Beach Vacation Rental Scout PressScroll down to find the latest press releases about Beach Vacation Rental Scout, articles by bloggers and other industry experts and media mentions.
As vacation rentals emerge as a good value for families and small groups, listing sites get bigger and bigger. But is more better? Many listing sites lump stripped-down condos in with luxury homes. Some descriptions are vague or leave out important details—red flags for prospective renters. “When I’m committing several thousand dollars and a week of my family’s time to a vacation, I want better quality, not more choices,” says Joyce Copeland. As founder of Beach Vacation Rental Scout, she handpicks and personally reviews only the gems. Sacramento, CA (PRWEB) April 21, 2009 – After logging hours online searching for vacation rental homes for her own family vacations, Joyce Copeland has a good idea what kind of detail prospective renters need. “I’ve also developed a sixth sense for finding places with lots of character,” she says. “Two vacation homes renting for the same price per week can be a world apart in experience.” In January, Copeland launched a renter-to-renter resource called Beach Vacation Rental Scout. The site features detailed personal reviews of a subset of distinctive vacation rentals along with profiles of the best locally owned rental property managers. Copeland, who also reviews distinctive boutique hotels worldwide, handpicks only the homes she’d enthusiastically recommend to a close friend. Some examples of California vacation rentals reviewed on Beach Vacation Rental Scout include: • A
Pacific Grove villa with a sublime ocean view
“It’s owned by a former professional chef, who welcomes guests with a homemade torta and bottle of local wine, free tickets to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and free passes to a local day spa.”
Reviews are full of colorful detail and answer common questions prospective renters have, such as “Who do I call if the toilet back up?” Each review ends with a map and a short list of personal recommendations from the owner (called “Owner’s Favorites”). “Many times, owners can give you a heads-up about places only the locals know—recommendations you won’t find in the average guidebook,” Copeland says. Side by side with home reviews, Copeland lists detailed profiles of local vacation rental property managers handpicked for their excellent inventories and customer service. “Local rental property managers are essential to the integrity and growth of Beach Vacation Rental Scout,” Copeland says. “If you can’t find the perfect beach vacation rental reviewed on my site, I feel completely comfortable referring you to these companies. Best of all they’re staffed by people who know the community very well because they’re residents themselves.” Many of the rental property managers profiled on Beach Vacation Rental Scout offer concierge services similar to those you’d find in a boutique hotel—from free boogie boards to a private chef. Beginning in her home state of California, Copeland has compiled reviews and profiles encompassing more than 200 owner-direct or professionally managed vacation rentals from San Diego’s Mission Bay to The Sea Ranch, a remote community on the north coast renowned for its environmentally sensitive architecture. She expects that number to double very soon—and plans to use the same formula to expand into other prime beach areas such as Hawaii, Florida and North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Meanwhile, none of the owners or property managers listed on Beach Vacation Rental Scout pays a fee. My goal is to become a trusted resource for other people who love really unique vacation rentals as much as I do,” Copeland says.
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Fully Booked Rentals
FullyBookedRentals is a membership site for owners of second homes and investment properties who want to successfully offer their houses or condos as vacation rentals when they aren't using them. Wednesday, June 24, 2009 Travel Writer Offers Advice on How to Be a Good VR Guest There are scores of vacation-rental articles aimed at travelers. They tend to focus on how to get the biggest discount for a luxury condo on Maui. Or how to avoid unpleasant surprises—like booking a "cozy beach bungalow" that turns out to be a dismal little shack two blocks (and across a busy highway) from the ocean. But it's rare to come across a piece aimed at travelers that addresses the concerns of VR owners. That's why it was so refreshing to discover a recent blog post titled "Is There an Etiquette for Renters?" The author's answer was a resounding "Yes!"—which is exactly what we said when we read it. Joyce Copeland of Beach Vacation Rental ScoutWe were even more enthusiastic when we realized that the post was written by FullyBookedRentals member Joyce Copeland, author of the Renting Paradise series of e-guidebooks and creator of the recently launched Web site, Beach Vacation Rental Scout. Ms. Copeland has made it her business to identify vacation-rental gems in a given area, book a stay in them, and then write about the experience. The tagline for her site is "Handpicked Homes, Personal Reviews." Ms. Copeland is always looking for suggestions and is actively recruiting "Field Scouts" capable of writing to her standards. With a writing career of her own spanning over 25 years, those standards are quite high. Which brings us back to her "Etiquette for Renters" piece. You absolutely have to read it! (Click here and scroll down to the entry for June 19, 2009.) By way of preview, here are the five guidelines for vacation renters that Ms. Copeland elaborates upon in the article: 1. If your plans change, let someone know. You'll be tempted to send the complete text of this article to everyone who books your property. We don't recommend that! But it might serve as inspiration as you're writing up the "pre-arrival information" you provide to your guests. And if you have a newsletter or blog of your own that's aimed at vacation travelers, by all means, tell your readers about Ms. Copeland's "Etiquette for Renters" and provide a link to her blog post.
Laura Byrne Paquet is a Canadian journalist specializing in travel, social history and retail topics. Her Facing the Street blog is a companion to a Web site, La Vida Local. Both point curious travelers to the many ways to explore a place beyond the traditional package tour. Wednesday, April 22, 2009 The inside scoop on beach rentals Joyce Copeland's love affair with vacation rentals started about a decade ago, when she was planning a vacation for her extended family and spotted a newspaper ad for short-term rentals in Lake Tahoe. "I was astounded by how little money we'd have to spend, and we could bring the dogs," she says. On her way to Tahoe from her home in Northern California, she worried whether the home she'd rented for family coming in from California, Colorado and Arizona would live up to its description. Luckily, the cabin suited their needs to a T. It was close to casinos for those who liked to gamble and near five hiking trails for others who preferred the great outdoors. "I was so totally blown away by how perfect it was that I started looking for books [evaluating vacation rentals]," says Copeland. When she couldn't find one, she spotted a niche and decided to write one herself. It wasn't a total leap into the unknown. After taking a degree in magazine journalism, Copeland worked as an editor at Endless Vacation, a travel magazine for time-share owners. Later, she started writing for the high-tech industry. But around the time she rented the place in Tahoe, the dot-com world imploded and the idea of returning to travel writing seemed particularly appealing. The result was several books on beach rentals in California. Then Copeland decided it was time to use the Internet to broaden her reach, and the Beach Vacation Rental Scout website was born in early 2009. Copeland reviews rentals of all sorts--from modest to luxurious--along the California coast, and has plans to branch out to other American coastlines. She does her reviews based on stays (called In-Person Reviews, such as this report on Sanctuary by the Sea Pacific Grove) or detailed interviews with the property owner (called Snapshots, such as this piece on The Laughing Buddha Beach House in Pismo Beach). Both types of reviews include insider tips from the owners about their favourite things to see and do in the neighbourhood--one of the key selling points of the site, says Copeland. The site also includes separate sections on pet-friendly homes as well as properties suitable for reunions. After years of inspecting plumbing, testing ovens, evaluating linens and assessing the quality of ocean views, does Copeland ever get tired of sussing out beach rentals? Not at all. "It's just so diverse that, no, I never do," she says. She's a passionate advocate for the advantages of rentals over hotels. "There's just such of wealth of things that you can do at a beach house," she says. "And to have your own private house--it almost makes you feel rich." Back to the top of Beach Vacation Rental Scout Press
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