A True HomeAway Oregon By Owner Experience

Family Vacations Ain't What They Used to Be!

Anyone else have treasured Polaroids or Kodachrome photos from past vacations?

Quite a difference from today's Instagram, SnapChat, or Facebook posts!

Vacations Have Changed.

Just like other trends, today's family vacations have changed. While long road trips with the family still exist, the majority of vacations are to a single or just a handful of destinations. With leisure time so rare. vacationers like to stop and relax, either as a couple, a family, or with extended family and friends.

Within this trend, the new idea of bypassing generic hotels and traditional accommodations was born, and the opportunity of booking a Vacation Rental By Owner arose through websites such as HomeAway and VRBO (now owned by HomeAway). Personal privacy, comfort, and the ability of enjoying vacation destinations with insider’s information from helpful owners created a whole new level of vacation experience.

For families, a vacation rental is an easy way to get more value for your dollar -- a rental home will almost always yield more space at a lower price than a hotel room. In most cases you'll have more space, more privacy and more money in your pocket when you choose a vacation rental rather than a hotel. You'll also most likely have access to comforts such as a kitchen and washer and dryer.

On the other hand, a vacation rental may not be right for you if you prefer to have room service, daily housekeeping, and on-site restaurants and bars.

Where Do Guests Find a Real Vacation Rental By Owner?

In 2005 HomeAway became one of the first large vacation rental sites, focusing on allowing travellers to rent out whole homes. HomeAway's growth is attributed to purchasing five individual sites with a collective 60,000 listings. A year later, the site purchased VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner) and more than doubled the number of houses offered on their website.

HomeAway was early to the new growing vacation trend: hospitality offered by home owners opening up their houses to vacationers. A typical vacation traveller now uses their iPhone and tablet to search for that ideal getaway. Thankfully, it’s never been easier to find a private vacation rental, make restaurant reservations, and find local shopping options.

On the other hand, with the vacation rental industry giants like VRBO and HomeAway (the parent company of VRBO) and Airbnb gobbling up more market share by the minute, it’s getting difficult for the vacation traveller to find a true vacation rental by owner. A few years ago these now giant companies opened their doors to property managers and even hotels and motels.

Since then, a true “vacation rental by owner” has been harder to find. Or for the average vacationer to even know who they’re renting from — a property manager handling often hundreds of houses, or a home owner offering their own house for rental.

Why Stay at a Vacation Rental By Owner?

Have you rented a HomeAway Vacation Rental By Owner or VRBO? Or are you wondering why you should?

Well, we’re here to help you out!

Live Like a Local

Many travellers seeking to blend into the local culture of a new destination choose to rent an apartment or house because these are often located in residential neighbourhoods. Being based there, instead of a hotel in a more touristy area of town, allows you to shop in the neighbourhood stores, hang out in the local cafes and get to know your neighbours.

If you really want to feel like a local, this is the way to go. Be sure to speak with the owner before you arrive to get insider tips on where to eat and what to do in the neighbourhood.

One on One Customer Service

The Vacation Rental By Owner works with the guest directly. Since most owners of a real vacation rental offered by owner only have from one to a small handful of houses offered to vacationers, they aren’t busy managing dozens or hundreds of properties. You'll receive a one on one relationship from start to finish.

After all, wouldn’t you rather be a guest, not simply a client? A vacation rental home owner has a vested interest in your vacation. They are hosting you as a guest and will go out of their way to ensure you have a pleasant stay. They want your experience to be wonderful, they would like you to return for future vacations, and they would like for you to tell others about your terrific experience at this particular vacation rental.

Enhanced Amenities

Vacation Rentals are becoming more and more popular as an ideal private and comfortable option versus hotel resorts. Vacation home owners are invested in providing property amenities optimized for your enjoyment.

Vacation homes used to simply boast linens included and hand you the key. Gone are those days!

Today's vacation rentals are more like boutique accommodations rather than someone’s vacation home. Guest no longer expect to vacation with Aunt Mildred's castoff furniture.

Espresso machines, ping pong tables, pool tables, the newest huge flat screen TVs, and even oceanside fire pits resemble resort style living with home comforts. Amenities such as free WIFI are the norm.

Since The Houses On Manzanita Beach are also listed on the Oregon HomeAway site, we were curious to find out the latest offerings in the Manzanita Oregon area. How many vacation rentals by owner listed for Manzanita are truly offered on the HomeAway site?

This wasn’t such an easy endeavour. Many listings indicate they are offered by Owner, but when cross checking the telephone numbers, you’ll find they’re offered by one of the local north coast Property Management Agencies.

We found the following:

HomeAway has more than 180 listings in Manzanita. Several are out of the actual Manzanita area.
Out of 180 listings, only 48 are true Vacation Rentals By Owners, or Manzanita VRBO. A whopping 132 are Vacation Rentals offered by Property Management companies.

Want to Know How to Find a True Vacation Rental By Owner?

Well, we're here to show you how!

Manzanita HomeAway and Manzanita VRBO give you the search capability to make sure you’re looking for a house actually managed and listed by the owner.

After you specify Manzanita Oregon on your search results page, look for the More Filters tab in your search bar. This will lead you to options that will refine your search.
On your search filter page, look for the “Managed By” category on the lower right hand side of the page, and click the “Owner” option. This enables you to narrow your search and put you in direct contact with vacation rental home owners. Sometimes. As mentioned, not all “Owner” designated properties are actually managed by the owner. If you want to be absolutely sure, ask in your inquiry if they are the owner or property managers.

Try narrowing down your internet search. While you might search on Oregon coast property management to find rentals through a management company, it's not difficult to find vacation rentals managed by owners.

In our sample searches for accommodations on the northern Oregon Coast, we searched using the following phrases:

Vrbo Oregon coast
Vrbo seaside
seaside vacation rentals vrbo
Oregon vrbo cannon beach
Vrbo seaside Oregon rentals
Vrbo cannon beach Oregon
cannon beach vrbo
Vrbo manzanita rentals
Vrbo rockaway beach Oregon
Vrbo Oregon coast

Airbnb has since entered the picture, and offers many owner run vacation rentals. Use these searches to help:

Airbnb seaside Oregon
Airbnb Oregon coast
Oregon coast Airbnb
Airbnb cannon beach Oregon
Airbnb astoria Oregon
Airbnb manzanita Oregon
Airbnb rockaway beach Oregon

Here at The Houses On Manzanita Beach we have a long history in the community, dating back to when one of our grandparents worked for the railroad providing one of the main modes of transportation to the coast throughout the 20th century. These days, we shop local and have great relationships with the local craftspeople and business owners.

We take pride in offering you true HomeAway Vacation Rentals By Owner or Manzanita VRBO with real traditional hospitality and 21st century amenities.

Our guests enjoy the little touches that make their stay more comfortable and relaxing. Bookshelves filled with books, internet service, fine linens and bedding, and comfortable high end furnishings and decor. All these and more make our vacation rentals feel like your own home away from home.

And hopefully, your own private oceanside vacation house — without all the upkeep! One where you return to for vacations to come.

Enjoy~

Interested in staying? Contact us for information about our Oregon oceanfront vacation rentals on the beautiful seven mile Manzanita Beach.

THE HOUSES ON MANZANITA BEACH