Dear Visitor:

 

It is imperative that you familiarize yourself with the information in this section.

 

Regarding Isla Bonita and your reservation:

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• Vacation Rentals    

Isla Bonita is a residential community that permits Vacation Rentals. This is NOT a resort. Each condo or townhouse is individually owned and rented to help the owners offset expenses. PLEASE treat their properties as if you are a guest in someone’s home, which you are.

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• Utilities    

Utilities are extremely costly on Aruba and there are also adjustments based on usage and cost of energy that the utility companies impose on us. As you can imagine, everything is imported and even our water is based on Desalinated sea water. Although it is probably the purest water you will ever find, it is very costly.

 

Since our Vacation Rental homes are quite large, the utilities can become extremely expensive if abused. In order for us to be able to offer affordable rates to our guests while being able to offer large comfortable accommodations, we collect a nominal weekly fee towards utilities based on the number of occupants (See Rates section). This covers normal usage based on a typical guest. If you run your air conditioners when you are not in the unit, or leave water running when not in the shower or using the sink, you are not only wasting resources and hurting the planet but would exceed normal usage. We budget your accommodation to the maximum that a typical guest would use. Anything above that would have to be charged additionally. Fortunately, in about 25 years of operation, Aruba Villa Rentals guests have been responsible folks and less than 5% of our guests have exceeded the budget.

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•  Distances

  • · Distance from the Queen Beatrix airport to Isla Bonita Residence is 25 minutes or 15km.

  • · Distance from the Queen Beatrix Airport to Aruba Villa Rentals 20 minutes or 9.5 km.

 

Check-in time starts at 4:00pm, early check-in is normally very difficult to accommodate as our properties are in high demand, large, and housekeeping requires time for proper cleaning and preparation. We always do our best to accommodate where possible. Please contact Aruba Villa Rentals well in advance with your flight information so that we can try to accommodate where possible.

 

• Our front desk at the Aruba Villa Rentals office is open Monday through Saturday for check-ins & check outs, key pick up & drop, information, concierge service, and other assistance. Sunday and after hours check ins are available with appropriate notice. There will be a nominal fee to cover our added labor costs & expenses. Note the Aruba Villa Rental office is not located at any of the properties. We are located across from the main Marriott Hotel. Just turn opposite he Marriott at the round-about. Directions from the airport to the office can be sent by email in advance as well as other information that you may need or find helpful. We will always do our best on special requests but of course no guarantee. We want your vacation to be fabulous, so we try our best! Please send us your email address: info@arubavillarentals.com

 

• Please send us your flight information in advance so that we can monitor in case of delays and for us to do our best to have your accommodations available where possible if you are arriving before normal check in time.

 

• To accommodate recent requests, we have arranged with at least one car rental company to not only meet you at the airport, but to also drive with you to our office for those that desire this.  They are not only offering our guests discounted rates, but also not charging extra for this service.

 

• Late check-in is after 7:00pm. This MUST be pre-arranged in advance. If your fight is scheduled to arrive after 6:00pm or on a Sunday, we must communicate in advance to schedule your check-in and approximate arrival time. Your flight information for late check ins is required in advance, including the name of airlines, flight number and arrival time so we can monitor in case of delay. Please understand that we may have to have to make arrangements with staff so that they can be available.

 

• Requirements on Arrival

Upon arrival we shall request copies of your passport for each guest and payment of the one-time Utility Fee, normally about $145 to $226 by cash, Visa or MasterCard (no American Express) and take a credit card imprint and/or put a hold on your credit card (similar to a hotel or car rental) as security for damage, excessive dirtiness, excess utility usage, etc. In addition, properties require a deposit on keys, remote openers, common area keys, etc. This varies by property and is refunded upon return of the items.

 

• How to check-in:

We ask you to come to the Aruba Villa Rentals office for check-in and key pick up. We shall email directions office in advance by request to: info@arubavillarentals.com.

Note the Aruba Villa Rental office is not located at the Isla Bonita Residence property. Once you have arrived at the office you will be asked for copy of passport, payment of the Utility fee, deposits, and credit card imprint for security. If you have a rental car you should request parking remote for the security gates where applicable. We shall also give you directions to the property.

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If you have any requests or would like us to make any reservations for you, please try to let us know in advance, especially for harder to get reservations. Our staff will assist you while you are here as well, you may save some time and any difficulties with reservations by contacting us in advance to help. We want your vacation to be amazing and will help where we can,

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We are also currently working on a system for advance pre-check in to make things easier for you. If this feature is available for your vacation rental, we will let you know as long as we have your email address so that you can decide if you wish to use that. Should you utilize that service and prepay the utility fee, key and security deposits but for any reason not show up or cancel, those items will be refunded in full. If you do choose to utilize this service, we do ask that you stop by our office during your stay to say hello and meet some of our team.

An OPEN “credit card guarantee” shall be collected upon check-in as security against damage missing items, etc.

 

• Check out:

Check-Out is at 10:00am. Late check-out is rarely permitted as our properties are in demand and time is required for proper cleaning and preparation of each vacation rental property before the next guest arrives. You can check with us to see if there are any last-minute possibilities, but please understand the difficulties involved. If you should require baggage storage, this is available (at AVR office). You should return keys and gate remote clickers to the AVR office hours from 8:00am – 10:00am. If you are leaving earlier, please notify us in advance so that we can make arrangements.

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Some properties allow you to leave the items in the unit or have ‘drop boxes’ on site or at our office.

Each guest should be responsible to report any damaged or broken items advance or at check out. Please be considerate of the next guest by letting us know in advance when possible so that we are prepared to make repairs or replacements without inconveniencing the next guest. Failure to report damaged or broken items could result in extra charges.

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After satisfactory inspection should there be any damage or breakage, other than normal wear and tear, or items missing, Guest shall be responsible, and management may deduct costs as indicated below under "Damage or Breakage", to repair or replace plus a nominal service charge. We are happy to say that in over 25 years of operation, our guests have been wonderful, and we have very rarely had to charge a guest after departure. Should you not report damage, you will also be charged an minimum penalty of $275 in addition..

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• Parking

Our properties offer free parking for our guests. If you have a car rental, please notify us so that we can issue each guest a remote clicker for any security gates and/or notify any security guards on our gated communities.

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• What is included

Your vacation rental includes all the basics to get you started on your vacation.  Your vacation rental includes Bed linens, bath towels, beach towels, starter supply of items such as - toilet paper, hand soap, kitchen dish soap, paper towels. This is just to get you started and as customary in vacation rentals will not be replenished. Please remember this is a vacation rental, not a resort.

Utility consumption at “normal usage” which means turn off air conditioners when not in the unit. More details are  in sections below.

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• What is not included

Not included are the following:  Utility Fee – currently about $175 to be paid upon arrival with cash, visa or mastercard only (no American Express); Excessive utility usage and shall be monitored with meter readings at check in / out. No replenishment of starter supplied items. Daily or interim housekeeping is only available at an extra cost by request. No shampoos or personal care products are provided. Any deposits on keys, remotes, etc. Of course you are responsible for any damage, or leaving the units excessively dirty, etc.

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• Concierge services

We offer free concierge services and are happy to do what we can to help make your vacation extra special and also save you valuable time that you could have been enjoying. Feel free to contact one of our concierges in advance of your stay, during your stay, or stop by our office. Often, we are able to induce companies, restaurants, car rental companies, and others to offer our guests discounts, special services, or possibly get you a reservation when otherwise may not be available. 

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• Housekeeping, your requirements, etc

As customary in a Vacation Rental, your accommodations are cleaned prior to your arrival. We do not expect you to do a cleaning before you leave but we do expect it to be maintained and returned in a normal state that you would expect a guest to leave your home if they stayed there.

 

PLEASE respect that this is someone’s personal condo, townhouse, or villa.  Brush sand off before you enter, do not sit on furniture with wet bathing suits, etc. Units are NON – Smoking! You WILL be charged for excess clean-ups, or any other abuse and that may include having to put the next guest somewhere else! Remember, this is not a hotel that has extra rooms. Thank you.

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Of course, towels and linen should be used for the purposes intended and not used for cleaning, wiping sun tan or other oils, etc. Not only will you be charged, but this is totally disrespectful.

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Each condo is individually owned, and most owners rent them out to help cover some of their costs. This is not a business for them! Please treat each unit and everything in it as if you were staying at a friend’s home that needs to help offset their costs and all you are doing is contributing.

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We do ask that you leave towels and linen in a bundle on the floor for the housekeeper.

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DO NOT leave dirty dishes, pots, pans, glasses, etc. in the sink or dishwasher. If you do, you will be charged, and the condo may be delayed for the next guest. This is not a hotel where there are many rooms and guests can be moved around. We doubt if you would like to be kept waiting on arrival. Please respect your fellow vacationers.

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Please be sure that you do not track sand or bring sandy items in the unit. Sand is difficult and time consuming to clean up and can damage furniture, appliances, etc. If you leave a unit with sand, you will be charged $75 for extra housekeeping. PLEASE understand why we must do things like this. If you owned the unit, how would you feel if guests mistreated it? You may decide not to rent or may have to charge far more. Then the guests also lose.

 

If you find anything wrong, such as burnt our bulbs or anything not working, please report it so that it can be repaired while you are there. Let us know if you would like it repaired while you are there or if it can be done on check out, but please let us know enough in advance so that we can make repairs before the next guest arrives.

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• Additional housekeeping is available at a nominal fee. The housekeepers are happy to earn some extra money by coming in for you. We are happy to make the arrangements, but as you can imagine, the more notice the better. Various types of services is available.

 

• Towels & linens:

Each of our Vacation Rentals is equipped with one set of towels for each person, including pool towels. In addition, there are 2 kitchen towels, and linen for each bed. Some of our other properties may be equipped with additional. Please check inventory for information. Please do not use any of these for other than their intended purposes and not used for cleaning, wiping sun tan or other oils, etc. Not only will you be charged, but this is totally disrespectful.

 

The high cost of utilities and imported products result in much higher costs than you may be used to. We use a professional commercial laundry company so that we are sure that things are properly cleaned, unlike most private vacation rentals. We are concerned about cleanliness and your safety as well as ecology. Unfortunately, as a result of the high costs on Aruba, these laundry services are quite expensive. Cleaning additional towels and linen would prevent us from providing affordably priced accommodations to you.

 

A Washer/Dryer is provided in most of our properties for your convenience. Please treat them with respect.

 

Do not wash sandy items or do anything else other than for what the machines are intended. You will be responsible for misuse.

 

Aruba also has many ‘drop off' laundromats. We have also arranged for a professional laundry to offer a pick up/drop off service to our guests. Information about this is in your unit and they are happy to do any and all of your laundry for you.

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If you do require additional towels and or linen, please notify us and be aware that, as you would expect, there is a charge for this.

 

• Starter guest amenities:

As a convenience, each Vacation Rental property will have a small starter of soap, toilet paper, Dish soap, a roll of paper towels, etc. This is just to get you started until you can obtain what you need for your own usage.

 

• PLEASE READ - Individual ownership of our Vacation Rentals:

 Each of the Vacation Rental Condos are individually owned & treated separately. Most or all owners rent them out to help cover some of their costs. This is not a business for them! Please treat each unit and everything in it as if you were staying at a friend’s home that needs to help offset their costs and all you are doing is contributing.

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•  Damage or Breakage - Each guest is responsible to report any damaged or broken items as soon as possible to give us time to minimize inconvenience to the next guest, but in no case later than at check out. Reporting damage timely will result in your only being charged for replacement plus 20% service to cover our labor. Failure to report damaged or broken items will result in extra charges of at least $275.00. After satisfactory inspection of premises by management, should there be any damage to premises, other than normal wear and tear, or if there are items missing, Guests shall be responsible and mgmt. may deduct costs to repair or replace as indicated above. If they were not reported, there will also be a minimum additional $275.00 penalty. 

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• Special requests – We shall be pleased to offer extra assistance should you have special requirements or other health needs and will do our best to accommodate each individual special need.

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•  Extra services – Can be requested such as additional housekeeping, baby Crib (pack & play), babysitting, shopping and provisioning of groceries, cell phone rentals, and make arrangements for taxi, car rentals or airport transports with limo or other car services. Additional costs shall be applicable to these extra services.

Important information to our guests

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• Taxes, fees, and Service charges

Estimate 19% but may vary.
Aruba has a number of taxes and fees that properties are required to collect. These are categorized into various types and change from time to time. They usually consist of a combination of percentage of cost, type of room (the more bedrooms, the higher the fee), per reservation fees, per night, energy tax/surcharge, etc. These are fees collected for the government, not us and we have no control. Most properties on Aruba charge about 25% – 27% plus the one-time fees. We try to keep a tighter control so we can minimize this instead of charging higher extra amounts to cover changes. Currently we collect 19% but this may vary.

 

• Utility fees

Estimate $175 per week for Condo units. Utilities are extremely costly on Aruba and there are also adjustments based on usage and cost of energy that the utility companies impose on us.

 

As you can imagine, everything is imported and even our water is based on Desalinated sea water.

Although it is probably the purest water you will ever find, it is very costly.

 

Since our Vacation Rental Condos are quite large, the utilities can become extremely expensive if abused.

In order for us to be able to offer affordable rates to our guests while being able to offer large comfortable accommodations, we collect a nominal weekly fee towards utilities based on the number of occupants. This covers normal usage based on a typical guest.

If you run your air conditioners when you are not in the unit, or leave water running when not in the shower or using the sink, you are not only wasting resources and hurting the planet but would exceed normal usage. We budget your accommodation to the maximum that a typical guest would use. Anything above that would have to be charged additionally. Fortunately, in about 25 years of operation, Aruba Villa Rentals guests have been responsible folks and less than 5% of our guests have exceeded the budget.

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• Resort/other fees: 

While is has become customary for properties to charge a ‘resort fee’ or relate fees for things like use of wifi, facilities, etc, we do not do so. We try to manage our properties in such a way as to be able to offer our guests the best value and cover some of the major risks/costs through items that do vary, the utilities.

 

•  Rates are valid for up to 4 guests in a unit. Additional guests fee $30/guest per night to cover added utilities, linen, added cleaning, etc. This does not include taxes.

 

 

Regarding Aruba overall, please see our ABOUT ARUBA pages for fairly detailed information. Well worth reading!

 

That section incudes information about currency, banks, languages, the Aruba people, history, safety & security, drinking water, taxes, tipping, service charges and other charges you may notice on Aruba, airport info, customs, buying real estate on Aruba, transportation, car rentals, bike rental, taxis, busses, even routes and schedules (at time of this site), Car rental requirements, store hours, holidays, ports, electricity, exchange rates, economic activities, time zone, and MUCH MORE! 

 

Constitutional Form

Aruba has a constitutional monarchy (as part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands) with a parliamentary democracy. The governor of Aruba is appointed by the monarch and has a symbolic role. The 21 members of the parliament (legislative branch) are elected by direct popular vote for a four year period. The 8 members of the council of ministers (executive branch) are appointed by the parliament. The judges in the judicial branch are appointed by the monarch.

 

Area

Aruba is 6 miles across and 19.6 miles long with a total area of 77 Square miles (180 Square kilometers).

 

Geographical Position

Aruba is part of the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea, and lies about 12 degrees north of the equator, approximately 29km (18 miles) off the Paraguaná Peninsula of Venezuela.

 

Time Zone

(GMT – 04:00 Georgetown, La Paz, Manaus, San Juan) During the months between the Spring Daylight Savings Time change to the Fall Daylight Savings Time change, we are the same time as EST. During the other months, we are one hour ahead of EST.

 

Capital: Oranjestad

Population: 104,822 (2016)

Life expectancy: 75.57 (2015)

Literacy rate: 97.5 % ( 2015 est.)

Temperature: Average of 82°F (27°C)

Rainfall: Average of 15.7 inches (400mm) per year

Language: Papiamento (official), Dutch, English, Spanish

Airport: International Airport Queen Beatrix

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Economic Activities

Tourism, petroleum bunkering, hospitality, and financial and business services are the mainstays of the small open Aruban economy.

Tourism accounts for majority of economic activity. As of 2014, over 1.7 million tourists visited Aruba annually, with the large majority of those from the US.

 

Currency

Aruban Florin (AWG) and US$ is widely accepted

 

Exchange Rate

AWG 1.80 = US$ 1.00. (Please check for current rate)

 

Major Airlines

American Airlines, US Airways, Continental Airlines, Delta Airlines, JetBlue Airways, United Airlines, Air Canada, Air Transet, Skyservice, Spirit Airlines EUROPE

 KLM, ArkeFly, Thomson Holidays CARIBBEAN

Aruba Airlines, Insel Air, LATIN AMERICA

Avianca, Venezolana, SAM Aires, Avior, Aserca, Aires, Copa Airlines, SLM, Varig, PAWA Domincana

 

Major Sea Ports

Cruise Port

Commercial Port

 

Business Hours

8am-4pm

 

Store Hours

8am-6pm

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Official Holidays

January 1                       New Year’s Day

January 25                    G.F. Betico Croes Day

Date varies per year    Carnaval Monday

March 18                       National Flag and Anthem Day

Date varies per year    Good Friday

Date varies per year    Easter Monday

April 30                         Kings day

May 1                            Labor Day

Date varies per year    Ascension Day

December 25              Christmas Day

December 26              Boxing Day

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Electricity System

110-127 Volt, 60 cycles. (North American voltage standard). The TV standard is NTSC, so your home video camera will also play back. Most houses have 220V for air conditioning

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Electricity System

110-127 Volt, 60 cycles. (North American voltage standard). The TV standard is NTSC, so your home video camera will also play back. Most houses have 220V for air conditioning