Vacapedia Vacation Rentals Blog

The news on the economy lately hasn’t been great, with lots of people who should know muttering the “R” word under their breath. We’ve mentioned before that choosing a vacation rental closer to home is one way to still have a vacation this summer without spending a fortune or trying to match the low U.S. dollar against stronger currencies elsewhere. Now there’s an article in the New York Times about how many choices are still available for vacation rentals this summer.

According to the article, more and more people are waiting until the last minute to book their vacation rentals in the hopes that prices will go down, but rental agents are saying the prices are staying relatively static as compared to last year.

The article also says that while the vacation rentals at the luxury end of the spectrum have already been reserved well in advance by the people for whom the “R” word isn’t really an issue, there are still lots of vacation homes available in the low- to mid-price range. This is partly due to the fact that people are booking at the last minute, and is also partly because so many people have bought second homes in the past year as real estate investments and then turning them into vacation rentals.

So it would seem that there would be so many new properties available that the prices would come down - but that doesn’t seem to be the case. In fact, one expert quoted in the article says, “The demand is still outstripping the supply. We know that people, even in a down economy, still take a vacation.” Although, as the last-minute booking trend indicates, vacationers are being much more cautious about spending their money this year.

Now, the NY Times article is focusing particularly on the New York area market, with more detailed information on the vacation rental market in the popular destinations around New York, but there’s no reason not to extrapolate some of this information from there to other popular summertime vacation spots throughout the country.

For instance, while high-end properties have probably been booked up already, you may find much more choice in the low- to mid-range than you expected to so close to the summer vacation season. You may also want to consider a few money-saving tips mentioned in the article, above and beyond booking a vacation rental instead of a hotel - such as taking a shorter vacation than you might have otherwise, or sharing the cost of a vacation rental with another family. And if you can stand to wait it out, you may find some great last minute deals on vacation rentals, even in holiday hotspots.