All those tall buildings on the beach and in the distance, which is downtown Miami, at least 75% of them are condominium buildings.
Many of the vacant properties are bought by people for investments properties and/or vacation homes. Some hotels even own some rooms in select properties. And some hotel buildings actually have floors that are condos. This has been a very interesting revelation. Why? Well, beacause the owners of the condo unit usually rent it at a much lower cost than the hotel itself. Take for example the queen of the beach, the Setai.
The average cost to stay in this hotel, according to my friend tripadvisor, is $1451 a night ($2195 in March!). However, if you pop over to VRBO.com (which stands for Vacation Rentals By Owner), you find rentals in this building for as low as $395 a night in the low (summer) season. That is amazing savings for the same location, view, and sometimes service (depends on hotel).
The other advantage to renting a condo, is that you get the amenities of a home: a full kitchen, more space, a dining area, usually a sofa couch, washer/dryer, and sometimes there is even some recreational equipment to use (beach chairs, floats, etc...). I looked into some of these rentals for us after the wedding, and for our photographer and videographer. Of course everything is more expensive in March, but I received some decent quotes. This one is my favorite, and costs the same as the suite at the hotel that I waxed and waned upon too much.
The best part is that it is located in the best part of the beach. It also has a pool, and we would get our own private garden off the unit.
Sure it isn't super luxe. But we wouldn't be paying a luxe price for it either. Plus, I like the idea that we would be helping someone pay their mortgage bill, rather than feeding the Hilton's pocketbooks. I have more thoughts on this and other alternatives to hotels coming up.
1 comment:
What a GREAT idea! You sure have been giving this a lot of thought .... whew. NICE JOB, Niese!!!!
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