It’s a story of exploration, tinged with frustration. Of a discovery that launched a consuming passion. (And it involves a lot of sleeping around and plenty of dish.) Okay, forget the melodrama. The truth is, over the past 25 years of travel (and professional writing) I’ve “evolved” from somebody content to stay in a hotel room to someone who seeks out accommodations with character. Here's how it all unfolded.

From Timeshares ... I got my first taste of timeshare condominiums editing Endless Vacation magazine (published by Resort Condominiums International) in the 1980s. I quickly found out most were glorified hotel rooms in glam locations like the Bahamas and Hilton Head Island, S.C.

... to Upscale Hotels ... I started traveling the world in a marketing job and got my fill of fancy hotels. The rooms looked the same, whether I was in New York, San Francisco, Sydney or Singapore.

... to Charming Inns ... On my first trip to Italy, a small guide called Charming Small Hotels & Inns spurred a 180-degree change in my view of travel accommodations. (Sadly, I see the series has been scaled down to include just two guides. But, like my original guide they  focus on inns “with rooms that look like bedrooms rather than hotel rooms; a menu that comes from a kitchen managed with real skill and care; a proprietor who takes pride in the premises and your enjoyment of them -- without being intrusive.")

I was so charmed by the places I booked in Milan, Venice and the Ischia (an island neighboring Capri), I couldn’t bear the thought of staying in a standard room at a chain hotel ever again.

... to B&Bs ... In the 90s I drifted into my “B&B (Bed & Breakfast) Period” and discovered Karen Brown’s Guides. Using a beautiful picture book called Weekends for Two in Northern California: 50 Romantic Getaways (Chronicle Books) I planned a post-wedding weekend for 20 friends and relatives who stayed at a rambling Victorian B&B called the Gosby House Inn near Carmel, California.

... to Vacation Rentals. But it wasn’t until I was researching accommodations for a family get-together at Lake Tahoe that I literally stumbled upon the concept of renting a vacation home.

This is the heart of my story. Can I be frank? I dreaded the idea of staying on the casino “strip” in South Lake Tahoe. But my husband and brother love to gamble, so North Lake Tahoe (an hour away) was out of the question. I searched through Coldwell Banker site. For days, I juggled five-digit identification numbers using a hand-scratched list until I finally found a home that met all our criteria.

Located in a quiet wooded neighborhood a mile from the casinos, it was within walking distance of a far-ranging fire trail hiking/biking trail. It had a deck facing the forest. With three bedrooms and two full bathrooms, there was plenty of room for all of us. Even our two dogs were welcome! And the cost -- $150 per night (it was early June, the last week before the summer high season.) 

Even so, after I booked it, I worried. I lowered my expectations. I even brainstormed a “Plan B” – which I scrapped the moment I walked in the door. We had a fantastic time.

One More Evolution. I sure didn’t want to press my good luck for our next family trip! So I went looking for a resource. A Karen Brown-style guide to vacation rentals. Nada. I still scratch my head about the lack of resources for this steadily growing sector of the travel market. So because writing is my livelihood, I decided to create my own series of e-guidebooks called Renting Paradise with personally researched, detailed reviews of vacation rentals.

I wanted to create what I didn’t have … first-hand reviews (hence the “sleeping around” part I alluded to earlier, because I actually spend a night or two at each vacation rental I review) of some really cool rentals.

You Don't Know Me. Here's Why You Can Depend on Me, Anyway. My preferences and the size of my party might not exactly match yours. But I’m a consistent reporter, beholden to no one, who's all-too-familiar with truth-by-omission marketing text. In other words, I’ll tell you what marketing descriptions posted on vacation rental websites like HomeAway sometimes leave out. Such as: yes, you can hear the traffic from your deck in that forest cabin.   

Writing has been my livelihood for more than 25 years. I’ve published numerous travel articles and have four books in print. I write reviews of distinctive hotels for a U.K.-based web site called i-escape.com.

Most important, I’m a veteran of web searches on dozens of vacation rental sites. I’ve spent so much time doing it, I’ve developed a sixth sense for which places are the gems. I'll save you time and stress. In fact, it's always my absolute pleasure to share my finds.

End of story.

Your best strategy: Don't fear the owner; chat him up. Pick up the phone and put your mind at rest.

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.

“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.  

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. 

One site that’s been getting a lot of buzz these days promotes a lifestyle concept I love called “slow travel”.

I've never understood the 14 cities in 10 days concept. The site’s founder and webmaster Pauline Kenny recommends renters apply a “Concentric Circles" plan to day-tripping. “Think of your touring area as a series of concentric circles around your base,” she says. The first circle includes everything within a 30-minute radius of your home. The second, an hour, and so on. “See what is close to you instead of dashing about on long day trips to see the ‘highlights’ or ‘must-sees,’" Kenny says.

Kenny has authored a dozen more really helpful articles to guide renters in choosing and booking vacation rentals, planning your trip and what to bring with you when you rent.    

Slow Travel is primarily focused on Europe -- where renting a villa or self-catering cottage has been a tradition for generations. But, hello? The concept applies just as well here in the U.S., even for weekend trips to places like San Francisco and Sonoma County.

First of all, if your work is something you’re truly passionate about, it won’t feel like work. Secondly, it’s much less risky (to your mental health, as well as your pocketbook) to test-drive a career you think you’d love … until confronted by the day-to-day reality.

Putting vacationers together with their dream jobs is the mission of a unique company called VocationVacations®. You can choose from one- or two-day-long get-your-hands-dirty introductions to more than 75 unique careers.

Like wine making. Book the VocationVacations Wine Maker Holiday package in Sonoma County and you’ll live in the vacation rental on the property of on the property of the 70-acre Larson Family Winery and spend two days shadowing Tom and Becky Larson.

From April through September, your education will include tramping among the vines to thin leaf clusters, sample leaf tissue and monitor grape pests. From November to May, the focus is on the process of preparing wine for bottling: clarification, cold stabilizing, fermentation, racking, topping barrels, wine blending and clean up, of course.

To help you put things in perspective for your own life, All VocationVacations® include pre- and post-mentoring coaching sessions re: strategy/life/career repercussions.

At $949 for the two days (not including lodging), it’s not cheap. But well worth it, if you're committed. If not, heck, just book the rental, called A Captain’s House. ($350 per night for up to 4; $450 for 5-7 people.)

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, Pauline Frommer 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.