Vacation Rentals By Owner

When my wife and I were planning our family vacation to Hawaii, we started off just going to a travel agent and seeing what they had to offer. The travel agent gathered our details...how many people, how long, and where. He then came up with a hotel located pretty close to downtown Waikiki. It was just far enough out that it was walkable, but much cheaper than the hotels on the water. He also had us flying Hawaiian airlines, which he said has great service and is one of the few airlines that still offer a meal. All this sounded good to my wife and I except the price seemed kind of steep...still more than we had budgeted and wanted to spend.

My wife started doing some research on her own. She found a condo available through an organization called VRBO. I personally had never heard of VRBO, but I was aware of the idea. There has been a lot of hype and news lately about Airbnb lately, and VRBO seemed like a similar venture. The condo was in a great location, downtown and Waikiki beach were walkable and the condo had several reviews. We decided to take the plunge and give this VRBO condo a try. I was a little nervous making the first payment. We then were able to make two more payments before we actually left, so this gave us a little extra time to stash away a bit of money. The price was much cheaper than the hotel alternative the travel agent suggested. The condo also had a full kitchen, which we planned to make use of.

We received several emails before we left detailing all the information we needed when we arrived. When we arrived I was able to get the condo key from a lockbox at the front of the building. There was a slight problem when trying to get the gate key from another lockbox so we could park the car though, the code that was given to me did not work! I'll admit I was a little pissed off, but I called the contact number in the instructions and they gave me the correct code within minutes. I was then able to park the car in the gated parking area and we were set.

From now on I'll be checking out both VRBO & Airbnb when we decide to go on vacations. The money saved was great and I really have no complaints!

You can check out the actual condo we rented and my review here