As a nation, we have been responsible for the murder of literally hundreds of thousands of people at home and abroad by fighting a war that should never have been started and can be won, if at all, only by converting the United States into a police state. »» Milton Friedman

Why Stay In A Hotel When You Can Stay In A Home?

Posted on August 13, 2007
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When vacationing I always look for two things: a memorable experience and more “quality” time with my daughter. I recently discovered a website that can help provide both: Vacation Rentals By Owner - vlbo.com

Essentially, VLBO is a directory of homes that are available to rent by the day, week or month in various cities around North America. It not only covers big cities within the US, but small towns as well, not to mention Canad, Mexico, and even the Caribbean. Property owners pay a small annual fee to VLBO in order to be listed, and then upload all of the details about the home they have available for rent. People planning a vacation visit the site, browse the homes available in their destination, and then contact the owner directly to work out the details. VLBO offers owners an unlimited number to photographs to show off their site, and space for as much detail as they desire. This allows prospective renters to know far more about their possible vacation home then they could ever know about a hotel.

Disney World / Epcot Center is one of the most popular (and expensive) destinations for family vacations. So let’s take a look at Disney vacation rentals in Florida. As of this writing there are 117 offerings available. Randomly selecting a listing I come across a “5 Bed Executive Holiday Home” - 5 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 3 minutes from Disney, all standard household appliances (including washer/dryer), swimming pool. Wow! That’s a lot more then I’d get at any hotel, particularly because we wouldn’t have to share the pool with all the other ill-behaved children that happen to be visiting Disney that week. This is the kind of luxury vacation rental I’ve always dreamed of being able to afford! Speaking of afford, let’s see how much this’d cost us… $115/night or $800/week. For a full house! The Radisson Resort Orlando-Celebration is charging $110/night. For a single room! Add in another couple (or two) and the savings multiply quickly. Simply ask yourself if you’d rather pay $500+ per night for five 300 sq ft hotel rooms, or $115 for a 5 bedroom, 2,600 sq ft house with all the amenities including a private pool. Seems like a pretty simple choice to me.

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