What is it about Florida vacation homes? Isn’t Florida supposed to be all about vacations, especially extended ones? My partner and I were thinking of returning for a winter Florida sojourn after several years away. We’d always loved St. Petersburg. St. Pete has the best of both worlds: a delightful, artsy, people-scaled city with lots of museums, restos, bars and cafes but close to extensive beaches, shopping, and entertainment. And if you want at a bigger city there’s Tampa across the bay with its frequent downtown festivals and Ybor City, the traditional Cuban neighbourhood with its quaint hand-rolling cigar factories, restaurants and clubs. So we went on Booking.com and checked long term vacation stays – specifically early 2026 – yes, a year away. We have now contacted four properties. Guess what? No or negative responses. The first was a typical Florida-style suburban house designed for a disabled person, as is my partner. It looked perfect and the price was right. But you couldn’t just book the property, you had to “request” to book. The owner had 24 hours to reply. In this case the dates for the “Luxury Oasis” house simply weren’t available. What?! The Booking.com calendar showed they were! The next property was further south off Tampa Bay as opposed to the ocean side. This time the owner responded but said he didn’t want to rent this far in advance, despite advertising. The third property was the “Seashell” home in suburban Pasadena, a nice three-bedroom corner house that looked accessible as a one floor bungalow with few stairs. But the reply: “Unfortunately the host has not responded, so your request has expired.” Why no response when the property is advertised? My thought was I was booking too far in advance and since there was free cancellation up to November the owner couldn’t be bothered confirming for a possibly fickle customer. So I sent a second request and offered a deposit. Again no reply. The fourth property was a condo along a beautiful canal close to beaches near Pass-a-Grille in the far southwest corner of the metro area. The property, this time listed on the VRBO website, looked modern and comfy. But we needed some questions answered regarding accessibility. Again, no response. I even wonder if owners are scared away by a disabled tenant, fearing liability. Meanwhile, a problem with most properties is their severely limited accessibility, including Airbnb, even in retirement haven Florida!
- Ron Stang, Windsor Ontario Canada, a frequent traveller
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