Enjoy a Vacation For the ‘Whole Family’ This Summer

I’m extremely meticulous when it comes to planning vacations. If I wasn’t a blogger, my career choice would definitely be something related to the tourism industry. I love spending countless hours researching the best accommodations to stay during my families vacations. More so than anything else, I have learned that staying in small hotel rooms is not necessarily the best option when traveling. To be honest, this is the worst option when traveling with children. Not only are hotel rooms expensive for what you get, but they tend to be super cramped if traveling with kids. This sponsored conversation on behalf of HomeAway explains why I prefer staying in home and condo rentals when traveling with my family. 

My go-to company for finding vacation rentals is HomeAway, the world’s leading online vacation rental marketplace with more than one million listings in 190 countries. I often start my travel research by going into HomeAway‘s map view to research the different destinations in the world that interest me the most. Then I move from country to country to see the general prices and rental property options offered. The map view also helps me view individual properties in the exact area I’m interesting in staying. 

Properties on HomeAway are perfect for travellers with all different types of budgets as the rental properties range from low-cost to luxury. Either way the properties tend to offer twice the space at half the price of hotel rooms, making HomeAway vacation rentals perfect for families and large groups.

Traveling with “the whole family” and staying together in “the whole house” are the core benefits upon which HomeAway and the vacation rental category are built. The rental is at the heart of a whole vacation experience – it provides space and privacy to truly bond and create lasting memories. For this reason, HomeAway has been ahead of the curve sometime when it comes to what modern families want. More than ever parents let their children advise them on what type of vacation they want to take as a family.  It’s a growing trend known as kidfluencing, when children’s opinions help the whole family come to a decision.

HomeAway understands when your kids are happy, you’re happy too. To help parents better understand what makes children happy on vacation, HomeAway asked Kidfluencers What Kids Want on Vacation and their Favourite Unique Properties.  HomeAway found what kids wanted the most on their vacations could be easiest found at rental properties.

1. Splashing Around   

Kids told HomeAway that a pool is the extra amenity they’d most love to have (37%), with a water slide their second choice (21%).

2.Playtime

The third most popular extra amenity as chosen by children in their survey was a video game arcade (16%), followed by a home theater (6%).

3. Room for the whole family

Kids overwhelmingly told HomeAway that the best part of staying in a whole house on vacation would be having plenty of space to run around (13%)—and a room of their own (39%). Kids also said they’d love to invite their friends, cousins, grandparents, and pets.

4. A unique property

Lastly, the survey found (37%) kids want to stay a unique property that makes their vacation feel truly special.

Contest – Win a $5,000 Stay with the HomeAway Kidfluencers Contest

HomeAway is empowering kidfluencers by giving them even more control over their family’s travel plans with a chance to win a $5,000 vacation rental stay to anywhere in the United States in 2015. To enter, travelers just need to create a 15 to 60-second video of their kids describing why their family should win a vacation from HomeAway.

Upload the video to Instagram, YouTube or Vimeo, using the hashtag #HomeAwayVacation and complete the entry form at http://bit.ly/1c0IN33 before May 29, 2015. HomeAway will select 10 finalists that will be voted on by the public from June 8 to 12 to determine the winner. For more details on the contest, visit http://bit.ly/1c0IN33.

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of HomeAway.