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Oceanfront stand-alone villas with swimmable beaches, pools, and other amenities always rent the best, but are also the most expensive. Our website offers a complete range of homes in terms of budget, location, and luxury level. Every property on our website is either waterfront or owns the beach property across the street. One of our strengths is knowing our customers and their requirements. We just don’t perform well for inland homes or even the luxury homes on the canals across from Seven Mile Beach.

Our Business Model Begins With Protecting Our Owners & Their Property

1.  Liability
In addition to owner liability insurance cover, our rental contract contains detailed exculpatory and hold-harmless language to protect the owner from liability due to any accidents, injuries, or death while on the premises.  Pools and spas are patently dangerous and we warn parents to supervise their non-swimming guests of all ages.  We require each guest to initial these sections in the rental contract.

2.  Trip Interruption Insurance
While the insurance industry prevents us from making trip insurance mandatory, we strongly suggest trip insurance to each of our guests. Not only does the insurance protect the guest from loss due to an unforeseen illness, death, or travel delay, but given our unique cancellation policy within 60 days of arrival includes a 25% credit for funds lost towards another stay at the same property, Trip insurance extinguishes that owner obligation—a canceled guest cannot exercise that credit and also recover from the insurance company.

3.  Accidental Damage Protection (ADP)
Each of the homes we manage includes a Guest Service Fee that also pays for protection for accidental interior damages.  The amount of that protection ranges from $1,500 to $25,000 depending on the value of the home and the rental fee amount.

4.  Cleaning, Maintenance & Damage Deposits
We also suggest to our owners that they have us hold a refundable cash damage deposit that covers excess cleaning upon departure, and maintenance due to guest carelessness, negligence, or intentional damage.  Damage deposits range from $500 to $25,000.

5.  Springing Conditional Protections
If there is evidence of smoking in the property, the manager is to notify us and we will charge the guest card on file for US$500 – $1,000 and have the housekeepers initiate a smoke remediation protocol.  No pets are permitted without prior written approval.  No events are permitted without prior written approval as well.  Hosting an unapproved event with invited guests results in an immediate charge of US$5,000.

Our Mission Statement Puts Owners First

Our company was created in 2003 to fill a market void for a lower-commission, e-commerce direct-booking option for rental villas in Grand Cayman. So, in 2003 our business model began with the simple strategy to:

• Halve the commission cost to owners.
• Develop a robust E-commerce (online directly-bookable) website accepting credit cards securely.
• Invest in organic search engine optimization (SEO), paid search (PPC), social media, and e-newsletter campaigns.
• Drive more direct-booking (non-travel agency) business.
• Pay owners prior to guest arrival.
• Provide owners with a detailed copy of each rental contract upon confirmation.
• Strengthen the owner-protection language in the contracts.
• Use trust accounting with owner funds held in a USA FDIC-Insured Bank.
• Offer transparent monthly statements.

Commissions & Fees

We are also both a Super-Host on Air Bnb and a Premier Booking Partner with HomeAway/VRBO. Both designations offer our company higher search placement within each platform.

If your property expects to generate less than $50,000 in annual rent, it is probably not worthwhile for you to pursue hiring a professional booking manager.

Our standard commissions for a direct booking range from 10% to 12.50% of Gross Rent.  If the proposed property rents aggressively and generates over $250,000 in annual rent, we get even more competitive.  If a travel agent brings us a booking, we drop our commission to 7.50% to accommodate the commission paid to the agent.  Travel agents, on average, makeup only 15% of our business.

99% of our guests use credit cards these days and with our competitive business model we cannot absorb that cost.  We pass on a fixed 2.50% (of guest charges) credit card cost to our owners.

As of 2023, Grand Cayman Villas & Condos can provide property management services on-island. Each of our owners must have an on-island property-manager who manages the housekeeping, maintenance, bill-paying, licensing and Department of Tourism inspections. The property manager works directly for the owner and as a result, the separation of duties saves the owner in terms of management fees.  We also work with over 2 dozen independent property managers for owners who already have a manager or for owners who prefers to keep management and booking separate.

We can also be directed to pay your on-island manager directly from your owner’s account so that all of your expenses can be centralized on one monthly statement.

Our concierge and guest services company on-island offers guest services, a private welcome and fitness center, a wide range of free equipment for guests, and a guest benefit card that offers discounts at many of the preferred vendors island-wide.  In addition, our guest services team provides each owner’s manager with Gilchrist & Soames branded bathroom soaps, shampoos, conditioners, lotions, etc. for each guest or owner stay  Owners and their guests are welcome to use the facilities at no charge. 

We have also partnered with Jacques Scott Wine & Spirits to locate within our building and offer our owners and guests a Sunday collection of pre-ordered items in our offices when liquor stores may be closed. Jacques Scott also offers free wine & spirit delivery.  

Grand Cayman Villas & Condos stocks Hotel-grade linens and towels and other villa items and make them available at cost for our owners or managers to pick up and charge to their property owner account.  We also stock consumable items for owners and their managers.

To see a 360 degree tour of our facility visit: www.grandcaymanvillas.com/guest-services

We have had excellent experience with on-island residents renting vacation villas.  We do a little more due diligence than with tourist rentals, but our “bad guest” rate for local rentals is actually lower than the average tourist guest.  Many of our locals know that if they want to come back, they must treat the home well.  We also use our local network to vet local guests.  25% of our villas are owned by local residents, 23 of our managers are Caymanian, and we rely heavily on all of them to help to protect the interests of our owners.

Weddings—tourist or local—require a higher level of caution with due diligence, supplemental damage deposits, occupancy limits, and occasional supervision.  The only difference between a local wedding and a tourist destination wedding is the guest list.  A local wedding can move around during wedding week, whereas a tourist wedding relies on airline arrival.  We tend to err on the side of caution and always ask an owner whether they wish to offer weddings with the protections above.  We will follow and respect the owner’s directions.