Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about booking Clearwater Beach house rentals

Can I book online?

Booking a Vacation beach home online is the best way to send us confirmation of your intent to secure a reservation for the beach rental villa of your choice. We strongly encourage clients to click on the rental home they prefer, click to select availablity and it will give you the form to book that vacation rental house online. You can get a price quote as well. THERE IS NO OBLIGATION to keep your online booking. You do not input any payment at this time. However, you will be the first guest to be called back if we have heavy call volume. So if you have questions or wish to discuss the price, you should still book the vacation retnal home online as it give you priority with the owner of the vacation over others calling and emailing us. Likewise, booking online is NOT a confirmation of a reservation. We reserve the right to reject an online booking given that these homes are vacation rentals by owner and will need to be approved by the owner and our staff.

How can I pay?

In order to secure a reservation for the vacation rentals homes you choose, we require a non-refundable downpayment of $500 or 10% of the total vacation home rental price. We accept a credit card for this first for the vacation home rental payment so that you can receive a confirmation email immediately and continue making your travel plans. HOWEVER, FINAL PAYMENTS AND REFUNDABLE SECURITY DAMAGE DEPOSITS CANNOT BE MADE VIA CREDIT CARD. TYPICALLY THEY ARE MADE 45 DAYS IN ADVANCE OF ARRIVAL DATE AND BY PERSONAL OR CORPORATE USA BANK CHECK. Unfortunately, we are not able to accept credit cards for large balances for vacation rental homes. The credit card company does not allow us to do so since we never touch your card and we never receive an actual original signature for the vacation rentals. If you are out of the country, you may need to pay for the holiday rental via bank wire 45 days in advance of stay for the the balance.

Do you provide travel insurance?

Although BeachHouseFL.com does not offer travel insurance at this time, we strongly suggest that when you reserve a home, you purchase inexpensive comprehensive vacation travel insurance which is offered by several independant companies over the internet. Given that most payments for Florida beach vacation rentals are non-refundable, purchasing insurance will give you a way to recoup funds in case of an emergency, poor weather, or environmental disasters. You may find a plan at TravelGuard.com

Rental Policies

We encourage you to reserve your property online. By reserving your vacation rental home online, you are simply holding the house until we can talk with you personally. There is no obligation to keep the reservation, but it will hold the property long enough for us to call you back and in most cases it will give you priority over other parties trying to secure the vacation rental property. Prices can still be negotiated in most cases as well as duration of stay. Once you input a reservation, we will contact you, discuss price, use and stay duration. If you want to secure the reservation after speaking with us, we will ask you for a non-refundable minimal downpayment to continue to hold the vacation rental for you. If your planned use, party size and negotiated price meet with the home owner's approval, you will receive a rental agreement via email. You will need to complete and sign the rental agreement and return it to us within 24 hours via fax or email. Each vacation rental home may have a different stay minimum, age restriction, pet policy, gathering or use policies and damage deposit requirement. Since each of our vacation rental homes are offered by owner, located in various municipalities that can have different laws regarding use and stay, we need to review this information with you to ensure that your planned use matches the intended use of your selected property. We typically require a refundable security damage deposit in addition to rent, cleaning fee and sales tax. Sales tax is 12% as we are taxed like hotels are taxed with 7% going to the State of Florida's Department of Revenue and 5% going to the county that the vacation rental home resides in. Security damage deposits are returned within 15 days after your departure as long the property is left in the condition you received it in, the property is not left exessively dirty, trash has been removed as instructed and all doors and windows are left locked. You do not need to contact us regarding the damage deposit. In the rare case that there are any issues, we will contact you immediately. We accept credit card payments for the inital non-refundable down payment from guests to hold the vacation rental home, so that you can be comfortable that you have a firm reservation and can continue making travel plans. However, after the first down payment, BeachHouseFL.com cannot accept a credit card for amounts over that first payment. We are an online business and because we do not actually swipe the card, the card companies typically will not permit us to accept large subsequent payments online. All payments are non-refundable once received except the damage deposit. Thus, we strongly suggest that guests purchase travel insurance in case of an unexpected problem that might cause you to need to change your plans. We do not offer travel insurance at BeachHouseFL.com at this time, but it can be easily purcahsed online from a number of different companies. Check in time is 4 p.m. and check our time is 10 a.m. We unfortunately cannot make an exception given that we need to conduct maintence and clean these large properties in the hours in between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. If you need an early check in time or late check out, you are sometimes able to pay for the additional time. If you do pay for additional time at the vacation rental home, please make sure to bring your receipt as our cleaners know that execeptions are only made by paid reservation and will ask to see the receipt.

Are your rates negotiable?

BeachHouseFL.com caters to families and our vacation rental homes are all family friendly beach rentals or designed to accommodate larger groups in most cases. Prices and number of minimum nights stays are sometimes flexible and negotiable except during the high seasons. During school holidays and high season, prices are not as negotiable unless the vacation rental home is open less than a few weeks prior to the arrival date. Typically high season stays are Saturday to Saturday. Please feel free to ask us if you require flexibility as we are sometimes able to accommodate our clients.