This is my true Christmas story, it happened this year on December 23rd, 2009.
As many of you know we have 20 something rental homes, some we own and manage and others we just manage for other people. In the 8 years we have been in business this is a first.
Here in paradise, crime is a very rare occurrence, maybe a bar fight by a couple of guys after a night of drinking, or maybe some shop lifting, but rarely something more serious. Well we had our very first "Break In" of one of our homes, and a very unusual one at that.
A very neat burglar broke into one of our rental houses by breaking a rear window and jimmying a door lock in the back of the house. Once the burglar gained access, he turned on the heater and made himself at home. From the evidence left behind, we determined he cooked a steak and heated a can of baked beans. When he was finished with his meal he cleaned up his mess, including the broken glass from the window he broke, put all of his dirty dishes in the dishwasher, took a shower, neatly folding the bath towel and placed it on the vanity when he was done. Then watched a little TV, took a nap and left. Nothing else was broken or taken.
We discovered the break in the early afternoon of Wednesday, December 23rd, two days before Christmas. We check all of our houses on a regular basis to make sure they are ready for the next guests, or if the house is going to be vacant for a week or so, check to see that the AC is turned off.
During one of these rounds, we discovered the break in and I immediately called the Sheriff to report intrusion. When the Sheriff arrived I described the whole story and told him we had minimum damage, just a broken window and jimmied door, and nothing else broken or missing. The Sheriff suggested that it was probably someone cold and hungry. I told him it was not a big deal, but I mainly wanted a police report for insurance purposes to repair the window and door.
The officer hands me his business card - now this you're not going to believe, his name was "M. Christmas". True!
I asked him, please don't tell me your first name is Mary. He smiled and said, no Matt.
He took done all of our information and said the police report will be ready the first week of January. I am going to keep a copy of the police report and the officer's business card, just to back up my story.
To the person who broke into our home, Merry Christmas and I hope you have a better next year.
That's my real Christmas story.
Rick Scali
Rick Scali is the Owner of Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals in Destin Florida. Whether you are a family looking for a squeaky clean Destin Rental Home with a Private Pool or a couple looking for a romantic getaway in a Destin Beachhouse, Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals will exceed your expectations. Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals has the largest selection of quality pet friendly homes in Destin, Florida and throughout the Emerald Coast. Call us toll-free today at 877.432.7978 or email us at info@easystreet-rentals.com - we would love to welcome you, your family AND Fido to join us at the beach.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Easy Street Web Site Ready for Prime Time
We have beta tested our new web site Easy Street Vacation Rentals over the last thirty days, and received some great input. To solicit the input, we forwarded our web site to a number of our repeat guests who agreed to review our site with fresh eyes. The overwhelming response was positive, plus we received a number of great suggestions, most of which we implemented. At long last I think we’re ready for prime time, and I think you’ll like what you see. The test will be on Monday, when we plan to announce the new web site to our 3,500 VIP past guest list.
Studies tell us we have less than a minute from when someone first lands on our web site, for them to figure out what to do to obtain the information they want and need. So, on our Home Page (and every page) a guest can enter their arrival and departure dates, and check rental home availability in under thirty seconds. We also created a way to filter their selections. Listed under the “View Our Homes” tab, guests can view “All Properties”, or just homes with “Private Pools”, “Heated Pools”, “Best Pet Homes”, “Single Story Homes”, or “Just Town Homes & Condos”. There’s more, once a guest selects any of the categories, they can select “Quick View” and then sort their selections by price, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms or number of guests the house will accommodate. They can even sort the homes alphabetically.
Where are our homes located and how far are they from the beach? Good question, so we added Google Maps (we call it “Area Map”) to out site. It is listed under the “Local Area Guide” and it shows the exact location of each home, it’s address, and a photograph of the home. We also added in the closest grocery stores, and soon we will be adding all of our favorite and recommended local activities, such as restaurants, golf courses, the harbor, amusement parks, shopping areas, etc.
Under the Local Area Guide, we added some other goodies too such as a list of Activities and Attractions you’ll want to take advantage of while you’re down here including our favorite restaurants, deep sea fishing, nightlife, shopping, etc. We have also included a link to local weather and an estimate of the typical weather conditions during different seasons of the year. Don’t know the best way to get here? Click on the Driving Directions and enter in your home address and Google Maps will bring you right here.
Over the years we have been blessed with a growing list of repeat guests. With the launch of the new web site we decided to formalize a list of “Standard Specials” for VIP and Repeat Guests. The Specials include discounts for the following groups, Repeat & Loyal Guests, Active & Retired Military, current employees of the Police, Fire and EMS, and because of my thirty years in the credit union industry, I have also included a credit union member discount.
Since we just hate to see any home go unused, we also formalized our “Last Minute” Reservation Discounts. If we have an open date and you book within one week of that date, we’ll reduce the price by 10% automatically, and if you book within 48 hours of an open date, we offer a whopping 25% discount.
We’ve worked very hard on this website (Debbie, Chris, Billy & me) and I hope it shows. The proof will be in the number of guests visits, and how do we know that - Google Analytics. (Talk about teaching an old dog new tricks). I found out this great little Google Application can tell us how many new and repeat visitor’s have visited our web site, where they came from in the US, what keywords they used to find us, and even what browser they used to search for us. And what’s cool is we can get that information by hour, by day, week or month. So here we go, it will be an interesting ride.
If you’ve got a free moment, take a look at the web site for yourself, we would love your feedback www.easystreetvacationrentals.com
Rick Scali
Rick Scali is the Owner of Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals in Destin Florida. Whether you are a family looking for a squeaky clean Destin Rental Home with a Private Pool or a couple looking for a romantic getaway in a Destin Beachhouse, Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals will exceed your expectations. Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals has the largest selection of quality pet friendly homes in Destin, Florida and throughout the Emerald Coast. Call us toll-free today at 877.432.7978 or email us at info@easystreet-rentals.com - we would love to welcome you, your family AND Fido to join us at the beach.
Studies tell us we have less than a minute from when someone first lands on our web site, for them to figure out what to do to obtain the information they want and need. So, on our Home Page (and every page) a guest can enter their arrival and departure dates, and check rental home availability in under thirty seconds. We also created a way to filter their selections. Listed under the “View Our Homes” tab, guests can view “All Properties”, or just homes with “Private Pools”, “Heated Pools”, “Best Pet Homes”, “Single Story Homes”, or “Just Town Homes & Condos”. There’s more, once a guest selects any of the categories, they can select “Quick View” and then sort their selections by price, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms or number of guests the house will accommodate. They can even sort the homes alphabetically.
Where are our homes located and how far are they from the beach? Good question, so we added Google Maps (we call it “Area Map”) to out site. It is listed under the “Local Area Guide” and it shows the exact location of each home, it’s address, and a photograph of the home. We also added in the closest grocery stores, and soon we will be adding all of our favorite and recommended local activities, such as restaurants, golf courses, the harbor, amusement parks, shopping areas, etc.
Under the Local Area Guide, we added some other goodies too such as a list of Activities and Attractions you’ll want to take advantage of while you’re down here including our favorite restaurants, deep sea fishing, nightlife, shopping, etc. We have also included a link to local weather and an estimate of the typical weather conditions during different seasons of the year. Don’t know the best way to get here? Click on the Driving Directions and enter in your home address and Google Maps will bring you right here.
Over the years we have been blessed with a growing list of repeat guests. With the launch of the new web site we decided to formalize a list of “Standard Specials” for VIP and Repeat Guests. The Specials include discounts for the following groups, Repeat & Loyal Guests, Active & Retired Military, current employees of the Police, Fire and EMS, and because of my thirty years in the credit union industry, I have also included a credit union member discount.
Since we just hate to see any home go unused, we also formalized our “Last Minute” Reservation Discounts. If we have an open date and you book within one week of that date, we’ll reduce the price by 10% automatically, and if you book within 48 hours of an open date, we offer a whopping 25% discount.
We’ve worked very hard on this website (Debbie, Chris, Billy & me) and I hope it shows. The proof will be in the number of guests visits, and how do we know that - Google Analytics. (Talk about teaching an old dog new tricks). I found out this great little Google Application can tell us how many new and repeat visitor’s have visited our web site, where they came from in the US, what keywords they used to find us, and even what browser they used to search for us. And what’s cool is we can get that information by hour, by day, week or month. So here we go, it will be an interesting ride.
If you’ve got a free moment, take a look at the web site for yourself, we would love your feedback www.easystreetvacationrentals.com
Rick Scali
Rick Scali is the Owner of Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals in Destin Florida. Whether you are a family looking for a squeaky clean Destin Rental Home with a Private Pool or a couple looking for a romantic getaway in a Destin Beachhouse, Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals will exceed your expectations. Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals has the largest selection of quality pet friendly homes in Destin, Florida and throughout the Emerald Coast. Call us toll-free today at 877.432.7978 or email us at info@easystreet-rentals.com - we would love to welcome you, your family AND Fido to join us at the beach.
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