THE NEXT BIG THING
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!