By: Co-Editor, RB:

We have seen a trend towards vacation homes or time shares in this country over the last decade. What was once a European affectation, we now see in North America.

Previously, we have covered SecondPorch.com  which is a Facebook application that allows users to trade and rent vacation homes among their friends and networks. We also covered Mimbeo.com, a free vacation rental portal.

Newly launched MetroFlats.com, a Clifton, New Jersey based startup, is a vacation rental marketplace that enables hosts and renters to connect with one another on a secure network. Very similar to Mimbeo.com, you can search for vacation rentals by location.

While Mimbeo.com has a strong presence in Minneapolis, Metroflats.com has a strong following in New York.

All members of the MetroFlats.com team stay in vacation rentals while traveling to gain a solid understanding of the marketplace.

They have a nice data base of New York properties and their prices are affordable. However, they are currently limited to New York and/or Miami.

It is unclear how the site is monetized. I presume they are marking up the price they get from the renter.

By:  Co-Editor, RS:

As the decade came to a close, I took a small amount of time to reflect on another year of my life and how the business world has changed. For one reason or another, I started to think about various businesses that used to be in my neck of the woods on Long Island, New York.

One of the things I  started to realize is that despite all of the advances in technology its impact on business over the last 10-15 years,  the overall effect  has not been good for the entrepreneur or the small business owner.

Can you imagine if you wanted to open a hardware store in the suburbs of any large or small city? Good luck. You will never be able to compete with the likes of The Home Depot. How about opening an office supply business? Once again, good luck, as Staples or Office Depot buys in such bulk that one cannot possibly compete on  pricing or  national advertising.

My recollection of the beginnings of this trend of  “Big Business”  domination ruining it for entrepreneurs, started in the mid to late 1980’s. It seemed that on every corner of the universe you were able to find a neighborhood video store. Then in the late 1980’s after Wayne Huizenga acquired the Blockbuster name, we started to see these mega-video stores all over the place. There were times you could find numerous Blockbuster stores within a few miles of each other. This phenomenon  crushed the small mom and pop video retailer as everyone enjoyed the variety that Blockbuster could offer the consumer due to its ability to carry more inventory.
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By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:

This blog has covered many Startups that are involved in the travel business. Pitchup.com (a UK based company that helps find campsites in the British Isles) , Eagle-Mountain-Outfitters.com (a Montana wilderness adventure company). However, a new site called Tripsourcing.com is most similar to the previously featured site, Localyte.com.

Localyte.com seeks to connect travels with so-called Localytes who are located in the travel destination and provide useful information.

Tripsourcing.com takes this concept a bit further. While Localyte.com is more of a community, Tripsourcing.com is more commercial. Launched in beta earlier this month and based in Quebec, Tripsourcing.com offers the first real time itinerary planning community and a tool to manage your trip diary and to find what’s make locals proud of their area.

They provide for incentive for users to explore and share their neighborhood, so they reward members with what they call Doll trips. Members earn Doll trips and can then purchase e-coupons offered by the tourism partners. You can also transfer them to other members.
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By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:

The Internet is the perfect vehicle for aggregating information for those disseminating and those consuming that information. However, as myriad startups demonstrate everyday finding a niche that will bring user back over and over is the hard part. Usually, when a site does heed that call, it is almost so simple that you want to say, “why didn’t I think of that.”

The newly launched Rentjungle.com based in Pittsburgh is just such a site. The concept is simple, but it is in the execution that it succeeds. If you are looking to rent an apartment this site should be your first stop.

The site has more listings than any other online site, and its innovative technology shows you every available listing on a user-friendly map. You instantly know where each vacancy is located and what’s nearby: parks, shopping, ultra hip watering holes. Rentjungle.com works much like Google in that it scours the Internet and pulls together apartment listings from a variety of sites and puts the listings on a single results page.

RentJungle.com launched on June 1, 2009 and within four weeks had experienced nearly 1000 unique daily visitors though word-of-mouth advertising only. Behind its success is Rick Ferris, a real estate broker with over 30 years experience in residential and commercial realty. He founded RentJungle.com to fill a real void in the online real estate market by offering a simple, easy-to-use directory and one-stop-shop destination for leasers.
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By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:

Vacation rentals are a much more common travel feature in Europe. However, as travelers in the United States become more savvy and sophisticated they increasingly are turning to vacation rentals.

Mimbeo.com, a Minneapolis based start-up, is a vacation rental website dedicated to offering travelers an excellent, easy-to-use resource for planning their next vacation – while providing its rental owner/manager members a free marketing resource. Mimbeo.com offers rental owners the same service and value they receive from the pay-for-placement rental sites, minus all of the fees.

Not only does mimbeo provide a great website, they broadcast their member listings to 25 social networks and websites…all for free.

Vacation rentals have many advantages over hotels. As mimbeo states on its site, people who travel extensively for business or leisure often feel that every hotel room starts to look the same after a few trips. Hotel rooms can be impersonal and uninteresting. When staying in a hotel room, you will often be lucky to have some sort of balcony, let alone a view. Meals must be eaten out at restaurants, adding to the cost of your vacation. For larger families, multiple hotel rooms are necessary for everyone to have even a modicum of personal space and privacy. Walls are often paper thin, guaranteeing you will be able to hear the television blaring at 1:00 a.m. in the adjacent room. Also rigid check in and check out times can be a burden. Instead of staying in a cookie cutter, boring hotel many people look at the possibilities of renting a vacation home.
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