On the worldwide Board, there has just been a discussion of why people choose to stay in a rental home (or cabin) instead of a hotel. It seems that more and more people are "converting." One of the posts mentioned that rental home guests are not just people on vacation. He noted that business people who are staying in one location, or groups of business people traveling together, also are using rental homes.
That prompted me to post this story of how we got into the "rent-by-owner" business:
The same is true for convention/business meeting
attendees. In fact, that’s how we got into the “rent-by-owner”
business. We were attending a business meeting in Orlando with 3 other
couples. The hotel wanted $175.00/night/room and we needed to stay 2
nights. But we found a 4-bedroom house for the two nights that was only
about 15 minutes from the hotel. The cost – about $50/night/couple.
And, we had the fun of being able to visit together in the spacious living
room, play games in the game room, and do some of our own cooking – which saved
even more money.
At the time, we were renting our Gatlinburg cabins through a rental company and had just found out they were doing some things that were, at best, unethical. So we fired them and shut the cabins down. But the house we rented in Florida was owned by a guy in Manchester, England. We did the entire transaction online and never talk to anyone. After going through that experience, we said, “If this guy can rent his house from 3,000 miles away, we should be able to rent ours from 300 miles away!”
And the rest is history!
Oh, by the way, we rarely attend a business meeting or convention now and stay in the convention hotel – especially if we’re with other couples! We only stay in hotels if we’re driving somewhere and need to spend a night on the road.
At the time, we were renting our Gatlinburg cabins through a rental company and had just found out they were doing some things that were, at best, unethical. So we fired them and shut the cabins down. But the house we rented in Florida was owned by a guy in Manchester, England. We did the entire transaction online and never talk to anyone. After going through that experience, we said, “If this guy can rent his house from 3,000 miles away, we should be able to rent ours from 300 miles away!”
And the rest is history!
Oh, by the way, we rarely attend a business meeting or convention now and stay in the convention hotel – especially if we’re with other couples! We only stay in hotels if we’re driving somewhere and need to spend a night on the road.
Think about it! Maybe your church group is coming to Gatlinburg for a convention. You might be able to save money - and have more fun - if you stay with us at All Decked Out or Smoky Mountain Tower, rather than being crammed into a tiny hotel room!
