Airbnb changing vacation home rental market

I rented a house in Pebble Beach in 2010 for seven nights for a total of $4,500, for U.S. Open week. It is called “The Par Four House” and you can find it via Google or pretty much any search engine via the Internet. The house I rented slept 12 and allowed us to bring our big dog Arnold. Don’t report me, but we had 10 or 11 adults and several kids along with my daughter’s two small dogs for a couple of the nights. It was one of the best vacations of my life and a real treat to have my dad and brothers together with my two sons to attend the U.S. Open golf tournament. Vacation rentals can be super cost-effective in comparison to hotel rooms and having a full kitchen saves money and allows for great family dinners. Airbnb is a new, interesting phenomenon in America and apparently disrupting the hotel business across the world. More people booked rooms through Airbnb than Marriott and Starwood combined, according to a seminar I recently attended. Holy cow, this is amazing to me because many of these homes and apartments are not your traditional vacation homes. People across the country are renting out their primary residence and allowing strangers to move in for a week or two while they vacate to mom and dad’s house or grandma’s house, I guess? I personally think this is a little weird and not something my wife and I could ever do because in a traditional vacation home. The owners keep a small amount of their personal belongings at their second homes in vacation areas, such as Lake Tahoe. They often have a closet locked up with their personal stuff in it to keep it private and not used by strangers. It might be my age (58) or the face that both my wife and I grew up street smart in San Francisco, but we would not feel comfortable giving access to our underwear drawers and bedroom no matter how much per night we could get from Airbnb. The vacation home world is changing.