I am constantly amused by marketers who promote the cost saving advantage of having a full kitchen in a vacation venue. Excuse me, but who do you think is going to be cooking up all those cost savings? Uh, huh. Usually it’s us. The wives. The women. Well, here’s a clue for you guys (usually NOT the family cook): Cooking Is Not My (and dare I say, Our) Idea of A Vacation!

There are exceptions, I know. One of my closest friends claims that cooking relaxes her. Well, guess where her women friends go for great home cooked meals? We’re more than happy to help her relax. Yum.

Then there are you gentlemen who enjoy cooking. And if that’s you, and you’re taking the family on vacation and just can’t wait to get your hands on the fully stocked kitchens in your dream venue, then power to you!

But even my super-hostess friend appreciates a break from baking. So we’re back to the puzzling rationale behind marketers promoting fully-stocked kitchens in vacation venues. Even more puzzling, I have found myself — a die-hard non-cooking female — curiously attracted to these vacation venue kitchen amenities. Why?

Turns out, there are lots of ways a vacation kitchen comes in handy — without cooking! Here are five great uses:

1. Leftovers. Probably obvious, but without a refrigerator and microwave and/or oven, these cost savers usually wind up feeding the gulls. With a fully stocked kitchen, on the other hand, you can go out for dinner, order the large size, and bring back the rest. You’ve just saved calories, money, and the effort of cooking!
2. Relaxing at “home.” Vacations were meant to help you relax. But after an exciting day on the beach, skiing the slopes, shopping, SCUBA diving, or whatever your idea of a good time happens to be, it’s not unusual to find vacationers dragging themselves back to their hotel rooms or resort condos. So relax already! Try heating up some butter (30 seconds) and drizzling it over freshly popped microwavable popcorn, then plopping down on the sofa and watching a movie. The venues that provide full kitchens probably also provide living rooms and dining rooms too. Add a glass of red wine to the mix (a little pino noir perhaps, chilled in the frig), and you just can’t get any better than that for winding down your hard day of play.
3. Munchies. I am certainly not advocating you add a major grocery shopping tour to your agenda. Egad! That is certainly not my idea of a vacation! But a quick stop here and there along the way is a totally organic way of collecting a few munchies. You know how useful munchies are: car trips, hiking and biking, or visits to amusement parks. Parents can actually regain a bit of control over what goes into their kids’ mouths while saving a lot of money on impulse snack purchases. So where does the kitchen part come in? Well, ever trip over a bag of goodies or find said goodie bag in a hot car or suitcase? Cabinets and frigs to the rescue!
4. BYOB. The last B stands for Beverage. As in purified, oxygenated water. Or juice. Or your own sweet tea. Whatever. You know how much sodas and other drinks cost on the road. How nice to be able to store your favorites in your vacation kitchen and bring some along for your outing.
5. Morning Coffee. I’ve stayed in many places that offer complimentary coffee in the lounge or lobby. Trouble is, I need my first cup before I tackle the shower. Once I got desperate enough to actually walk down to the office in my bunny slippers. Some venues have little coffee makers in the room to prevent those very public displays of desperation. But even then, we’re usually talking about instant coffee. Love your Starbuck’s Via if you like, I’m bred for brewed. And don’t even look at me with that powdered creamer stuff (read the label, you’ll see why). Doesn’t a nice coffee maker in your own room, your favorite freshly ground coffee, and your choice of additives sound like a relaxing way to greet a vacation day?

OK, so all these ideas involve some minor preparation. But I still love the comforts of home away from home. Even if I choose not to use them.

To find venues with these comfy amenities, visit intele.theme-travel.com or rovia.theme-travel.com (don’t feel shy about registering on the rovia site; you will NOT get spammed!)

The world, the travel industry, and the life of yours truly has undergone a rapid fire change over the past several months. That included a change of homes. Oddly enough, that change of homes led me to discover a way to legally not pay taxes for our “between houses” hotel stay.

I sold my old house. About a month before closing we had an estate sale, as I was downsizing to less than half my space and possessions. Because neither the cat nor I had any interest in sleeping on and eating under furniture that were constantly being shuffled around, I decided the better part of valor was to take a temporary leave of absence.

Being the penny pincher that I am, we wound up at the Budget Suites in Addison, Texas (they refer to this venue as Suites of America). And that’s where the discovery began.

I knew we would be there at least one month. After all, the estate sale was still two weeks off, and although I had not made a final decision on the purchase of my new home, the one I had my eye on was going to take some restoration before we could move in. My contractor told me it would take two weeks to restore. Having enjoyed watching The Money Pit more than twice, I immediately translated his estimate into six weeks. We were both wrong: It took a little over two months.

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The 30-Day Rule

During that time I learned a travel secret or two for folks wanting to take a month-long vacation, a between-houses/remodeling/restoration stay, or an extended business visit in the U.S. After 30 consecutive days, hotel guests get their stay TAX FREE! (I referenced the rule from Texas, but other states have similar rules.) Two extended stay hotels I checked had a policy of charging the tax up front and reimbursing you on day 31. Budget Suites allows you to pay the full month’s bill and not bother with the tax at all.

This amounted to more than $104 in savings, as the tax rate I would have paid in that location was over 13%.

If you visit their website, you’ll see an advertisement “rates starting at $179.” I called to find out which location(s) had those rates (these are standard rates, not specials). Given that I didn’t want either the cat or me to wind up as characters in a future CSI or SVU episode, I kept looking for a more suitable area. Addison happened to be in both a desirable area and relatively close to “home” but normally at a rate of $229 per week. Happily, they were running a special. So at the $199 rate per week for a first floor room, less the tax, but with the prorated pet deposit ($40/mo up to $150), our first 30 days ran us $836, or an average of $28 per day.

After the initial 30 days, we were able to use the locked in special rate to pay weekly — as they have a nasty little policy that states if you pay them more than you actually stay in advance, you’re pretty much SOL. No Refunds! And we weren’t really sure just how long we needed to stay in residence. The catch here is that when you do that, you get charged an $11.95 installment fee — per week, or day.

Photo credit: Destination360 Addison Texas

You see, after 30 days, hotel guests are considered “permanent residents.” And although it is not required for said “residents” to pay their “rent” in full, they are charged an “installment fee” for their partial payments. After all, who wants to pony up four weeks worth of rent and discover your stay was cut short by half, leaving you with an involuntary contribution of $398 you could not recover? Yet, had I known we would be there a full two months, I could have saved approximately $48 in “installment fees.”

Knowing Your Options for Savings

Residents at Budget Suites usually provide their own linens, kitchen supplies, and anything else one would normally use in an apartment. TVs are standard; HD-TVs are extra, as are microwave ovens and maid service. Other venues include these items as part of the deal, but their rates are higher. We chose Budget Suites strictly for the price and pet-friendly policy.

The point here is to know your fee structures and options. If you’re planning on staying in one location for a month or two, ask for their residency policy. Knowing their policy helps you manage your cash flow in saving hundreds — or even thousands, depending on the venue (there are some plush extended stay options as well) — of your vacation or business dollars. Then ask about their refund policy, if they charge installment fees, and what is and is not included in the quoted rates. Also ask for specials they may be running, even in peak season (naturally the specials will be better off-peak, but don’t assume they don’t exist during peak, especially in today’s economy). These policies, depending on your venue of choice, can make a real difference in cost savings.

Happy Traveling!

As illustrated in a previous post, you have options for accessing discounted travel venues, but each carries a cost for access, even the “free” hotel search engines. I mention hotels for two reasons:

1. Most travelers think of hotel accommodations, and
2. Online Booking Engines (OBEs) such as Hotels dot com, Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, Hotwire,  Priceline, and others specialize in discounted hotel stays as well as discounted transportation, not resort rental savings.

Hotels are great for certain kinds and groups of travel:

• Business or other travel alone
• People who have no problem sharing a small hotel bathroom and vanity
• Travel to areas with no resorts available, and
• Overnight layovers

When it comes to best travel value for couples, teams, groups of women or families, however, hotels are not a good first choice. Why? Because they are:

• Crowded — usually one closet or rack nook, which is simply not enough room for two or more people’s luggage and other “stuff,” and one small bathroom and vanity area
• Expensive per person pricing
• Noisy neighbors, next to, above and below you — or your family/group is the noisy neighbor!
• Not as private as you might think! I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want to know my hotel neighbor’s personal grooming or amorous habits. And yes, you can hear that!

Don’t get me wrong! I’d much rather stay in a noisy, crowded, expensive hotel room than camp out in my car (and I have done that — once!). But when you have the option, resort stays are much roomier, easier on your nerves, offer great activities, and are way more private!

But if you’re not careful in selecting the right source for your resort stay, you could wind up paying more than you have to! Let’s take a look at some examples. Because my purpose here is to neither promote nor bash any of the OBEs, I have selected only four, identified by numbers 1-4. You are encouraged to do your own comparisons.

The point here is to demonstrate the advantage behind paid vacation memberships versus your “free” online booking engines. Each venue is selected in September 2009 for either a Thanksgiving or Christmas holiday visit. The trick to getting the best discounted resort rates is to wait as long as you can before booking your stay.

Rule of thumb: the closer to the date you want to visit, the better the rate offered.

However, for these holiday visits, your best airline deals are booked early, not late. So unless you’re planning on driving to your destination, and because of the last minute scheduling that can disrupt family gatherings, I don’t recommend you wait for potential hot weeks. Besides, during my research, I discovered the rooms for these specific holiday weeks were already disappearing fast!

Here’s what you’re getting instead of a hotel.

Research your price comparisons on the OBEs:

1. Refer to the resort venue as a hotel. Pretend you’re looking for a room that accommodates only two adults. It’s OK. All room options will come up, and listed resort options are generally the same price for four people as for one. That’s one of the cost saving advantages of resort vacations!
2. Next, type in as little of the name of the “hotel” (resort) as you can. For the Samoset venue, I typed in Samoset. For the following Christmas comparison, I simply typed in Welk.
3. You may discover that resort bookings are not always available on the OBEs, even when you find them there. That makes it hard to shop price, so change your week around a little, as I did.

Now let’s take a look at a Christmas week booking example. Keep in mind that this is a particularly high demand week, so you’ll need to be a little flexible, and you’ll need to start booking as soon as possible!

Again, here’s what you get instead of a hotel.

Get Creative With Flexible Planning:

With flexible planning, the Christmas vacation week shown above can open some creative possibilities. For example, you can stay in one of the U.S.’s most popular family resorts, invite your extended local friends or family to join in any of the numerous available and memorable activities, experience Christmas Eve and/or Christmas morning with your loved ones, and then head back home Christmas Day to celebrate your own traditions with your kids. You get a great visit without wearing out your welcome, and for seven days you have peace on earth, good will toward everyone.

And these are just two examples showing you the value of selecting the right travel source.

The Resort Cost Factor

There are three ways you can gain access to resort vacations. Two of them are expensive. One of them is cost saving:

1. Hotel Bookings — We’ve covered that above.
2. Vacation Club or Timeshare Ownership — These memberships cost 10s of thousands of dollars with annual maintenance fees.
3. Vacation Program Membership — You pay a fee up front to gain rental access to condo resort units. We’ve covered samples of the pricing above, and that was for peak, high demand weeks. This membership fee is usually several thousand dollars less than the cost of ownership. If not, keep shopping! I’ll focus on this option in a separate post.

Here’s a sneak peek into the vacation program membership option: depending on the program, you could save the entire cost of membership after only one or two vacations!

Happy Traveling!

Resorts, condo resorts, timeshare resorts, even pool home and log cabin vacation rentals are all terms used when referring to vacation resorts. They are highly sought after for comfort, roominess, and amenities not generally found in hotel chains around the world. Here’s why:

• Families are able to vacation together for one weekly price instead of a nightly, per person rate. One person or four, the price is the same.
• Depending on the venue, there may be several on-site activities and possible inclusives such as horseback riding and meals, not offered by hotel chains.
• Amenities often include full kitchens, washer/dryers, full living areas, and other home-like features, making it possible to maximize the space without having to trip over suitcases and their contents.
• Ladies, one word: Bathrooms! Unlike hotels, where everyone shares one tiny vanity and water closet, resorts frequently feature multiple fully equipped bathrooms, up to one per living quarter!
• And whether it’s your hotel neighbors’ amorous activities at 3:00 a.m. or your own group’s raucous game of Mexican Train, the noise factor in resorts is greatly reduced, if not completely eliminated — as in the case of the pool homes and log cabins.

Timeshare Ownership v. Timeshare Rental

A Pricey Affair

With all these advantages, one would suspect that resorts would be a pricey affair. They can be. Especially the better ones. In fact, resort amenities are often one of the strongest selling features of timeshare sales.

As a former timeshare owner myself, one of the problems I discovered was that I was charged a rather large purchase price (in my case, around $23,000, mortgaged over a period of 15 years — I forget the interest rate), with an annual maintenance fee of around $600. I would not be charged for my visits. But wait . . . yes I would! Hello! I was being charged a monthly mortgage payment, plus $600 annual maintenance fee. Because I can’t remember the interest rate, let’s pretend there wasn’t one. (Yeah, like that happens.) Anyway, my monthly payment would have been around $128. Multiply that by 12 = $1,536. Add $600 to that and total expense each year = $2,136.

Limited Access

With ownership also comes limited access. Is it just me, or does that sound backwards? Anyway, my timeshare was available to me only one week — and an assigned one at that — per year. If I couldn’t make it that week, too bad.

Of course I was supposedly able to bank my week and exchange it. I was even supposed to be able to exchange my venue for either a sister venue (no extra charge) or a member venue through RCI at a discounted rate. On paper, that looked great. In reality, I could never make it work.

The real kicker here was that when I was not able to take my vacation during my timeshare week, and not being able to exchange it for a time and place I could actually use, I was charged the same as if I had.

Timeshare Resorts: Good ~*~ Timeshare Ownership: Not So Much!

Look, I’m not bashing timeshare resorts. I just listed several reasons why these venues are the preferred choice for great vacations! The thing I found cumbersome and expensive was the ownership part.

Solution: Timeshare Rentals

Keep in mind this blog is all about saving you time, money and hassle when traveling. So let me tell you there is a solution to getting the great resort stay while saving time, money and hassle! It’s by renting the units, not buying them.

How? Here Are Three Ways:

1. Private Rentals: Some owners are allowed to and do rent their units. You can find these by typing in condo resort rentals into your search engine. There are some online rental programs where you can search for available condos, but with this option, you’re pretty much on your own for booking, support, and handling. Also, the deals are all over the place, so you’ll need to do your research!
   Savings Recap:
   • Time: No savings
   • Money: Possible, but not guaranteed
   • Hassle: No savings
2. Booking Engines: I’ll go into this in much more detail in a separate post, but suffice it to say that the online booking engines such as Hotels.com, Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline and HotWire are geared toward discounted hotel bookings, not resorts.
   Savings Recap:
   • Time: Hotel search, yes; resort search, no time savings
   • Money: Hotel search, sometimes; resort search, no savings
   • Hassle: OK as long as you fit their online program model
3. Resort Access Memberships: I’m not referring to vacation clubs. Those operate very similarly to timeshare ownership. But vacation memberships are not actually a new concept — offline. The online version is relatively new. This subject will also be covered in more detail, but you will need to know that there are access fees for these services. The fees depend on the membership itself as well as what you want from your membership.
   Savings Recap:
   • Time: Huge savings after membership selection; shopping for the right membership can take a little time.
   • Money: Huge savings, which is the idea — you can even save enough to pay for your membership.
   • Hassle: Huge savings after membership selection; shopping for the right membership can be a bit of a hassle. But I’m here to help.

Of course some of you have friends, family, or employers who let you use their timeshare. If they aren’t charging you for the privilege, you’ve just latched on to the best deal in town! Lucky you! Until something goes wrong. Ouch. Let me know how that works for you.