rental homes - how soon to book?

karistiz

So I've taken a break from doing wedding related things since work and school became pretty hectic. I was going to pick back up toward the end of may, until i had a reality check by some family and friends last night.

wedding date is july 18, 2014.

i have most of my vendors set. so i thought i was doing pretty well. last night, i heard that people have already booked homes for the week fo my wedding. i haven't sent out save the dates - but they're family & close friends we've spoken to about it.

I need to find two homes - one oceanfront one nearby - pools and dog friendly- i figured i'd be good doing it by the summer- not true? should i be seriously looking now?

Springdaisy5

Yes, you need to start looking now. We booked our vacation home for this May, last June! Most oceanfront homes, that have a private pool and are animal friendly book up to a year in advance. That is the same criteria we used, and when I called to book last June for my wedding this May, most rental companies homes that fit our description were already rented, and one company only had one left, and thats the one we got! Most rental companies won't book more than a year in advance, but some might. So, it doesn't hurt to start looking, and then that way hopefully you can get the one you want.

ksj10032782

Homes will not be available to book until a year out, and at that time, some homes will not have their prices listed, but you can "hold" the house. I'm not sure how people have already booked homes when you are a year and a half out.. Houses are given first choice to the people who booked the home the year prior, so you can book, one year, less than a week. If this is your house rental for the week, you will be fine booking in July, although I would look earlier to know what houses you are interested in. I think we booked our house rental in Nov 2012 for our Sept. 2013 wedding, and we had a large selection of homes available. I would suggest going through and picking 3-5 houses that you like, in case one of them books up.

doceri

I wouldn't totally freak out yet!  Like the poster above said you can't book anyway until 51 weeks out.  I do think though you should do some research beforehand and see which houses you are interested in.  The only realty place I know off the top of my head that would allow to book over a year out was Brindley Beach.  The rest it was a Tuesday morning or Monday night of the week you could book and I was a crazy stalker and called the realtor to see if the people rebooked yet!  Good luck!

karistiz

thanks everyone- i've definitely been looking here and there but i guess i should get serious about it.

there's so much out there! so hard to choose!

OBX2011

There is nothing wrong with looking now, so that you can get an idea of what is available and if you do find something, then you can speak to the rental company about pre-reserving it for a $50 reservation fee.  The contract would be sent to you in October and about 1/2 of the costs would be due then, and the other half 30 days before your check-in date. 

The homeowners have to decide whether or not they are going to renew their rental contract with the management company for the next season and also if they are going to increase the weekly rent, so that is why the contracts don't go out until the fall.  We pre-reserved a home and paid the $50 as we thought we would have a tented reception at an oceanfront home, but  when we received the contract, the owner had increased the weekly rent by $2,000 and there was no way we were going to pay that much more, so we forfeited the $50. 

Also, since a lot of rental companies are already booked for this season, some of them may or may not show the price for the time in July that you are looking for, but you can always call the rental office and just ask what this years rates are, so you can decide whether or not it's in your budget. 

karistiz

In Response to Re: rental homes - how soon to book?:
[QUOTE but  when we received the contract, the owner had increased the weekly rent by $2,000 and there was no way we were going to pay that much more, so we forfeited the $50. 
Posted by OBX2011[/QUOTE]

eesh! by 2k!? that's crazy. my original plan was to have my wedding at the dream house in carova. i even went to visit, it was beautiful. but that price jumped up like crazy from 2012-2013 so i could only imagine what it would be for my 2014 wedding!

was it easy to find a new rental in october?

depotmode

I just got back from OBX and looked at several event homes. I played with the idea of putting an advance property hold on more than one house, which may be an option for you if you have concerns about rental costs going up. We considered that idea mainly because our first choice (before we got to the beach, anyway) was on the market for sale. However, we put a property hold (for two consecutive weeks--we're having the wedding and honeymoon in the event house...after kicking everyone out, ha ha) on a different house. If for some reason it doesn't work out when leases go out in the fall, we still have some options to choose from, from the ones we looked at. Our original first choice house is now our back-up/second choice if for some reason our first choice isn't in the program or the rates increase too much. 

I pretty much did the 51-week thing...try to go to the OBX to look as close to your date (but after the dates, to avoid the first-choice of this year's guests thing) as possible, and book quickly. 

karistiz

thanks - i'm heading down on july 28 for this year and my date is july 18 for next -so hopefully i'll find something!