If you are planning a family vacation and looking for a convenient and economical place to stay, choose to stay in a vacation rental home. The main reason that people prefer vacation rental homes is because, in most cases, they are much more economical than renting a hotel room. Plus, by renting the entire vacation home, villa, cottage, condo or beach house, you can have more space, more bedrooms, more bathrooms, a full size kitchen and more privacy.

Living in vacation homes for rent by owner during your vacation offers many advantages, including:

·         Economical Advantage:

Family friendly vacation rentals save money and provide more space and privacy for the entire family. In addition, a lot of vacation homes allow you to bring along the family pet and save the money that you were planning on paying for a kennel. This gives you more money to play with on vacation.

·         Privacy Advantage:

In a vacation home you have more space and separate bedrooms and bathrooms for your kids. This is the best advantage as you get more private moments to relax and enjoy. You can easily cook food in the full sized kitchen of the vacation rental, saving a lot of money on going out to eat while also relaxing in the comfort of a home instead of loading everyone up for every meal to find a bite to eat.  There are also pools in many vacation homes and you don’t have to share it with lots of other people. Take your time by the pool lounging at your own leisure.

·         Convenience Advantage:

Staying in a vacation home provides all of the amenities and conveniences you are used to having at your own home. Family friendly vacation rentals are fully furnished with full size kitchens in most cases, making it very easy for the whole family to enjoy rest and relaxation with plenty of space for the kids to play. You can easily visit the local super market when you arrive at your vacation destination and buy whatever you want to stock the fridge with. This will save a lot of time and money, giving you that much more freedom to enjoy your vacation.

Saving money, gaining more privacy and making everything about your vacation more convenient are not the only reasons to choose a vacation home for your next family vacation, but they are definitely three of the biggest reasons. There are plenty of family friendly vacation rentals to choose from online. Check into it and enjoy the freedom of a vacation rental home for your next vacation.

Beach house vacation rentals are becoming very popular. Travelers have the opportunity to enjoy the lovely sand and deep turquoise waters of the ocean, all while kicking back for some R & R in a spacious, fully furnished beach vacation rental. Imagine having the space of a 2,000+ square foot beach house for your family to enjoy as opposed to a 400 square foot hotel room. The amount of privacy it affords is absolutely priceless. You can enjoy all of the amenities, including fully furnished kitchens, in the comfort of your very own vacation rental and step out for a dip in the pool or the ocean without bumping into strangers left and right.

When planning a beach get-away, always try to plan in plenty of time beforehand and consider the basics, like how many people are coming and for how many nights you want to rent the beach vacation rental. Some vacation rentals charge rent on a weekly basis while some charge on a daily basis. The rent of the beach vacation rental depends on the number of days you are planning to stay as they offer you discounted prices for a prolonged stay.

The next thing to do is to study the amenities, along with the location and what all you can expect for the price of each beach vacation rental. After you narrow your options down, simply compare the beach house rentals and choose the one that is best in terms of quality, service and price. Have up to three options in order of preference because your top choice may not be available for the time you are looking to book it. You can get most of the information about the rentals you are looking for in the description of the vacation rentals on the website in which they are listed. For any further information, simply shoot a quick email to the owner directly from the site and you will have a response normally within a day or two tops.

You should try to reserve your booking as early in advance as possible to get the best price and dates. Most vacation rentals have seasonal prices, just as hotels do, with high and low season offerings. Sometimes booking early will get you a discount because the prices can go up as the season gets closer.

As well as getting all of details on the amenities that are provided in these beach vacation rentals, it is always helpful the check into all the activities offered in your vacation destination. This allows you plenty of time to prepare and pack all the clothing you need and know how much time you have to get out and explore all of the fun things awaiting you on your trip.

Beach house vacation rentals are a wonderful option to choose for any beach destination get-away. It is wonderful to leisurely participate in different activities around the beach in your own sweet time, without having to share common areas and amenities with other vacationers. Just pick your next beach destination, do a little research online on numerous vacation rental sites, pick your favorite, book your vacation dates and get ready for some fun in the sun!

Hi everyone! In our effort to convert those who prefer hotels, we've decided on a video marketing campaign featuring short 'videomericals' that highlight why vacation rentals are "better". Take a look a the video below, there will be several more to come and if you have an idea for one, PLEASE let us know in our forums!

Thanks and Enjoy, Jason & Angie

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This was originally posted by our friend Chris Brogan over at his site here: 

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business/ .  Thanks for letting us put this up Chris!

We really can’t deny the fact that businesses are testing out Twitter as part of their steps into the social media landscape. You can say it’s a stupid application, that no business gets done there, but there are too many of us (including me) that can disagree and point out business value. I’m not going to address the naysayers much with this. Instead, I’m going to offer 50 thoughts for people looking to use Twitter for business. And by “business,” I mean anything from a solo act to a huge enterprise customer.

Your mileage may vary, and that’s okay. Further, you might have some really great ideas to add. That’s why we have lively conversations here at [chrisbrogan.com] in the comments section. Jump right in!

50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business

First Steps

1. Build an account and immediate start using Twitter Search to listen for your name, your competitor’s names, words that relate to your space. (Listening always comes first.)
2. Add a picture. ( Shel reminds us of this.) We want to see you.
3. Talk to people about THEIR interests, too. I know this doesn’t sell more widgets, but it shows us you’re human.
4. Point out interesting things in your space, not just about you.
5. Share links to neat things in your community. ( @wholefoods does this well).
6. Don’t get stuck in the apology loop. Be helpful instead. ( @jetblue gives travel tips.)
7. Be wary of always pimping your stuff. Your fans will love it. Others will tune out.
8. Promote your employees’ outside-of-work stories. ( @TheHomeDepot does it well.)
9. Throw in a few humans, like RichardAtDELL, LionelAtDELL, etc.
10. Talk about non-business, too, like @astrout and @jstorerj from Mzinga.

Ideas About WHAT to Tweet

1. Instead of answering the question, “What are you doing?”, answer the question, “What has your attention?”
2. Have more than one twitterer at the company. People can quit. People take vacations. It’s nice to have a variety.
3. When promoting a blog post, ask a question or explain what’s coming next, instead of just dumping a link.
4. Ask questions. Twitter is GREAT for getting opinions.
5. Follow interesting people. If you find someone who tweets interesting things, see who she follows, and follow her.
6. Tweet about other people’s stuff. Again, doesn’t directly impact your business, but makes us feel like you’re not “that guy.”
7. When you DO talk about your stuff, make it useful. Give advice, blog posts, pictures, etc.
8. Share the human side of your company. If you’re bothering to tweet, it means you believe social media has value for human connections. Point us to pictures and other human things.
9. Don’t toot your own horn too much. (Man, I can’t believe I’m saying this. I do it all the time. - Side note: I’ve gotta stop tooting my own horn).
10. Or, if you do, try to balance it out by promoting the heck out of others, too.

Some Sanity For You

1. You don’t have to read every tweet.
2. You don’t have to reply to every @ tweet directed to you (try to reply to some, but don’t feel guilty).
3. Use direct messages for 1-to-1 conversations if you feel there’s no value to Twitter at large to hear the conversation ( got this from @pistachio).
4. Use services like Twitter Search to make sure you see if someone’s talking about you. Try to participate where it makes sense.
5. 3rd party clients like Tweetdeck and Twhirl make it a lot easier to manage Twitter.
6. If you tweet all day while your coworkers are busy, you’re going to hear about it.
7. If you’re representing clients and billing hours, and tweeting all the time, you might hear about it.
8. Learn quickly to use the URL shortening tools like TinyURL and all the variants. It helps tidy up your tweets.
9. If someone says you’re using twitter wrong, forget it. It’s an opt out society. They can unfollow if they don’t like how you use it.
10. Commenting on others’ tweets, and retweeting what others have posted is a great way to build community.

The Negatives People Will Throw At You

1. Twitter takes up time.
2. Twitter takes you away from other productive work.
3. Without a strategy, it’s just typing.
4. There are other ways to do this.
5. As Frank hears often, Twitter doesn’t replace customer service (Frank is @comcastcares and is a superhero for what he’s started.)
6. Twitter is buggy and not enterprise-ready.
7. Twitter is just for technonerds.
8. Twitter’s only a few million people. (only)
9. Twitter doesn’t replace direct email marketing.
10. Twitter opens the company up to more criticism and griping.

Some Positives to Throw Back

1. Twitter helps one organize great, instant meetups (tweetups).
2. Twitter works swell as an opinion poll.
3. Twitter can help direct people’s attention to good things.
4. Twitter at events helps people build an instant “backchannel.”
5. Twitter breaks news faster than other sources, often (especially if the news impacts online denizens).
6. Twitter gives businesses a glimpse at what status messaging can do for an organization. Remember presence in the 1990s?
7. Twitter brings great minds together, and gives you daily opportunities to learn (if you look for it, and/or if you follow the right folks).
8. Twitter gives your critics a forum, but that means you can study them.
9. Twitter helps with business development, if your prospects are online (mine are).
10. Twitter can augment customer service. (but see above)

Still need more?  Here you go!  http://www.vacaconnect.com/Forum/Topic30-11-1.aspx

Enjoy,

Jason & Angie

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Great day everyone!

Looking at our google analytics, we have had visitors from 65 countries.  Not too bad.  BUT... what's really cool is that we have listings in 36 countries!!!   Here's a quick breakdown.  (The darker colors are where we're represented most down to the light colors as the least.)

Not bad for the first month!

Thanks to everyone for helping us out!

Jason & Angie

Him:  "With this economy, the Vacation Rental market is setup to fail.  Everyone will rely on hotels for our price and comfort."

Me:  "Mkay...  The majority of rentals are more cost effective and actually more cozy than a hotel."

Him:  "But hotels offer more."

Me:  "Huh.  How so?"

Him:  "Well, there are daily buffets and valet parking for an additional charge."

Me:  "Thanks.  You've got me." 

Just Heard,

Jason & Angie

Thanks to all who've been patient on our latest blog post, but the title says it all.  We rolled out a short beta phase and received an overwhelming response.  Now www.vacaconnect.com is available to everyone!  Thanks to all who've commented.  Now onto the fun. 

Here's Part 3 in the Series of "Keeping it Real". 

High End Vacation Rental with Wifi.  Server located on Site.

Our rental has been updated with the highest end hardward to accommodate those in need of a T3 connection to keep your company running seamlessly while enjoying your well-deserved vacation!   Our rack is hosted in our own temperature-cooled server room with direct access. 

The rental is designed for those with the desire to maintain the quickest communication with clients while maximizing time with the family.

While the description is nice... IT'S WRONG!  Let's list our properties like they are so we can continue to establish trust in our industry

Keep it real,

Jason & Angie

We have vacation rental in and around the US, Caribbean & Canada, holiday letting in and around the UK, piso vacaciones in Spain, aluguéis de férias portugal, Ferienwohnungen in Switzerland & Germany, apartamento vacaciones in Mexico, gite, and vacances in France or an agriturismo (farm stay) in Italy.  And we haven't even brought up cottages, condos, b&b's, villas and chalets.... 

Any way you call 'em these give you a genuine experience among the locals, not found up on the 8th floor

Any other names I'm missing?

Jason & Angie

Oh, and by the way, we're VacaConnect (vey-key-kuh-nekt)

"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no
real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in
movement there is life, and in change there is power." Alan Cohen

Here we are together with a powerful set of tools, resources and people.  Imagine, when we harness this power
together as a community, what we will ultimately accomplish...a greater # of bookings.
 
But,as David Meerman Scott says,"...think in terms of spreading ideas, not generating leads."  Let's educate
and convert all those steeped in the hotel-only frame of mind.  THOSE IDEAS will revolutionize the industry,
resulting in your leads.  The timing is perfect, the change is here... let's begin the movement!

Enjoy and pass it along!

 Jason & Angie

Hi everyone,

This is Part 2 in the Series of "Keeping it Real". 

Beautiful holiday rental with rustic charm!

Our vacation home has been the favoritie of all who visit.  Our open-aired and handicap accessible rental offers
state-of-the-art amenities gilded in rustic design.

The rental, a unique blend of opulent refinement and rustic charm is designed to delight!

While the description is nice... IT'S WRONG!  Let's list our properties like they are so we can continue to establish trust in our industry

Keep it real,

Jason & Angie