Hi trevncoz

I hope you get it sorted OK, but can I make a suggestion or two? Afer many years of experience renting villas in Orlando, I have found that Murphy's Law applies more to pool heating than almost any other aspect of the holiday.

Like you, we are wimps when it comes to cold water and often spend many full days around the pool. It's a major part of our holiday and having our own heated pool is one of the main reasons we go back time and again to Florida.

However, over the years we have had the following problems with pool heat:

1. Not switched on until after we arrive, and turned off before we leave, depriving us of 2-3 days heat.
2. Switched off after one week
3. Running out of gas
4. On, but at an incredibly miserly temperature
5. Broken down boiler
6. Pool not being heatable in the first place

Plus many, many more. Generally speaking it's the management companies who are at fault. In my experience, they tend to be more "relaxed" about pool heating than their other areas of responsibility.

In your case, having booked with MyTravel, you may not know which villa you are getting until you arrive?

I would suggest the following course of action, (particularly since no-one in the agency seemed to have come across a pool heat request before)

1. Confirm with them now, and get a written response, that pool heating is available for your specific villa, and the price
2. Get them to confirm that they will turn it on the day before you arrive and not turn it off until the day you leave. Pay the extra if they're charging per day
3. Get them to confirm the temperature they will set the pool heat
4. Find out which management company they use and their contact details. Email the confirmations direct to the management company and get them to confirm they will follow the instructions
5. The day before you leave, call the management company and remind them, ask them to go out today to put the heat on
6. Take a pool thermometer with you (or get one at Walmart as soon as you arrive)and leave it in the pool.

I realise it seems over the top, but it's the only way you can absolutely guarantee it will work for you properly if you're not booking direct with a villa owner. One of the major difficulties is the length of time it takes to make a difference to the pool temperature.

A common scenario is as follows:

You pay for pool heat and arrive. The first day you get in the pool and think, gosh, it's not very warm, I wonder is the heat on? Then you think, no, we've paid for it, obviously the previous guests didn't have it on and it'll take a day or so to warm up.

The next day, you call the management company. They check their records and it shows you've paid for pool heat, so they say "yes sir, your pool is heated, I've got confirmation here". You say, but it's not very warm?

They say, "when did you arrive, it can take up to 48 hrs to heat, particularly if it hasn't been used for a few weeks".

You think, OK, I'll believe them.

Then the next day it's still no better, you go buy a thermometer, check the temperature, wander all round the heater, trying to find out if it's on or not (hard to tell as they're usually all sealed up).

Call the management company again and complain. They come out the next day and switch it on, all apologies. By now you're into day 3 or 4 of your holiday and it takes another 24 hrs to heat the pool.

Then add all the other issues you can have such as those listed above, and you can see that it can be really annoying.

Now, I'm sure most villa renters have never had those problems and maybe we're just unlucky, but we go every year and only once (last visit) did we not have one or other (and often several together) of the above difficulties.

If something goes wrong with the heat, it takes you a day or so to get absolutely convinced there's a problem, then another two days to get it sorted and re-heated. It's one of those issues which needs to be "actively managed".

Anyway, you may not have any of those problems and it all goes swimmingly for you, bu