Comments on: Vacation Rental Pitfalls http://www.sloweurope.com/blog/2008/vacation-rental-talk/vacation-rental-pitfalls/ European travel and vacation rentals Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:50:36 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Heather http://www.sloweurope.com/blog/2008/vacation-rental-talk/vacation-rental-pitfalls/comment-page-1/#comment-628 Heather Sun, 02 Nov 2008 17:28:05 +0000 http://www.sloweurope.com/blog/?p=440#comment-628 I was away on vacation at the time the article was published or I would have responded too. We too had a bad experience renting a cottage here in Ontario on one of our first visits. The owner was recovering from a hard night when we arrived. He had clearly just woken up with a monumental hangover from the previous evenings hard drinking session, and the place was a disgusting mess. He promised to clean up if we could go shopping for an hour or so. After an 8 hour flight and a 5 hour time change, we were very tired, so when we returned and he'd obviously gone back to sleep again, we said it was OK and we would manage. I then spent the next 3 days cleaning. Since then, I have become fully involved in the vacation rental business here in Canada and have owned and rented out 7 properties, and written a book on the subject too. Standards are rising and although there will always be a few bad apples, on the whole, owners are doing a pretty good job. I was away on vacation at the time the article was published or I would have responded too. We too had a bad experience renting a cottage here in Ontario on one of our first visits. The owner was recovering from a hard night when we arrived. He had clearly just woken up with a monumental hangover from the previous evenings hard drinking session, and the place was a disgusting mess. He promised to clean up if we could go shopping for an hour or so. After an 8 hour flight and a 5 hour time change, we were very tired, so when we returned and he’d obviously gone back to sleep again, we said it was OK and we would manage. I then spent the next 3 days cleaning.

Since then, I have become fully involved in the vacation rental business here in Canada and have owned and rented out 7 properties, and written a book on the subject too. Standards are rising and although there will always be a few bad apples, on the whole, owners are doing a pretty good job.

]]> By: Janet http://www.sloweurope.com/blog/2008/vacation-rental-talk/vacation-rental-pitfalls/comment-page-1/#comment-581 Janet Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:25:36 +0000 http://www.sloweurope.com/blog/?p=440#comment-581 As a frequent user of vacation rentals (or village rooms as I call them on my blog), I have never had a problem with them. They definitely are cheaper and give you a great sense of the local culture - which is the whole reason most people travel to Europe in the first place. Still, it's interesting to learn about others' pitfalls with vacation homes. Thanks for the insight. Janet http://europeisaffordable.blogspot.com As a frequent user of vacation rentals (or village rooms as I call them on my blog), I have never had a problem with them. They definitely are cheaper and give you a great sense of the local culture – which is the whole reason most people travel to Europe in the first place. Still, it’s interesting to learn about others’ pitfalls with vacation homes. Thanks for the insight.

Janet
http://europeisaffordable.blogspot.com

]]> By: Alfred and Emily Glossbrenner http://www.sloweurope.com/blog/2008/vacation-rental-talk/vacation-rental-pitfalls/comment-page-1/#comment-577 Alfred and Emily Glossbrenner Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:03:48 +0000 http://www.sloweurope.com/blog/?p=440#comment-577 Hi, Pauline, Alfred Glossbrenner, here. Emily and I specialize in guiding property owners in successfully offering their second homes as vacation rentals with or without a property manager. We saw this atrociously unfair article on Saturday and posted a repost to our site (www.fullybookedrentals.com) on Sunday. As you undoubtedly know, the posts to the relevant NYT blog have been numerous, passionate, and quite articulate. Our article makes many of the same points as those posts, but it adds six steps a vacationer should follow to ensure a great VR experience. Here's the link to the article in our "Free Stuff" section: http://www.fullybookedrentals.com/categories/20081006 I would be happy to post it here or have you post it yourself if you like, and if you think it might do some good. We're huge fans of slow travel. On our first VR vacation to Italy, we rented a farmhouse in Umbria for a week and spent every day visiting a different hill town. The highlight of each day was pranza. (Oh, my, the food, the wonderful food.!) We'd stop at a market on the way home and buy a chicken breast or something similar to cook at "home" for a light supper. One tip I know you give your audience: For heaven's sake keep a daily journal! We would do this over a glass of wine before dinner, and you can bet we recorded everything we had to eat. All the best, Alfred Glossbrenner Hi, Pauline,

Alfred Glossbrenner, here. Emily and I specialize in guiding property owners in successfully offering their second homes as vacation rentals with or without a property manager.

We saw this atrociously unfair article on Saturday and posted a repost to our site (www.fullybookedrentals.com) on Sunday. As you undoubtedly know, the posts to the relevant NYT blog have been numerous, passionate, and quite articulate. Our article makes many of the same points as those posts, but it adds six steps a vacationer should follow to ensure a great VR experience.

Here’s the link to the article in our “Free Stuff” section:
http://www.fullybookedrentals.com/categories/20081006

I would be happy to post it here or have you post it yourself if you like, and if you think it might do some good.

We’re huge fans of slow travel. On our first VR vacation to Italy, we rented a farmhouse in Umbria for a week and spent every day visiting a different hill town. The highlight of each day was pranza. (Oh, my, the food, the wonderful food.!) We’d stop at a market on the way home and buy a chicken breast or something similar to cook at “home” for a light supper.

One tip I know you give your audience: For heaven’s sake keep a daily journal! We would do this over a glass of wine before dinner, and you can bet we recorded everything we had to eat.

All the best,
Alfred Glossbrenner

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