Sunspot Inns, Resorts & Vacation Rentals

You Can Still Go On Vacation

2009-03-09T23:25:00.000-07:00

What will happen if unemployment hits 8% in the US? If you passed remedial math in school you know that means 92% of folks are still employed.

While the 92% may be holding back on expenses but life goes on. The employed will continue to buy groceries, clothes, cable TV, phone services and - make no mistake - they will continue to go on vacation.

Human beings know one thing for sure - Life is short. Remember that old adage "Eat desert first, like is uncertain?" Well going on vacation is like that.

And while the employed may feel bad for their unemployed neighbors most take a Homer Simpson attitude. In one episode the owner of the Kwik-E-Mart, the convenience store that Home frequents, confides in him saying "This is terrible terrible. My visa is a problem and I am going to get deported, and lose my store and won't be able to come back."

Being the considerate person he is Homer laments, "Oh that is terrible, I feel so bad for you. And for your family. That is really bad news . . . Well good luck in the old country. bye"

So the employed go on vacation, spend money at restaurants and enjoy themselves while they are feeling bad for others. You would be hard pressed to find a employed neighbor who has cut their overhead 50% in order to give money to a friend or even family member.

So should all of these people do more or feel bad about not doing more? In the long run no. Because during this economy those folks are actually benefiting. For example: homes have become more affordable, gas prices are down and even basic commodity and stables have gone down.

Vacation Rentals are no different. Many managers and owners see the wisdom in lower rates in order to increase occupancy. There is evidence this is exactly what is happening. Lodging prices have always been more flexible than most consumers know. Buy online and you might get a deal. Call direct to get the senior, military or other discount.

Travel in the shoulder season - when temperatures and weather are sometimes actually at their best - and you can save money. Stay longer for lower rates and you may actually spend less than insisting on the high season.

So if you are one of the lucky still employed, stable jobs folks take this opportunity to get out and enjoy your travels. Visit some great places, try out a new restaurant and do all this while helping that friend or family member by taking them with you. In most Vacation Rentals you can usually squeeze in a few more people for no more rental cost. As always, its a deal and there has never been a better time to go on vacation in a Vacation Rental.

You Can't Shoot Vacation Rentals with a Camera

2009-01-15T01:22:00.000-08:00

Well of course you can.

Today everyone has a camera or two or three. They've moved up from the decades old "Brownies" to Polaroids to click and shoot and now into the world of digital and now to sophisticated digital cameras with large formats (pixels) and self correcting shooting.

So how come when you look at vacation rental photos they are still kind of lousy. Yes they have gotten better over the years due to technology. Some rental managers and even real estate agents have even taken a class or two. Some actually have some talent but still the photos are over exposed, under exposed, out of focus, have washed out colors or are just plain boring.

The reason is no camera can shoot what you eye can behold. The human eye is a miraculous device.

Made up to three layers of issue its complexity is almost too much to understand. The tough Sclerotic coat creates the "white" of the eye except in the front where it forms the transparent cornea. The Choroid middle layer is deeply pigmented with melanin reducing reflection of stray light. It reduces the amount of light and improves its image forming ability. The retina is the inner layer and contains light receptors, the rods and cones that process the signals before passing them back to the brain. And it does all of this in low light, bright light and everything in between. It thinks and changes and adapts. Something no camera can do.

Oh sure scientists can cause the image to appear on a medium such as film or transistors (hence digital cameras) which can then be transferred and printed onto another medium (some kind of paper). But that is all it can do. No camera can interpret what it gets to determine if the color is correct, if all areas are in focus and if the camera is level to the ground (as an example).

So giving a novice a camera and expecting them to make art will not produce another Mona Lisa. Instead, when it comes to our little area of the world - vacation rental and lodging photos - an additional machine must be added before great photography can be created.And that machine is the human brain.

Surely that is required to locate, light and photograph architectural type photos. But then the same machine needs to use other tools to review, edit and fix photos.The goal is to produce vacation rental photos that reveal nothing more and nothing less than what your eye can see in a split second.

Ancil Adams was famous for shooting nature photos especially mountains and forests. But did you know that he spent far more hours in the dark room than in the field?Shoot vacation rentals is the same.

Using tripods, lighting, Photoshop, macros and rigid shooting rules today's top photographers spend more time correcting photos than they do shooting. That is especially true when completing photos for commercial purposes. In future blogs we'll reveal why photos by the Signatours Image Team far surpass what you find in the usual travel, lodging, website and real estate web pages. You can get a preview at www.Signatours.com. Or look at the photos of fantastic vacation homes on our sister company’s website www.SunspotResorts.com. Tune in next time for the secrets of great photography.

Sunspot Houdini Websites are Like Magic

2008-11-15T00:40:00.000-08:00

Our current website design for www.SunspotResorts.com is about a year old. Built by our great programming staff of Salman and Ozair with photograph help from Jonathan and Joseph. Oh and I do a little of the text.

Guests compliment us all the time because the site is chock full of information about our destinations as well as offering deep information on every property we rent.

But we wanted more. So the staff have invented some new code that allows us to create a custom website for a great many of the individual properties we manage. This nifty system was code named "Houdini" because, well it kind of works like magic.

By drawing all its data including images, videos and floor plans from our giant database repository we know that all the data on every site is exactly the same as on our primary website. http://www.sunspotresorts.com/.

Houdini's make it easy for owners and return guests to go directly to everything they want to know about one home without wading through the others. Currently we have one main format with variable colors (the programmers call them skins) but we will be developing 10 templates each with 10 skins giving us 100 different formats to spread among the properties.

Programming is important of course but let's not overlook the careful and concise photographer that our staff does. Really no other vacation rental management can match it.

Here is a list of Houdini website to west your whistle:

http://www.allredescape.com/
http://www.atfishlake.com/
http://www.bearmountain.ws/
http://www.bradleyretreat.com/
http://www.caseinlet.com/
http://www.chelanmanor.com/
http://www.cottageintown.com/
http://www.dukesplace.us/
http://www.echolodge.us/
http://www.hitchinpost.ws/
http://www.holmesharbour.com/
http://www.kauaifiveoh.com/
http://www.lagosara.com/
http://www.lotushale.com/
http://www.melecondo.com/
http://www.oboesuite.com/
http://www.ohanacondo.com/
http://www.pitchandchip.com/
http://www.poipuplace.com/
http://www.poipusecret.com/
http://www.riversbend.ws/
http://www.seattleatthelake.com/
http://www.sledhillllodge.com/
http://www.snowcapcondo.com/
http://www.sunshinehouse.ws/
http://www.the-eagle-nest.com/
http://www.totemhouse.info/
http://www.vakachess.com/
http://www.asuite.ws/
http://www.weekendhideout.com/

If you would like to stay in one of these babies, call our friend vacation guides at 888-628-8989.

And if you would like your home to be marketed with this kind of quality and attention to detail give me a call personally at extension 902.

Lotus Hale Hawaii Villa vs. Poipu Grant Hyatt Hotel

2008-11-01T19:15:00.000-07:00

The Grand Hyatt at Poipu Kauai Hawaii is a real gem. If you want beauty and pampering this is your place - provided you want a small room, high prices, less privacy and a hike to everything you might want to do.

For just about $400 per night you get one of the 602 motel 6 size rooms. Better appointed of course but you will be 200 yards from the lobby, 200 yards from your car and 200 yards from the beach.

Oh and about that beach, its not Poipu Beach but Shipwreck beach. A nice place but too dangerous to swim most times of the year. You'll have the pleasure of paying top dollar for breakfast, lunch and dinner and the intrusion of the very pleasant housekeepers.

Or for that same $400 per night you can stay in the Lotus Hale - a true Hawaii villa two blocks west. You are closer to Poipu Beach and inside the Poipu Kai Resort complete with pools, hot tubs, tennis and onsite restaurant. http://www.lotushale.com/.

You get privacy and a huge home with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, huge private lanai, gourmet kitchen, plasma TV. Plus your car is just outside the door. Better yet for that same $400 dollars you can bring 7 of your friends and family and spend time in the huge living room enjoying each other's company.

Lotus Hale is just one of the many discrete vacation rental homes and condo's available from Tradewind Vacation Rentals at http://www.tradewindvacationrentals.com/. A local company that has a national reach due to its membership in the national Sunspot Vacation Rentals Network. http://www.sunspotresorts.com/.

Sunspots ia building the first global network for vacation rental managers in order to establish quality standards, instant booking and first-rate owner services.Tradewind provides pristine cleaning, quick maintenance if you need it and first-rate guest and owner services.

Barack Obama Endorses Vacation Rentals

2008-10-15T21:24:00.000-07:00

The next President of the United States has effectively endorsed the entire concept of Vacation Rentals by renting a private home in Kailua on the North Shore of Oahu, a Hawaiian Island. He is staying there for a week with his wife Michelle and two daughters.

He is staying at a secluded beach rental, obscured from the road by a long driveway and trees, about an hour’s drive from Honolulu. He plans to body surf, has already been on the golf course, visited a childhood favorite drive-in restaurant and visited his grandmother in her Oahu apartment building.

He said he might stop by Zippy’s, an Hawaiian chain restaurant known for its chili, or the Rainbow Drive-In for a Hawaiian "plate lunch," a mix of rice, macaroni salad and meat.

"I am going to go get some shave ice," he said. "I am going to go bodysurfing at an undisclosed location. I am going to see my Tutu, my grandma. And I am going to watch my girls play on the beach, and maybe once in awhile I will go in the water. But mostly I am going to sit there and watch them."

(In Hawaii the term Tutu is reserved for beloved grandmothers.)

In short Obama is doing what millions of Americans and others around the world have learned - staying in a private beach home is more comfortable, saves money and allows visitors to fit into the neighborhood rather than being relegated to tourist ghettos like the high-rise hotels and noisy diesel buses of Waikiki.

Republicans, still hoping to smear him as an elitist for frequentingsuch a high end vacation area, need to remember that Obama was born and raised in Honolulu. Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle who tows the party line should know better. In fact, Obama lived in Hawaii well before Lingle arrived on its shores.

Although he graduated from the prestigious Punahou School on Oahu in 1979 he did so on a financial need and academic scholarship afforded to those with great merit. At this point, it would be difficult to call the school's decision anything but prophetic.

The Maui news quoted local residents in the Windward Oahu beach community who have said they are excited to have Obama as their neighbor for a week and hope to catch a glimpse of him.
''Maybe we'll go back down to the beach and see if we could see him. That would be real cool - our future president down at our beach,'' said surfer Anthony Burris.

Like cranky xenophobes everywhere, these may be the same neighbors who yelp loudly at county officials saying only full-time residents should be allowed to stay in homes in areas such as Kailua.
But Obama's residency underscores that everyone, guests as well as residents, have a right to stay and enjoy the quiet lifestyle of a wonderful beach community.

Obama is just another American who endorses vacation rentals for what the comfort job and family atmosphere they offer. If vacation rentals are good for the next president of the United States they should be allowed for all visitors.

Sunspots - the Best Ideas Are the Most Obvious.

2008-10-01T21:37:00.000-07:00

It was our very first vacation rental. A sumptuous 3,000 square foot vacation home located at Washington State's top destination - Wapato Point a private resort on 50 miles long Lake Chelan Washington. Because it sits on Native American land we dubbed it the Totem House and filled it with native American art. http://www.totemhouse.info/.

Now this is a beautiful place. The cleanest water, 300 days of sunshine a year and a resort with pools and hot tubs, tennis and basketball courts, acres of green grass and thousands of feet of white sand beach. There are indoor pools too and an ice skating rink in winter. Close to huge outdoor activities. But best of all is the sense of getting away and being in a place created for recreation.

But we did not know what we were getting into. The year was 1999 and buying the house was a long term goal. The seller had accepted renters for certain weeks of that first summer that was fine for us. And at the end of the year we were delighted to find how much income we had received for no inconvenience at all.

In fact, The Totem House went so well we were able to buy a large condo on Poipu Beach Kauai. The Poipu Place http://www.poipuplace.com/ was an extension of the dream for fun, adventure and relaxation all wrapped into one place. Then we bought a place in a ski resort and other vacation rental homes too, all made possible by the nice income.

With interests in other businesses, operating the rentals was no sweat. But then a neighbor approached one day to say, "Hey, how come your house is full all the time and mine is not." And that is how it started.

In time we started management vacation homes for other folks in a number of locations. Our marketing, sales and guest services were more in depth than others and the business began to grow.

Two years ago we decided it was time to offer what we had built and we have been designing and building an expandable business ever since. Our concept is simple - offer all the backoffice tools that make rentals successful and that most local managers don't or won't invest in. Things like staff photographer, dynamic database driven front-office and back-office systems. World class websites and multiple channels of marketing.

So far SO good. In the next few years we'll be opening in more markets start with the Northwest US and Hawaii and British Columbia Canada. If your own deserves the best management possible all you have to do is call William May at 888-628-8989 x902. Or if you would like to join our growing cadre of offices call today.

Hello Blog. Goodbye Newsletters

2008-09-15T23:51:00.000-07:00

After years of writing newsletters I've succumbed to writing a blog. Not sure what the difference is - we've been posting newsletters online years ago- as well as emailing them and, in fact, snail mailing them years ago.

What better way to keep in touch with all those people I should keep in touch with. So that is my promise to tell you things you'll want to know about Sunspot Inns, Resorts and Vacation Rentals in specific and about Vacation Rentals and even Lodging in particular.

I'll announce our cool new rentals as they come in. And our new offices and network members as our company continues to grow. Like Poipu Beach and Princeville Kauai in Hawaii. Plus Lake Chelan, Crescent Bar, Sunbanks Resorts, Gig Harbor, Whidbey Island and the Bavarian Village of Leavenworth in Washington State.

I would be remiss if I didn't mentioned we are recruiting agents, professionals and property managers in multiple markets right now. If you want to own your own business, live in a desirable recreation market and grow in our dynamic industry, please give us a call. We are recruiting and training new network members particularly in the Northwest States and Hawaii too.,

And I suppose I should tip you off to the specials, discounts and promotions we offer. In fact right now we're having our annual pre-season sale. You can get two weeks for the price of two in many homes. A big discount in Hawaii. And right now always best pick of dates before the spring rush.

In fact, I guess I better be going. If I don't book my own place before you do I wont have first pick will I? Oh, and by the way, happy new years from all your friends at Sunspot Inns, Resorts and Vacations rentals. You can preview homes and book online at http://www.sunspotresorts.com/. Or give us a call at any time to book 888-628-8989.