How do I get a LifeStyle ID for an AirBnB stay?
 

I know the office is at 1120 Main Street in the Spanish Springs Square. Do I need to call ahead and reserve an ID or pick up the day we arrive? Is the Cost $50 each?

Thanks in advance.
Al

If you are not an owner you do not (yourself) get an ID. It has to be got for you.

If the AbnB didn’t offer it to you in the contract. You will not be acquiring a Guest Pass or temporary ID

If the Temporary Resident ID was part of your offer, the owner needs to complete a form, their resident id will be disabled for the time it is transferred to you. You would go to the sales center (which one is dependent on the location of the home) and pay the $50 to get them, but it has to have been initiated by the owner first. You just showing up won't do anything for you.

If it is just a guest pass, in this case, still the owner must initiate the guest pass and they will select a pickup location and that is free.

You need to speak to the landlord.

If you are renting an AirBnB you are not on a Lifestyle stay. Lifestyle is only available through the Villages. Much more is provided with a Lifestyle via the Villages that you won’t be getting with an AirBnB like free golf if you want. Absolutely everything is provided and set up for you ahead of time if you wish.

Plus, if the OP is entertaining thoughts of living here one day, they should realize that Airbnb's are not an asset to our community, they are a detriment.

Sooooooo true. It is a shame to allow a 'hotel' in residential neighborhoods.

You don't. You can't get a Lifestyle pass at an airB&B. You've been snookered. Lesson learned: don't rent via airB&B.

EDIT: Apparently at one time there was a Temporary Lifestyle ID that a resident could request for someone staying at their home. The resident initiated the request and turned in his/her Resident ID. The temporary resident (renter) would go to the appropriate sales office and be issued a paper version of a Resident ID (not a Guest ID).
- The holder of the plastic resident ID (typically the homeowner) needs to initiate the request and turn in their ID
- There may be rules on the frequency that these Temporary IDs may be given out that might not be compatible with Airbnb rentals
- Perhaps contact one of the Villages Sales Offices to get official, up to date information
- Contact your Airbnb host to see if they provide this with their home
- If the host is not willing to turn in their Resident ID they could still submit an application for a Guest ID in your name


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Is there is no such thing as a Lifestyle pass? I've never heard of one so the above statement may be correct.

If the OP is inquiring about an owner suspending an ID to transfer it to a renter then that *MAY* be available for an Airbnb (or any other rental). I thought I saw the information about the process one time but I can't find it now.

Plus, as others have pointed out, the OP may be able to have the homeowner apply for a Guest Pass for him/her.

i remember my first lifestyle visit they put us up in a designer home right off the bridge in lake sumter. It was fantastic. Came with the golf cart. Roman shower. It was beautiful. The next time we came they put us in a court yard villa. Which we considered a downgrade for no reason at all. So i understand why people will go to places like airbnb to view the villages for a future purchase.

We had friends stay in a courtyard villa for their lifestyle visit---3 bedrooms, 1900 sq. ft.--larger than the smaller designers and on a pond. I would suggest utilizing the lifestyle visit, the assigned agent can show you all the designers, premiums and patio villas you want. At the same time, you wouldn't be supporting what many of us consider a blight on our community.

Plus, a true Lifestyle Visit is much cheaper than renting an Airbnb.

Very true. We had a home sell in our Village several months ago, and the new owner turned it into an Airbnb, to include a cheesy name sign on the lamppost. I have not seen anyone in that house since the original owner moved out.

Please know - MOST Villagers do NOT want Airbnbs in their neighborhood. By using one to stay here you are encouraging a behavior we want abolished.

I would be willing to bet that MOST Villagers have no opinion on Airbnbs.

Of those that do have an opinion, I suspect MOST are basing their opinions on the unverified claims and fears of others. I suspect MOST Villagers' experience with Airbnbs might be similar to that of post #16.

You might want to read posts from people who have lived next to a nightmare as well. Regardless, this is a 55+ RETIREMENT COMMUNITY, not a vacation resort with daily or weekly rentals or 8 people splitting a home to party day and night. I doubt this is what Harold Schwartz or H. Gary Morse envisioned---investors buying homes so they can turn them into motels for people who would not otherwise qualify to live here, bringing young children and teenagers with them.

I don't see any evidence of this actually happening in The Villages.

This, to me, is a lot like the Amenity crisis. A non-crisis invented by fear of something that may have occurred, but isn't an ongoing and widespread issue at all.

Yeah, I know, they would be rolling in their graves.... Or at least that's what people who never met them write.

I'm not sure you quite understand what 55+ RETIREMENT COMMUNITY means. Sure, to many Villagers it means STAY OFF MY LAWN! But what it actually means is the Developer can legally refuse to sell a home to a family with children. What it DOESN'T mean is that I cannot use my home in any way I desire as long as I don't violate a law or a deed restriction. You may not like my music, you may not like the aroma of the meat I cook on my grill, you may not like the type of people I have over as guest, but as long as I don't break any laws it isn't up to you and it is not in any way restricted by living in a 55+ RETIREMENT COMMUNITY.

I have read most of the posts on this subject. I have asked a few times if those making claims about the nightmare home next door actually had a rental next door. I can remember only two writing that they did. There have been a lot of posts.... there have been two that seem to be writing from actual, personal experience.

Bad renters happen - so do bad neighbors. Bad renters leave after a week or a month or a half year. Bad neighbor/owners can remain much longer. I know there is at least one rental in my neighborhood and I know there is at least one bad neighbor. I much prefer the rental.

Bad renters happen - so do 30mph golf carts, lightning strikes, lithium battery fires, and dog poop. I would be willing to bet that MOST Villagers have not personally experienced any of these.

Great post and probably true for the most part. Now, for the key question: What of any significance does allowing Airbnbs in TV add to our community? Even if they affect only a small minority, why should they have to put up with a nightmare at all. And nobody can claim it doesn’t happen and nobody has good statistics on how often, which is why all we see is anecdotal

The straightforward answer to the question is it adds nothing.

To me, the more important question is what harm could restricting Airbnbs do? The answer to that is twofold. First, it will be difficult to adequately write the restriction and second, it takes away more of our property rights.

Restricting Airbnbs sounds good but it leaves the door open for RentFromAVillager, VillagesHPM, ****, and any others. But that isn't what you meant, you meant restricting all rentals. Okay, but no rentals at all means not daily, weekly, monthly, annually, any. This would also eliminate the Lifestyle Previews but maybe there is an exception for those. And some would say that yearly rentals are okay so another exception for them. Or maybe the rule is 30 days or more except February has only 28 days. Or calendar month but that seems a bit restrictive too. And let's get back to that 3-day Lifestyle Preview... how is that different than a 3-day Airbnb again? Difficult to adequately define.

Then there is the property rights aspect. When I bought a home out in WA the deed came with the restriction that I didn't own anything below the topsoil; if I drilled for oil anything that came up would be the property of the railroad. I didn't like the restrictions but they didn't take away from my use and enjoyment of my home. When I bought a home here I signed a deed with a written set of restrictions. Some of these *did* take away from my use of the home but I knew going in what those restrictions were. Now the proposal is to restrict/eliminate rentals. I had considered renting the house while I still lived in MD. I decided against it but that was my choice. Eliminating rentals would take that choice away from me - would take away from me the right to use my property in that way. We all have given up enough property rights, we shouldn't be demanding to have more rights taken away.

Del Webb Spruce Creek is a retirement community, just up road 441, has a three-month minimum for rentals.

That's a lot but I would like to see a one-month.
When we golf, my buddy and I can get paired with short termers and we usually have more fun with them vs. playing with the TV stay-off-my -lawners.

I think eliminating short term rentals would be adequate. Put a 1 month or 4 week minimum. It can be done.

Right up until the point where one starts operating in close proximity to their home. It most certainly changed our opinion of them when an inconsiderate neighbor was operating a turnstile short term rental business in our neighborhood. Thankfully, the woman running the business out of her home moved out and we are back to the peaceful residential 55+ neighborhood we expected when we bought a home in the Villages. I sincerely feel sorry for other fellow Villagers who have to deal with this unfortunate situation.

Totally agree.

I see evidence of it in my neighborhood. Someone turned their single-family home into a 2 bedroom with an inlaw apartment with its own private entry. They then rented both out - and the main part of the house was occupied by an older person plus their adult child and the child's toddler, and two other younger adults (between 25-40) show up every few days for overnights on a regular basis.

I also saw another neighbor rent their house out to a couple with two younger (under 10) children for three months.

I'm not overly concerned about whether or not we allow rentals. My concern is more about management of those rentals. I think people should be allowed to rent their properties. But they should be required to either a) still actually live in The Villages while renting out their rental unit or b) give over the management of their rental unit to a licensed, insured, local property management company.

That way if something goes wrong, the entire neighborhood isn't at the mercy of "when the owner gets around to it" or "when the owner is able to come down and handle it." Instead, they'd call the local property management company, who would then - manage the property. Either kick out the short-term tenants with their toddler child, or oversee the replacement of the exploded hot water heater, or shut down the golf-cart-sales business the tenant is conducting in the driveway.

Landlords who don't live IN the Villages, don't have that same investment into the community that residents have. They also don't have the same sense of urgency when something goes wrong. And they're not getting paid to care.

good idea. I think the mgmt company should be a sub division of the sheriffs department . Staffed by ,first preference, retired leo's

Rentals in my opinion should be restricted to six months or more. Renting out Village homes like a motel for a night or two cheapens a neighborhood. You have anonymous people showing up next door to full time homeowners.

I agree that short term rentals should be prohibited, but a 6 month minimum is harsh. We have made friends with a couple that rents for 2-3 months every winter, have been coming to the Villages for years, and are excellent tenants. There are also a couple guys in my winter golf group that rent for three months every year. The much bigger problem are people renting out their home by the week, or worse yet by the night. I think a one month minimum rental would be appropriate.

I see your point. Yes there are many repeat renters who come down for a month or more. Let me amend my post to say “Have a one month minimum for rentals in The Villages .

Yes my parents had a seasonal home half a block from Mr Schwartz and knew him well. He was a good businessman and liked to make people happy, he talked about a community and he never talked about a vision of prostituting homes out to fly by nighters.

You mean the guy who died in 2003 didn’t consider the company that wasn’t founded until five years later in 2008? What kind of businessman was he?

Honestly, I wonder if the person responsible for turning a trailer park and swampland into the Villages wouldn’t have jumped right onto the Airbnb bandwagon and encouraged it. Fresh faces and fresh ideas to help sell properties.

I think he liked to make money, but he had a bottom line. He knew people at the square (there was only one) by name and he liked it that way. But that is just my impression.

Then assume you don't have any close to you. I personally know of several bad experiences in neighborhoods when Gen x and Gen z come to party.

I have several rentals near me. If not for the occasional For Rent sign in the garage window I would hardly notice. I definitely notice the full time person who is too cheap to hire a lawn service and too lazy to keep up with their overgrown lawn. I also notice another, different full time person on the corner with a yippie dog polluting the street with noise constantly. I only wish they were transient.

Do you know about these situations first hand, in your neighborhood or are they legends of The Villages driving a fear?

For me, I hear a lot of noise about this and amenity abuse and very little first hand or evidential accounts. More a friend of a friend in XYZ neighborhood on the rental side and "You just know they aren't residents..." on the amenity side. I tend to think these are overblown.

Having said all of that, I wouldn't find a 1 month minimum to be too restrictive and would have still bought if it were one of the restrictions.

So, in other words, that post suggests that all those who posted about living next to a nightmare rental and all those that have witnessed non-residents using our amenities are lying? Confused? Demented? Hallucinating? Maybe, I've never seen it either. But the preponderance of evidence suggests that it is happening, and perhaps more extensive than reported. Regardless, steps can be taken to make sure it NEVER happens.

When I moved into my neighborhood (near Sumter Landing), I couldn't see any rentals from my front yard, now I can see 4. 3 of the 4 homes I can see from my front door, are rentals. 3 "daily rentals" and one long term, directly across from me.

They all detract from the neighborhood, but none as significantly as the "long term rental", that is rented to a Villages' employee and was part of her "relocation package". The renter is under 55, as is her new boyfriend who's moved in, along with frequently visiting, partying children. 2 younger, working families (in this case) can be far more disruptive.

UPS every day. Fedex every day. Amazon, at least twice day. Dry cleaning dropped off and picked up twice a week. Uber Eats, every day. Swapping cars around every day, because there's only room for 1 in the garage. Landscapers, mowers, house cleaners. The house is like Grand Central Station. Perfectly reasonable in a traditional neighborhood, not what I bought into, when I bought in a 55+ retirement community.

There are days when you can barely drive into the neighborhood, with all the cars parked on the street.

I'm not suggesting anyone is lying or that I've seen all of the information or stories.

My point is, I'm not seeing a lot of people post about living next to nightmare rentals or them witnessing non-residents using the amenities. Both of which I'm sure happen in some degree. What I continually see though are those who recount stories they heard of nightmare daily rentals and people who see people that "must not be residents" or "I can't imagine they are residents". I see you speaking about a preponderance of hearsay and not actual experience.

What I have is actual, personal experience of residents being bad neighbors while the rentals are not. I have experience of always being able to do the things at rec centers that I would like to do. The sky isn't falling in my Villages world. The current rule set is fine by me.

And that's OK. Doesn't affect me either. But those that have to deal with it feel differently.

If you haven’t seen any of these goings on, you must be in a Village I’ve never heard of. You are very lucky, stay there. I live next door to a revolving door. Usually 4 cars parked in the driveway and during college break the street is taken over. So a lot of shuffling since both parents still work too. They do try to be considerate but it’s like living next to a college dormitory. And it is not as bad as the designated rental houses.

As for outsiders, I remember months in the winter when every chair was taken at the neighborhood pool and there might have been a couple there who were actual residents. When IDs were checked half of them disappeared only to sneak back in the next day. Why are we paying amenity fees?

So exactly, how many examples would you like? Documented videos too?