Renting a vacation home may be cheaper and provide more space and privacy than the typical hotel room, but some travelers still hold back for fear of falling victim to the phenomenon industry insiders call SNAD: significantly not as described. You know, the property that looks like a slice of paradise in the photos, but when you get there, it's all leaky roof, blocked views and bad plumbing.Join a Discussion
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Now, hospitality companies are trying to find ways to make booking a vacation rental less mysterious and more reliable, to compete more directly with the familiar brand-name hotel experience. The industry is also betting that the often lower cost of staying in a vacation home will hold particular appeal as the economy heads south.
Homeaway Inc., the world's largest vacation rental booking company by the number of properties listed, is moving to increase reliable user reviews on its Web sites, so potential renters can have more confidence in their choices. Tripadvisor, a unit of Expedia Inc. that is the market leader in hotel user reviews, plans to add vacation-rental reviews to its site by the end of the year.
Other companies are trying to make the experience of renting a home more like staying in a hotel. Last month, three rental booking companies -- Mountain Reservations, Rooster.com and Mexican Destinations -- joined their inventory and launched the booking Web site VacationRoost.com. The site says customers will get "hotel-like amenities" such as check-in, cleaning services, 24/7 service and maintenance, and the ability to book a rental with a credit card. Late last year, Group RCI, a vacation-rental and time-share-swapping company owned by Wyndham Worldwide, entered the U.S. market with Endless Vacation Rentals. The company says it offers 24-hour help over the telephone, full refunds on canceled reservations, and free over-the-phone concierge service in multiple languages.
While the major online travel agencies like Expedia, Travelocity.com LP and Orbitz Worldwide Inc. haven't become the go-to places for vacation rentals, they are taking bigger steps into the market and boosting the number of properties they list. Travelocity.com says it has about 1,000 condos, bed-and-breakfasts and vacation-rental properties on its site today, compared with about 200 in 2006.
Hotels.com, owned by Expedia, says it has thousands of condos and B&Bs on the Web site today, one-third more of the condo offerings and double the B&B offerings it had about 18 months ago. In August, Orbitz inked a deal to list rental inventory from Zonder.com, a small online booking company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, that lists only professionally managed rentals.
While some travelers swear by the roomier set up, kitchen access and often homey feeling of vacation rentals, only about 10% of Americans booked a vacation rental sometime in the past two years, according to data in a forthcoming report from PhoCusWright Inc.
PhoCusWright asked more than 8,000 Americans who had traveled in the past year and who had shopped online at least once what held them back from booking a vacation rental. Many simply didn't ever think of it or didn't have enough information about the property, assumed rentals only made sense to book for long, group trips and worried they wouldn't have access to hotel-like services. The overall concern was "basically it's not branded, and it's not a hotel," says Douglas Quinby, senior research director at PhoCusWright.
Executives in the vacation-rental business say that potential renters also fear horror stories like that of Ronit Schlam. Ms. Schlam found a good deal on Craigslist.com for a last-minute Labor Day weekend rental on Fire Island, a busy summer spot popular with city-weary New Yorkers. On the telephone, Ms. Schlam says, the property's owner "seemed nice ... she sounded like a normal person," so Ms. Schlam deposited money directly into the owner's bank account.
This California vacation rental has "amazing views, a well-equipped kitchen and all of the required amenities," says one reviewer on Homeaway.com.
The 34-year-old, who works in arts management, showed up at the property with a friend to find that "the windows hadn't been opened in who knows how long. ... The sink was filled, overflowing with greasy dishes that had been sitting there for days. ... There were dirty diapers in garbage cans," says Ms. Schlam.
That Friday afternoon, the property's owner said all maids had "left the island," but promised she would send a maid Saturday morning. In the end, Ms. Schlam and her friend spent a few hours cleaning in an effort to enjoy their weekend. A maid never showed up.
While stories like these can send folks running for the nearest Marriott, they don't happen often. In PhoCusWright's research, 89% of people who stayed in a vacation rental said that they would rent one again within the next three years. Even Ms. Schlam says she might try a vacation rental again, but she would be "a lot more careful."
The vacation-rental marketplace is highly diverse, which can compound traveler confusion and trepidation. Travelers can rent directly from private owners (say, a person offering one cabin in Maine) or large property-management companies like Fort Walton Beach, Fla.-based ResortQuest International Inc., which manages thousands of vacation rentals that all have on-site, 24-hour assistance.
Travelers wanting a hotel-like online booking experience should probably stick with companies that list professionally managed properties. Those properties are more likely to keep real-time availability calendars online and to accept credit cards.
With a professionally managed rental, an owner is "not just leaving a key behind a rock," says Julian Castelli, chief executive of VacationRoost.com, the listing company launched last month, with about 100,000 properties. He says properties are professionally cleaned, and "there is always someone in town" to fix problems.
One disadvantage of booking only professionally managed properties is that travelers don't have access to an enormous segment of the vacation-rental inventory. PhoCusWright estimates that owner rentals comprise about 56% of U.S. inventory. More importantly, rent-by-owner properties can be less expensive because customers aren't paying a commission to a professional manager. "If you are willing to do the hard work, you can find a less expensive property" by booking a property rented by its owner, Mr. Castelli says.
Big companies are aiming to bring more rent-by-owner properties into their networks -- and trying to make those properties easier to book. In Sept., Orbitz said it will list rent-by-owner properties on Cheaptickets.com via a partnership with Vast, a classified ad-like listing site, expanding a previous agreement to list Vast properties on the Orbitz's site Away.com. Homeaway, which lists both professionally managed and rental-by-owner properties, is working to encourage more of the properties listed on their Web sites to take credit cards. The company plans to launch a new online payment system, currently being tested, that allows travelers to pay by credit card or with Paypal, but with extras for vacation rental transactions, like breaking out deposit amounts from rental charges or extra cleaning fees.
Many rental companies are trying to allay traveler misgivings by introducing more objective user reviews. But many have found that encouraging more user reviews -- a resource that has become a powerful tool for choosing one hotel over another -- is complicated. Until recently, user reviews on most vacation-rental Web sites were censored and unfavorable ones often deleted, since most listing services don't want to upset the property owners who pay them fees.
For example, Homeaway, which lists about 300,000 rent-by-owner and professionally managed vacation properties on several sites, allows owners or managers to approve reviews before they are posted on Vrbo.com (Vacation Rentals by Owner). Homeaway says reviews are objective on its other sites, such as Homeaway.com, CyberRentals.com and GreatRentals.com. Homeaway says it will take down a negative review on its objective Web sites only if the reviewer uses foul language or hasn't actually stayed in the property.
"I believe in transparency and truth in advertising on our site," says Brian Sharples, chief executive of Homeaway. "But I just feel we have to give properties some protection, especially the ma-and-pa places that only have a few guests a year and could be sunk by one bad review."
TripAdvisor is heading into vacation-rental user reviews via its purchase in August of FlipKey Inc., a small Web Site with technology that aims to encourage and organize user reviews and then facilitate booking. With FlipKey, Trip Advisor aims to eventually bring both professionally managed and owner rentals onto Tripadvisor.com for review, says Chief Executive Steve Kaufer.
Flipkey Chief Executive T.J. Mahony says that only people who have stayed at a property can comment (unlike with hotel reviews on TripAdvisor) because reviews are solicited by an email using booking records. "One of our mantras," to property managers, "are negative reviews are a good thing," because it creates trust with travelers, Mr. Mahony says.
