Navigating the web to find the best cottage rental can be a frustrating process. There are dozens of sites and thousands of cottages, and finding accurate availability data can have even the most patient of people banging their heads on the wall. Then of course, remembering where you found the best ones is a real challenge unless you’re really well organized.

Google Notebook

I’ve been researching ways to organize cottage searches and haven’t come across anything that is much better than Google Notebook. This free service offered by Google provides a simple way to save and organize clips of information when carrying out research online. You can write notes, clip text, download images, and save links from pages during browsing.  This means when you find a cottage you like on one site, all you do is click on the notebook icon which sits in a corner on your desktop. The link will be recorded and you can make notes on the selection.

Another neat feature of Google Notebook is that it has sharing and collaboration capability, so if you are planning a vacation with family and friends outside your household, you can share your notes with them.

Del.icio.us

The bookmarking service del.icio.us is also a useful tool as a search organiser. Once you have found a property you can give it tags such as ‘sandy beach’, ‘spacious’, ‘big lake’, or whatever descriptive term you like. Then when you come back to look at your saved cottages, you’ll be able to see all those in each tagged category. It’s a little hard to explain but since this is a free service, why not just give it a try.

These two tools should make your life a lot easier when you start hunting for your 2008 cottage rental.  Happy hunting!

We are already experiencing a high demand for cottages for next summer, so is now the time to book your vacation rental?

A lot of owners will not decide on their own use of the cottage until early 2008, but many properties that are wide open for rental are already booking up. Since there are always new properties coming onto the rental market and many of these won’t be appearing in the listings until later this fall and early winter, there is a good reason to hang on for a bit to find the one that’s right for you. However there are some situation that make early booking advisable.

1. If the cottage you wanted this year was already booked

   Savvy renters know that booking early is critical if you want to get the pick of the vacation rental properties. Many families go back to the same place year after year which is usually a good indicator of popularity, and you can find that a beautifully located and attractive property is fully booked by the end of December. If the cottage of choice was booked by the time you found it this year, chances are it will be again,  so you’ll need to get going soon.

2. If you want a sandy beach

   A sandy beach and shallow walkout to the water is high on many renters’ criteria list and  good waterfront of any type will draw the early birds. Make sure you are getting what you expect though and do your homework thoroughly. A ‘sandy beach’ could mean anything from a shared area at Wasaga, to a tiny stretch of fine gravel leading into a weedy bay. Be sure you do your research thoroughly if a sandy shoreline is a ‘must have’, then get it booked.

3. If there are more than 8 people

   Large cottages are in high demand, so if you are planning on vacationing with your extended family get your search underway now. Properties with five or six bedrooms are very popular and if you want somewhere that will accommodate more than 8 people, leaving it too late will mean you’ll have a lengthy and frustrating search. For example, Cherry Hollow which is a 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom cottage on Horn Lake near Burks Falls, was fully booked within two weeks of listing. Several of this years guests have rebooked already, so if this is what you are looking for, get going!

4. If you have special requirements

   The later you leave booking your cottage rental, fulfilling all your ‘must haves’ becomes more challenging. If those criteria include such things as high speed internet, or finding a cottage that will accept more than one dog, you’ll have your work cut out to find just the right property. Get the family together and discuss what makes your perfect cottage vacation, what you cannot do without, and those extras that would make it really special. If your list is long, look now for your dream cottage!

5. If you want more than two consecutive weeks

   Bookings of more than four weeks should be made now as families looking for an extended stay always book early.  You may get a small discount on a longer  booking but don’t anticipate too much of a deal. Attractive cottages with good waterfront are in strong demand, so owners will be able to rent all their summer weeks without discounting. All they will be saving is a trip up to the cottage for a changeover, or a charge by their management company, so that is the most you could expect to save.

I heard recently of a family in a rental cottage that were so spooked by finding mouse droppings they cut short their vacation by five days, and hightailed it back to the city. It just got me wondering about the expectations renters have about country living, as I’m finding more and more they’re expecting pristine condo conditions in a rural environment.

Ta daaaaa!  Mice like cottages. They like old ones, new ones, rustic and modern. If there’s a way in, they will find it, and won’t discriminate between a newly built log home, or an 80 year old family cabin.  The rental group who were freaked out said they had specifically chosen a new cottage because they didn’t want the rustic conditions that mice preferred. Well, although I am fully sympathetic to anyone with a phobia, my view is that some folks are just not suited to cottage type vacations.

This year, cottage owners across Southern Ontario have been reporting a big increase in mouse activity. Penny Caldwell, the editor of Cottage Life Magazine, mentions this in her blog, and it seems from comments on an earlier post of hers, that it’s a big issue amongst cottagers. In my own country home, I’ve been fighting a summer long battle with a stream of the little pests who seem to like the junk drawer in my kitchen. Each night I set a trap in the drawer, and in the morning, gingerly open it to see yet another nighttime visitor has met an untimely end.  It’s been a few weeks since the last one found his nemesis so it looks as though we may have got the message across…..I hope.

Anyhow, living in the country gives you a different outlook on the critters we share our space with, and a certain respect for their determination to be a little more sharing than we would like! For anyone planning on a cottage rental this fall, or indeed the winter, be prepared to encounter some evidence of mice. You might be lucky and not see a single dropping, but it’s always a good idea to take a mouse trap or two with you.  If the idea of this is just too repellent, you might want to think again about renting a cottage!

I decided to stay up last night to watch the Perseid meteor shower, but checking outside around 11pm, the clouds had rolled in again so I abandoned the idea in favour of an early-morning star gaze. And so I was out on the deck again at 4am craning my neck for a sight of shooting stars. I saw a couple, but not the 2 or 3 per minute I was expecting. Anyhow, the stars were beautiful, and the view was only tarnished by my cottage neighbour who insists on keeping his amazingly bright halogen, outside lights, on all night.

Why, for Pete’s sake, do people do this? We hear all the time that the quality of night sky viewing in the cities had reduced to a point where some children have never seen the Milky Way in all it’s glory. Getting out to the country and going to a cottage is for many, the first experience they have of seeing stars without all that light pollution, only to have it spoilt by thoughtlessness of cottage neighbours.

If you are heading off to a cottage rental, please remember to turn the lights off at night when you go to bed. Not only will it save energy, but it will allow the night owls and star gazers the opportunity to appreciate the beauty that comes free in our world.