The Bahamas Vacation Home Contest


(Update to below contest specifications: the date and time of selection of the winner remains unchanged. The posting of the winner will occur upon confirmation from the winner)

The current active contest open for new entries was started on July 5, 2008 and will end midnight, July 4, 2009. The winner receives a one week stay at the private 2-bedroom Octagon house located on Elbow Cay, Abaco Island, Bahamas for 1-6 persons. Note that for sleeping, the master bedroom has a queen bed (2 persons), and the second bedroom has 3 beds (1 bunk bed for 2 persons, 1 twin for 1 person). A 6th person can be accommodated on a cot or air mattress (both provided) -- OK for a teen or younger child.

The previous contest ending July 4, 2008 has been won. To see who won,

For full information about the Octagon house (pictures, maps, information), click on the following Bahamas sunset:  

To enter the Contest, you must fill out the form below. To enter multiple times, you can bookmark this site and enter once each day (see "Official Rules").

OFFICIAL RULES (the legal stuff):

  1. Eligibility: No purchase necessary. Anyone in the world, 18 years of age or over as of July 4, 2008, is eligible to enter the contest. Void where prohibited by law.
  2. Entries: Entries for this drawing accepted only by the entry form displayed below which must be completed and electronically submitted before midnight, July 4, 2009. Only one entry per individual per day per valid email address will be allowed, and the "Date Of Entry" field entered on the form below must equal the date you submit your entry. Additional entries submitted on a single day, or if the date the form is sent is a different date than the date entered on the "Date of Entry" field (+ or - 2 days), will disqualify an individual from that day's entry. A single day is a calendar day beginning at 12:01 AM and ending at 11:59 PM at the individual's (your) time zone where the entry is submitted. All fields identified as "required" will need to be entered correctly for that day's submission to be valid. The last 3 items (2 questions and the Question box) are not required to be answered to enter the contest. We are not responsible for any act of God or events beyond reasonable control, including but not limited to lost, misdirected, late, or ineligible entries submitted via the Internet. Why not bookmark this site to enter the contest daily!!!
  3. Odds: The number of entries received determines odds of winning. There were 26,120 entries during the 12 month contest last year, so your odds are fairly good compared to most other national contests. Remember, each day you enter increases your odds of winning. For example, in the last contest, 30 entries over a period of 6 months would take your odds of winning down to about 1 in 921.
  4. Award: One (1) week (7 nights) stay for 1-6 persons at the Octagon house located on Elbow Cay, Abaco Island, Bahamas. All other expenses including airfare, taxes, food, boat rentals, etc. are the sole responsibility of the winner. Reservations to stay at the Octagon house are required and are subject to prior bookings of the Octagon house. Any reservation made starting in the months of September, October, January, and February are available, subject to prior bookings, with a minimum of 22 days (or more) advanced reservation prior to the first day of your stay. The other eight months are available with no greater than 45 days advanced reservation prior to the first day of your stay. Winners must start their stay by October 31, 2010. Value of award is the 7-night rental rate of the Octagon house, currently valued at $1100 for 6 people, or $1000 for 4 people, subject to change. Any government taxes on the value of the award are the responsibility of the winner.
  5. Drawing: A random drawing will take place at 12:01 AM July 5, 2009 to select the winning contest entry. The winner will be notified by e-mail at the email address of the winner's winning contest entry. An invalid email address will disqualify an entry and another entry will be chosen at random from all the entries submitted. No weight is given in the random drawing to those persons requesting (or not requesting) Octagon literature (see entry form below)..
  6. Terms: Winner will be sent via email a request to confirm their mailing address. Upon receipt by us of the winner's confirmed correct mailing address, we will send a letter by Certified Mail (if within the USA), to the address of the winner confirming the winner's award, an Affidavit Of Eligibility (AOE) form, and the standard Octagon Renter's Agreement form. Within 30 days of our sending written notification of winning the contest, winner is required to sign and return the AOE/consent forms. This includes a consent to use the information provided in the contest entry form and information about the prize won without additional permission or compensation for purposes of notifications of winner, advertising, and/or other promotions. To reserve the Octagon house, the winner must coordinate with the Octagon owner to confirm availability of the Octagon house and after confirmation, sign and submit a the Octagon Renter's Agreement form. While standard renters are required to pay an initial reservation/breakage deposit, the contest winner is not required to pay any reservation/breakage deposit (or any other payment) for reserving the Octagon house or staying at the Octagon house, however, the winner is responsible for any breakage or damage to the Octagon house while staying at the house. Depending on the Octagon house availability, the winner has the option to extend their stay beyond the 7 nights at a rate per night of 1/7th of the weekly Octagon rental rate that is published at the time the winner requests to book their award reservation, and stays less than 7 nights won in the contest are allowed. Only the winner or his/her immediate family can use the award -- the award is not transferable. The house will accommodate 5 persons comfortably (2 on the queen bed, 1 on a twin bed, and 1 each (2 total) on the bunk bed. A 6th person can be accommodated on either a cot or a twin inflatable air bed (both available), and for this contest there is no charge for the 5th or 6th person (normally $50/week for each of the 5th or 6th person). By entering, the participant agrees to abide by these rules. Non-compliance will result in disqualification and selection of an alternate winner.
  7. Winner posting: Winner will be listed on the http://costar.net web site, and a notification sent by email about the winner to those requesting notification of the winner. A listing on the contest web page will initially identify the initials of the winner, the date the winner entered the contest, the city and state where the contest winner is located plus other statistical information about the contest winning entry. In addition, the winner's full name and address will be listed upon receipt of the winner's documents identified in item #6 above.
  8. Security of your email address: Your email address will not be sold, rented, or given to any person or organization except for the use of CTS and/or Gordon & Sally Storr. Submission of this entry allows us to contact you via email although you will be given the opportunity to request removal of future email contact. The state of Virginia has one of the first laws in the US that punishes "spam" violators by a fine and/or imprisonment. We support this Virginia law and its philosophy, so we are diligent about honoring all removal requests. We reside in the state of Virginia (31 years).
  9. No auto entry allowed: We consider auto entry to be when you use a program or service to automatically enter this contest without ever having gone to this web page to submit an entry. Because of the requirement in this contest to enter a "Date of Entry" date (see Entry Form below), auto entry won't work and your entry will be disqualified according to entry rule #2. However, there are several programs that assist people in entering contests and completing forms, often called a "Form Fill-in" feature, and many browsers are set up with this feature. The "Form Fill-in" feature IS allowed, however, make sure that you change the date in the "Date of Entry" field for each day's entry to make sure your entry is qualified for submission.

    ======================= Entry Form =======================

Name:

 (required)

Street Address:

 (required)

City:

 (required; if you are from outside the USA or Canada, enter

State:

 (or Canada province) the rest of your address here + your country)

Zip Code:

 (or Canada postal code)

Country:

 (ignore if from USA)

E-Mail:

 (required)
Date of Entry: (MO/DA/YR, e.g., 11/28/2008 ) (required)

Would you like to receive our 4-page packet of literature by mail about the Octagon House? A full 13-page literature packet is also available by submitting an email request on the Bahamas page. To get to the Bahamas page, enter the contest, then you'll be taken to a "THANK YOU FOR ENTERING" page that tells you your entry has been submitted -- this page also has the link to get over to the Bahamas page to request the 13 page literature packet. Check the "No" box if you do not want the 4-page literature packet OR if you are going to request the 13-page literature packet.
Yes    . No
Would you like to receive notification by email on who won the contest (Note: you will be notified by email if you are the winner)?
Yes    . No

Questions you would like to ask? (optional)

Back To Bahamas Page Without Entering Contest

Information about the last contest that ended July 4, 2008

Thank you all for a great contest. We run the contest to promote our own vacation home (the Octagon house) in Abaco Island, Bahamas, and this contest promotion has been very successful for us. Out of all the entries in this last contest (see statistics below), we had 770 requests for literature, so that was about 1 request a day for literature out of about 36 entries. This has kept the Octagon house nicely rented (see web site at http://costar.net). If you wish to receive our 13 page information packet of information, I've included a short mailing address form just below the dotted line below (literature not available in email form as an attachment, only by mail).

The last contest we ran for the Octagon house that selected a winner ended midnight, July 4, 2008.

There were a total of 26,120 entries in the contest ending midnight July 4, 2008. The person who won the Bahamas contest entered the contest a total of 55 times. That person's first entry was on Sept 12, 2007 and the last entry was on June 2, 2008. The winner followed all the contest rules as specified. In the random drawing from all the 26,120 entries entered from the start of the contest, the 5,336th entry was the winner. This is our 10th year of offering this contest for the Octagon house stay. The new winner submitted their winning entry on February 6, 2008 at 12:33:06 (PM) (winner's local time) and it was his/her 33rd entry of the 55 entries that was selected which won the contest for a 1-week stay (7 days) at the Octagon house on Abaco Island.

And the last winner was...

(Full name and address not released until verification by contest winner that they will accept the contest winning)

To enter the new contest that started July 5, 2008, (remember, only one entry per day allowed)

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Fill out the following form if you wish to receive the 13 page rental information packet about the Octagon house:

                  Name:
      Street address:
       City/State/Zip: if not from USA, enter the rest of your address here and also your country below)
                Country: (ignore if from USA)
     E-Mail address: (please include)

Questions you would like to ask?


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