Ramblings

In the the vacation rental world, consolidation is a good thing. A one-stop shop like HomeAway is a necessary evolutionary step. But gathering everything in one place (quantity) begs the next evolution (quality).

Consolidation is all about convenience, efficiency. Whether I'm trying to organize my thoughts or my closet, I typically gather (dump) ell related elements in one spot. That's my "universe". Then I sort. That's a quality-based task.

HomeAway has good advanced search options that help you quickly narrow the field according to basic categories -- number of bedrooms, pet-friendly? -- that are meaningful to you.

But then you're on your own. Nobody at HomeAway is gonna dish on quality. Not when vacation rental owners pay to to listed on the site! Which doesn't make the listings bad, by any means. But just know, at the end of your advanced search, you're likely to be left with a list of apples and oranges. Which are exceptional? Which ho-hum? Take your best guess. Based on the owner's description and photos.

Maybe you're someone like me who loves discovering "gems". A riverfront cottage with a redwood tree growing up through the center ... a private apartment round the corner from the last unpaved road, plum in the center of San Francisco ... These truly unique, memorable places confirm vacation rentals are a world away from hotel chains and even B&Bs.Finding them requires lots of trial and error or reliable sources of unbiased, first-hand dish. The best, the highs and lows.

That is the next necessary evolution in the vacation rental world.

Posted by Joyce Hadley Copeland at 05:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I attended The (San Francisco) Bay Area Travel Show this past weekend and you know what presenters were calling "the next big thing"? Renting a vacation home!

Okay, I was a little surprised. But what surprised me even more was NO ONE was there representing that option in the exhibition hall except a Mexican condo comany! A lost opportunity!

A few attendees volunteered they had had good experiences renting homes through VRBO. But even Pauline Frommer -- who is the first guidebook author to go into any detail about vacation rentals as "Alternative" accommodations -- had never heard of HomeAway (the big conglomerate that has gobbled up a dozen smaller booking sites). Not that that's such a bad thing. There is Google after all. But  as the buzz grows in the area, new renters need choice, education and discrimination.

Imagine this: a "concept" booth hosted by Slow Travel, with representation from Vacation Rental Owners Association (VROA) (an organization that has taken on the task of certifying the quality of  vacation homes). Then a starburst of international, regional booking and specialty sites (Zonder, Russian River Getaways, BeachHouse.com, PetVR.com And somewhere in there, Renting Paradise. of course.

Here's to the mainstreaming of vacation home rental! 

Posted by Joyce Hadley Copeland at 06:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The overwhelming array of travel web sites and guidebooks can mean more (not less!) homework when you’re planning a trip. You can simplify your research--and more or less guarantee better results--by looking for “unbiased” recommendations and reviews.

“Unbiased” simply Means the recommender has no axe to grind. No money is changing hands between hotel or restaurant and person recommending it. The recommendation—the review—is based on unvarnished personal experience.  Here are three of the best ways I know to tap into that quality content.    

1. Fellow travelers. They can be relatives, friends, neighbors, colleagues. The key is that they know a little something about your preferences. My husband and I once stayed in a thatched-roof hut at a beachfront resort near Tulum on Mexico’s Mayan Riviera. The first morning we awoke to an iguana poised on the wall above our bed. I’d recommend this place without reservation—except to those folks who I happen to know thrive on Five-Star (hermetically-sealed) luxury. It might be the end of the friendship.   

2. Reader-written columns and web sites.  Travelers love to talk about their trips. If they’ve had a good experience, they love to share the wealth. If not, the result can be scathing. Before every trip I take I check TripAdvisor. (There are other similar sites. This just happens to be my personal favorite.)  Here, quantity often counts as much as quality: the more resoundingly enthusiastic reviews, the better. When I find 10 glowing stories and one “worst night of my life,” I figure majority rules. The key is read closely. The honesty is often there, but disguised in someone else’ preferences or communication style. Point is: I’ve never been disappointed--and more often than not turned on to places that would never have appeared on my radar screen if I stuck to the big portals like Expedia. (Slow Travel is an especially good resource for people who want to rent a villa or apartment in Europe.)

Larger metropolitan area newspapers may have a column like “Follow the Reader” in the San Francisco Chronicle. Every week travelers wait for the latest reader-inspired recommendations.   

3. Authors who specialize in unbiased reviews.  Well-known personalities like Rick Steves and Karen Brown have developed near cult followings for their guidebooks detailing the best accommodations, restaurants, sights and itineraries in the U.S., Mexico and Europe. What I love about these experts—and try to emulate in my own Renting Paradise e-guidebook series reviewing vacation rentals in northern California—is the fact that they have visited every place they tout. You may not know them, but their personal idiosyncrasies and “attitude” shine through. Their consistency makes them almost friends.

Websites can have the same quality, though they are few and far between. I first encountered the U.K. site i-escape.com  while planning a trip to southern Spain. I was so impressed  I begged them to let me write reviewer. They did! The majority of reviews covering much of the world excluding the U.S. are five pages long with 15-20 photos.  

Posted by Joyce Hadley Copeland at 03:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

"Mystery" rashes, staph infections, Legionnaires' disease ... not the kind of souvenirs anyone wants to bring home after a relaxing stay in a vacation rental home. I'm not  a hot tub aficionado, so I admit I never dipped even a toe in a hot tub in any of the homes I've reviewed for Renting Paradise. Turns out, even the cleanest-looking hot tub (and even whirlpool bathtubs and private swimming pools for that matter) can easily become a petri dish for some of the worst kinds of bacteria.

I had my eyes opened wide after chatting Stacy Intille. A healthy 44-year-old Registered Nurse at Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento. iN 2001 Stacy contracted Legionnaires' disease after soaking in a non-permitted portable above-ground hot tub at a hotel in Monterey,California. She almost died. In October 2006 she settled a lawsuit against the hotel for just under $1 million.

This puts vacation rental home owners and management companies between a rock and a hard place. In many areas, home that have tot tubs are more desirable -- easier to rent. However, owners cannot be on site to properly maintain the hot tub 24/7. I'm not going to wade into the slimy "guts" of the issue here. But suffice it to say, health/maintenance regulations vary by county and management companies tend to take a "soak at your own risk" approach in rental contracts.

How do you protect yourself -- especially if your party includes vulnerable children, pregnant women, elderly people and/or anyone whose immune system has been compromised?

When in doubt, stay out. Don't mean to be a party-pooper. But how else can you be sure?

Insist on safe practices. Thanks to Stacy's advocacy, the California Conference of Directors of Environmental Health (CCDEH), has taken a closer look at the infection risks and potential hazards of above ground portable hot tubs and jacuzzi bathtubs commonly found in rental properties across the state.  Their warnings and recommendations are outlined in a new guideline posted on their website in October 2007 titled Guidelines for the Installation and Operation of Fill and Drain Spas and Hot Tubs.  You can use the guidelines in this document to personally vet a vacation rental home owner's maintenance practices.

Bottom line: The CCDEH has determined that most of the portable hot tubs commonly found in vacation homes are designed to be used by private families and their invited guests. Once an owner begins to offer their home as a vacation rental, they are required to upgrade these residential hot tubs to commercial grade, obtain a permit and follow the daily maintenance requirements and logs as outlined in the code. The guideline estimates as many as 1,000 owners are currently in violation of the code. 

If you have your own hot tub and this seems like a real pain, you're right. But remember, you KNOW exactly who you invite into your tub.You can't be sure what happened (how many people used the tub how many times) before you arrive at even the best vacation home. That's just the facts. 

Posted by Joyce Hadley Copeland at 04:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)