07/14/2013   English German

  Edition # 102  
San Francisco, 07-14-2013


Figure [1]: Michael sitting on the patio of a vacation rental on Hawaii.

Angelika In March, we once again packed our bags and went on a trip to the Hawaiian island of Oahu. We've given up on hotels for quite some time already, and nowadays always rent vacation homes, not only because there's no hotels in our favorite spot, Kailua. Since we know exactly what we want and have become pretty familiar with the neighborhood, I always get a place to stay via "vrbo.com" ("Vacational Rental by Owner"). On the site, owners offer their vacation homes from around the world for rent.

If you're looking for a place on Oahu, click on the US map, then drill down to the state of Hawaii, then on the island of Oahu, and you'll see various offerings in different locations on the island. Filtering by the number of bedrooms required, whether ocean front is a must, or availability by a preset date narrows down the search. Inquiries to property owners are usually answered within one or two days.

Figure [2]: Typical vacation rental on Hawaii: wooden floors and rattan style furniture.

Renting a property requires a prepayment of a couple of hundred dollars and sending a signed contract to the owner. The entire rent then needs to be paid four weeks before the rental date. Most owners want it via check or money order, only few accept credit cards, as those require them to pay a processing fee.

Figure [3]: A charcoal grill is a must on Hawaii.

We're pretty amazed every time how flawlessly this process works. The landlords typically aren't on the island, but are living somewhere on the US mainland. Usually, they let a Hawaiian resident manage the property. In March, we rented a place in Lanikai, a small bordering neighborhood to Kailua. I only called the property manager once before we went there and we didn't see him even once during the entire time we were there. The house key was placed inside the house when we arrived, and we left it on the kitchen table when we left. For emergencies, we had the manager's and the cleaning lady's phone number. The place was great, as you can tell by the pictures.

RSS Feed
Mailing Liste
Impressum
Mike Schilli Monologues


Get announcements for new editions

New editions of this publication appear in somewhat random intervals. To receive a brief note when they're available in your mailbox (about once every two months on average), you can register your email on the 'usarundbrief' Google Groups list.

Your email address



All Editions:
2024 153 154 155
2023 148 149 150 151 152
2022 143 144 145 146 147
2021 138 139 140 141 142
2020 133 134 135 136 137
2019 129 130 131 132
2018 125 126 127 128
2017 120 121 122 123 124
2016 115 116 117 118 119
2015 111 112 113 114
2014 106 107 108 109 110
2013 101 102 103 104 105
2012 96 97 98 99 100
2011 91 92 93 94 95
2010 85 86 87 88 89 90
2009 79 80 81 82 83 84
2008 73 74 75 76 77 78
2007 66 67 68 69 70 71 72
2006 59 60 61 62 63 64 65
2005 54 55 56 57 58
2004 49 50 51 52 53
2003 43 44 45 46 47 48
2002 36 37 38 39 40 41 42
2001 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35
2000 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
1999 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
1998 7 8 9 10 11 12
1997 1 2 3 4 5 6
1996 0

 

Send us a comment
We'd like to hear from you, please send us feedback if you want to comment on the content or have suggestions for future topics.

Simply write your your message into the text box below. If you'd like a response from us, please also leave your email. If you want to stay anonymous, simply put 'anonymous' into the email field. This way we'll get the message, but we have no way to respond to you.

Your email address


Message

 
Contact the authors
Latest update: 13-Jun-2014