VACATION RENTALS OCEAN CITY NJ - Key Persons
The founder of Vacation Rentals Jersey Shore LLC is Duane Watlington. Duane lives in Central NJ and has vacationed "down the shore" all of his life. He has visited and vacationed in most NJ shore communities.
In addition to being the founder of Vacation Rentals Jersey Shore LLC, Duane is a Licensed Real Estate Agent and manages a portfolio of investment real estate, including Vacation Rentals on Long Beach Island. Prior to getting into Real Estate, Duane successfully started, and grew, a Branded Merchandise Agency near Princeton NJ named Active Imprints. In June of 2018, after 35 successful years in business, Duane decided to sell Active Imprints so he could devote 100% of his efforts to the Vacation Rental market on the Jersey Shore. With the overwhelming success of his first website vacationrentalslbi.com Duane decided to duplicate what he did on LBI and provide his proven platform to the Vacation Rental owners in Wildwood and Ocean City NJ!
Managing and promoting his Vacation Rentals on LBI over the last 8 years has given Duane a lot of insight and knowledge on how to promote and fill as many rental weeks as possible. Over the last six years, Duane has been able to book his two vacation rentals FULL from Memorial Day through Kite Fest (Columbus Day weekend). In addition he has been able to book many guests to stays in the off-season as well!
In 2015, Duane recognized some pretty drastic changes taking place with the major listing sites like VRBO and Homeaway. They are now requiring Vacation Rental Owners to accept online bookings like hotels and motels. In addition, they are now charging Vacationers a "service fee" when they book their vacation online, adding up to 12% to the vacationers cost to book the rental. In late 2018 these online travel agencies were required to start collecting NJ Sales Tax and Occupancy Tax, which add about another 12%, making vacationers pay up to 25% more for using their platforms!
In 2018, Duane was one of the first to discover a new tax, the NJ Shore Tax, that had been implemented on short term rentals in the State of New Jersey. Realizing that this tax would have a negative impact on tourism at the shore, and put an undo burden on middle class NJ families who vacation there, Duane took action by organized a grass roots effort to correct the tax and the NJ Shore Rentals Coalition (www.NJShoreTax.com) was born. As a founding member, Duane held a leadership role and worked with the State legislators, even testifying in Trenton, to get this damaging tax removed from direct bookings. In August 2019, Governor Murphy signed A4814 into law, making direct rentals between owners and guests tax fee.