Ramblings

During a self-imposed (read:  money-making)“sabbatical” that has extended to several months, I’ve been watching and listening rather than posting. With a little distance, I find I’m more than a little confounded by how the vacation rental market is growing. Is it just me?

The consolidation—what I call the Hotels.com-izing—of the vacation rental industry lumbers awkwardly along. The monster site seems to get more ungainly with every smaller site it gobbles up, which strikes me as kind of sad. Because the defining feature of a vacation rental vs. a hotel or B&B is its uniqueness. No two vacation homes are alike! That’s a beautiful thing in this world of chain retailers and copycat brands. One uber-site may be more efficient, but is it the most effective way to promote the singular charm of your vacation home?

And why has the media stuck on the same old two-note praise of vacation homes for trips to Europe and for families? Can’t we all tell them new stories—direct from your own guest books—about vacation homes as perfect places to celebrate romantic milestones or quiet babymoons, to reconnect with old friends or even work through grief?

And why are we trampling on our brilliant prospects with negative sites like Vacation Rentals Watchdog.com without launching an equal number of positive sites? Certainly, bad experiences happen! But do they truly exceed the norm across all types of accommodations—or outweigh the good experiences?

I guess my point is, we’ve got something truly exceptional in this young industry. Let’s not let the dog (whether it be the big site or the media) wag us by just going along with the prescribed program. Let’s look for ways to celebrate the personal style—the heart—that distinguishes us from any of our competitors.

One very cool site called Slow Travel has gotten fabulous press for the way it embraces that lifestyle concept of “slow travel”. 

I launched my series of e-guidebooks called Renting Paradise to review vacation rentals I hand-picked for their unique charm. I separated these homes from the pack, not they are the best. But because each is exceptional on its own merits.

More owners are blogging. Bravo!

Let’s not be afraid to be individuals. Then maybe we can all figure out the best way to shine together.

Posted by Joyce Hadley Copeland at 07:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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)

"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. 

For more information, you can contact directly at rnwithld@aol.com.

Posted by Joyce Hadley Copeland at 07:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Always a humbling experience. My family's semi-annual get-together at a vacation rental home I chose was a disappointment. And if it had been my first experience renting a vacation home? It might also have been my last.

Here's (only part of) the laundry list. Most of the walls were scuffed up to waist-level. There were two TVs in our bedroom; neither worked. Two propane cans for the gas grill; both empty. The upstairs air-conditioning didn't work. No wireless Internet, as advertised.

I will say, the manager was very responsive, if a bit spacy.  But my technical-guru husband got the TVs working. And we all were determined to have a good time, so we did. The consensus among the rest of my laidback family is: the house was "fine". In fact, it was the worst we have visited in four years. Frankly, I spent too much of my precious vacation time dwelling on my mistake. Every time I walked the beach or drove along the coast, I kept wishing I could go back in time and chose another, better place for us.

And if it can happen to me, believe me -- it can happen to anybody.

I've visited dozens of vacation rental homes while researching my "Renting Paradise" series of e-guidebooks featuring firsthand, unbiased reviews of a select group of distinctive rentals. I even fancied that I had developed a "sixth sense" for homing in on the cream of a very large (and growing!) crop of vacation rental homes. Here's how I was fooled (so you'll be better prepared).

• Details  left out of description. Short and sweet can turn sour much faster than a long passionate treatise by a passionate owner. So take your time browsing listings and listen for heart. Some of the most interesting, dedicated, welcoming people I've ever met are vacation rental home owners. When they go on and on, it's generally not fluff, but pure love. And their greatest desire is for you to experience it too.

• Few--and/or deceiving--photos. The featured (un-captioned) photo in the listing for my recent misstep? Not taken from the house, but from the beach. Which was not a block away, as described. It is a block and a half to Highway 1. Once you reach the beach, you find it is not exactly pet-friendly. Threats of $270-plus fines are levied by park personnel! Walk-to access to a pet-friendly beach was one of the main considerations I expressed to the owner/manager. Yes, I was pissed. 

• Sloppy management. Walls scuffed. "Beautiful gardens" that are overgrown, weed-choked patches. Listed appliances missing. No propane...  You can't see this until you arrive. BUT, if you call and talk to the owner/manager you can glean a lot of information. As I've said, ours was responsive. But in all communications, she  kept saying she was "old" and "not technical". Clues. Big time.

Posted by Joyce Hadley Copeland at 09:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

During a self-imposed (read:  money-making)“sabbatical” that has extended to several months, I’ve been watching and listening rather than posting. With a little distance, I find I’m more than a little confounded by how the vacation rental market is growing. Is it just me?

The consolidation—what I call the Hotels.com-izing—of the vacation rental industry lumbers awkwardly along. The monster site seems to get more ungainly with every smaller site it gobbles up, which strikes me as kind of sad. Because the defining feature of a vacation rental vs. a hotel or B&B is its uniqueness. No two vacation homes are alike! That’s a beautiful thing in this world of chain retailers and copycat brands. One uber-site may be more efficient, but is it the most effective way to promote the singular charm of your vacation home?

And why has the media stuck on the same old two-note praise of vacation homes for trips to Europe and for families? Can’t we all tell them new stories—direct from your own guest books—about vacation homes as perfect places to celebrate romantic milestones or quiet babymoons, to reconnect with old friends or even work through grief?

And why are we trampling on our brilliant prospects with negative sites like Vacation Rentals Watchdog.com without launching an equal number of positive sites? Certainly, bad experiences happen! But do they truly exceed the norm across all types of accommodations—or outweigh the good experiences?

I guess my point is, we’ve got something truly exceptional in this young industry. Let’s not let the dog (whether it be the big site or the media) wag us by just going along with the prescribed program. Let’s look for ways to celebrate the personal style—the heart—that distinguishes us from any of our competitors.

One very cool site called Slow Travel has gotten fabulous press for the way it embraces that lifestyle concept of “slow travel”. 

I launched my series of e-guidebooks called Renting Paradise to review vacation rentals I hand-picked for their unique charm. I separated these homes from the pack, not they are the best. But because each is exceptional on its own merits.

More owners are blogging. Bravo!

Let’s not be afraid to be individuals. Then maybe we can all figure out the best way to shine together.

Posted by Joyce Hadley Copeland at 04:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm embarrassed. And deeply disappointed. Embarrassed because, when I finally read Frances Mayes' "A Year in World" after recommending it, it was nothing like what I expected. I'm disappointed because I was misled by Mayes' own comments in a newspaper review.

Here's what I said in my second post on this blog:

"She (Mayes, author of the wildly successful "Under the Tuscan Sun") and her husband choose to rent, of course, so they can really immerse themselves in the local culture... 

Mayes and her husband tried to stay in each country for at least a month. Renting made the difference, “because the minute you’re in your own place, you start relating to your surrounding in an entirely different way then if you‘re in a hotel,” said in a Sacramento Bee article last month."

Here's what actually happened. Nearly every time Mayes arrived at a rental, she was disappointed. Many times she didn't even bother to unpack, hightailing it to a nearby hotel no matter the lost rental fee. One time, she admitted to renting without viewing photographs. (Her fault.)

But there were other times when, she says, she was misled by owners or agents who had never viewed the place firsthand! "Who rents a vacation home on a highway?" she laments, after stepping into an otherwise grand country home in the Cotswolds. "Mental note," she writes, bound for a nearby hotel. "Agent must have physically visited property."

Amen to that, Ms. Mayes. It's just too bad that you (the Oprah of travel) may have indelibly imprinted your own bad experiences on impressionable travelers following in your footsteps. The key message here is do you homework! Firsthand, objective experience is absolutely crucial.

Exactly why I started my series of e-guidebooks called Renting Paradise. Blatant self-promotion aside, prospective renters need a resource for independent, unbiased, firsthand commentary.  Believe me, owners -- unless they have something to hide -- are all for it.

Slow Travel has an excellent TripAdvisor-like message board specifically focused on European vacation rentals. But there are precious few unbiased resources for prospective renters in the U.S., because renting vacation homes is just catching on here in America. Where they exist, use them! Where they don't, don't take anything for granted.

My advice:

1. Look for lots of photos

2. Read descriptions very carefully

3. Ask LOTS of questions before you reserve.          

Posted by Joyce Hadley Copeland at 07:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We dog-people are a special breed. So stuck on our four-legged friends that we want to take them on vacation with us -- leashes, dishes, slobbery toys and all. It tickles me that the number of web sites focused on finding "room at the inn" for dogs and their people is growing.   

In fact, I'm astounded that when I apologized in advance to one vacation rental owner with a particularly lovely home that we planned to vacation with bring THREE dogs, she scoffed "I've never had any trouble with pet-owners. It's kids I worry about."

ANYway: The latest dog-friendly I like is PetVR.com. It features more than 5,400 pet-friendly vacation rentals (homes, cabins, condos and B&Bs, by their definition).

I initially checked out the site when I was searching for a destination for our upcoming family vacation. I was looking for a dog-friendly beach on the California coast. Voila! PetVR provides a link to pet-friendly beaches by state And lo, there are plenty in California. However, I must admit they do not list the beach I finally picked in Morro Bay. And, er, I did ultimately select a home from another site.

But! That that in no way diminishes what PetVR has to offer. I appreciate the reach (selections encompass all 50 states and 24 other countries ... you'll find many more options than you will on some vacation rental site that hyave been around for years!). And I lap up the site's authentically goofy spirit. Their "Top Ten" lists include the "Ten Gassiest Dogs."  (Honestly? We have a little problem in that area with our Terrier-Corgi mix. I was afraid to check.)

Resources include a handy list of things you might not think to pack. In fact, the site is compiled for and by pet owners -- a singularly gregarious group. So click in whether you're traveling by car or internationally.

"More than 67% of pet owners travel with their pets," Dow Scoggins, president and creator of PetVR.com, said. "And, according to surveys, nearly 40% more would travel with their

pets if they found it easier to do so." (Okay, even a math-idiot like me knows that adds up to more than 100%. But, hey, I'm a dog-lover -- which means over-the-top already.)

And I'm not as over-the-top as it gets! My "kids" sleep in their own beds when they travel. But if your pet is more "discriminating" than mine, check out the Restful Paws Bed & Breakfast in Massachusetts (complete with indoor, bone-shaped dog pool) or The Paw House (where dog portraits and Doggie Mystery Weekends are available).

My advice? IF YOU LOVE YOUR PETS ENOUGH TO TAKE THEM ON VACATION?  YA GOT NOTHIN' TO  LOSE BY CHECKING OUT PETVR.COM. Go fetch!

Posted by Joyce Hadley Copeland at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been watching the development of HomeAway, the mega-site for vacation rentals (the one with the venture capital silver spoon) with great interest. I even used it to plan my upcoming family get-together (more on that later). But I have to say, the "bait and switch" they pulled in their most recent e-newsletter is, well, sleazy.

In the "second edition" (undated), the editor invites readers to "Be sure to check out the new sections: Readers' Travel Stories, as well as letters to the editor."

Cool! I clicked -- and clunk-- I was taken to a page (the same page for both "new sections," by way).

It said: Welcome to HomeAway! This is a bit of an unconventional way to access our site (huh?), but if you are looking for vacation rentals (well, I was kinda looking for some stories or feedback from reader's... like you promised), you've come to the right place!"  What followed was a blantant advertisement.

Shame on you, HomeAway! With all that cash, why not invest some classier editorial? Your readers (potential customers) don't like to be jerked around by these stunts. If you don't have the content yet, at least say it's "coming soon."

This is simply spam.  

Posted by Joyce Hadley Copeland at 08:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Pristine beaches, magnificent landmarks, whitewater rivers. “Find Yourself Here” is the slogan of the California Travel & Tourism Commission. But use the state's official web site and/or guidebook to plan your trip and you may find yourself staying at a Howard Johnson motel, an RV park, a B&B....because you didn't know about all the cool vacation homes for rent. That's right, vacation rentals are not even included among the “Accommodation Options”! What’s up with that?Because vacation home rentals are on the rise in California.

Posted by Joyce Hadley Copeland at 02:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

On a vacation rental owner’s recommendation, I did what I don’t usually think of: took the long way to the Sonoma coast from the forest pocket of Occidental.

To be honest, my natural impulse is to get there the quickest way. Yes, yes, I know, “The road less traveled.” Everybody talks about it. So, why do so few of us literally follow it?

This time I decided to follow Bittner Road away from town, I turned right on Joy Rd. (a good omen, I thought). Then I turned left on Coleman Valley Road.

This two-lane country road must have been an Indian trail or deer path. It had so many curves it forced me to slow down and enjoy the scenery. Coleman Valley Road took its own sweet time, winding through meadows that swept up to pine-ridged hills. I drove under canopies of valley oaks and finally did a freefall to Pacific. (My ears were popping!)

What a treat to turn off the radio during the trip and just listen to the thoughts in my own head. What a luxury to take twice the time getting there. Just because I could. Instead of suburban tracts and retail chains, I met dairy cows, goats, lambs and turkeys in full Thanksgiving fan. And realized that the “small” world” encompassed by a Sonoma Valley farm is larger and more “natural” than the insular suburban world I’m accustomed to.  

At the end, you decide: Turn left to Bodega Bay and right to more beaches,  Jenner and a side trip to Duncans Mills.

Posted by Joyce Hadley Copeland at 01:58 PM | 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 ax 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 posed 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 (often 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 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 to read closely. The honesty is often there, but disguised in someone else’s preferences or communication style. Point being, 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.

Web sites 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 reviews. 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 07:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

According to a survey by TravelPost.com, the advice of friends tops that of travel agents, web sites and guidebooks. Okay, that’s pretty much a no-brainer. But what if your friends have never been where you’re going?

TravelPost.com has 200,000 reviews written by independent travelers. It’s TripAdvisor on a smaller scale – but with a twist. TravelPost has a search feature that lets you filter reviews to include only those written by people of your gender, in age range, share your travel goals and have your budget. Clever concept.

But here’s the thing: not everyone who shares my gender or age likes what I like. Sharing travel goals narrows the gap – a little. But at the heart of every personal review is perception. You can never fully understand what I like until you really know me personally.An aggregate of reviews can provide some leads. But often what means more is the consistent wisdom of an expert reviewer. 

Take movie reviews. If a movie gets a B- on Yahoo Movies (based on an aggregate of reviewers with a very broad spectrum of viewpoints), it means much less to me than one thumbs-up-or-down session with Ebert & Roeper. I don't know Roger Ebert or Richard Roeper personally. However, through experience, I've decided I can trust their opinions and seasoned judgments.

The same can be said for travel agents who know you personally. And guidebooks written from decades of personal experience by a recognized expert. With Karen Brown, Rick Steves and Renting Paradise, you know you’re getting a seasoned view based -- not on emotion, as is often the case -- but years of experience reviewing accommodations and destinations.

My point: Surveys are all well and good. But if you trust the advice of friends, don’t place an aggregate of strangers’ reviews above a guidebooks written by someone whose opinion you’ve come to know and trust. 

Posted by Joyce Hadley Copeland at 04:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Pristine beaches, magnificent landmarks, whitewater rivers. “Find Yourself Here” is the slogan of the California Travel & Tourism Commission. But use the state's official web site and/or guidebook to plan your trip and you may find yourself staying at a Howard Johnson motel, an RV park, a B&B....because you didn't know about all the cool vacation homes for rent. That's right, vacation rentals are not even included among the “Accommodation Options”! What’s up with that?

Posted by Joyce Hadley Copeland at 03:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Found this in a recent article titled “Home for a holiday: Find the right rental for you” by Kristin Jackson in the Philadelphia Inquirer (reprinted from the Seattle Times): “Europe is the epicenter of vacation rentals, although many North American ski and beach resorts also have condos/houses for vacation rentals, particularly in places such as Hawaii. The Caribbean has many beach rentals, as do some Mexican and Asian resorts.”

Actually, vacation rentals are booming in this country. And they’re not all condos. More and more of us are checking into Victorian flats, farmhouses, permanently docked houseboats, waterfront cabins and sprawling wine country estates in prime locations like San Francisco and the Sonoma Valley wine country.

Here are just a few I’ve found and reviewed for the Renting Paradise e-guidebook series: 

• A fairytale riverfront cabin with an ancient redwood tree growing up through the middle of the house
  
• A gamekeeper’s cottage with giraffes and antelopes in the front yard, on the edge of 400+ acre game preserve
• A Victorian flat that survived the ’06 Quake, just a block from an exceptionally lovely forest-primeval entrance to Golden Gate Park
• A Nob Hill flat with a sprawling roof garden and enclosed studio overlooking San Francisco  Bay
  
• A two-story A-frame houseboat permanently docked in one of Sausalito’s colorful houseboat communities, with all the conveniences including a hot tub on the deck
• A quiet and cozy hideaway apartment—dead-center in San Francisco, yet steps from the city’s last unpaved street  (And with on-site parking? Believe me, this one's a real find!)
  

Posted by Joyce Hadley Copeland at 09:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

According to a survey by TravelPost.com, the advice of friends tops that of travel agents, web sites and guidebooks. Okay, that’s pretty much a no-brainer. But what if your friends have never been where you’re going?

TravelPost.com has 200,000 reviews written by independent travelers. It’s TripAdvisor on a smaller scale – but with a twist. TravelPost has a search feature that lets you filter reviews to include only those written by people of your gender, in age range, share your travel goals and have your budget. Clever concept.

But here’s the thing: not everyone who shares my gender or age likes what I like. Sharing travel goals narrows the gap – a little. But at the heart of every personal review is perception. You can never fully understand what I like until you really know me personally.An aggregate of reviews can provide some leads. But often what means more is the consistent wisdom of an expert reviewer. 

Take movie reviews. If a movie gets a B- on Yahoo Movies (based on an aggregate of reviewers with a very broad spectrum of viewpoints), it means much less to me than one thumbs-up-or-down session with Ebert & Roeper. I don't know Roger Ebert or Richard Roeper personally. However, through experience, I've decided I can trust their opinions and seasoned judgments.

The same can be said for travel agents who know you personally. And guidebooks written from decades of personal experience by a recognized expert. With Karen Brown, Rick Steves and Renting Paradise, you know you’re getting a seasoned view based -- not on emotion, as is often the case -- but years of experience reviewing accommodations and destinations.

My point: Surveys are all well and good. But if you trust the advice of friends, don’t place an aggregate of strangers’ reviews above a guidebooks written by someone whose opinion you’ve come to know and trust. 

Posted by Joyce Hadley Copeland at 08:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Mini-mized, niche-focused, electronic … new trends in guidebook publication are following my own intuition. (And I can’t help patting myself on the back about it.)

Which, is not to say it’s catching on with the gusto of the latest reality show.

Yet.

However, an article I pulled from the March 2006 issue of Outside magazine, titled “Moving Words // Where Guidebooks Are Going,” magazine underlined some key advantages to giving guidebooks a form-follows-function update for the 21^st century.   For example, (and please forgive me for taking this opportunity to toot my horn a few times):

• “Scratch a Niche”: “Look for guides that cover themes, not specific regions…”  Well, Renting Paradise focuses solely on reviewing vacation rentals, a step-child niche in the travel guidebook world, if ever there was one.

• “Undersize It”: “Mini-guides are hot. Perfect for quick trips, they zoom in on a destination, with fewer pages and a smaller, more packable size.” Renting Paradise focuses on a select number of homes in specific regions of Northern California. Just over 50 pages include detailed reviews and plenty of trip-planning help. As an e-guidebook, Renting Paradise can be toted on a portable reader or called up at will on a laptop.  

• “Get Wired”: “…new e>>guides …covering cities like San Francisco, Chicago, and Barcelona come with passwords for access to exclusive online information, including hotel and restaurant updates.” Each edition of Renting Paradise has more than 50 live links. No in-your-face information overload. Yet it’s a convenient gateway to a almanac-sized amount of detail on vacation rental homes, things to see and do and get-your bearings resources.

You can read the complete text of the article — published in a special section called “The Outside Explorer's Guide to the Brave New World of Trip Planning” online. (And, pssst! You can find Renting Paradise e-guidebooks at www.rentingparadise.com.)
 

Posted by Joyce Hadley Copeland at 03:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

While the majority of Americans will continue to bite the bullet—84 percent of the 37.6 million of us planning to travel 50 or more miles over next week's three-day  holiday weekend will drive, according to a national AAA Motor Club survey—some clever B&Bs are making that hard-to-swallow that hydrocarbon lemon into lemonade. 

Uh-huh. BnBFinder.com lists more than half a dozen B&Bs—most in the east and Midwest—offering gas rebates via clever promotions called “Tanks a Lot!” and “GAStronomical Getwaway”.

“Burn calories not gas!” says The Niantic Inn at Harbor Hill Marina in Mystic, Connecticut.  Stay two nights midweek and receive a $25 gas rebate (through June 30, 2006).

Now, let me just say that my husband—who is obsessed with the daily cost of gas (reporting three-cent price fluctuations at local pumps with the intensity of a stock market pundits)—estimates that a 90-minute drive from our home in Sacramento to San Francisco (roughly 100 miles at 20 mph … not factoring in backups at the Bay Bridge, of course times $3.19 per gallon is more $30 roundtrip).

Umm... we’re in!

Except that we’re not in Mystic, Connecticut. or anywhere close to the Oden Inn At Crooked Lake in northwest Michigan, where they’re saying “Tanks a Lot” with a free $50 gas card certificate (through June 15, 2006).

What’s an advocate of vacation rentals doing promoting B&Bs? Sorry...  I’m a consumer first, so if I were you (vacation rental owners), I’d take a look.
 

Posted by Joyce Hadley Copeland at 08:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Believe it or not, I’ve seen vacation rental owners in Yahoo groups debate ad nauseum which ply toilet paper is best.

Is it necessary to provide higher thread-count sheets? Should you iron the sheets? Is Ivory okay or should you invest in botanicals?

I’m not talking about personal notes, fresh flowers and bottles of wine here. (I covered that in an April 13 post called "FEEL THE LOVE" (kudos & caveats). This is about the basic, under-the-radar stuff. Very few renters will make a beeline from the front door to the bed to check the thread-count of the sheets. But many of us have breathed an involuntary “ahhhh!” slipping between the sheets. 

Although I'll concede that everybody’s “ahhh” level has a different setpoint. I’m not an exceedingly fussy person. I can get by on less ... but, in case you were wondering, here are a few things that get an immediate “ahhh” from me:

-Luxurious sheets

-Reading lamps on both sides of the bed

-A TV/remote that’s simple to use (so that I don’t need a manual to change the channel)   

-Cushy toilet paper (yes, I know you know what I mean)

-Toilets that don’t make me afraid every time I flush (compelled to stand there and watch to make sure everything goes down)

So do the little things matter? Sure. Haven't they always?    

Posted by Joyce Hadley Copeland at 08:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My hearty apologies to all hotel service employees -- the valets, the baghandlers, the chambermaids -- I'm sure I've left somebody out. But the fact that I don't have to tip any of you is one of the biggest reasons I prefer rentals over hotels.

It's not that I begrudge anybody a little extra for a job well done. But reading "Tipping and Travel: It's No Easy Equation" (Cindy Loose, April 16, 2006) in the Washington Post reminded me again that trying to figure out the who, the when, the how much ... the etiquette of tipping ... steals a little joy from my travel experience.

In contrast, when I park in the private garage and schlep my own bags to the front door of my vacation rental, I enjoy turning the key in the door myself. I get to discover where everything is in my own time. I've already paid a cleaning fee. Nobody's going to be knocking on my door before I'm ready to leave in the morning. I can enjoy my vacation guilt-free. (sorry.)

Posted by Joyce Hadley Copeland at 01:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

“I love Sonoma in the springtime…”  …in the fall? Not so much.

During the fall harvest, Sonoma Valley is teeming with tourists. And it can be hot. Very hot. The vine-covered hillsides are parched yellow. Good restaurants have humbling-ly long waits.  

Which makes off-season trips look pretty darn good. According to Adrien Glover in “Suddenly Sonoma” (Budget Travel Online, Feb. 18, 2005): “Springtime is still considered ‘off season’ but it’s an excellent time to visit. Not only are plum trees, quince, and yellow wild mustard flowers in bloom, you're almost certain to land a good deal at an area hotel. And there’s plenty to do year-round.”

My husband and I spent a wonderful March weekend exploring Kenwood. From our home base at a stylish yet cozy rental, aptly named Kenwood House (look for a full review of this rental right here in the coming weeks), we ventured out to explore nearly deserted tasting rooms. Winemakers aren’t busy at this time of year so you can actually spend time chatting with one.

Because it had been an unusually rainy winter (we had hail and snow during our visit), the landscape was lush green, with Spanish moss dangling from bare branches of valley oak trees. We lingered at the fascinating Bartholomew Park Winery Museum. We enjoyed a delightful hike to the remains of Wolf House in Jack London State Park. We were seated right away at some very good restaurants, including the new Doce Lunas, where there was a guitarist playing at the bar and signature sticky toffee for dessert. At night, we cozied up to the woodstove and watched movies.

Most of my review trips are planned during the off-season. I’m so spoiled, now I won’t go any other time.

HINT: Treat yourself to a trip during the “shoulder” weeks—just before some invisible bell clangs and the high season floodgates open on throngs of tourists. You may never subject yourself to that kind of madness again.

Posted by Joyce Hadley Copeland at 08:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

On a vacation rental owner’s recommendation, I did what I don’t usually think of: took the long way to the Sonoma coast from the forest pocket of Occidental.

To be honest, my natural impulse is to get there the quickest way. Yes, yes, I know, “The road less traveled.” Everybody talks about it. So, why do so few of us literally follow it?

This time I decided to follow Bittner Road away from town, I turned right on Joy Rd. (a good omen, I thought). Then I turned left on Coleman Valley Road.

This two-lane country road must have been an Indian trail or deer path. It had so many curves it forced me to slow down and enjoy the scenery. Coleman Valley Road took its own sweet time, winding through meadows that swept up to pine-ridged hills. I drove under canopies of valley oaks and finally did a freefall to Pacific. (My ears were popping!)

What a treat to turn off the radio during the trip and just listen to the thoughts in my own head. What a luxury to take twice the time getting there. Just because I could. Instead of suburban tracts and retail chains, I met dairy cows, goats, lambs and turkeys in full Thanksgiving fan. And realized that the “small” world” encompassed by a Sonoma Valley farm is larger and more “natural” than the insular suburban world I’m accustomed to.  

At the end, you decide: Turn left to Bodega Bay and right to more beaches,  Jenner and a side trip to Duncans Mills.

Posted by Joyce Hadley Copeland at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)