Imagine your ideal vacation escape. For some this may entail hiking the Appalachian Trail in Asheville, for others standing atop Peak 9 in Breckenridge on a cold, sunny morning. Perhaps the perfect vacation for you is figuring out a way to see every sight in Disney’s Magic Kingdom, or making certain that you see nothing at all but the ocean and the sun. Those who find it easy to imagine the idyllic, but lack the desire to put their thoughts into words are now in luck. Hotels.com now provides a search process that appeals to the senses and allows vacationers to dream their way into vacationing with “The Visualiser“.

Through “The Visualiser,” travelers are led to what Hotels.com deems their ultimate vacation destination and hotel after self-selecting a series of photos, each depicting unique vacation activities and placed in separate categories.  For example The Visualiser asks the user to determine their desired style of restaurant, idea of a fun night, suitable room, nightlife, and with whom the traveler will be vacationing with- kids, friends, partner, etc.

The last step asks users to check their age bracket and select their destination city with cities represented from all of the world- Paris, London, Dublin, New York, or for the adventurous spirit, “Surprise me!”

Those who have used The Visualiser can quickly see that it is a faster alternative in hotel hunting than filling out vacation preferences manually or with drop bars. However I found the accuracy of finding your ideal hotel based solely on pictures is still a work in progress. With that said, it is a fun process and it adds an element of ‘discovery’ to what I have historically considered a canned process.

Given the unique advantages and availability of vacation rentals in many of the world’s most interesting travel destinations, the concept of The Visualizer would find a well-aligned audience with the vacation rental category. For instance, I would argue some of the examples provided in the introduction of this piece would be undeserved if the consumers were not able to discover available vacation rental accommodations in addition to the standard hotel options.

Imagine your ideal vacation setting: a perfect 75 degrees with a slight breeze, a delicious summer cocktail in one hand, and in the other the remote to the stereo which you use sparingly while sifting through your favorite melodies. Though the sun is strong, you know that you’re nestled just inches from the pool and can dive into its waters instantly. You exhale, look around your backyard in satisfaction, and tell yourself for the hundredth time today that you’ve never felt so good about taking a Staycation.

Staycations, loosely defined by Wikipedia as “a period of time in which an individual or family stays at home and relaxes at home (or in one’s state), and takes day trips from their home to area attractions” are an up and coming trend that have risen largely from the recent soar of gas prices and weak dollar.  With gas prices reaching nearly $4/gallon and the US dollar struggling in the foreign exchange markets, the average American family simply can’t afford elaborate and distant vacations. Instead, families are turning to a more reasonable alternative, in-state travel.

As researched by Compete.com, over the past two years there has been a noticeable increase in in-state travel. Compete chose to examine the month of June, where summer vacation travel is at its peak, and found that in just one year the number of Americans “staycationing” rose from 8.7 million in 2007, to 12.9 million in 2008.

New York and New Jersey saw the highest volume of in-state travel, while Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Colorado boasted the top three spots in percentage increases from June 2007 to 2008, with Massachusetts at a 104% increase.

For property managers marketing vacation rental homes, the notion of staycationing should be exciting, as it can serve as a tool in promoting the advantages of rentals over hotels. Besides the most obvious benefits of in-state travel, staycationing aspires to be everything vacation homes represent: cozy, charming, hassle-free, and often more affordable compared to hotels.

“Forget hotels,” says AirBed & Breakfast, a company that helps people around the world network to find the next best affordable alternative to hotels (sans vacation rentals): inflatable air mattresses. If you’ve got a mattress, you’re in. Anyone can “post a room” on the company’s webpage, set a desired price for a guest’s night stay in their home (usually somewhere between $85- $100), sit back, inflate the mattress and let the guests roll in. While the rise of hotel prices has directly increased growth in the vacation rental industry, as a culture we are beginning to see a shift from the vacation norm to the vacation extreme, as these ‘alternative lodging’ options are entering the market.

Renting a room/air mattress is a simple concept, cheap alternative to a hotel and creates opportunity to meet and live with diverse people.  But lets be honest, we are a skeptical culture surrounded by legal and safety concerns. What about theft?  Or better yet, personal safety with the host you’re staying with? How can one be guaranteed a good experience when the mantra seems to be, “Just roll with it…”

Staying with a complete stranger no doubt requires a leap of faith on the traveler’s part, but AirBed & Breakfast does allow both hosts and guests to create profiles with photos, links to their own personal WebPages, as well as rates and guest reviews.  For those familiar with the long time successful, “couchsurfing” concept (www.couchsurfing.com), this should all ring a bell.

The “Couch Surfing Project,” launched in January 2003 by Casey Fenton and a number of other founders, after Fenton got a cheap ticket to Iceland for a long weekend with no hotel or hostel destination, and nothing other than his luggage, and well, his ticket.  Fenton ended up meeting students and young adults his age in Iceland and “crashed on their couch,” had the weekend of a lifetime, and thus the concept and later the company was born.

Ultimately, one thing in the current events of travel is clear: rising hotel costs is driving consumers to look for new alternatives, whether they be vacation rentals or air mattresses. Airbeds and used couches in strangers’ homes may not be for everyone, but for the traveler strong of heart, they certainly provide an interesting alternative to hotels.