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Home\Blog\February 2010\Vacation Home Rentals vs Hotel Rooms

Vacation Home Rentals vs Hotel Rooms

Occasionally a hotel room just doesn’t cut it.  When traveling as a family, vacation home rentals are far better suited and growing in popularity.  Additionally, if the total price is divided, the daily average price is often less expensive too!  Simply put - family vacations are better spent when in a home.  Vacation home rentals are up and we saw this trend in our own vacation rental inventory when the economy took its downturn.  I feel that there were several contributing variables.  Among these the most evident were price, consumer confidence, and comfort.  Concerning price; many travelers found that the average daily rate for vacation home rentals is often less than that of the same length stay in a similarly located hotel.  This savings is often hard to see without first searching out the total price of both the vacation home rental and hotel room.  Unlike hotel rooms, vacation home rentals impose fees such as booking fees, cleaning fees, resort fees, etc.  Hotels may not charge these fees, however they do not come with the added convenience of a fully furnished kitchen, washer and dryer, free internet access, and perks of the like.  When budgeting for your next trip try including lodging, food, parking, etc.  When you factor these essentials into your vacation budgeting, it may become much clearer that in a vacation home you will not have to pay for parking, you can have breakfast in the condo, and often the rental rate is neck-and-neck with the next closest hotel room.On the topic of consumer confidence; most professionally managed vacation homes will send out a follow up email after your stay and ask you to provide feedback.  This feedback is posted on each online listing.  Visitors to a vacation home rental web site can read these property reviews and decide which home suits their family best.  For instance; a family traveling with a toddler may stay away from a property which has a review that reads “…and the large glass dining room table was the perfect size for our 6-person family.”  Additionally, there are many destination review guides online such as tripadvisor.com that provide valuable information about vacation homes.  We actually added our entire inventory to FlipKey.com in the past 12 months, which has partnered with Yahoo!’s tripadvisor.com, to include unedited visitor feedback to help prospective guests.  Everyone looks for product reviews when making a large purchase – your vacation should not be any different.  Check out a vacation home and read the reviews!Comfort should be the most important factor when making you vacation plans.  How much comfort can I afford for my next vacation?  In a hotel room you know what to expect, however in a privately owned and professionally managed vacation home the sky is the limit.  Okay, hotels put out deals where you get a room upgrade occasionally for being a loyal patron.  However, I challenge you to check out a professionally managed vacation home.  No two are exactly alike which means that you have options on furnishings, the color of the walls in your vacation home, bedding arrangements – not just two double beds or one queen bed, and many other things.  You can pick a high-rise or free-standing two-story condo.  We have condos which have king-sized Tempur-Pedic mattresses, sleeper sofas which inflate like a SleepNumber bed, pillow top and regular bedding.  Condos with bamboo flooring, carpet, or tile all in the same floor plan.  Vacation homes with plasma TV’s, wireless internet, and a location just footstep from a huge outdoor pool or the beach.  Factor in cost, and the peace-of-mind that guest reviews provide, to find that comfort is something that should not be overlooked when planning a vacation… you just have to know where to look!

Published on Sunday, February 21, 2010

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