​Last year I had a guest unexpectedly cancel her trip and call me last minute to let me know that although she had paid all her monies that she would not be arriving as scheduled.  As she had purchased trip insurance she knew her payments would be covered by insurance and she was simply letting me know that the townhouse would be vacant.

I recently did a quick internet check to learn more about trip cancellation insurance.  To my surprise, it seems that purchasing trip insurance is a relatively inexpensive option and runs on average anywhere from 4% to 10% of the total trip cost.  The lower premium tends to be for trip insurance that covers trip cancellations due to medical, job loss, or unforeseen home emergencies while the higher premium covers trip cancellations for “any reason” such as your boss cancelled your vacation.  Click the Read More below to continue reading

What Most Policies Have in Common:
While several companies offer trip insurance/cancellation coverage, a common factor is to purchase it within 15 days of your initial trip deposit in order to obtain the most coverage options.  Additionally, it appears that the best pricing will be directly from the insurance company itself rather then through a middle provider. As with most items, it is important to read the insurance certificate to best understand the your coverage

Compare Trip Insurance Policies
Two excellent sites to help you compare trip cancellation insurance policies are Insure My Trip at https://www.insuremytrip.com/ and ​Square Mouth at ​https://www.squaremouth.com/  Having used both of them to obtain a listing of quotes, I felt that Square Mouth was easier to use but that is just a personal preference as both sites work well for comparing different policies. Step by step instructions for Square Mouth can be found at  http://www.travelinsurancereview.net/compare-travel-insurance/ for entering your information and applying filters to obtain a quote listing. For example, a quote from AIG for a family of 4 with 2 children under 18 and Mom/Dad age 40 and 50 respectively totaled 7% of the total rental amount and includes a host of covered items including loss of employment, illness, weather related events, etc..  Click to enlarge sample Insurance Certificate shown below.

​Trip cancellation insurance starts as a basic package and includes many travel related services including medical coverage.  From the basic package, you can add additionally coverages such as adventure sports coverage or international medical coverage. Both Insure My Trip and Square Mouth have filters to allow you find the insurance program that best fits your needs. Help on how to use the site filters can be found HERE.
 
While trip cancellation insurance may not be necessary for everyone or for every trip but there may be instances when the option of added coverage can give you piece of mind as you plan your family’s vacation several months in advance.  

  “Are you legit?” was the email I recently received from a prospective guest.  Of course, my vacation rental is legitimate, legal, valid and a “real” vacation rental.  However, this prompted me to think about rental scammers and what I would look for to avoid being scammed when choosing my family’s next vacation rental....(READ MORE BY CLICKING BELOW)

Things I would consider when booking a vacation rental are: 
​
#1 – Does the property have its own website?  In our case, we have www.cocoa-beach-condo.com as a resource for our future guests. We have spent hours maintaining the information about our Cocoa Beach oceanfront townhouse, the surrounding area, and have included photos, restaurant recommendations, suggested fun activities and other information throughout our website.  Our investment in a website should signal to any prospective guest that we are a real and valid vacation rental.
 
#2 – How is the rental property marketed?  For example, did you see our beautiful beachfront condo on a paid vacation rental site?  If so, then we were required to provide personal information when we registered with this paid vacation service.  On the other hand, a free service such as CraigsList allows anyone to post as long as he or she has a valid email address to confirm the rental listing. In all fairness to CraigsList, I do from time to time use CraigsList – and while effective, I am somewhat cautious with this form of marketing as Rental Scams can effect both the vacationer and property owner.  With this in mind, I feel that CraigsList can often be used as the facilitator for these scams given that posting are easily created and disseminated quickly throughout the world.
 
#3 – Credit Card payments accepted?  Given the stringent merchant requirements for a private party to process credit cards, it will be difficult for a rental scammer to process credit card payments.  As such, in order for the scam to work, most vacation rental scams require rental payments by cash, check or money order.  In our case, we have chosen to only accept payment by credit card.  Rental scams come in many different forms and often include invalid checks or money orders. By accepting payment by credit card, we avoid this aspect of the rental scam completely – or at least try to. And finally
,  
#4 – Instincts are important.  Simply put -- If something does not feel right, then move on.  
​
In the end, we did respond to the inquiry as to if we were “legit” by referring the person to our website www.cocoa-beach-condo.com as we felt all the information about our beachfront townhouse and our rental process could be found there.  Subsequently the individual did decide to rent from us.  As for anyone still wondering – YES, We Are Legit!