Celebrating A Million HomeAway Properties!

Congratulations to our friends at HomeAway!  Today they celebrate their one millionth listing of rental properties world wide in 190 countries!  Tim and I consider ourselves the senior poster children for this terrific organization, since we’ve stayed in over twenty of their locations in just the past three years we’ve been on the road home free. That leaves us just 99,980 places left to enjoy! We even rent their properties when we visit our children in the U.S.  Having our own place certainly promotes family harmony and it allows us to entertain our children and grandchildren at “our” house, which is a real treat for us.

I’ve written a lot about our experiences here on the blog and in Home Sweet Anywhere, so whether you’re a new reader or have been with us for a long time, you know that we are great fans of all the advantages HomeAway offers. Staying in vacation rentals gives us a chance to live like the locals, have twice the room at half the cost of a hotel, and save even more money by having the ability to cook our meals at home.  Unlike people on a two-week vacation, we really do live as we do at home, watching TV, reading, exploring the local attractions and meeting local people at a relaxed, unhurried pace.  So having our private space and room enough to feel comfortable is of primary importance to us. Here are some of the terrific spots we’ve enjoyed in the past few years:

Every place had its special qualities.  Our house in Portugal was enormous by our standards, with three bedrooms, two baths, a large kitchen, a wonderful terrace, and a quick walk to one  of the most stunning beaches we’ve ever seen!

Our hidey-hole in Dublin was also near the beach, but the wild winds and slashing rains made us glad that our apartment was in a 300+ year old mansion that had withstood storms much worse than the ones we were experiencing.

By contrast, our tiny place in Istanbul was crowded but incredibly clean and efficient, and what it lacked in interior space, it made up for entirely with views of the fabulous Blue Mosque and the breathtaking Bay of Istanbul with its thrilling bridges and endless traffic of huge ships steaming by.

We congratulate our friends at HomeAway on their accomplishment, even as we’re making plans right now to raise our rental numbers to at least forty in the next three years!  We may not make much of a dent in their 190 countries, but we’re certainly going to try!