This is a big weekend for vacation rentals. HomeAway.com is running an ad in the Super Bowl! This will introduce vacation rentals to millions of North Americans and put vacation rentals in the travel accommodation mainstream. My website SlowEurope.com gives you the tools you need to find and book vacation rentals in Europe, but I am not running a Super Bowl ad. Instead I am writing this blog post to give my view of vacation rentals.

What Are Vacation Rentals?

Italian Villa in an Olive Grove

Vacation rentals are called many things – villas, vacation homes, holiday cottages, self catering, short term rentals – but all these terms refer to the same thing, a fully furnished and equipped apartment or house that is rented out by the day or week. Vacation rentals are an alternative to staying in hotels or B&Bs when traveling.

Vacation rentals have been a popular type of vacation accommodation in Europe for decades but they were usually booked by Europeans. Most Americans traveled on tour buses and stayed in hotels. In the last decade Americans have discovered this alternative accommodation and have changed the way they travel in Europe.

In the last ten years vacation rentals have become popular in North America, thanks to the HomeAway websites. Years ago you could rent a cottage at the shore or a condo in Hawaii, but when traveling anywhere else you stayed in a hotel, usually one from a national chain. Now vacation homes of all shapes and sizes are available for rent in most parts of the US and Canada.

Read everything you need to know about vacation rentals in the Slow Europe Vacation Rentals Guide.

It All Comes Down To a Vacation Rental, an Owner and a Traveler

Vacation rentals are big business, but they are also literally a cottage industry. A cottage is for rent, a traveler rents it. It all comes down to a vacation rental, an owner and a traveler.

• Some owners have their property represented by a vacation rental agency. The agency takes the bookings and payments. They may look after the property for the owner. The vacation rental agency does not own the property.
• Other owners decide to purchase a listing on a rent-by-owner website like HomeAway and take the bookings and payments themselves.

No matter if you book with an agency or directly with the owner, you are booking an individually owned property and many times when you arrive it is the owner who greets you (or who has put the key under the flowerpot and left the House Book for you).

So, you have two choices when booking: vacation rental agency or directly with the owner.

This week I am writing about rent-by-owner websites. Next week I will write about vacation rental agencies. Both have their pros and cons.

Vacation Rentals in the Analog Ages

Paris Apartment With a View

Before we all moved onto the Internet (pre-1995) it was difficult to find and book vacation rentals. I wrote to tourist offices and asked for lists of places for rent (these were the analog version of rent-by-owner websites), then phoned the European owners in the middle of the night (which was during their working hours). Or I contacted US or UK vacation rental agencies and got them to mail me their glossy catalogs. Sometimes we just showed up at the local tourist office to see what was available nearby.

On one trip we met a couple from Holland who drove around the Tuscan countryside looking for vacancy signs. They ended up in the apartment beside ours on an estate outside of Siena. We had paid about 50% more and booked from a glossy catalog six months earlier.

When traveling in North America we stayed in those wonderful countryside motel-type places with a row of cabins – little cottages with a kitchen – the old style version of vacation rentals. They were cheap and you did not book ahead.

The Rise in Popularity of Rent-By-Owner Websites

When vacation rentals moved from print to websites, VRBO arrived – a website with lists of vacation rentals that you booked directly with the owner, via email or phone. They were the first on the Internet (started in 1995) and they were the biggest. VRBO was known for its ugly website with lists of thousands of worldwide vacation rentals. Now their website is pretty and they are owned by HomeAway.

VRBO changed everything in the vacation rental world. If we found the agencies were too expensive or did not want to spend any time helping us choose, we could go online and spend hours looking at the VRBO listings, then email or phone the owners directly. VRBO forced the agencies to become more competitive and service oriented (most of them).

HomeAway was founded in 2005 by Brian Sharples and Carl Shepherd in Austin Texas. They started small, but like many things Texan, became big. They immediately bought VRBO and the other leading rent-by-owner websites: CyberRentals.com, GreatRentals.com, TripHomes.com, A1Vacations.com, Holiday-Rentals.co.uk (the leading site in the United Kingdom) and FeWo-direkt.de (the leading site in Germany). In 2007 they added Abritel.fr (the leading site in France), VacationRentals.com and OwnerDirect.co.uk (the second leading site United Kingdom).

Do you see a pattern here? World domination of the rent-by-owner market!

HomeAway does not hide their site ownership. All their sites clearly show that they are part of the HomeAway group.

HomeAway is the Industry Leader

“With nearly 430,000 paid vacation rental home listings across 120 countries, ranging from condos to castles, HomeAway makes it easier than ever to find and compare the vacation rental homes. ” from the HomeAway.com website

HomeAway is not a vacation rental agency, they do not go out and select the perfect vacation rental properties in tourist destinations. HomeAway does not own the properties that they rent. HomeAway is a company that runs several websites where vacation rentals owners pay to be listed. HomeAway does not take the photos and write the property description, they do not take the bookings and the payment. The owner does this. If someone owns a vacation rental and pays the yearly fee, they are on HomeAway.

HomeAway is the place where owners of vacation rentals and travelers meet. HomeAway runs top quality websites with good cataloging and searching features. If I want to find a one-bedroom vacation rental in Italy near Lucca, I can find a list of them in a few clicks. I look at photos, read descriptions, check prices and availability, make my shortlist, contact the owners and then make my choice. The world of vacation rentals is at my fingertips.

It is Not All About Grand Villas for a Large Group

English Cottage in a Cotswold Village

The popular travel press sometimes makes it seem like vacation rentals are for groups of ten affluent friends. This is not true. Vacation rentals come in all sizes, from a cute cottage for two to a magnificent villa for twenty. You might be in a cottage on a farm, or in a house in a village or an apartment in a city – many types of vacation rental accommodations are available.

Steve and I have been staying in vacation rentals in Europe for over 20 years. They are our primary form of travel accommodation. Usually it is just the two of us, but sometimes we have a friend join us and once we went with a large group and stayed in a villa.

Vacation rentals are an affordable accommodation choice. Prices per person per night are usually lower than equivalent hotels. You get more space and you can do some of your own cooking. This makes for a very enjoyable and “slow” travel experience.

Expect Different Booking Procedures

The main difference between vacation rentals and hotels are the booking and paying procedures. Because you are renting an apartment or house and not a room in a hotel you are expected to put down a sizable deposit (25% or more) which is not refundable if you cancel. Many also require full payment to be made 30 – 60 days before arrival. In Europe many owners do not take credit cards and you must wire-transfer your payment. Procedures vary by owner so be sure to review the booking procedures.

It makes sense to purchase travel insurance in case you have to cancel for illness in the family. (As a side note, we never buy travel insurance and in all our years of travel only had to cancel once.)

Beyond HomeAway

I always check the HomeAway sites first but there are other good competitors. These rent-by-owner websites are not part of the HomeAway group:

• HolidayLettings.co.uk – worldwide rent-by-owner vacation rentals
• Homelidays.co.uk – worldwide rent-by-owner vacation rentals
• PureHolidayHomes.com – worldwide rent-by-owner vacation rentals (new website)
• Rentalia.com – rent-by-owner vacation rentals in Spain, Portugal and Italy
• YourHolidayMatters.com – rent-by-owner vacation rentals in Europe (most in France and Spain) – all owners have been vetted and approved by this group

Farm stays are popular in Europe and there are many sites that put you in contact with the owners:

• Agriturismo.it – Farms in Italy, with B&B or vacation rentals
• Gites-de-France.com – Farms and other vacation rentals in France
• FarmStay.co.uk – Farms in the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland) with B&B or vacation rentals

Give Vacation Rentals a Chance!

When it comes to vacation rentals in Europe, I am a broken record. Traveling to Europe? Stay in a vacation rental. Traveling to Europe? Stay in a vacation rental … On your next trip to Europe, or anywhere, try a vacation rental. If you hate it, send me an angry email. If you love it, send me a happy email and write a review for Slow Europe so that others can benefit from your experience.

And now, back to the Super Bowl – Who Dat!! :)

Resources

• Slow Europe Vacation Rentals Guide
• HomeAway Puts Vacation Rentals on the Scoreboard (Super Bowl ad)
• 2 Baci in a Pinon Tree – I Love Vacation Rentals in Italy

Remember to use my Slow Europe website to find vacation rentals in Europe. I list my favorite resources by country and region – local agencies, farms, rent-by-owner websites and more – to make your searching easier. We also collect your reviews.

Apartments at Sant'Antonio

Nico and Elena Pannevis run the Sant’Antonio Country Resort, an estate  outside of Montepulciano, in Tuscany.

Thirteen vacation rentals (villas, cottages, apartments) and six languages (Italian, English, Swahili, Dutch, German, French) on an idyllic olive growing estate that started life in the 12th century as a Monastery.

The estate has large gardens (with over a kilometer of Bay Leaf hedges), views north to Lago Trasimeno and south to Monte Amiata, a large pool, underground parking so nothing disturbs the view and (my favorite) Internet access! The vacation rentals, in renovated historic buildings, are beautifully furnished and equipped.

The prices are affordable – studio apartments for two start at €720/week in high season (mid-June through mid-September), two-bedroom apartments start at €1,250.

Read our interview with Nico and learn more about this special spot in Tuscany.

Slow Europe Profile – Sant’Antonio Country Resort

We have great reviews of Sant’Antonio. I have not stayed there myself but some of my well-traveled friends have stayed there -  Sheena, Colleen, Jane. Each of them have stayed in many Italian vacation rentals and they all rave about Sant’Antonio. Sant’Antonio is at the top of my list for my next trip to Italy.

Read our reviews of Sant’Antonio.

updated January 29, 2010

HomeAway, the Austin TX based company who owns most of the major Rent-by-Owner websites (HomeAway.com, VRBO.com, VacationRentals.com, etc.*) will have an ad in the 2010 Super Bowl!

Finally, vacation rentals will be on the scoreboard!

The ad features Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo reviving their roles as Clark and Ellen Griswold in the 1983 movie “National Lampoon’s Vacation” about a family on a vacation to “Walley World” (a great movie!).

Brian Sharples, founder and chief executive officer of HomeAway® says: “We’re going to use the Super Bowl broadcast to launch an exciting campaign highlighting the benefits of vacation rentals to reach more than 100 million people.”

Look for their ad on Super Bowl Sunday, February 7, 2010 on CBS.

Update: The ad will be a “trailer” for a 15 minute web movie, starring the Griswolds, that they will have on their website. They expect five million visits in five minutes and have spent over one million dollars upgrading their hardware to handle the load.

Vacation Rentals Are a Great Travel Accommodation

View from our balcony in Cetona, Tuscany

I am a long time lover of vacation rentals as an accommodation choice when traveling in North America and Europe (and other places but I have not been to those other places – yet).

I started the Slow Travel website and community in 2000 to share my love of vacation rentals with other travelers. Over the eight years that I ran that website, thousands of people joined the community, posting on the forums and writing reviews and trip reports. Many of them were new to vacation rentals, but many, like us, had been traveling that way for years.

Steve and I stayed in our first vacation rental in the summer of 1988 in Grindelwald, Switzerland. Since then we have stayed in 57 different vacation rentals (103 weeks) in Europe – almost two years of vacation rental travel! And that does not count our North American vacation rentals in Hawaii, California and Arizona.

Vacation rentals have been popular in Europe for decades, but they are new in North America. We have always had vacation rentals in a modest form – summer cottages you rented in the countryside, motels with individual cabins, condos for rent in Hawaii – but it was only with the popularity of the Internet and the birth of these Rent-by-Owner sites, like the wonderful VRBO.com, that the idea of vacation rentals as an alternative to hotels broke through in North America.

The HomeAway Empire

You know the business is a big one when they advertise during the Super Bowl. In 2006 HomeAway acquired most of the major Rent-by-Owner websites, starting with the biggest – VRBO.com. HomeAway took a scattered bunch of Rent-by-Owner websites and turned them into a coordinated vacation rentals empire.

Continue reading this post …

Barcelona

Barcelona is one of the most popular European travel destinations. It is located in northern Spain, in the Catalonia region near the border with France, on the Mediterranean coast. Modernism, a variant of Art Nouveau, was born in Barcelona in the late 1800s. Gaudí designed many buildings in the Eixample district of Barcelona.

Max, a transplanted Italian, lives in the Sants – Montjuïc district and runs The Urban Suites.com, 20 suites and apartments (vacation rentals) just a ten minute walk from Montjuïc hill. He wrote an article about his neighborhood, telling us some of the things to do and see there.

Slow Europe Article -  Sants – Montjuïc District in Barcelona, Spain

I have not traveled to Spain recently (the last time I was there was in 1972 – probably things have  changed), but it is near the top of my travel list (under “France” and “get my ass back to Italy”). Barcelona would be a great arrival city. Fly into Barcelona, spend a week, enjoy the sea and sunshine, then take the train up into south-west France. Or my dream of driving along the Mediterranean through Spain, France and Italy*. A possible plan for my 2010 trip!

* Inspired by the book “Feeding Frenzy: Across Europe in Search of the Perfect Meal”, Stuart Stevens, The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997 Buy from Amazon.com

Lanzarote Guidebook

The Canary Islands, located around eighty miles off the coast of West Africa close to the Tropic of Capricorn, are a Spanish owned volcanic archipelago of seven islands that was once thought to be the remnants of the mythical lost city of Atlantis. The Canaries are essentially the European Caribbean, boasting year round sunshine and daytime temperatures that range from 70 to 79 degrees Fahrenheit (20 to 26 degrees Celsius), making them a hugely popular holiday destination, especially with British, Irish and German tourists.

The Lanzarote Guidebook is packed with useful information and some great photos of the island. The new Winter 09/10 edition can now be downloaded – fast and for free – from the Lanzarote Guidebook website.

Researched and written by long term island residents, the Lanzarote Guidebook contains all of the information that holidaymakers and independent travelers need to know, as well as lots of handy inside tips. It is published quarterly so the information is always accurate and up to date.

Nick Ball who created the Lanzarote Guidebook, wrote an article about the Canary Islands for Slow Europe:

Slow Europe Article -  Lanzarote in the Canary Islands

The Kindle is an electronic book reader available from Amazon. I have been using a Kindle since it was first released in December 2007 and I highly recommend it.

The new Global Kindle (released earlier this year) works in many countries. Previous versions worked in the US only. Now people in other countries can buy the Kindle and Americans can travel more easily with their Kindles. The limitation before was the cell phone network. The new Global Kindle works on a 3G wireless cell phone network that works in many countries.

Watch for Hidden Charges!

BUT if you take your Global Kindle purchased in the US to Europe and download purchases via the 3G wireless network, there are extra charges – $1.99 each time you download a book and $4.99 a week to download newspapers/magazines!!

To avoid these charges, or if you have an older Kindle that only works in the US, download items to your computer and transfer them from your computer to your Kindle. Read more on my article about the Kindle (updated today).

Slow Europe Article – Traveling With Your Kindle (updated)

Do Travelers Need the Global Version of the Kindle?

This morning I would have said “yes” and was thinking of getting the new version before our next Europe trip. But now that I see the extra charges for using the 3G wireless when out of the country, I probably won’t buy the new version. We always travel with a computer and it is easy to go to Amazon.com on the computer, download books/newspapers/magazines to the computer, then transfer via a USB cable to the Kindle.

If you do not travel with a computer, then this new Global version of the Kindle is better for traveling than the earlier US-only versions. Also if you are not going to have good Internet access when traveling. You will be able to get your New York Times every morning!

And, really, the charges are not that excessive – I was just shocked to see them because I assumed there would not be extra charges.

Amazon Kindle

Read more about the Kindle on Amazon (affiliate link).

My first blog post in almost three months. Why? Because we moved. And moving is not as easy as it used to be.

The blue sky of a Santa Fe spring

After nearly 20 years living in Santa Fe, we put the cat in the 4Runner, everything else in a moving van, put a “For Sale” sign in front of the house, said goodbye to the Sangre de Cristo mountains and drove 400 miles north to Boulder Colorado. Still living in the Rocky Mountains, still in that place where the mountains meet the plains.

The middle part of our lives were spent in that old adobe house in Santa Fe. I lived there longer than I lived in any other house. I lived in Santa Fe longer than I lived in any other town. The ashes of our old cat Butch are buried under an Apricot tree that we grew from a seed. The bones of our old cat Spike are probably on top of the hill where Tom Ford built his house (we think the Coyotes got Spike). We planted every tree, bush, plant and piece of grass in that huge yard. After 20 years the Lilac bushes are finally as high as the windows (things grow slowly in Santa Fe).

Continue reading this post …

On Slow Europe we publish travel articles written by the vacation rental companies (agencies, owners) that we feature in our Find Vacation Rentals section. These are people who have good insider knowledge of their travel destinations. We have two new articles about Italy.

Slow Europe Article – Food Shopping for Vacation Renters in Italy by Pat Byrne of Italy Perfect

You find the perfect vacation rental in Italy, you arrive and check in. Next you have to head to the shops for supplies and groceries. Pat tells you how to find the stores, what they are called and gives some food shopping tips. Pat, who runs Italy Perfect with her sister Lisa, travels to Italy frequently to look for new properties, check on their current properties and shop for groceries!

Slow Europe Article – Lake Bracciano (Lago di Bracciano) by Fiorenza Rossetto of WelHome

Rome is at the center of the Lazio region in Italy, but there is more to Lazio than Rome. Lake Bracciano is a beautiful area with lakes, hills, historic towns, Roman ruins and Etruscan remains. All less than an hour north of Rome. Fiorenza lives on Lake Bracciano and offers vacation rentals in the area, plus a cottage on the grounds of her villa. She shares her insider’s knowledge of the area with us.

Heidelberg, Germany

Germany was once the dividing line between Western and Eastern Europe, but now sits at the heart of the new Europe.

November 2009 is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. When East Germany was reunified, five new regions in the north-east became part of Germany.

We have added German vacation rentals to Slow Europe. We searched to find agencies with vacation rentals in Germany and good directory sites with rent-by-owner listings for Germany.

New Section: Find Vacation Rentals in Germany

I found only a few agencies based in the US offering vacation rentals in Germany. This is surprising when you think of the hundreds of agencies for Italy and France. I found a few local apartments and some good directory sites with rent-by-owner listings.

If you know of any good resources for vacation rentals in Germany please post here or email me. I am going to continue searching and will be adding to our database.

Continue reading this post …

Naunton and farm fields, Cotswolds

My favorite part of the English countryside is the Cotswolds, an AONB (Area of Outstanding National Beauty) in the heart of England, two hours west of London, between the popular tourist destinations of Bath (to the south) and Stratford-upon-Avon (to the north).

The Cotswolds has picture-perfect English countryside with gentle rolling hills, fields of crops, large wooded areas and valleys carved out by flowing rivers. Tucked away in these valleys are historic Cotswold villages, with golden Cotswold stone houses dating back hundreds of years and spectacular “wool churches” built when this was a properous wool producing area.

There are many things for the visitor to do in the Cotswolds.

• For the walking enthusiast there are hundreds of miles of public footpaths and several long distance paths.
• People who like to explore by car will love the narrow lanes that criss-cross the countryside.
• The historian can visit pre-historic stone circles and burial grounds, Roman ruins, ancient abbeys, medieval castles, historic houses and Industrial-era mills.
• Flower lovers will love the beautiful public gardens, many run by the National Trust.
• And for everyone there are charming pubs with real ale and really good food, farm shops with local organic produce, tea rooms with homemade cakes and scones, beautiful villages to explore, views that never quit.

Here are three ways to tour the Cotswolds with different levels of travel independence: an organized tour, custom day tours and resources for the independent traveler.

Continue reading this post …