Service links up vacation rentals

MiniVac books timeshare lead
By Rodney Tanaka Staff Writer

ALTADENA - A local company unveiled a method of finding potential timeshare customers at a trade show this week in Las Vegas.

Altadena-based LeisureLink Inc. introduced the Mini Vacation Tracker, or MiniVac, a Web-based leads and tracking system, at the American Resort Developers Association trade show, which concludes today.

"The reception we're getting is extremely good," said Kelly Tompkins, founder and president of LeisureLink. "People are really very interested in our distribution of vacation rentals for the timeshare industry."

The LeisureLink reservation platform connects property management companies through the Internet with travel agents and Web sites such as orbitz.com and travelocity.com.

MiniVac gives online travelers the tools to book their own vacation rentals, then provides the option of getting a discounted rental if they agree to listen to a formal timeshare presentation.

This provides a cost-effective lead generator for property management companies, said Tompkins.

"We're on track to sign up most of the timeshare industry," he said. "We've either signed up or are in final negotiations with all the leading property managers."

Online travelers take a survey that evaluates their potential as a timeshare owner. If they don't qualify, they can still book their vacation at the regular price.

MiniVac will provide companies with vacationers who come pre-qualified as potential timeshare owners, said Tuzy Snyder-Wall, general manager of RMC Resort Management, which has used LeisureLink
for more than a year.

LeisureLink's methods are preferable to costly mailers, she said.

"You're ending up with a lot of expense a lot of times for a shot in the dark," Snyder-Wall said. "A lot of people throw it away."

Also, LeisureLink helps travel agents understand and book vacation rentals, which have different parameters than hotels, she said.

"Everybody is looking to have as many distribution channels as possible to get their product out to the marketplace," Snyder-Wall said.

LeisureLink brings qualified leads into resorts who have a higher probability to convert to timeshare ownership, said Tompkins, who founded the company in May 2002.

LeisureLink is completing the acquisition of $5 million in venture capital funding to expand and grow, he said, and the launch of MiniVac has accelerated the sales cycle in signing up many big property managers.

Booking vacation rentals

The first tip: Start now. Plus: How to protect your investment.

By Gerri Willis, CNNMoney.com contributing columnist
March 16, 2006: 4:56 PM EST

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - We may still be bundled under our winter coats in some parts of the country, but now is the time to start locking in your summer vacation rental. Early birds have already started to book the hottest summer rentals across the country.

In today's 5 tips we're going to tell you what you'll want to know when jockeying for your summer dream house.
1. Start now

January and February are the busiest months and already, ideal vacation spots are getting snapped up. You will want to book early if you want a rental that's on the water, available on a holiday weekend and notorious as a hot-spot during the summer months. And this means if you are set on going to Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Hilton Head or the Hamptons, you better start your planning now.

In fact many families book their summer rentals at places like Martha's Vineyard a year in advance. If you're a bit more flexible with your destination and you're counting on finding a deal, look to the mountains. Places like Vermont, Colorado or Washington have their peak seasons during the winter, so you'll likely get better summer pricing at a mountain get-away, according to Anne Banas of SmarterTravel.com.
2. Consider your timing

The most popular vacation months -- July and August -- are going to cost more. You can save a ton of dough if you skip the high season. You could save at least 30% to 50% if you book your rental in late May and early June.

And if you wait until after Labor day, you could cut your bill in half, according to Banas. If you're looking at beach front property, your best bet may be to go in September when the water is still on the warm side.
3. Go it alone

Avoid rental agents. There is plenty of exploring on the Internet you can do on your own. You'll be able to skip out on fees which can be up to 10%. Rental owners generally include a few pictures of the property, a description of the house and what's in the local area.

And since it's likely you'll be able to correspond with the vacation rental owner through e-mail, you won't even have to pay for the phone calls. This can be especially important if you are booking a rental property overseas.

If you want to start your journey, check out the follow Web sites for your next vacation rental: www.vamoose.com, vacation rental by owner at www.vrbo.com and www.cyberrentals.com.
4. Get down to the nitty-gritty

Many people think about their vacation rentals as a home away from home. So before you invest, make sure that all the amenities you're used to at home will be available.

Generally your kitchenware and your utensils are provided. But you may want to ask if there is Internet access or a highchair that's available. See if a washer and dryer or a dishwasher is available.

Find out if the rental is pet-friendly and if pool areas are gated if you have children.
5. Protect your investment

Just in case your vacation dream home turns out to resemble something more like out of the Addams Family mansion, you'll want to make sure you have recourse. Always pay by credit card. It will be harder to get your money back if you pay in cash or by check. Plus you may be protected by the fair credit billing act.

Keep in mind that unlike hotels, payment options and cancellation policies vary widely with vacation home owners. Some rentals may have generous policies in the off-season, but in the peak season they may be come quite limited. You should know the details before you sign on the dotted line. You may also try to work out a payment schedule so you don't have to pay all the money upfront. And of course, you should only pay the landlord who is named in the rental contract.

Condos Are Top Spots for Reunions According to VacationSpot.com Survey;

PR Newswire US

July 5, 2005 Tuesday 11:00 AM GMT

Added Space, Privacy and Value Lead Reasons Vacation Rentals Growing in Popularity

DALLAS July 5

DALLAS, July 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- According to a recent survey by VacationSpot.com(R), consumers looking to plan a destination reunion are more likely to stay in a condominium over other lodging options. The results of the survey support a growing travel trend of consumers choosing non- traditional accommodations for their vacation experiences.

"Family gatherings are spreading out beyond the typical backyard barbecues at Uncle Joe's house," said Rick Fisher, spokesperson for VacationSpot.com and vice president of vacation rentals for Hotels.com. "The accommodation of choice and one of the hottest trends for many reunions today include vacation rental type properties which are located in popular leisure beach, lake, and mountain destinations."

The move to roomier accommodations is really no surprise. The average square footage of a home in the US has increased more than 800 square feet since the mid-70s according to the National Homebuilders Association. In fact, top reasons that survey respondents preferred vacation rental accommodations, such as condos, private homes, villas and suites, were for the additional space for getting the group together, for the privacy (separate bedrooms and bathrooms near communal spaces), and for the value (cost per person and flexibility of casual meals at the rental).

"People don't live in one room at home, why should they be expected to do that on vacation?" added Fisher.

Additional Survey Results

The survey, which attempts to understand how people plan their reunions, also revealed that while the majority of reunions are centered on family, nearly 41% of respondents said they are most likely to attend a reunion of friends.

More than 70% of the http://www.vacationspot.com/ survey respondents indicated that reunion planning begins at least three months in advance. However, reunion planners suggest starting to organize your ideas at least a year before the event and making lodging reservations at least six months in advance.

Proximity is also important as 62% of respondents said that they drive to the reunion destination. And with 73% indicating that reunions last between a weekend and one week, time spent traveling should be kept to a minimum. Therefore choosing a location for the reunion is a major consideration that should be "road trip friendly" for the majority of attendees.

Summer Vacation Rentals Still Available, According To Vacation Site GreatFamilyRentals.com

You never got around to planning the family’s summer vacation, and you figure that everything is booked by now? Think again. That’s the word from GreatFamilyRentals.com, a directory of family-oriented vacation rentals by owner, located in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. While many properties have been booked for months, a great selection still exists even in mid-July.

“We’re still seeing some great availability, even in popular summer destinations”, said GreatFamilyRentals.com’s founder and CEO David Goldschmidt. “Fuel prices were perhaps a factor last winter when many made their summer vacation plans. But more importantly, there is more inventory of vacation rentals as more homeowners realize the benefits of owning vacation property and interest rates remain attractive.”

A review of GreatFamilyRentals.com reveals properties with July and August availability in many locations, including popular Florida, California, North Carolina and many other states. An August vacation in Mexico is even possible. “Some flexibility in location and timing is the key to scoring a great vacation rental at this point in the summer”, recommends Goldschmidt.

The only vacation rental site dedicated to the needs of family vacationers, GreatFamilyRentals.com is designed to be a one-stop resource for family travel, the fastest growing leisure travel segment. Complete information is included for properties, including detailed descriptions, color pictures, features, area activities, availability information and rental rates. In addition to rental properties around the globe, the site also contains helpful articles, reviews and other information valuable to family vacationers. Visitors can join the free Renter’s Area to save viewed properties and receive custom alert messages when owners offer specials that meet their needs. Vacation lodging decisions become easy and quick.

“We’d love to dispel the myth about booking early or not booking at all”, said Goldschmidt. “While we do recommend that vacationers plan early for their favorite summer hot spot, it doesn’t mean you’re completely out of luck if you didn’t.”

Vacation rental property owners may be interested in GreatFamilyRentals.com’s current promotion, in which they are offering completely free one-year listings, to help owners market their property on the Internet.

ON TRAVEL : Insurance cancellation options for travel grow and improve

ED PERKINS

I was recently asked by the U.S. Travel Insurance Association to assess the industry from a consumer perspective, especially regarding new or modified services that consumers would like to see. Here are my main points:
Vacation rentals are becoming increasingly popular with the traveling public, and at least one travel insurance provider has developed a trip-cancellation (TCI) policy especially for those of you whose main concern is protecting your advance rental payments. Vacation Rental Protection — (800) 694-4311, www. vacationrentalprotection. com — charges less for rental protection than you’d pay for a conventional TCI policy — and rates are not scaled by age. For example, insurance for a oneweek, $1,000 rental, bought two months in advance, would cost $44. That’s only a bit less than the least expensive conventional policy for a traveler age 45, but about half of what a retired traveler would have to pay. Moreover, your rate is based strictly on just the rental price, excluding the cost of other trip components, so the final cost could be much less than the price of a conventional policy for a complete trip. So far, the policy is available for rentals in only 14 states, but presumably the insurer will increase the scope as soon as it’s practical.
Many travelers have to cancel trips because of unexpected business requirements, more often than because of sickness or accident. Unfortunately, most TCI policies do not cover business reasons at all. Collette Tours, however, sells a waiver that allows you to cancel for any reason, right up to departure time. You get a full refund (except for the price of the waiver). To be sure, Collette’s policy isn’t quite as comprehensive as a true TCI, and it won’t protect you in the unlikely event that Collette defaults. The waiver is also more expensive than ordinary TCI. Nevertheless, it would be a good buy for any business professionals vulnerable to last-minute schedule changes.
A few other operators offer similar waivers. Lindblad Expeditions provides a slightly different form of any-reason cancellation, as an add-on to rather than in place of regular TCI. It pays off only in credits toward future travel, not cash, and only for cancellations up to 72 hours prior to departure. Either type of waiver would be extremely valuable to many travelers: Let’s hope that other operators or independent insurance companies pick up on this valuable feature.
These days, many of you simplify the process by buying travel insurance through one of the several online agencies that instantly compare a handful of different policies. You can quickly select the best option for your trip, without having to check individual Web sites. Among those are www.insuremytrip.com, www.squaremouth.com, and www.totaltravelinsurance. com. I suspect the insurance companies aren’t terribly happy about this development, but it’s sure good for consumers. And it highlights how much extra you pay for the trivial benefits of a "gold-plated" policy.
Even with some innovations, however, the basics don’t change The first rule of insurance — any insurance, and especially travel insurance — is to buy as little as you need to cover risks you can’t afford to accept. In travel, that means:
Always use TCI to protect any big nonrefundable or only partially refundable prepayments that you stand to lose if you should have to change your plans.
Use TCI or separate travel medical insurance to protect yourself against unexpected medical emergencies that your regular health program doesn’t cover.
Forget about the small stuff — baggage loss, delay and such — that are either low-dollar risks or risks that you already cover through your homeowners’ or tenants’ insurance. If a few minor coverages are automatically bundled with TCI and medical, fine. But don’t pay extra for a gold-plated policy that simply adds a laundry list of low-risk benefits to puff the price.

Disappointment a big risk when renting on vacation

Friday, March 25, 2005
By ED PERKINS

The biggest risk in renting an apartment, house, cottage or condo is finding that your rental fails to meet your expectations in an important way.

You almost always have to pay for a vacation rental in full, sight unseen, before you leave home - often many months before you arrive. Moreover, most vacation rental contracts make no provision for refunds after you arrive.

Disappointment is therefore a big risk - you often have a lot of money at stake, and you are also risking the enjoyment of your vacation. Clearly, it's important for you to do as much as you can to avoid the risk.

Since I've been writing about vacation rentals, readers have told me about two basic kinds of disappointment:

Misrepresentation of the property. Owners who rent properties obviously want to rent them as often as possible, and for as much money as possible. One of the ways they do that is to stretch the truth in the listing and description of the property to make it sound and look better than it really is.

A long three-block walk to the beach becomes "easy beach access" in the listing; a bus stop six blocks away on a route with hourly service becomes "excellent public transport." Run-down or shabby becomes "quaint" or "charming." Pictures (if any) taken with a wide-angle lens make even a closet look spacious. "Sleeps six" may mean four people in real beds and two in a sofabed with a bar that hits them in the back all night.

Bait-and-switch. A few dishonest rental agencies engage in what seems to be deliberate bait-and-switch. In London, for example, they'll promise an apartment in a good Kensington location with easy access to the Underground, but when you arrive, the agent tells you that the apartment you rented is "being repaired" or is otherwise unavailable and that the agency has managed to substitute an alternative - one that happens to be in an undesirable or remote location, and may be without some of the features that attracted you to the "bait."

You certainly can't guarantee against disappointment. But you can cut down on the chances. Here are some suggestions:

1. Rent through one of the small U.S.-based "boutique" agencies that list only those accommodations that their staff has seen, inspected and approved. Two that I've used are At Home in France (541) 488-9467, www.athomeinfrance.com and Vacanza Bella (415) 554-0234, www.vbella.com but there are dozens of others. Many specialize in limited areas, ranging from Maui to Tuscany.

2. If you think you can sort through the options yourself, you'll find the greatest numbers of rentals on such mega-sites as Renalto (305) 558-5577, www.rentalo.com or contact Vacation Rentals by Owner www.vrbo.com Internet only.

But if you rent through one of those agencies, don't sign a contract with wording that allows the rental agency to substitute alternative accommodations "of equal val-

ue." Your definition of "equal" may be very different from the agency's. Instead, make sure the contract gives you a full and immediate refund if the property is not exactly as represented.

For rentals in Europe, you'll find some of the best prices through European agencies. But if something goes wrong, you'll have a tough time negotiating a settlement, especially after you're back home.

3. Don't tolerate a bad rental. If you believe the property was misrepresented, take action as soon as you see the problem. Call the rental agent wherever it might be and ask for immediate correction or refund. In foreign countries, immediately explore your rights as a consumer in the local jurisdiction.

Rental agencies. Rental agencies come in all shapes and sizes. I've compiled a list of more than a hundred online agencies, which you can access by visiting the Web site, www.mybusinesstravel.com Caution: Listing does not imply approval - I've personally tested only a handful of agencies. My listing for the others is as a convenience to readers. And as with so many travel purchases, caveat emptor. Send e-mail to Ed Perkins at eperkins@mind.net. Perkins' new book for small business and independent professionals, "Business Travel When It's Your Money," is now available through the Web sites www.mybusinesstravel.com or www.amazon.com

Vacation homes: Not just for the rich and famous

By Teri Cettina • Bankrate.com

It may hit you every year about this time as you schedule your annual family trip to the coast or other favorite vacation spot. "Wouldn't it be great if we owned our own beach home (or condo or ski chalet)? Instead of paying rent to someone else, we'd be paying ourselves."

Then you sigh, write out a deposit check and envy those wealthy tycoons who can afford to own vacation homes.

Boston-area resident Paul Boulanger would challenge you to think again. This self-described "old-fashioned tightwad" saved money for years and now owns a time share in The Bahamas, a vacation condo in Florida and a traditional saltbox home on a secluded peninsula in Maine.

He's not fond of mortgages, so Boulanger scrimped and paid cash for the properties. And because he rents out and maintains his rentals directly, rather than paying exorbitant fees to a property-management company, Boulanger is making good money with this less-than-part-time venture. (His "real" job is with a printing company.)

In fact, Boulanger says he needs to rent out his Maine home for less than eight weeks each year to cover the property's annual expenses. Any additional rental weeks -- and he gets a lot of them -- are pure profit.

Buying homes for love and profit
Boulanger is very happy that his rentals make money, but that wasn't the sole reason he bought them. "I bought homes in places I personally love -- places I like to visit every year -- with the idea that they might even become my retirement homes," he says. "Renting them out was simply a way to make them affordable."

Christine Karpinksi, author of "How to Rent Vacation Properties By Owner," says she teaches seminars around the country "to help regular people learn how to buy and rent out their own vacation homes in places they love." She's more interested in long-term investments than in showing people how to buy cheap properties, fix them up and sell them quickly.
Ready to find a mortgage? Check rates in your area.

The 17-week formula
How do you know if you can afford a vacation home -- even with the help of renters? Karpinksi has developed a simple profitability formula. She estimates that one peak-week rental fee should be enough -- and hopefully more than enough -- to pay the home's monthly mortgage if you finance your purchase.

For example, if you borrow $300,000 at 5.5 percent for 30 years on your beach cottage, your monthly house payment would be $1,703.36. That should be your minimum weekly peak-rate rental fee, Karpinski advises. If you don't think you can charge that much for rent, don't buy, she says.

However, if you can be reasonably sure of renting your home for at least 17 weeks a year, you should break even. Most owners can count on 12 peak rental weeks each year. Those 12 weeks each year should pay the annual mortgage. Five additional weeks of non-peak rental income usually enable owners to cover taxes, cleaning and maintenance expenses, and other incidentals.

Eliminating the middleman
The crucial key to the vacation home dream, says Karpinski, is to manage the properties yourself, rather than give anywhere from 40 percent to 60 percent of the rental profits to a property-management middleman.

Karpinski says managing your own rentals is much easier and less time-consuming than most people might think. She encourages homeowners to start by listing their vacation homes using online services such as VacationRentalDirect.com, Vacation Rentals.com and Vacation Rentals By Owner. Sites such as these typically charge flat fees to advertise the properties and can help you reach hundreds of thousands of potential renters.

CyberRentals, which currently lists some 10,000 vacation properties throughout the world, charges as little as $60 for a three-month listing -- about the same price some owners would pay for a single day's ad in the classified section of a major newspaper.