2021 Christmas on the Coast

Join us for the Annual Christmas on the Coast Parade through downtown Port St. Joe. The parade begins at 6 p.m. After the parade, make sure you visit Santa at the Gazebo near City Hall!

2021 Christmas Carols at the Cape San Blas

Head to the Cape San Blas Lighthouse in Port St. Joe and gather with fellow visitors and locals to sing some lovely Christmas carols! There will be a groovy ukulele band that will be playing some tunes and a food truck. Make sure to bring a blanket and a jacket to keep warm.

2021 Holiday Lights Extravaganza

Take a tour of Gulf County homes and businesses lit up with lovely Christmas lights! You will get into the coastal Christmas spirit. Grab some hot cocoa from a local coffee shop and stroll around the blocks.

2021 Forgotten Coast Festival of Trees

This holiday exhibit and festivities will occur in Port Saint Joe. Grab your little ones and enjoy festive holiday displays, kid activities, a Nutcracker performance,  and so much more! This event occurs over multiple days.

2021 New Year’s Eve Firework Celebration

Ring in the New Year on Florida’s Emerald Coast with an epic fireworks display! You will be able to view the show from downtown Port St. Joe and George Core Park area.

2021 Salt Air Farmer’s Christmas Market

The farmer’s market will be opening up for a special Christmas-themed market in December. Shop local produce and goods that will make for a great addition to the gifts under your Christmas palm tree! The market is located in St. Port Joe.

Holiday Oyster Shucking Demonstration

Are you looking to have a seafood feast during your holiday meals? Attend the holiday oyster shucking demonstration in Port St. Joe’s Welcome Center—it is free and open to the public. You’ll also have a chance to sample some delicious Indian Lagoon Oysters.

Some of these rules are pending or still in discussion at the time of this post.

Frisco

Beginning Nov. 15 2021, Frisco property owners looking to rent out space for less than 30 days at a time will have to apply for a city permit online, pay a $300 annual fee plus city hotel taxes, provide floor plans, set a maximum number of guests and meet other requirements. No formal deadline has been set for existing properties to register.

Dillon

The Town of Dillon implemented an ordinance specifically regulating Short-Term Rentals (STRs).  Town Council discussed this subject at several work sessions from September through December 2018, sent out a mailing on the proposed ordinance and held a public input meeting on October 4, 2018.  The ordinance implementing the new STRs licensing application, fee and regulations within the Town limits was approved by Council on December 4, 2018 and became effective January 1, 2019.

• If you are renting your residence or part of your residence for a period of less than 30 consecutive days, you are operating a short-term rental.
• All owners renting their property for a period of less than 30 days must apply for a short-term license and pay a fee of $50 by June 1 of each year.
• All short-term rental licenses expire on May 31 of each year. The calendar year fee is $50 regardless of when the license is obtained. No refund shall be made to any person who discontinues business during the taxable year and no payment shall be transferable.
• The person or company remitting the sales and lodging taxes must also obtain a business license and pay an occupational tax of $60 by January 1 of each year.

https://www.dillonco.gov/business/dillon-short-term-rental-str

Breckenridge

When did Town Council discuss a short–term rental cap?

On August 24, 2021, Breckenridge Town Council discussed setting a cap for non–exempt units at
2,200. The Finance Department will continue to accept applications until the ordinance goes
into effect, including applications that are over the cap.

https://www.townofbreckenridge.com/home/showpublisheddocument/20552/637661777497070000

https://www.townofbreckenridge.com/your-government/finance/short-term-rental-landing-page

Silverthorne

A valid short-term rental license is required for each short-term rental property in the Town of Silverthorne. A short-term rental property is defined as “a residential dwelling unit, or any room therein, available for lease for a term of less than thirty (30) consecutive days.” The license is required regardless of how the properties are marketed (through a management company, on-line through websites such as VRBO and Airbnb, newspaper ads, word of mouth, etc.).

https://www.silverthorne.org/town-services/finance-administrative-services/short-term-rental-license

Unincorporated Summit

https://www.summitcountyco.gov/1253/STR-Regulations

Take a look at 5 of the most valuable reasons as to why booking direct can save you HUNDREDS of dollars!

1. When it comes to the larger Online Travel Agency’s (OTA’s), such as VRBO, Airbnb, Homeaway, etc. they are not only charging the guests a big % for using their website on top of the rental rate, BUT they are also charging the and managers a HUGE % of their rental business, on top of their listing fee. On the cost-effective side of things, with Luxe Living Vacation Rentals being a “book direct” listing website, that means that the guests are NOT charged an additional service fee for booking through our site.
2. When booking directly on Luxe Living Vacation Rentals, this means that the guests will ALWAYS be in direct contact with the manager of that property. They will not be sent through a third party at any point. From contacting the manager about the inquiry, all the way to any questions while the guest is staying in the property during their vacation will be dealt with directly with that manager!
3. When looking at a larger OTA site for your vacation rental, you aren’t even going to be given some of the best available properties. WHY?! This is due to the major managers being fed up with the way that the OTA’s are trying to take over their rental business and overcharge their guests! They have abandoned all of those sites and have started putting their time and effort into the “book direct” sites such as Luxe Living Vacation Rentals to ensure they are fully in charge of their rental business and to make sure that their guests are receiving the best possible rates!
4. When booking directly with the manager, not only are you in constant contact with them throughout the whole process, but you are now speaking directly with the person who knows the area of the vacation rental best! Any answer that you might need in regards on what to do, where to go and any vacation advice in that area is right at your fingertips!
5. Booking and speaking directly with the manager of the property will also ensure that you are being financially protected. Finding and booking the perfect vacation can already be a somewhat stressful process, booking direct can ease a lot of that tension when you know EXACTLY who you are booking with and who you are paying.  Booking direct saves you money, time and gives you a huge sense of security knowing that you are in the best hands possible during the vacation booking process.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday to spend on the Emerald Coast. The food options are endless and incredible! You can order a family style meal to take back to your rental from many grocery stores and restaurants. Many restaurants offer a full dining service with a special Thanksgiving menu, but it is hard to ignore the tremendous buffets available. In true coastal style, many of the buffets offer a seafood options in addition to Turkey, Ham and Beef stations. In addition to the traditional Thanksgiving side dishes, many accompanying dishes showcase ingredients freshly harvested from the Gulf. Build your own take out box is another option being offered by some of the buffets.
The lighter crowds and milder temperatures create the perfect conditions for shopping over Thanksgiving holiday. The stores and shops are already beautifully decorated and ready to serve the holiday out of town guests. Many offer locally crafted and/or sourced products that create truly unique gifts that friends and family will cherish forever.
The Gulf is always amazingly beautiful, and the climate is mild during the holiday season. You might need a light jacket or hoodie in the evenings, but it is far from unpleasantly cold. Some areas along the Emerald Coast allow beach fireplace services at night. For a fee, the service will provide everything needed (including the necessary permit) to have a private campfire on the beach.
If you are lucky enough to spend the holidays on the Emerald Coast, you are lucky enough!

Why Buy a Vacation Home?
The reasons to own a second home go beyond money. When you buy a vacation home, you give yourself the freedom to travel as you please in retirement—a well-deserved pleasure after years of working. You have a lovely place to host your family during the holidays, a new community to enjoy, and the potential to earn income from your property.

While a vacation home isn’t right for everyone, it’s a good choice if you enjoy travel and do it often enough to warrant buying instead of renting. You should be able to comfortably afford the mortgage payments and upkeep without dipping into your retirement savings. Personal Capital recommends thinking about things like how much time you’ll spend there and how much debt you have before buying a vacation property.

How Do I Find the Right Vacation Home?
Once you’ve decided to take the plunge, it’s time to start looking for the perfect vacation home. You’ll be spending anywhere from several weeks to several months in your second home every year, so it’s important that it suits you.

First, decide if you want a single-family home, a townhome, or a condominium. Ideally, you’ll be spending more time outside enjoying the destination than in your house, so you can get by with a smaller footprint than your primary home. However, you may want extra space for hosting family and friends.

If you plan to rent out your vacation home or to sell it someday, it’s important to buy in a market that’s popular with other vacationers. This consideration is part of the reason why Florida is such a sought-after destination for second-home buyers. Not only is it sunny and beautiful, but thanks to its popularity as a vacation destination, buyers can rest assured that their investment will appreciate with time.

How Can I Make My Vacation Home an Investment Opportunity?
Renting to other vacationers is a great way to turn your second home into an investment opportunity, but it’s not as simple as sticking a “For Rent” sign in the yard.

If you plan to rent your vacation home for more than two weeks of the year, you’ll have to report the income to the IRS and pay taxes, which reduces the profit you see. You’ll need to budget for additional insurance and cleaning crews between renters. And since you’ll be living elsewhere, budget for a property management agency to tend the rental. However, even with these considerations, renting out your vacation home can be a sound financial choice in many ways.

For one thing, you could purchase your getaway property with an LLC, which provides tax advantages and protects your personal assets. Online services make it easy and inexpensive to form an LLC, walking you through just five steps, so there is no red tape to wade through or an attorney to hire.

You may also choose to sell your vacation home after several years. Unless you’ve used the home as a primary residence for at least two years, you’ll have to pay capital gains taxes on the profit.

A vacation home may be a luxury, but after working your whole life, it’s a luxury you’ve earned. To keep your investment as cost-effective as possible, shop for a vacation home in a destination with a lot to offer—both to you and to potential renters. By making smart choices when buying, your vacation home can become a path to a more financially secure retirement.

When it’s time to advertise your vacation rental, Luxe Living Vacation Rentals is the place to go! Connect today to learn more about how we can help your investment be a success.

Today’s vacationers expect full service even while renting a private home. While some guests are self-sufficient, many others require and/or desire a great deal of attention from wanting to know what brand of coffee maker is in the home prior to arrival, to assistance with booking activities and needing special occasion restaurant recommendations. Some guests have never sat in a hot tub, have never experienced high altitude, and are intimidated by lockboxes or door keypads. Local personnel are essential for dealing quickly and efficiently with any problems the guests may experience with the home such as the modem needing to be re-booted, technical issues with the TV, or a flipped breaker.

As the homeowner, you are responsible for ensuring your guests have the information required by the local town and county ordinances. For example, Summit County Short Term Rental Regulations require including a copy of the Good Neighbor Guidelines, a copy of the rental license in the interior of the primary entrance, and instructions about trash, noise, parking, and pets.

While it may not seem life or death, it’s important to keep in mind that for many families their vacation is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Some families have saved for years or might have spent many months coordinating how to get the entire family together from different parts of the country.  Understandably, they want everything to be perfect!  A broken-down hot tub or wobbly bed frame can “ruin” the vision of their perfect vacation. They want their issues addressed immediately and to their satisfaction.

Knowledge of the area is also essential for guest satisfaction.  Anyone can stop by a brochure stand and read about area activities, but personal tips and suggestions from a local host is always best. Our Colorado Luxe Living team loves sharing insider tips with our guests including our favorite trails, easiest parking spots, and best times of day to partake in a particular activity. Answering these questions alone requires a great deal of time, research, and partaking in the activity ourselves to provide first-hand experience. How can a guest be expected to get detailed information on current weather conditions (fires or snowstorms in particular) while talking to someone who does not even live in the area? The simple answer is, they cannot.

Who are your guests? Why are they coming to town and why are they choosing a vacation rental versus a hotel or resort? Many Colorado towns are extremely popular destinations for weddings, family reunions, and corporate events. Even if your guests say they are a family of 6, how can you be sure they aren’t planning on hosting a gathering for a larger group while in your home? While you can place cameras on the exterior of your property, do you want to spend your time watching security feed?  If your guests do break maximum occupancy rules, would you know how to legally and ethically handle the situation?

Do you know what Vacation Brain is? It’s a “syndrome” we jokingly blame for the cause of innocent guest mishaps. Some of the adverse effects caused by Vacation Brain include but are not limited to leaving town with house keys or garage door openers and maybe even a small appliance (yes, this has actually happened); leaving combustibles against a baseboard heater, and carelessness with all liquids, especially the red ones that stain.  Most often a security deposit is required to protect against damages of these types, but do you know that you cannot legally withhold the deposit after the guest checks out? What will be your recourse if a guest causes hundreds of dollars in damage and is savvy enough to contact their credit card company regarding the deposit that you are illegally withholding?

Homeowners must accept a certain amount of wear and tear when renting their homes to vacationers, but outright damage caused by guests can most often be handled by a good management company through damage protection insurance carried by reputable companies and not available to individual homeowners without exorbitant cost.

Lastly, guests expect a minimum start up supply of bath tissue, shampoo, and other sundries.  High quality linens, towels, and body products are also part of a great guest experience.

Luxe Living Rentals has the answers and assistance you need for every issue mentioned above and we can handle the guest management work for you.

This is the second in a 5-part series on homeowner tips which will also include Tips for Choosing a Property Manager, Marketing Your Vacation Rental Home, and Caring for Your Summit County Home.

Did you know there are 8,750 short-term rentals in Summit County? According to Summit County government, Breckenridge alone has 4,700 vacation rental homes with short term rental licenses. Googling the words “Breckenridge Vacation Rentals” will produce over 600,000 results.  How do you make your home stand out among the rest?

Unless you have a deep-pocket marketing budget (in the millions) or are listed with a well-established existing website, ranking for the keywords “Breckenridge Vacation Rentals” is an extremely difficult task. Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) such as Vrbo and AirBnB currently dominate in the game of keyword search on Google (although Google itself is aiming to get a piece of the pie with its own booking engine). Both homeowners and property managers alike are at the mercy of the OTAs in order to secure the bulk of yearly gross rental income, not only in Breckenridge, but around the world. Until the next enormous progression in the industry comes along, having your property managed by a reputable company and listed on multiple OTAs is the most effective way to maximize rental potential.

Within each OTA that your property is listed, another ranking system exists. For example, Vrbo will show the highest-ranking properties at the top of search results and the lowest ones last, which could potentially be page 23 of a search result. Vrbo makes money when visitors book properties on their site, so the most book-able homes will be shown first. Rates, reviews, speed of inquiry response, photo quality/quantity, listing quality, and availability are all factors taken into consideration in the ranking algorithms. In a future blog post, we will delve into each of those in more detail.

Having a database of past guests, potential guests, or a way to target Breckenridge visitors through means other than lodging searches are additional ways to market your Breckenridge vacation rental property. A good property manager who knows Breckenridge like the back of their hand can achieve this. Almost everyone who plans to visit Breckenridge will do some research on activities, possibly even before securing their lodging. Snagging these guests before they book on an OTA not only maximizes revenue, but is the best way to earn customer loyalty.

The Breckenridge Tourism Office (BTO) offers local property management companies additional ways to advertise their homes to the millions of visitors on the GoBreck site. This option is not available to individually managed properties.

In a future blog post, we will be covering OTA ranking in further detail and offering additional tips on making your Breckenridge vacation property stand out among the thousands on the market.