What is the Reservation Process?
When making a reservation, generally, 50% of the total rental is required, final 50% is required at least 30 days prior to arrival. Please see "What is the Payment Schedule?" below for full details. After providing the necessary information to generate the Rental Documents, they will be sent to you. You will need to:
1. Print these Rental Documents.
2. Carefully Read them over.
3. Double check your check-in & Check-out dates.
4. Choose your personal 4 digit door code; we do not issue house keys.
5. If there are discrepancies, in the Rental Documents and your intended stay, those needs to be addressed prior
to you signing the Rental Documents.
6. If all is agreeable on the Rental Documents, please sign where required.
7. Within 72 hours of receiving the Rental Documents, please scan:
A. The signed original Rental Documents you were sent.
B. A copy of your driver's license.
C. If paying with a check, a copy of that check.
8. If you are paying with a Credit Card, these payments are processed through PayPal. Any Credit Card or Payment Method accepted through PayPal, we will accept. After Receiving the scanned Rental Documents & a copy of your Driver's License, you will be invoiced through PayPal. The Rental Rate you were quoted, is Net. The PayPal processing fees of 3.5% will be added to all PayPal Invoices. If for some reason, there are higher charges associated with your PayPal Payment, those will be passed on to you. There have never been higher than 3.5% on USA Credit Cards, but Foreign Charge Cards (such as from Canada or Europe) have had fees as
must as 8%; these additional fees will need to be paid by the Booking Guest.
9. Within 7 business days of your receiving the scanned documents, the original signed documents, copy of your driver's license, and if paying by check, the check, should have been received though US.
Only when the payment has cleared, is your reservation confirmed and the on-line calendar will show those dates as booked. 30 days prior to your arrival, the final 50% is due. If you wish to pay this final amount by check, but forget, once the 29th day has been reached, you will need to pay through PayPal and the processing fee of 3.5% (or higher) will be added to your invoice).
See Policies for Payment Information
1. Print these Rental Documents.
2. Carefully Read them over.
3. Double check your check-in & Check-out dates.
4. Choose your personal 4 digit door code; we do not issue house keys.
5. If there are discrepancies, in the Rental Documents and your intended stay, those needs to be addressed prior
to you signing the Rental Documents.
6. If all is agreeable on the Rental Documents, please sign where required.
7. Within 72 hours of receiving the Rental Documents, please scan:
A. The signed original Rental Documents you were sent.
B. A copy of your driver's license.
C. If paying with a check, a copy of that check.
8. If you are paying with a Credit Card, these payments are processed through PayPal. Any Credit Card or Payment Method accepted through PayPal, we will accept. After Receiving the scanned Rental Documents & a copy of your Driver's License, you will be invoiced through PayPal. The Rental Rate you were quoted, is Net. The PayPal processing fees of 3.5% will be added to all PayPal Invoices. If for some reason, there are higher charges associated with your PayPal Payment, those will be passed on to you. There have never been higher than 3.5% on USA Credit Cards, but Foreign Charge Cards (such as from Canada or Europe) have had fees as
must as 8%; these additional fees will need to be paid by the Booking Guest.
9. Within 7 business days of your receiving the scanned documents, the original signed documents, copy of your driver's license, and if paying by check, the check, should have been received though US.
Only when the payment has cleared, is your reservation confirmed and the on-line calendar will show those dates as booked. 30 days prior to your arrival, the final 50% is due. If you wish to pay this final amount by check, but forget, once the 29th day has been reached, you will need to pay through PayPal and the processing fee of 3.5% (or higher) will be added to your invoice).
See Policies for Payment Information
What is the Payment Schedule?
he above has described in great detail how a booking 50 days or further out, is made. Truth be told, about half of our bookings are made about 180 days in advance, but some are made less than 2 months from the arrival date and a few, just days before arrival. Below is the time frame for bookings made less than 2 months from arrival date:
More than 50 days prior to arrival:
50% is due with the Signed Rental Documents. The final payment of 50% is due at least 30 days prior to arrival. Approximately 45 days before arrival, a friendly reminder should be sent. If for some reason, this does not happen, you are still responsible to have your 50% payment in at least 30 days prior to arrival. If too much time elapses, you may be required to pay this final amount through PayPal, paying the applicable fees.
Less than 50 days to arrival, but more than 14 days:
Same as above, except full payment is due within 7 days
Less than 14 days to arrival:
Same as above, except full payment will need to be made by credit card, within 3 days; and those additional fees will apply.
Once your 1st Payment is received, you will receive confirmation of payment being received & a map to the house. Approximately 45 days prior to your arrival, you should receive a friendly reminder, by email, to pay the balance due. This final 50% payment can be paid by Credit Card or Check. Once this payment is received, you will also receive an email confirming its receipt. Throughout this entire process, at any point that you have a question about the reservation process, the house, whatever, please feel free to send an email or call.
More than 50 days prior to arrival:
50% is due with the Signed Rental Documents. The final payment of 50% is due at least 30 days prior to arrival. Approximately 45 days before arrival, a friendly reminder should be sent. If for some reason, this does not happen, you are still responsible to have your 50% payment in at least 30 days prior to arrival. If too much time elapses, you may be required to pay this final amount through PayPal, paying the applicable fees.
Less than 50 days to arrival, but more than 14 days:
Same as above, except full payment is due within 7 days
Less than 14 days to arrival:
Same as above, except full payment will need to be made by credit card, within 3 days; and those additional fees will apply.
Once your 1st Payment is received, you will receive confirmation of payment being received & a map to the house. Approximately 45 days prior to your arrival, you should receive a friendly reminder, by email, to pay the balance due. This final 50% payment can be paid by Credit Card or Check. Once this payment is received, you will also receive an email confirming its receipt. Throughout this entire process, at any point that you have a question about the reservation process, the house, whatever, please feel free to send an email or call.
Once I send an Email to book certain dates, could I loose them?
After you have received a Rental Quote for a specific date range, if you are interested in Reserving those dates, please send an email indicating that as soon as the decision is made & you are financially able to pay the required amount. We are always amazed that a particular time frame goes without a single inquiry and then as soon as one inquiry is received, within hours, we are receiving another and even the next day possibly a 3rd or 4th inquiry for the same date range. 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, none of these inquiries has more of a lock on these dates then the other. Dates are locked in only after payment has cleared.
Rental Documents sent to the first person to request them, who has provided all the information needed to generate them, will be sent these Documents. The information needed to generate the Rental Documents can be found at the bottom of the email that contains the quote.
Should a 2nd request come in for the same or overlapping date range, containing the necessary information to generate those documents, they will also be sent Rental Documents. They will also be informed that another group has been send Rental Documents and that 2nd group will be in 2nd position, should the 1st fail to follow through.
If you are "married" or set on those dates, you need to be aware that there may also be another set of Rental Documents being sent out for the same dates, advising this 2nd possible booking that there are a set of Rental Documents out, but that if they are not returned timely, that this 2nd group is in line to get the booking.
We have sent Documents out, told inquiries it was booked, only to not get the documents returned and to never hear from the person who requested them. Or worse, we are told "I don't know how to scan, I don't have a fax machine, I'm mailing the docs & a check;" only to wait over a week for them and they never arrive. We assume, this person we've sent the Rental Documents to has been trying to gather up the money from their friends and it is just not happening. By the time we returned to the 2nd person requesting documents, they have already found another Vacation Rental in Florida or Tennessee. They are also NOT happy to find out that The Great Escape River House is still available, because they just put money down on another Rental and the River House was their 1st choice; but they are already locked into their 2nd choice. Now, we just send out the documents. If the 1st person sent Rental Documents, delays or fails to follow-through timely, we reserve the 2nd group interested in booking.
EXAMPLE of Non-Charge Card Payment:
(Example Rates do not represent actual Rates)
EXAMPLE (personal check)
$ 600.00 Rental Rate (Ex: - Quotes based on # of Nights,
time of year, if a holiday, etc.)
150.00 Cleaning Fee
90.00 12% MS Lodging Taxes
300.00 Refundable deposit
$1,140.00 Actual Rental is $840.00, after $300 Refundable Deposit is Returned
~
$570.00 is due (50% of total Rental), by Personal Check within 7 days
Balance of $570.00 due by Personal Check, at least 30 days prior to arrival
Remember, as long as conditions are met, within 14 days of departure, refundable deposit of $600 is returned.
*Vacation Home is now paid in full
EXAMPLE of Charge Card Payment:
The Rental Rate is NET. Processing fees are paid by Renter. We use PayPal, one of the most secure ways to pay with a Credit Card or other form of Electronic payment. Most electronic processing fees are 3.5%, foreign processing fees may be higher. Whatever payment choice you make, if there are fees, such as in the case of a credit card, it will be passed on to the renter. You may also elect to charge half the amount due and issue a check for the remainder. Whatever you choose, if it results in additional processing fees, those will need to be paid by the renter. The below examples, are of a US based Credit Card Charge. Our most frequent form of payment:
EXAMPLE (PayPal Electronic Payment)
$ 600.00 Rental Rate (Ex: - Quotes based on # of Nights,
time of year, if a holiday, etc.)
150.00 Cleaning Fee
90.00 12% MS Lodging Taxes
300.00 Refundable deposit
$1,140.00 Subtotal before processing fees
39.90 Estimated PayPal Processing Fee of 3.5% of $1,140.00
$1,179.90 Actual Rental is $879.90, after $300 Refundable Deposit is Returned
$589.95 is due (50% of total Rental), by Credit Card Payment (you will be invoiced through PayPal) within 5 days.
Remember, as long as conditions are met, within 14 days of departure, refundable deposit of $600 is returned.
*Vacation Home is now paid in full
Rental Documents sent to the first person to request them, who has provided all the information needed to generate them, will be sent these Documents. The information needed to generate the Rental Documents can be found at the bottom of the email that contains the quote.
Should a 2nd request come in for the same or overlapping date range, containing the necessary information to generate those documents, they will also be sent Rental Documents. They will also be informed that another group has been send Rental Documents and that 2nd group will be in 2nd position, should the 1st fail to follow through.
If you are "married" or set on those dates, you need to be aware that there may also be another set of Rental Documents being sent out for the same dates, advising this 2nd possible booking that there are a set of Rental Documents out, but that if they are not returned timely, that this 2nd group is in line to get the booking.
We have sent Documents out, told inquiries it was booked, only to not get the documents returned and to never hear from the person who requested them. Or worse, we are told "I don't know how to scan, I don't have a fax machine, I'm mailing the docs & a check;" only to wait over a week for them and they never arrive. We assume, this person we've sent the Rental Documents to has been trying to gather up the money from their friends and it is just not happening. By the time we returned to the 2nd person requesting documents, they have already found another Vacation Rental in Florida or Tennessee. They are also NOT happy to find out that The Great Escape River House is still available, because they just put money down on another Rental and the River House was their 1st choice; but they are already locked into their 2nd choice. Now, we just send out the documents. If the 1st person sent Rental Documents, delays or fails to follow-through timely, we reserve the 2nd group interested in booking.
EXAMPLE of Non-Charge Card Payment:
(Example Rates do not represent actual Rates)
EXAMPLE (personal check)
$ 600.00 Rental Rate (Ex: - Quotes based on # of Nights,
time of year, if a holiday, etc.)
150.00 Cleaning Fee
90.00 12% MS Lodging Taxes
300.00 Refundable deposit
$1,140.00 Actual Rental is $840.00, after $300 Refundable Deposit is Returned
~
$570.00 is due (50% of total Rental), by Personal Check within 7 days
Balance of $570.00 due by Personal Check, at least 30 days prior to arrival
Remember, as long as conditions are met, within 14 days of departure, refundable deposit of $600 is returned.
*Vacation Home is now paid in full
EXAMPLE of Charge Card Payment:
The Rental Rate is NET. Processing fees are paid by Renter. We use PayPal, one of the most secure ways to pay with a Credit Card or other form of Electronic payment. Most electronic processing fees are 3.5%, foreign processing fees may be higher. Whatever payment choice you make, if there are fees, such as in the case of a credit card, it will be passed on to the renter. You may also elect to charge half the amount due and issue a check for the remainder. Whatever you choose, if it results in additional processing fees, those will need to be paid by the renter. The below examples, are of a US based Credit Card Charge. Our most frequent form of payment:
EXAMPLE (PayPal Electronic Payment)
$ 600.00 Rental Rate (Ex: - Quotes based on # of Nights,
time of year, if a holiday, etc.)
150.00 Cleaning Fee
90.00 12% MS Lodging Taxes
300.00 Refundable deposit
$1,140.00 Subtotal before processing fees
39.90 Estimated PayPal Processing Fee of 3.5% of $1,140.00
$1,179.90 Actual Rental is $879.90, after $300 Refundable Deposit is Returned
$589.95 is due (50% of total Rental), by Credit Card Payment (you will be invoiced through PayPal) within 5 days.
Remember, as long as conditions are met, within 14 days of departure, refundable deposit of $600 is returned.
*Vacation Home is now paid in full
