SAN DIEGO—Have you ever been on vacation and had some immediate business to tend to, only to find out that your hotel charges an exorbitant price to use its business center? It happened to San Diego Sunset Vacation Rentals President Will Holland, which is why he has a business center that is free for his guests.
“When people go on vacation, they can’t always leave their work at home,” he said. “They need to be able to log onto the internet, link into a wireless network, and send faxes. They shouldn’t have to pay extra for those simple services.”
As an innovator in the local vacation rental business, Holland saw a need and decided to fill it. “When my wife and I started looking around for a vacation rental company to handle our own vacation rental a few years ago, we weren’t happy with what we found,” he explained. That’s why he and is wife, Ikuko, started their own. “We saw companies that charged both the owners and the guests special fees for one thing or another. They didn’t offer basic needs like a business center and internet access. They didn’t even offer free nursery rentals, much less free bicycle and boogie board rentals.”
Holland had a vision of a vacation rental company that would be full service with the emphasis on the “service.” He is proud to offer his guests free use of a business center, as well as free recreation and nursery rentals. He refuses to charge extra for the services that he says should be included in a vacation rental stay, like cleaning fees, reservation fees and damage waivers. “What’s this about charging to make a reservation?” he mused. “Isn’t that what the company is already getting paid to do? It’s not a good deal if you are getting charged all kinds of special fees and it’s even a worse deal if they can’t provide you with free Wi-Fi and a free space to take care of business.”
A vacation rental can be the most economical way to take a vacation, but watch out for those extra charges, he warns, and make sure you will be provided what you need, like access to computers, the internet, faxing and printing capabilities.
Guests at the 50-plus Mission Beach and Pacific Beach area vacation rentals Holland manages, also get free access to a fitness center. “We want to be the company that provides vacationers more than a rental unit, we want to provide a vacation experience,” Holland said.
by Suzanne M. Perez