My Favorite Airline

Now don't laugh, but my favorite airline, hand's down, is Southwest Airlines. OK, go ahead and laugh if you like. Seriously, though, where else can you get one-way airfare between Chicago and Orlando for $59 ? That is hard to beat!

Sure it's a no frills airline, but I don't think that you'll ever have to worry about your reservations because of a chapter 11 filing either! They know how to take care of their customers and make money for their stockholders at the same time. That's a rare combination in this day and age!

Anyway, I think they're great and I fly with them every chance I get. You won't always get their best rates through most of the online services like Expedia or Orbitz. Instead, you will need to go to Southwest.com and book it there. You can also book rental cars and hotels there too.

So, I get their internet specials via email every week or two. I will post the basics of each of their specials here as often as I can. If you see something of interest you can go to their site and investigate further. Here are the specials from Sept 20th:

1. Click 'n Save Internet Specials
Fly Southwest Airlines for $34 to $134 one-way in select markets with 21-day advance purchase! Available only on southwest.com. 21-day advance purchase required. Purchase through September 22, 2005, midnight Pacific Time. Travel October 11, 2005 through January 9, 2006. Fares are one-way. Available in select markets. Federal tax of $3.20 per takeoff and landing, airport taxes of up to $9, and government-imposed September 11th Security Fee of up to $5 not included. Fares are nonrefundable, but (except for tickets purchased through our Group Tickets Program) may be applied toward future travel on Southwest Airlines. Fare may be combined with other combinable fares. Fare is not combinable with Senior Fares. When combining fares, all rules and restrictions apply. Available on published service only. Some flights operated by ATA Airlines. Seats are limited. Hawaii and Orange County, CA are not included in this sale. Additional terms and conditions apply. See Complete Details

Quickbooks for Vacation Rentals

I have often been asked about which software or service I use for the accounting aspect of my Vacation Rental properties. On line services for managing your Vacation Rental property accounting are starting to make appearances. Some look good and are relatively inexpensive. For my properties though, I plan to stick with Intuit's Quickbooks software.

I first began using Quickbooks several years ago for my wife's business, so the transition to Vacation Rental property was relatively easy for me. It was just a matter of setting up the business profile, accounts, taxes, etc. In just a couple of hours I was ready to go with the "new" business.

There are so many features in Quickbooks that I will not attempt to describe them all here. One of the most important to me is the ability to link with Intuit's Turbo Tax software at tax time. This makes my least favorite time of the year a little more bearable because I don't have to manually enter any of my VR data into my tax forms.

Another feature I use extensively is the ability to email invoices as .pdf attachments through the Intuit server without ever exiting Quickbooks. I customized one of the Quickbooks invoice templates to make a reservation invoice which includes check-in/check-out dates and times. I can take a reservation by phone and have the confirmation email, with the reservation invoice attached, in my customer's mailbox before I get off the phone!

You can even write checks with Quickbooks. If you own multiple properties and have a lot of checks to write each month, the check printing feature may be of benefit to you. Computing Sales Tax and Hotel tax is also a breeze - just a few mouse clicks and you are ready to write the check...or let Quickbooks print it for you.

Sorry if this sounds like an advertisement for Intuit, but this software has really helped us. With the price for the basic version below $100, it is also less expensive than most of the online services!

First Vacation Rental Post

Our first experience with Vacation Rentals came about 21 years ago on a family trip to the Smoky Mountains. We had always stayed in hotels when traveling. I had noticed
signs for chalet rentals on our previous trip and decided to break with tradition and rent a chalet in Gatlinburg - not even fully understanding what a chalet was.

We were hooked! There was, of course, no comparison with the cramped quarters of the standard hotel room. Our 2 daughters were "discovering" everything, from circular stairs to squirrels on the large deck. We never darkened the doorway of a hotel in the area again.

Fifteen years - and dozens of trips to Gatlinburg - later, we purchased our first chalet. Our second chalet came a little over a year later. We used property managers to handle our rentals for the first few years, then struck out on our own a couple of years ago.

The popularity of Vacation rentals has seen quite an explosion in the past few years, with no hint of slowing down. Many more owners are managing their own properties with the help of the internet. Vacation Rental web pages number in the millions.

I would like to use this blog to share information between Owners and Guests, issues and concerns of importance to all of us and, most of all, the really great family experiences that make it all worthwhile!