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VacationRentalDirect.com – Your Ultimate Rental Destination
Started to think already about the place you would be visiting this winter vacation! Yes, you need a well-deserved break, much the same way I required one after spending all those long hours at work. Just as I was about to pack my bags and head North, something hit me to read some rental directories before I do so!
By chance, I stumbled upon Vacation Rental Direct, and of course, it promised me all the information I required to go to the Swiss Alps! Importantly, I found the site www.vacationrentaldirect.com so inviting that if given a choice, I would have gone away from sight to visit the place I had decided on!
I wanted to know more about a place called JjungFraudoch in the Alps Mountain ranges. I had tried searching on this a lot of times to get more information. Luckily, I came through this site and was confident I could get a lot of information on this place from here.
What’s hot about www.VacationRentalDirect.com?
Cool website
First things first, the appeal of the website is so enchanting, that I decided to give it a deeper thought. Yes, it is a bit cluttered with information here and there. I can understand that though because this is a directory site, and it needs to have information. So, full marks to the presentation of the website as it has left a lasting impression on me.
Featured Vacation Rentals
Towards the left side of the home page, I could see a motley group of ragged houses. Just as I was curious, I read the tag line that said “Featured Vacation Rentals”. Trust those houses looked to be ‘haunted’ for sure. In reality though, I found out that they were not really haunted or looking haunted, but just constructed that way for a more natural feel.
All right, I got the basic idea behind the reason of the so-called bad looks of the home. Fascinated by what they had to offer, I dug in deep to find out more and was impressed with all that they could give me. It was a shame I could not locate one in JjungFraudoch, else I would have immediately jumped on the deal.
Links connect to links, and they connect to more links
For starters, I knew I had to click on European Vacation Rentals if I wanted to get more details on the place I would be visiting. The number next to the text read 2167, that told me that this directory site had a listing of about 2167 rentals. Very good! I jumped on and clicked on the link. What happened next was an anti-climax of sorts?
I was shown a country wise listing – Andorra (100 some things), Belgium (200 some things) and so on. Fair enough, may be they are structured in a sense to give users the ease of navigation. Somewhere in the right hand corner, I located Switzerland and what! I could see only 7 vacation rentals. I could not believe what I saw!
To do justice to my time here, I dug in deep only to discover one thing – No JjungFraudoch! Just as I was about to move from here, I clicked on Zurich to see what it had.
Listing of the Rental
I was able to find one listing for Zurich, which in itself surprises me because it is one of the major cities of Switzerland. Nevertheless, I moved on and saw that all details required for this listing was given neatly to me. I was informed on how big the accommodation would be and what would it cost me for a week and so on.
But I do not see the point of no JjungFraudoch! I was more interested to see if this site offered similar results for other countries. And as I started searching, trust I was surprised. I could see about 400 odd listings for Spain and 450 odd for Italy and France. They were not bad choices for me either!
Areas of Improvement
Much as what Vacation Rental Direct had to give me, I observed some areas of improvement in the site. Please note I am doing it with an unbiased eye; quite opposed to your thought that I may hit this site with a hammer for not giving me a JjungFraudoch rental!
Good categorization of sites but too less information on the listing – I am a person with an eye for detail. Some listings that I had gone through for the sake of it – I saw that there were a lot of things missing in it. How do I approach the listing? After landing in the city, how do I get there?
Special Offers – Going for a fortnight tour, I was certainly looking out for a special deal that could save me money. So what if I could not find the listing for the place I wanted to visit? I had made up my mind to visit Spain. Once I did that, I wanted some kind of a special offer. I could not find that as well.
Almost no information on places to see once I go there – This is one area where this site has to buck up real fast. Any tourist would like to know all the places of interest nearby the city or the location he is going to. Not presenting this information could be robbing him of some valuable inputs.
My Rating
Based on what I saw from my neutral eyes, I rate www.vacationrentaldirect.com on the metrics mentioned below. Please note that 5 are the maximum points that can be awarded in any category.
Ease in Navigating the Website – 4
Number of locations – 3 (I found very few destinations in Switzerland! I can’t believe it is not a popular place for visitors!)
Details on locations – 3 (Not a lot of details given to the visitors)
Online Booking Interface – 2 (Though this site allows me to contact owners directly, I would have preferred an Online Interface through the site allowing me to book directly)
Conclusion
I might have been a bit critical in my review of the Vacation Rental Direct. It is a good website but needs some work on it. Any traveler who wishes to go to places like Spain, France, Italy or Mexico, should be seeing this site for more information. This site also has excellent locales in Central America and Asian continent.
This is review Nr 13 of the series vacation rentals websites reviews. Enjoy!
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