Some tips and tales for renting a house in Ocean City for Senior Week, or “Sweek”
As someone who has had a lot of trouble finding a Senior Week rental, senior Katie Embser feels many owners are making the process more challenging. “Unfortunately, because some believe senior week is reckless and dangerous, finding a house where the owners would let a group of unsupervised kids stay in their home is extremely difficult.”
Attention Seniors; your 2016 Senior Week kicks off on Memorial Day weekend, and if you’re planning on renting a house in Ocean City, well—this complicates things. But have no fear— some experienced students are here to give you advice on how to “Sweek.”
As many of you know, Memorial Day weekend wields an excessive amount of traffic in the direction of the beach, with a good portion of those vacationers renting condos, houses, apartments and hotel rooms well in advance. With that being said, if you haven’t already reserved yours, you should probably get to it. Most Severna Park seniors’ rental locations are ranging from 70th to 100th street, as most students want to stick around others from their school. When browsing and renting online, most websites factor in your preferences regarding location, price, size, property type, and even whether or not you get WiFi connection.
Senior Nicole Burke and her friends have had some trouble finding their house since many of their options don’t fit their preferences. “The prices are crazy, and the slot of houses is far away from where we want to be.” In order to avoid this problem, unfortunately you may need to resort to lowering your standards.
If you find a house that sleeps less people than you have in your group, you could always bring some air mattresses to accommodate for those left without a bed. When it comes to senior week, the more the merrier. (especially since the cost per individual will lower if you split the total with a greater amount of people). Having Wi-Fi isn’t completely necessary, unless you want to spare your parents’ phone bills. And even if you can’t seem to find a location from 70th to 100th street, the beach bus is only three dollars a day per person—a fairly inexpensive way to get you to the rest of your friends if need be, especially when compared to that of a cab or Uber. “[Now knowing about] the beach bus, I wouldn’t mind staying anywhere between 30th and 90th street,” said Burke. In fact, a two bedroom, 1 bathroom rental on 32nd street has a weekly rate that is 400 dollars less than the rate of a similar house on 75th street, meaning that a location further from everyone else may just be worth it.
So you’ve fought your way through the jungle of house-hungry vacationers and have discovered the treasure chest of all sweek hangouts,the perfect place, the house that will work for you and your friends. BUT- it’s a trap. The landlord doesn’t rent to graduated seniors. Some students will lie and say they aren’t graduated seniors and sometimes, just sometimes this actually works. Unfortunately, for the most part it doesn’t. Some groups can get a little rowdy, causing their neighbors to call the police–landing them and eviction notice within the first few days. Severna Park High School graduate Steven Shanley (‘14) witnessed this happen at his senior week. “[The kids] were trashing the house, playing loud music, and partying” Shanley commented. In other cases, landlords have known that those claiming not to be graduated seniors are lying and have evicted their tenants almost immediately in order to keep their security deposit and make a cheap profit.
However, some realtors, like Blue Turtle, rent out their units specifically for senior week, although they still expect their tenants to abide by the law. So if you’re still looking for your house, keep these things in mind: maybe lying about your age isn’t the best idea, and if you don’t want to spend thousands only to lose it all, make sure you behave responsibly once you get there.
HELPFUL LINKS
VRBO: Vacation Rentals by Owner
This website serves as a reliable search engine for finding the best Ocean City rental for you. Instead of going through an agency, you are able to contact the owner of any property directly, providing for a more direct, personable rental experience.
OC Maryland Senior Week Rentals
In order to reduce the chance of Senior Week tenants getting evicted, this search engine is specific to owners that rent out their properties to graduating seniors.
Tiki Too contains three bedroom, two bathroom units and is only steps from a guarded beach. One Severna Park group has already purchased a rental here for Senior Week.
Blue Turtle is a lot rented out to graduating seniors and college groups only, with several different sized apartments. Tenants receive the benefit of unlimited half-priced pizzas from “Pino’s Pizza,” which is only a minute away.
