha is one of our homeowners from the UK.  She lives in Yorkshire with her partner Mandy.  Together, they own the beautiful Anchor’s Away property on the Tuscan Ridge community in Davenport.

Browse Trisha’s home here.

We caught up with Trisha to ask her about being the owner of a vacation home in Florida and what she loves about her home and the state of Florida.

What made you decide to buy a holiday home in Florida?

We were looking in Spain originally, but then a friend told us about a company selling houses in Florida.  They flew us out for a week and showed us a load of homes.  We fell in love with the second one we saw, right on the first day.

How long have you had your home in Florida?

We bought it in 2003 and we’ve never looked back!  When we bought it, it was brand new.  We bought it with the intention of keeping it for five years, but we’ve had it now for 17 years.  We love the house and the area and we absolutely love Florida.

When did you first fall in love with Florida?

I went for the first time in around 1989, I think.  We’d been a couple of times in the 1990s.  But now it’s a home from home that we really love.  When it was my sixtieth birthday, we went out and stayed for a month.

Did you always know where you wanted to buy?

Osceloa county is Disney county and the homes there are much more expensive.  We bought just over the county line in Polk county.  At that time there was quite a few neighbourhoods going up and it was a lot cheaper to buy in Polk county.  What I love about it is the close access to the I4.  Within fifteen minutes of leaving our home, we are driving under the Welcome to Disney arch.

What is the area like?

When we first bought the home, there were just a few restaurants nearby.  Now, there’s everything you could want right on the doorstep.  There’s an English café that serves English food like Sunday roasts.  We love Bob Evans and Mani’s Chop House and Longhorn Steakhouse.

It’s just five minutes onto the Interstate and, from there, you can explore the whole of Florida.

Did you always know you would rent your home?

If we can’t rent a home, we won’t buy it.  This home has been great for us, especially with White Rose Villas managing it. Every year it’s already booked up for most of the next year!

How did you find White Rose Villas property management?

We had various nightmares with other property management companies.  We were even robbed by one of them!  But White Rose Villas property management is the best we’ve ever had.  Everything gets done if they say its going to get done.  They go above and beyond; we can’t fault them.   After all the nightmares we’ve had, White Rose Villas property management is like a godsend – they’re absolutely the best!

Do you have any advice for other people thinking about buying in Florida?

You need to be aware of all the financials.  You need your own accountant because you have to be IRS registered.  If you are going to rent out your home, you’ll be paying tax.  You have to consider the admin and the community charges, the homeowners’ association fees.  And the utilities cost a lot more than they do in the UK.  Get the right advice before you buy.

Have you got any tips that guests should know before booking your home?

We’ve tried to make it a home from home – so that nobody ever thinks ‘I wish this home had…’. It’s got everything you might need.  The only thing we don’t allow is barbeques because it can really stain the covered area around the pool.

What is the best thing about your home?

What’s the best feature – besides the pool?  I think the games room we’ve created by converting the garage.  There’s table football, pool, ice-hockey, a big TV with games. 

White Rose Villas comment: the heated hot tub on the pool deck is another superb extra.

Have you got any advice for anyone considering a holiday in Florida?

Everybody should go!  It’s every child’s dream.  And once you’ve been, you’ve got the bug!  I know two or three people who’ve bought a home there after going there on holiday.  It’s a fabulous place.  Last November, one of our guests went swimming with manatees!

We love to take our granddaughters to the parks.  When you watch the Disney parade with the fireworks over the castle afterwards, it has brought tears to my eye every time I’ve watched it!

We also love St Augustine.  It’s about an hour and a half to St Augustine but the drive is really interesting.  We’ve been to Anna Marie Island and Key West.  Miami is 240 miles away but it’s like a different planet altogether!  It’s so fabulous!  We’ve been all over, but we like Clearwater and Treasure Island.  We just book overnight at a cheap hotel and go and explore.

You can have your own Florida adventure by booking Trisha’s home.

View Anchor’s Away here.

Or browse all homes managed by White Rose Villas property management here.

As parts of our World take the first, tentative steps to emerge from lockdown, there’s more encouraging news from our Florida friends. In addition to short-term rental homes now being allowed to operate, pursuant to their county’s plan being approved, Disney has announced plans for a phased reopening, commencing on July 11th.

Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom are first up on 11th, with EPCOT and Hollywood Studios following on July 15th, in this phased reopening. It’s Disney as we’ve never known before; health and safety measures are obviously paramount and will include the implementation of a pre-arrival reservation system to maintain and ensure a reduced capacity.

In addition, the wearing of masks and temperature checks will be required, and parades, fireworks and other crowd creating events will be temporarily suspended. Similarly, ‘high touch’ experiences, including character meet and greet, makeovers and playgrounds will be unavailable in the short-term. However, characters will still roam the parks to entertain guests.

With SeaWorld, Discovery Cove and Aquatica awaiting approval to reopen on June 11th, Universal approved for June 5th and LEGOLAND opened on June 1st, the magic is very gradually returning!

The global Coronavirus pandemic has changed many aspects of life in just a few short months.  The travel sector, in particular, has been profoundly impacted.

Restoring people’s faith in travel is going to require sustained and careful effort to reassure staff, guests and travellers.  It is our belief that this restoration of faith must be achieved without creating any misplaced confidence and must be built on safeguarding all involved in the best possible way.

Essential Coronavirus cleaning measures

White Rose Villas has implemented safer cleaning regimes since the news of the pandemic first emerged.  We have been following advice to leave homes empty for 24 to 72 hours between bookings, depending on size of the home and the quantity of bedlinen available. 

We have provided staff with personal protective equipment, such as masks and gloves.  And we have asked them to stay at home if they show any signs of symptoms, as per the official guidance.

As always, our routine inspections are in place to ensure that your vacation rental meets all expectations.  

Our cleaning commitment

Our cleaning programme ensures all guests can enjoy a thoroughly cleaned villa by including such practices as washing and drying all towels, sheets and comforters at high temperatures. Staff will use new gloves when handling clean and disinfected items.

Our housekeeping team will also pay extra attention when cleaning high-touch surfaces.  High touch areas include (but are not limited to):

• Doorknobs
• Stair railings
• Telephones
• Remote controls
• Television buttons
• Sliding door handles
• Touch screens
• Kitchen appliances and fixtures
• Light switches

All of these surfaces will be cleaned with hospital-grade, EPA-approved disinfectants to ensure that they are thoroughly cleaned to the highest standards.

To give further confidence, we are now following the new SafeHome scheme.

The SafeHome scheme for vacation rental properties

The Vacation Rental Housekeeping Professionals (VRHP) and the Vacation Rental Management Association (VRMA) have launched a new SafeHome initiative to help members adopt safe cleaning standards.  In many cases, these standards exceed those mandated nationally, state-wide or locally.

Since these enhanced precautions have been developed to keep guests and staff safe and healthy, we have decided to adopt these enhanced cleaning standards.

The SafeHome recommendations include:

• Disinfection and sanitation techniques
• Proper use of personal protective equipment
• Recommended products, cleaning agents and equipment
• Updated cleaning and inspection processes for soft surfaces, upholstery and linens
• Waste removal and maintenance processes
• Communicating the new, expanded cleaning processes to guests

VRBO President Jeff Hurst said, “Making families feel comfortable enough to travel again after this pandemic is a must for the entire vacation rental industry.  Adopting these new cleaning guidelines will reassure travellers that vacation rentals are safe places for their next vacation.”

Self-catering can be the safest way to enjoy travel

Toby Babich, the president of VRMA, also highlighted how the launch of the SafeHome scheme will help to restore confidence.  He said, “We can count on our professional community to rise to this occasion and restore confidence within our local governments and guest populations that staying in a professionally managed vacation rental is the safest way to enjoy travel.”

We agree.  That’s why we welcome the news that we can reopen our homes in Osceola county to bookings from across the USA (provided the guests are resident in U.S. states with COVID-19 case rates less than 700 cases/100K residents).  For your information, CDC information on COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population by the state can be found here.

The new changes we’re making to White Rose Villas cleaning processes

As part of the implementation of the SafeHome guidance, you will notice some major changes to the way we clean your home. 

These changes include:

• Dining tables and breakfast bars will no longer be set.  Plates, glasses, etc. will be washed and put away with the other dishes in the kitchen.
  
• Throw cushions and throws will be washed and put away in the closets.
  
• Handwash and extra soap will be left for guests on arrival.  In addition, cleaning spray and cloths will be left in the home for guests’ use.
  
• We will be training all staff on approved VRHP courses about the new cleaning procedures and how to enact safe social distancing rules.
  
• In light of the new guidance, owners won’t be allowed to clean the home as this needs to be carried out by professionally licensed cleaners.
  
• Additional pillow protectors, pillows, mattress pads/protectors, blankets, comforters should be purchased, as possible, so they can be easily changed and laundered.  If choose not to purchase additional linens, we will continue implementing the 72-hour delay between bookings.

Procedures after cleaning has been completed

We have introduced a new detailed cleaning checklist to outline the new procedures and help our staff to embed them.  We are happy to send any of our owners a sample checklist for review, if you wish.  If you’d like us to do this for you, please get in touch.

From now on, all cleaning reports will follow this new extended format and you will receive a copy of it after every clean, as per normal.

Once homes have been cleaned, our usual pre-arrival inspections will be performed to confirm that the villa meets the standards we have set.  This final inspection confirms if a villa is show-ready and able to welcome its newest guests, making our procedures as thorough as possible.

Do you have questions?

As always, our team remain on hand to answer your questions.  If you would like any further clarification about these changes, or have any questions at all, please call or email the White Rose Villas team. 

Thank you for your support.