Vacation Rentals Pile on Luxuries

A SELF-DESCRIBED hotel snob, Jennifer Treadwell prefers to stay at Four Seasons and similar upscale hotels when she goes on vacation, for the high level of service and luxurious amenities they provide. The idea of renting a vacation home, where she would presumably bring her own bed sheets and toilet paper, was never very appealing. Then she discovered the Cottages at Cape Kiwanda on the Oregon coast, where $500-a-night two-bedroom cottages offer flat-screen televisions, surround-sound systems, spa-style robes, iPod docks, in-room Internet access and whirlpool tubs. Guests have access to a fitness center nearby and a concierge who can book an oceanfront massage or surf lesson or recommend nearby hiking trails.

“I’ve been staying there since they opened, and I never really thought of them as that vacation rental place,” said Ms. Treadwill, a health coach from Portland, Ore. “I always assumed it was a luxurious boutique hotel.”

In an effort to distinguish themselves from other short-term rentals and capture a share of the $100 billion hotel market, many vacation rentals are trying to stand out by essentially posing as hotels — offering everything from regular maid service to miniature toiletries to concierges who can arrange restaurant reservations. That’s good news for travelers looking for an alternative to traditional hotels, as the heightened competition creates a greater diversity of places to stay at a wider range of prices.

Late last year, Wimco, an upscale Caribbean villa management company on St. Bart’s, began providing daily housekeeping and weekly cocktail parties for guests at waterfront restaurants on the island, and will soon offer cellphones programmed to ring the concierge. To maintain a level of consistency among its properties, Lifestyle Villas, which manages beachfront homes and condos in Los Cabos, Mexico, requires homeowners who list with the agency to include certain standard perks, among them, 800-thread-count linens, two bathrobes per room, wall safes, suitcase holders, alarm clocks and L’Occitaine toiletries. Exclusive Vail Rentals, a Colorado rental company that opened last year, insists on similar consistency, providing daily maid service, Molton Brown toiletries and ski and boot delivery for guests.

And ResortQuest, a large vacation rental company with nearly 10,000 properties in the United States, recently acquired by Wyndham Worldwide, is attempting to entice guests to its vacation rentals with hotel points. The outfit is offering 25,000 Wyndham Rewards points to travelers who book at least four nights at ResortQuest ski destinations by Jan. 31 for travel through April 15. The points can be redeemed for up to four free nights at a Wyndham hotel.

“If you want to have your villa filled 52 weeks of the year, you have to be competitive with the resort market,” said Steve A. Lassman, vice president and general manager at Villas of Distinction, which has been offering triple American Express Rewards points for certain rentals. The company markets one of its newest properties, Nandana, as a “private resort.” The five-bedroom oceanfront estate on Grand Bahama Island, says the Web description, “goes beyond the traditional villa vacation by providing guests with a wide range of luxury resort services, amenities and activities,” including on-site massage, an infinity pool, Jet Skis, beach volleyball and an 18-hole golf course. Nandana rates begin at $6,500 a night.

One reason for all this extra effort is the surplus of vacation properties built during the boom: unsold homes and condominiums are now being marketed as rentals, making the entire market more competitive. Even mom-and-pop outfits are stepping up the personal service, easing minimum booking requirements, offering airport transfers and including welcome baskets with basic toiletries or kitchen supplies.

Last year Greybeard Realty, which manages more than 200 rental homes in the Black Mountains of North Carolina near Asheville, with rates from $650 a week, added a guest services division to handle event tickets, grocery baskets and restaurant recommendations. Similarly, Globe Homes and Condos, which manages about 50 properties in Los Angeles and Palm Springs, Calif., recently hired a full-time service manager to assist guests with theme park tickets, child care and other requests. To establish a base line of service for all of its properties, the company requires housekeepers to make the beds a certain way and offers coffee makers, cable TV, wireless Internet access and unlimited phone calls at each of its rentals.

“I need to be able to compete with the hotels,” said Sebastian de Kleer, president of Globe Homes and Condos. “At the same time I need something more to differentiate myself from other vacation rental companies and individual homeowners.”

Vacation rentals have long appealed to families in search of more space and a kitchen, but they are gaining other converts. Gordon Reid, a frequent traveler from San Francisco, expected to miss the consistency of chain hotels when he booked a vacation rental at the urging of a friend. “I thought, ‘I don’t want to deal with the quirks of a regular house,’ ” he said. But he quickly got over those concerns after experiencing the “hotel-like amenities” of Globe Homes and Condos. In the past year, he has chosen its rental properties over hotels on several business trips, saving about $50 a day in the process. “It’s a nice alternative,” he said.

Until recently, most vacation rentals were available only weekly — usually Saturday to Saturday. But even that has changed as rental companies have become more sophisticated about managing inventory and online bookings. Last year, 23.5 percent of vacation rental listings on Rentalo.com had no minimum-stay requirements, up from roughly 14 percent the year before. And Web sites like Homeaway.com and Vacationroost.com are making it easier for travelers to compare and book vacation rentals online. TripAdvisor.com has more than 250,000 reviews from vacation rental guests, and Homeaway allows guests to post reviews and evaluate the accuracy of its listings on a five-star rating system.

Amid all the newfound sophistication, plenty of rentals still offer nothing more than a key under the doormat, requiring guests to tidy up after themselves and, yes, bring their own toilet paper. Ski resorts, popular Caribbean getaways and many rentals near Disney World in Orlando that compete directly with hotels tend to offer more services and amenities than markets where there are few chain hotels, like some towns along the Gulf Coast or in New England. You should do due diligence by contacting the property to ask what exactly is included in the price.

But what vacation rentals lack in brand familiarity and uniformity, they tend to make up for in other attractive variables — say, more space, privacy or a certain sense of hominess from drinking a beer on your own front porch.

Douglas Quinby, a leisure travel analyst at the research firm PhocusWright, compares staying in a brand-name hotel chain to Starbucks, “where you know what the coffee is going to taste like when you get there.” Staying at a vacation rental, he said, is akin to “stumbling upon that independent coffee joint that’s different and enhances your experience.”