Consider carefully where you’ll spend the night

Just a few years ago, travelers had only a handful of options when it came to accommodations: a hotel or motel, camping, or staying with friends or family. Today, there are many more alternatives but with those additional choices come more potential pitfalls.

The view from our condo at Kihei
Like the ride-sharing services Lyft and Uber, sharing services for accommodations are popping up all over: VRBO (Vacation Rentals by Owner), HomeExchange, and AirBnB, to name but a few.

Certainly, there are many perfectly fine properties available through such sharing sites.

Last year, my wife and I stayed at a friend’s condo on Maui that he also makes available through VRBO. My sister and brother-in-law have successfully “exchanged” their home with families in the U.K. and France using HomeExchange and had excellent experiences as both temporary landlord and tenant. My son regularly uses AirBNB when he travels, mostly to Europe, and has stayed in accommodations ranging from a landlord's spare room in Ibiza to a boat moored on a canal in Amsterdam.

But it isn’t always so, and sharing isn’t for everyone, as syndicated columnist Froma Harrop recently pointed out. It’s an interesting point of view. Thank you, Froma, for giving me the O.K. to share it.

Visit my main page at TheTravelPro.us for more news, reviews, and personal observations on the world of upmarket travel.



Photo by Carl Dombek
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