To Vacation or Not To Vacation...

Story first appeared in USA Today.

Gasoline prices are in retreat. Many hotels are offering a free night's stay. And as Memorial Day nears — kicking off the summer travel season — more Americans say they plan to take a vacation this year than last, but millions of us will simply stay at our desks.

It's not just higher airfares and escalating hotel fees that will cause some Americans to forgo a summer getaway. The nation's nose-to-the-grindstone culture — which only intensified during the Great Recession— has resulted in many Americans leaving vacation days on the table.

Americans are a hard-working lot, and they're ambitious and have a lot of priorities. A survey of more than 2,000 U.S. travelers found that nearly four in 10 didn't book a vacation within the past year. That number was much higher than in 2008, when just 28% didn't buy a vacation. Sometimes they forget to take care of their work-life balance.

Not taking all the vacation time that's available has become an American trait.

A poll conducted last September by Harris Interactive for JetBlue found that 57% of employed respondents said they would have unused vacation time at the end of the year. And a Radisson hotels study last year of more than 1,000 adults found that nearly two in three (65%) working Americans hadn't used all of their vacation time. Roughly a third said they stayed put because of their workload, and 19% noted that they didn't want to deal with a backlog of tasks upon their return.

A global survey taken of more than 12,500 workers by Ipsos Public Affairs and Reuters in 2010 found that only 57% of Americans used all their vacation time. That was in stark contrast to Europe, where 74% of workers on average took all their allotted days off. Europeans also tend to receive more vacation time than their American counterparts, management experts say.

Recognizing this opening, travel site Orbitz launched a "Take Vacation Back" ad campaign this month, complete with a tongue-in-cheek "vacation bill of rights" that has "no vacation day shall go un-traveled" listed at No. 1.

The president of Orbitz.com says the company saw an opportunity to talk to travelers about how much fun a getaway can be and remind them that they're not just entitled to them, but they actually need to take vacations. It's part of what makes them productive and happy.

Workplace fears

While the American inclination to bypass vacation predates the recent recession, experts say the sluggish economy hasn't helped.

Some employees might think that if you put in more time, you increase your chances for a promotion or reduce your chances for targeted layoffs. There's probably some signaling going on, for instance, that if you do take all your vacation time you're less committed to your job, to your company.

Culturally, Europeans have a greater commitment to leisure time, one that is supported by strong unions that give workers more bargaining power. And with American companies cutting staff and doubling the tasks given to those who remain working while on vacation — or not taking one at all — is a way to minimize the avalanche that would occur if you go away for a week or even a few days. Some employees are more stressed after a vacation than before, just because of the workload.

Despite a proclivity to stay in the office, plenty of Americans are planning to take some time off.

Auto and travel club AAA predicts that 34.8 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home over the Memorial Day weekend. That's up 1.2% from last year.

Some travel watchers say part of the uptick may be explained by a grim determination to take time away because the to-do lists at work are so long, and vacation time is so limited.

Regardless of outside influences — the economy, gas prices, weather — Americans really bristle at the idea of giving up their precious travel plans. And it's probably because most of us only get two to three weeks of vacation, so it's time we desperately need.

But be prepared to pay up

Getting away this year won't come cheap, however.

The lowest domestic summer airfares are up roughly 5% over last year, says Rick Seaney of Farecompare.com, which tracks ticket prices. Prices to fly internationally are about the same as last year, but average fuel surcharges and taxes can tack on another $600 round trip, he says.

Hotel rooms also are more expensive. The average daily rate is $106.64, up 3.9% from last summer, according to STR, a hotel research firm.
As a result, travel analysts say, many vacationers are looking to save a dollar wherever they can — whether it's spending a shorter time away from home, or taking a cruise to make sure they don't have to pay extra for meals and entertainment.

When Americans are traveling, they are economizing by selecting hotels that offer things like free breakfast and free Internet, or choosing vacation packages that are all-inclusive. They want to be able to take a vacation and spend dimes like they were dollars.

A TripAdvisor survey of more than 1,800 U.S. travelers taken this month found that 79% would take a spontaneous summer vacation if it was a bargain, while 21% said they would be willing to drive more than 10 hours if it meant significant savings compared with flying.

Since the economy is still very shaky, many Americans have made the decision to spend what vacation time we will take in the country, rather than looking at traveling overseas.

After spiking earlier in the year, fuel prices are dipping. But even if the price at the pump begins to rise again, many travelers say they won't be deterred.

A survey last month of 1,000 consumers commissioned by professional services firm Deloitte found that 54% said increasing pump prices wouldn't affect their plans to get away Memorial Day weekend. That's up from 41% last year. Travelers are probably getting used to gas costing more.

But some would-be vacationers also have cabin fever after staying close to home after the financial collapse of 2008.

Fares have been on the rise because there is less competition in the airline industry, jet fuel prices are up from last year and airlines are carefully matching the number of seats they offer to demand from passengers.

Those wanting to fly in June or July should be booking their trips now. And those wanting an August vacation should start setting it up in the next couple of weeks.

Vacations on the cheap
For those who manage to tear themselves away from work, there are vacation deals out there, from free hotel stays to cash rewards.

For instance, the Bermuda Tourism Board is offering a hotel credit of up to $600 depending on how long you stay.

Another deal offers vacationers staying at the Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn or other InterContinental Hotels Group establishments a $75 prepaid card if they stay for two consecutive weekend nights between May 14 and Sept. 3.

And Universal Orlando is offering a vacation package starting at $899 for a family of four that includes a hotel stay, tickets to the theme parks, breakfast and transportation.

Vacationers also may want to book trips for June rather than July, says Orbitz, which found that hotel rates tended to be cheaper in June in eight of their top 10 summer vacation destinations, such as Cancun and Los Angeles. For instance, the average daily hotel rate in Orlando, the third-most popular vacation spot among Orbitz users this summer, is roughly $106 in June and $112 in July, a difference of 6%.

A growing number of travelers also are checking out vacation rentals rather than hotels to conserve cash, travel analysts say.

Vacation rentals can save hundreds of dollars compared to a hotel.

People forget if you're looking to save and on a budget, you can do well with free attractions such as some museums and national parks. There are a lot of great things you can see and do that wouldn't cost your family anything to visit.

Whatever they need to do to make it happen, Americans should try to take their vacation.

Even if they just get in the car and visit one of our amazing national parks they'll arrive back at work refreshed.

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We Can Keep People In Their Homes

The world's turned upside down. For generations of Americans, family homes were assets to be bequeathed to our children. Today, instead, we are proposing to leave them billions of dollars in long-term debt issued by the federal government to prop up a housing market gone bad. This is unfair.

Moreover, while the rescue plan may help the balance sheets of financial institutions, it does nothing to help the balance sheets of households. Their problems must be addressed.

The way to do so is through the shared appreciation mortgage, or SAM. The concept is simple: Homeowners are offered the chance to write down a portion of their mortgage debt, but at the same time, they are required to share future appreciation gains with those who helped them out.

Let's take stock of the dead end into which we are currently careening. Today, as home prices plummet, a growing number of families are defaulting on their mortgages and being kicked out of their homes. By the time housing prices stabilize, as many as 20 million households may be upside down on their mortgages, creating incentives to default.

These defaults set in motion a vicious cycle. Foreclosure is a slow and costly process. Foreclosed properties diminish the worth of nearby homes, driving yet more homeowners into default. Taxpayers are the next casualties. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac using Treasury money to buy up subprime mortgages, and the bailout authorized by Congress earlier this month, put tax dollars behind the banks and other financial institutions that hold these mortgages.

If we force lenders to write down yet more mortgages, they will just pass the loan losses on to the next generation. Our children -- the future taxpayers of America -- are the "losers of last resort," responsible for today's bad debts of the financial sector.

The federal government needs to give taxpayers an ownership stake in the future. The SAM does just this. For example, a homeowner unable to support payments on a house purchased for $200,000 that today is worth only $150,000 might be offered a write-down of up to $50,000. But this would not be a free lunch.

With the SAM, once the value began appreciating above $150,000, the mortgage holders would be due their share. The details of the write down and the appreciation sharing could be tailored to different circumstances. But one way to give lenders a share of the upside would be to pay back some of the write down if the house is later sold, in the scenario above, for more than $150,000. This is a model in which both parties benefit, preventing default while giving future taxpayers a fighting chance at some real upside to the investment we're forcing on them.

Many mortgages have been sliced and diced so that there is no single lender with whom to bargain. But there are paths to renegotiation that Congress or the Treasury could enact to create the incentives to make it happen.

Appreciation sharing is a cost to the borrower. Thus, if the terms are set correctly, those with the means to get through the decline in their collateral without giving up some of their upside will find it in their interest to do so.

The SAM was pioneered by banks in the U.S. some 40 years ago, but it has been allowed to languish due to an archaic, IRS-imposed block. (The IRS hasn't ruled whether such a contract is a mortgage because it combines elements of equity and debt.) This block could be removed at the stroke of the Treasury secretary's pen.

Almost 75 years ago, in the depths of the Great Depression, the nation faced a housing market collapse even more brutal than today. The federal government responded with a strategy that allowed homeowners to keep their homes and kept the bottom from falling out of the real-estate market. Unprecedented at the time, the 30-year fixed rate mortgage has since become the gold standard in markets around the world.

Today, facing a similar collapse, the federal government needs to be equally bold. SAMs are the new deal in housing that our children need.