By MADDY VITALE
Ocean City’s Vacation Rental website VROCNJ offers a safe and easy way to explore the available Ocean City properties to rent for a perfect retreat.
Since the website launched in the resort last year, it has taken off, explained Duane Watlington, founder of Vacation Rentals Jersey Shore LLC.
The website vacationrentalsoceancitynj.com gives homeowners and realtors a site to showcase their listings for a low fixed annual price, and vacationers a site to find the selection that best fits their family’s needs for that dream getaway, with no booking fees or service charges.
Now, more than ever, Watlington said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, people are seeking ways to select vacation homes without actually going to the sites to see them.
“Since COVID-19, things have generally moved online,” he explained in an interview. “With our vacation sites people can go and search for a vacation online and they don’t have to go in person. There is really convenience to that. You can look on your phone and find a place.”
However, there is often a concern with online purchases that there may be hidden scams, Watlington noted.
VROCNJ offers vacationers the assurance about the properties they are viewing.
“You always hear of families who found a place on Facebook or on Craigslist and they have been scammed. It breaks your heart to hear that,” said Watlington, whose company also has two other successful vacation rental websites, one for Long Beach Island and the other in Wildwood.
Every new listing that is added to the website is verified by a member of the VROCNJ staff.
The VROCNJ employee verifies that the contact person in the listing is either the owner, realtor or property manager who is authorized to rent the property.
All people have to do is look for a “verified user” green check mark in the owner profile to see if the listing qualifies.
“We wanted to give vacationers some confidence that our listings are not scams. So we rolled out a verification system and verified all of the owners who advertise listings on our website,” Watlington said. “Families can search for a rental on VROCNJ and when they find one, and book direct with the owner in the listing, they can rest assured that the rental will exist when they show up next summer.”
For more information visit www.Vacationrentalsoceancitynj.com
