This is my true Christmas story, it happened this year on December 23rd, 2009.
As many of you know we have 20 something rental homes, some we own and manage and others we just manage for other people. In the 8 years we have been in business this is a first.
Here in paradise, crime is a very rare occurrence, maybe a bar fight by a couple of guys after a night of drinking, or maybe some shop lifting, but rarely something more serious. Well we had our very first "Break In" of one of our homes, and a very unusual one at that.
A very neat burglar broke into one of our rental houses by breaking a rear window and jimmying a door lock in the back of the house. Once the burglar gained access, he turned on the heater and made himself at home. From the evidence left behind, we determined he cooked a steak and heated a can of baked beans. When he was finished with his meal he cleaned up his mess, including the broken glass from the window he broke, put all of his dirty dishes in the dishwasher, took a shower, neatly folding the bath towel and placed it on the vanity when he was done. Then watched a little TV, took a nap and left. Nothing else was broken or taken.
We discovered the break in the early afternoon of Wednesday, December 23rd, two days before Christmas. We check all of our houses on a regular basis to make sure they are ready for the next guests, or if the house is going to be vacant for a week or so, check to see that the AC is turned off.
During one of these rounds, we discovered the break in and I immediately called the Sheriff to report intrusion. When the Sheriff arrived I described the whole story and told him we had minimum damage, just a broken window and jimmied door, and nothing else broken or missing. The Sheriff suggested that it was probably someone cold and hungry. I told him it was not a big deal, but I mainly wanted a police report for insurance purposes to repair the window and door.
The officer hands me his business card - now this you're not going to believe, his name was "M. Christmas". True!
I asked him, please don't tell me your first name is Mary. He smiled and said, no Matt.
He took done all of our information and said the police report will be ready the first week of January. I am going to keep a copy of the police report and the officer's business card, just to back up my story.
To the person who broke into our home, Merry Christmas and I hope you have a better next year.
That's my real Christmas story.
Rick Scali
Rick Scali is the Owner of Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals in Destin Florida. Whether you are a family looking for a squeaky clean Destin Rental Home with a Private Pool or a couple looking for a romantic getaway in a Destin Beachhouse, Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals will exceed your expectations. Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals has the largest selection of quality pet friendly homes in Destin, Florida and throughout the Emerald Coast. Call us toll-free today at 877.432.7978 or email us at info@easystreet-rentals.com - we would love to welcome you, your family AND Fido to join us at the beach.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Easy Street Web Site Ready for Prime Time
We have beta tested our new web site Easy Street Vacation Rentals over the last thirty days, and received some great input. To solicit the input, we forwarded our web site to a number of our repeat guests who agreed to review our site with fresh eyes. The overwhelming response was positive, plus we received a number of great suggestions, most of which we implemented. At long last I think we’re ready for prime time, and I think you’ll like what you see. The test will be on Monday, when we plan to announce the new web site to our 3,500 VIP past guest list.
Studies tell us we have less than a minute from when someone first lands on our web site, for them to figure out what to do to obtain the information they want and need. So, on our Home Page (and every page) a guest can enter their arrival and departure dates, and check rental home availability in under thirty seconds. We also created a way to filter their selections. Listed under the “View Our Homes” tab, guests can view “All Properties”, or just homes with “Private Pools”, “Heated Pools”, “Best Pet Homes”, “Single Story Homes”, or “Just Town Homes & Condos”. There’s more, once a guest selects any of the categories, they can select “Quick View” and then sort their selections by price, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms or number of guests the house will accommodate. They can even sort the homes alphabetically.
Where are our homes located and how far are they from the beach? Good question, so we added Google Maps (we call it “Area Map”) to out site. It is listed under the “Local Area Guide” and it shows the exact location of each home, it’s address, and a photograph of the home. We also added in the closest grocery stores, and soon we will be adding all of our favorite and recommended local activities, such as restaurants, golf courses, the harbor, amusement parks, shopping areas, etc.
Under the Local Area Guide, we added some other goodies too such as a list of Activities and Attractions you’ll want to take advantage of while you’re down here including our favorite restaurants, deep sea fishing, nightlife, shopping, etc. We have also included a link to local weather and an estimate of the typical weather conditions during different seasons of the year. Don’t know the best way to get here? Click on the Driving Directions and enter in your home address and Google Maps will bring you right here.
Over the years we have been blessed with a growing list of repeat guests. With the launch of the new web site we decided to formalize a list of “Standard Specials” for VIP and Repeat Guests. The Specials include discounts for the following groups, Repeat & Loyal Guests, Active & Retired Military, current employees of the Police, Fire and EMS, and because of my thirty years in the credit union industry, I have also included a credit union member discount.
Since we just hate to see any home go unused, we also formalized our “Last Minute” Reservation Discounts. If we have an open date and you book within one week of that date, we’ll reduce the price by 10% automatically, and if you book within 48 hours of an open date, we offer a whopping 25% discount.
We’ve worked very hard on this website (Debbie, Chris, Billy & me) and I hope it shows. The proof will be in the number of guests visits, and how do we know that - Google Analytics. (Talk about teaching an old dog new tricks). I found out this great little Google Application can tell us how many new and repeat visitor’s have visited our web site, where they came from in the US, what keywords they used to find us, and even what browser they used to search for us. And what’s cool is we can get that information by hour, by day, week or month. So here we go, it will be an interesting ride.
If you’ve got a free moment, take a look at the web site for yourself, we would love your feedback www.easystreetvacationrentals.com
Rick Scali
Rick Scali is the Owner of Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals in Destin Florida. Whether you are a family looking for a squeaky clean Destin Rental Home with a Private Pool or a couple looking for a romantic getaway in a Destin Beachhouse, Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals will exceed your expectations. Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals has the largest selection of quality pet friendly homes in Destin, Florida and throughout the Emerald Coast. Call us toll-free today at 877.432.7978 or email us at info@easystreet-rentals.com - we would love to welcome you, your family AND Fido to join us at the beach.
Studies tell us we have less than a minute from when someone first lands on our web site, for them to figure out what to do to obtain the information they want and need. So, on our Home Page (and every page) a guest can enter their arrival and departure dates, and check rental home availability in under thirty seconds. We also created a way to filter their selections. Listed under the “View Our Homes” tab, guests can view “All Properties”, or just homes with “Private Pools”, “Heated Pools”, “Best Pet Homes”, “Single Story Homes”, or “Just Town Homes & Condos”. There’s more, once a guest selects any of the categories, they can select “Quick View” and then sort their selections by price, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms or number of guests the house will accommodate. They can even sort the homes alphabetically.
Where are our homes located and how far are they from the beach? Good question, so we added Google Maps (we call it “Area Map”) to out site. It is listed under the “Local Area Guide” and it shows the exact location of each home, it’s address, and a photograph of the home. We also added in the closest grocery stores, and soon we will be adding all of our favorite and recommended local activities, such as restaurants, golf courses, the harbor, amusement parks, shopping areas, etc.
Under the Local Area Guide, we added some other goodies too such as a list of Activities and Attractions you’ll want to take advantage of while you’re down here including our favorite restaurants, deep sea fishing, nightlife, shopping, etc. We have also included a link to local weather and an estimate of the typical weather conditions during different seasons of the year. Don’t know the best way to get here? Click on the Driving Directions and enter in your home address and Google Maps will bring you right here.
Over the years we have been blessed with a growing list of repeat guests. With the launch of the new web site we decided to formalize a list of “Standard Specials” for VIP and Repeat Guests. The Specials include discounts for the following groups, Repeat & Loyal Guests, Active & Retired Military, current employees of the Police, Fire and EMS, and because of my thirty years in the credit union industry, I have also included a credit union member discount.
Since we just hate to see any home go unused, we also formalized our “Last Minute” Reservation Discounts. If we have an open date and you book within one week of that date, we’ll reduce the price by 10% automatically, and if you book within 48 hours of an open date, we offer a whopping 25% discount.
We’ve worked very hard on this website (Debbie, Chris, Billy & me) and I hope it shows. The proof will be in the number of guests visits, and how do we know that - Google Analytics. (Talk about teaching an old dog new tricks). I found out this great little Google Application can tell us how many new and repeat visitor’s have visited our web site, where they came from in the US, what keywords they used to find us, and even what browser they used to search for us. And what’s cool is we can get that information by hour, by day, week or month. So here we go, it will be an interesting ride.
If you’ve got a free moment, take a look at the web site for yourself, we would love your feedback www.easystreetvacationrentals.com
Rick Scali
Rick Scali is the Owner of Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals in Destin Florida. Whether you are a family looking for a squeaky clean Destin Rental Home with a Private Pool or a couple looking for a romantic getaway in a Destin Beachhouse, Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals will exceed your expectations. Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals has the largest selection of quality pet friendly homes in Destin, Florida and throughout the Emerald Coast. Call us toll-free today at 877.432.7978 or email us at info@easystreet-rentals.com - we would love to welcome you, your family AND Fido to join us at the beach.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
New and Improved Website by LiveRez
Well we did it! At long last we're live on our new and improved website. We loved our former website, looked great, won an award, and the webmaster was great to work with. The problem is that it wasn't a connected website, meaning we had a website, a booking engine, and a database management system, and the three didn't talk to one another meaning they weren't inter-connected. When someone went to our website and wanted to book a reservation, they clicked on the Bookit button, which sent them to another website that handled our booking engine. Once the reservation was "booked" we received an email announcing the new reservation. We then had to log in to their system, print out all of the reservation information, and re-enter all of the information into our database system. Very, very inefficient, and since our volume doubled this past year, the system was bringing us to our knees. We knew we couldn't handle another year under the old system. There were several other issues that were problems, and our owners didn't particularly care for the system, so here we are.
We are now with LiveRez, with all three systems wrapped into one, website, booking engine and database management system. We have been working on the system now for three months and today we launched 11/24/09. www.easystreetvacationrentals.com. Check us out and let me know what you think rick@easystreet-rentals.com
In the next Post I will tell you some of the neat things we have included in the new website that I think makes it extremely easy to use and very informative.
Rick Scali
Rick Scali is the Owner of Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals in Destin Florida. Whether you are a family looking for a squeaky clean Destin Rental Home with a Private Pool or a couple looking for a romantic getaway in a Destin Beachhouse, Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals will exceed your expectations. Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals has the largest selection of quality pet friendly homes in Destin, Florida and throughout the Emerald Coast. Call us toll-free today at 877.432.7978 or email us at info@easystreet-rentals.com - we would love to welcome you, your family AND Fido to join us at the beach.
We are now with LiveRez, with all three systems wrapped into one, website, booking engine and database management system. We have been working on the system now for three months and today we launched 11/24/09. www.easystreetvacationrentals.com. Check us out and let me know what you think rick@easystreet-rentals.com
In the next Post I will tell you some of the neat things we have included in the new website that I think makes it extremely easy to use and very informative.
Rick Scali
Rick Scali is the Owner of Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals in Destin Florida. Whether you are a family looking for a squeaky clean Destin Rental Home with a Private Pool or a couple looking for a romantic getaway in a Destin Beachhouse, Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals will exceed your expectations. Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals has the largest selection of quality pet friendly homes in Destin, Florida and throughout the Emerald Coast. Call us toll-free today at 877.432.7978 or email us at info@easystreet-rentals.com - we would love to welcome you, your family AND Fido to join us at the beach.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Destin's Holly Burke dies after long fight with cancer.
It saddens me to report that Holly Kaitlyn Burke, 19, of Destin, passed away Oct. 30, 2009, surrounded by her loving family, fiance and caring medical team, at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, in Memphis, Tenn.
The following article was published in the Destin Log, on October 14, 2009 shortly before her passing.
http://www.thedestinlog.com/news/holly-11498-destin-form.html
Rick Scali
Rick Scali is the Owner of Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals in Destin Florida. Whether you are a family looking for a squeaky clean Destin Rental Home with a Private Pool or a couple looking for a romantic getaway in a Destin Beachhouse, Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals will exceed your expectations. Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals has the largest selection of quality pet friendly homes in Destin, Florida and throughout the Emerald Coast. Call us toll-free today at 877.432.7978 or email us at info@easystreet-rentals.com - we would love to welcome you, your family AND Fido to join us at the beach.
The following article was published in the Destin Log, on October 14, 2009 shortly before her passing.
http://www.thedestinlog.com/news/holly-11498-destin-form.html
Rick Scali
Rick Scali is the Owner of Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals in Destin Florida. Whether you are a family looking for a squeaky clean Destin Rental Home with a Private Pool or a couple looking for a romantic getaway in a Destin Beachhouse, Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals will exceed your expectations. Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals has the largest selection of quality pet friendly homes in Destin, Florida and throughout the Emerald Coast. Call us toll-free today at 877.432.7978 or email us at info@easystreet-rentals.com - we would love to welcome you, your family AND Fido to join us at the beach.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Update on Holly Burke
Good day all, sorry I didn't get to post to my blog last week, I was heavily involved in our Destin Seafood Festival. I worked the beer booth on Friday and the Main Gate on Saturday, and by Sunday I was exhausted. Anyhow here I am ready to blog again.
I'm dedicating this blog to someone near and dear to my heart. It's the daughter of a friend who was diagnosed with a rare form of inoperable cancer. I have written about her in my Life on Easy Street Newsletter. For those of you who have not read my newsletter here is an except of the article, followed by an update. You might want to bring some tissues before you start reading.
Holly by the Sea is an idyllic beach house that we manage? Of course it has a white picket fence. Cool tile floors, a large porch and quintessential deck chairs that offer the coziest of comforts after a hard day at the beach - just 2 blocks away.
Yet, for the many reasons you might rent gorgeous Holly-by-the-Sea, one stands out more than any other. Holly herself.
Diagnosed last year with a rare form of cancer that attacks the body's soft tissues, hers is a story of a young girl and her family fighting back.
Spending much of her senior year 500 miles away in Memphis to receive treatment, Holly missed many high school moments. Managing to keep up with schoolwork despite grueling radiation treatments and multiple surgeries, she was able to graduate with her friends. Her classmates made a touching, unanimous choice to vote Holly their prom queen.
Spend time in Destin and you'll notice its natural community - a delightful thing in a popular vacation spot. Holly's mom Carol, a single mother, is quoted in the Destin Log as saying: "The love in this town is just amazing".
The pair's extended stay in Memphis required Carol to resign from her job. Lost income and medical costs meant tough decisions - and the possibility of needing to sell their home.
At Easy Street, this was our time to help. One look and we knew this 3-bedroom home would make an ideal rental retreat for families - its tropical charm, beach and pool proximity and cottage interiors make it immediately appealing.
After a few minor changes to transform the home into a rental property, its new name was obvious: Holly-by-the-Sea.
It's a perfect choice for your next family vacation - where you can't help but be reminded of the important things in life: time with those you love and random acts of kindness.
If you're planning a break this fall - consider this property. Help us to keep it fully booked and keep Holly's recovery close to your thoughts.
Well that article was written the end of September when we all still had hope for Holly's recovery, or at least improvement. As of last week, the prognosis is not good, in fact her doctors now give sweet Holy 4 to 6 months at best.
That was enough to break ones heart, but then this morning I received the most remarkable news, a wedding announcement from Holly's mother Carol. It seems Holly's dream was to marry her boyfriend of two years, and that's exactly what this brave little girl is going to do in Greenville, SC. Saturday, November 7th Holy Burke will become Mrs. Kyle Marinan. (sorry I'm having a hard time typing). God bless this brave young girl, and please keep her, her family, and her soon to be husband in your prayers.
Rick Scali
Rick Scali is the Owner of Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals in Destin Florida. Whether you are a family looking for a squeaky clean Destin Rental Home with a Private Pool or a couple looking for a romantic getaway in a Destin Beachhouse, Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals will exceed your expectations. Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals has the largest selection of quality pet friendly homes in Destin, Florida and throughout the Emerald Coast. Call us toll-free today at 877.432.7978 or email us at info@easystreet-rentals.com - we would love to welcome you, your family AND Fido to join us at the beach.
I'm dedicating this blog to someone near and dear to my heart. It's the daughter of a friend who was diagnosed with a rare form of inoperable cancer. I have written about her in my Life on Easy Street Newsletter. For those of you who have not read my newsletter here is an except of the article, followed by an update. You might want to bring some tissues before you start reading.
Holly by the Sea is an idyllic beach house that we manage? Of course it has a white picket fence. Cool tile floors, a large porch and quintessential deck chairs that offer the coziest of comforts after a hard day at the beach - just 2 blocks away.
Yet, for the many reasons you might rent gorgeous Holly-by-the-Sea, one stands out more than any other. Holly herself.
Diagnosed last year with a rare form of cancer that attacks the body's soft tissues, hers is a story of a young girl and her family fighting back.
Spending much of her senior year 500 miles away in Memphis to receive treatment, Holly missed many high school moments. Managing to keep up with schoolwork despite grueling radiation treatments and multiple surgeries, she was able to graduate with her friends. Her classmates made a touching, unanimous choice to vote Holly their prom queen.
Spend time in Destin and you'll notice its natural community - a delightful thing in a popular vacation spot. Holly's mom Carol, a single mother, is quoted in the Destin Log as saying: "The love in this town is just amazing".
The pair's extended stay in Memphis required Carol to resign from her job. Lost income and medical costs meant tough decisions - and the possibility of needing to sell their home.
At Easy Street, this was our time to help. One look and we knew this 3-bedroom home would make an ideal rental retreat for families - its tropical charm, beach and pool proximity and cottage interiors make it immediately appealing.
After a few minor changes to transform the home into a rental property, its new name was obvious: Holly-by-the-Sea.
It's a perfect choice for your next family vacation - where you can't help but be reminded of the important things in life: time with those you love and random acts of kindness.
If you're planning a break this fall - consider this property. Help us to keep it fully booked and keep Holly's recovery close to your thoughts.
Well that article was written the end of September when we all still had hope for Holly's recovery, or at least improvement. As of last week, the prognosis is not good, in fact her doctors now give sweet Holy 4 to 6 months at best.
That was enough to break ones heart, but then this morning I received the most remarkable news, a wedding announcement from Holly's mother Carol. It seems Holly's dream was to marry her boyfriend of two years, and that's exactly what this brave little girl is going to do in Greenville, SC. Saturday, November 7th Holy Burke will become Mrs. Kyle Marinan. (sorry I'm having a hard time typing). God bless this brave young girl, and please keep her, her family, and her soon to be husband in your prayers.
Rick Scali
Rick Scali is the Owner of Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals in Destin Florida. Whether you are a family looking for a squeaky clean Destin Rental Home with a Private Pool or a couple looking for a romantic getaway in a Destin Beachhouse, Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals will exceed your expectations. Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals has the largest selection of quality pet friendly homes in Destin, Florida and throughout the Emerald Coast. Call us toll-free today at 877.432.7978 or email us at info@easystreet-rentals.com - we would love to welcome you, your family AND Fido to join us at the beach.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Hi All,
Well it's been a hectic week, call me crazy but I'm giving up an award winning web site for a whole new booking system that includes a new web site. There is actually more to the story. I have (but pretty soon I'll be saying had, once we launch) a great and very beautiful web site. In fact it won the 2009 Golden Addy Award. Problem is it wasn't getting the traffic I expected, plus the bounce rate was very high. If you don't know what a bounce rate is, which I didn't when I started this search, it is the number of people that did find my site, but left after viewing the home page. What that told me was people were actually finding my web site but didn't know what to do once they got there, didn't find the home page easy to navigate, or couldn't easily find what they were looking for, so left. The other problem was that my current web site was not linked into my data base reservation system or my booking engine, in fact I had three different vendors, one for the web site, one for the booking engine, and one for the data base reservation system, and the three didn't talk to one another, which required a lot of repeat manual entering of customer reservation data by staff. The sad part is I really like my old web site, and thoroughly enjoyed working with the designer.
Deciding to change was difficult, and who to change too was difficult. What I did know is that I needed a system that integrated all three aspects; data base reservation system, booking engine, and web site. The final two candidates was Bookt and LiveRez, and ended up selecting LiveRez because of their pricing system and they had a more complete back-end reservation system.
This past week really has been brutal, if anyone has ever gone through a data processing conversion, you know what I mean. Learning stuff for an old guy like me is not easy. The bad news is it's a lot of work, the good news it will save me a ton of work (when it's operational) and a ton of money. And hopefully increase my bookings. The cost of the new system is one fourth of the current amount I pay for all three vendors. My labor costs should go down significantly as well. I'm not planning on reducing staff, just redirecting their efforts because of all of the new business I hope to attract. At least that's the idea. The other benefit is to the owners of the properties I manage, they will be able to log into our system at any time and see the status of their rental. There are plenty of other features, but I'm just learning those.
The new LiveRez web site, I don't think it will be as pretty or flashy as my old site, but is designed to be a lot more functional for our visitor guest. isn't that how it should be. The goal should not be winning awards, but winning customers. The new site should be easy for guests to search for properties, check availability dates, and reserve homes. It will also be easier to highlight Specials, Things to do in Destin, and offer different amenity packages. I could go on, but if the new system lives up to my expectations, it should pretty much revolutionize our business.
Our market niche is clean, well maintain, pet friendly rental homes in the Destin area. I spend a lot of money on marketing so my web site will be found, and to think people find me but then abandon the search because my web site, although pretty, is hard to navigate, just frustrates me. Although painful, I think this is a step in the right direction. I am so tired of hearing people say they have been coming to Destin for years, but could never find a good pet friendly rental. Here I am! Here I am!
I have some really exciting plans that will be revolving around this new system, and help those folks find us, so stay tuned.
Rick Scali
Rick Scali is the Owner of Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals in Destin Florida. Whether you are a family looking for a squeaky clean Destin Rental Home with a Private Pool or a couple looking for a romantic getaway in a Destin Beachhouse, Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals will exceed your expectations. Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals has the largest selection of quality pet friendly homes in Destin, Florida and throughout the Emerald Coast. Call us toll-free today at 877.432.7978 or email us at info@easystreet-rentals.com - we would love to welcome you, your family AND Fido to join us at the beach.
Well it's been a hectic week, call me crazy but I'm giving up an award winning web site for a whole new booking system that includes a new web site. There is actually more to the story. I have (but pretty soon I'll be saying had, once we launch) a great and very beautiful web site. In fact it won the 2009 Golden Addy Award. Problem is it wasn't getting the traffic I expected, plus the bounce rate was very high. If you don't know what a bounce rate is, which I didn't when I started this search, it is the number of people that did find my site, but left after viewing the home page. What that told me was people were actually finding my web site but didn't know what to do once they got there, didn't find the home page easy to navigate, or couldn't easily find what they were looking for, so left. The other problem was that my current web site was not linked into my data base reservation system or my booking engine, in fact I had three different vendors, one for the web site, one for the booking engine, and one for the data base reservation system, and the three didn't talk to one another, which required a lot of repeat manual entering of customer reservation data by staff. The sad part is I really like my old web site, and thoroughly enjoyed working with the designer.
Deciding to change was difficult, and who to change too was difficult. What I did know is that I needed a system that integrated all three aspects; data base reservation system, booking engine, and web site. The final two candidates was Bookt and LiveRez, and ended up selecting LiveRez because of their pricing system and they had a more complete back-end reservation system.
This past week really has been brutal, if anyone has ever gone through a data processing conversion, you know what I mean. Learning stuff for an old guy like me is not easy. The bad news is it's a lot of work, the good news it will save me a ton of work (when it's operational) and a ton of money. And hopefully increase my bookings. The cost of the new system is one fourth of the current amount I pay for all three vendors. My labor costs should go down significantly as well. I'm not planning on reducing staff, just redirecting their efforts because of all of the new business I hope to attract. At least that's the idea. The other benefit is to the owners of the properties I manage, they will be able to log into our system at any time and see the status of their rental. There are plenty of other features, but I'm just learning those.
The new LiveRez web site, I don't think it will be as pretty or flashy as my old site, but is designed to be a lot more functional for our visitor guest. isn't that how it should be. The goal should not be winning awards, but winning customers. The new site should be easy for guests to search for properties, check availability dates, and reserve homes. It will also be easier to highlight Specials, Things to do in Destin, and offer different amenity packages. I could go on, but if the new system lives up to my expectations, it should pretty much revolutionize our business.
Our market niche is clean, well maintain, pet friendly rental homes in the Destin area. I spend a lot of money on marketing so my web site will be found, and to think people find me but then abandon the search because my web site, although pretty, is hard to navigate, just frustrates me. Although painful, I think this is a step in the right direction. I am so tired of hearing people say they have been coming to Destin for years, but could never find a good pet friendly rental. Here I am! Here I am!
I have some really exciting plans that will be revolving around this new system, and help those folks find us, so stay tuned.
Rick Scali
Rick Scali is the Owner of Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals in Destin Florida. Whether you are a family looking for a squeaky clean Destin Rental Home with a Private Pool or a couple looking for a romantic getaway in a Destin Beachhouse, Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals will exceed your expectations. Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals has the largest selection of quality pet friendly homes in Destin, Florida and throughout the Emerald Coast. Call us toll-free today at 877.432.7978 or email us at info@easystreet-rentals.com - we would love to welcome you, your family AND Fido to join us at the beach.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
The origins of Destin
Those of you that know me know I absolutely love the City of Destin, not just because I have a successful Pet Friendly Vacation Rental business and Street Legal Golf Cart business, but because it has everything I ever hoped for in a town. The city only has a full time year around population of around 11,000, but because of tourism and folks with second homes here, we have all of the infrastructure of a city five time our actual size, not to mention some great restaurants and first class leisure activities.
I can remember when I first retired to Destin 7 years ago, what was important to me was not only a nice place to live, but a community I could be a part of. I am happy to say I feel very much a part of this city and will be for the rest of my life. I am a member of the Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Rotary Club of Destin and a member of the Destin United Methodist Church. To feel more of a part of this city, probably one of the greatest things I did was attend the Destin Forward Class (2008) sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. This program taught our class just how paradise was run, the importance of our Harbor District, our fishing village heritage and the founders of Destin.
One of the greatest stories I discovered was how Destin was actually founded, and how the ancestors of those original pioneers are still actively involved in the city. I am proud to call one of those ancestors my friend, Dewey Destin, Jr. the great, great, great grandson of the founder of Destin, Leonard Destin. Dewey owns and runs two of the best seafood restaurants in Destin, Dewey Destin Seafood and Restaurant, and Dewey Destin's Harborside Restaurant. Dewey is also a City Counsel Member and has had a great influence in the direction of the City over the years.
The Destin family and Destin have been intertwined since Leonard Destin founded the area in 1835, but that is not where the story began. A few years earlier when Leonard, his father George and his brother William set out from New London Connecticut with three ships and ran into a hurricane off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida. Two of the ships, and Leonard's father and brother, were lost at sea. Stories had long circulated in the port of New London about the excellent fishing to be found off the Florida coasts, so even after the tragedy, Leonard decided to continue on and look for the best fishing he could find as well as a place to settle down.
In 1845, Leonard Destin met and married Martha McCullom from South Carolina and built one of the first homes in Destin (located about 100 yards from the current restaurant on the Bay). As a Yankee, Leonard was suspected of being a spy for the North during the civil war, and was imprisoned near Freeport, Florida. With Leonard scheduled to be hung, the circuit judge decided to spare Leonard's life because he was a fellow Mason. Following the war, Leonard returned to the the area and lived with his family of 4 sons and 3 daughters until his death in 1884.
1n 1879 Leonard Destin hired a 13 year old boy named William Marler who proved to be loyal, dependable and hard working. In a few short years Leonard gave "Billy" command of his own boat. Over the years Captain Billy sailed the mail in and out of East Pass and, to make things easier for locals, created an informal post office. In 1904, Captain Billy was formally made postmaster. An inquiry from Washington requested the name of the official new post office, and Captain Billy responded with "Destin" in honor of his first employer Leonard Destin.
Destin remained undiscovered and pretty much an island unto itself until the mid-1930's when the Marler Bridge was built, in honor of Captain Billy Marler, and the world began trickling into the Emerald Coast. In the 1940's and 50's most of the growth came from the influx of military retirees who became familiar with the appeal of Destin's white sandy beaches and cool sea breezes while stationed in the area. Condominium developers in the 70's and 80's provided the next growth spurt with Destin becoming officially incorporated in 1985. The rest, as they say, is history.
There are several other communities up and down the Emerald Coast that enjoy the same magnificent white sandy beaches as Destin, but what sets Destin apart is its fishing heritage and our wonderful Harbor. I have seen the plans for the expansion of the Harbor District and they are nothing short of amazing, with a 20 foot wide boardwalk that will be running from Harbor Docks all the way to the harbor entrance in front of the Emerald Grande.
I love this town and I can't wait for the next 20 years.
That's all for now.
Rick Scali
Rick Scali is the Owner of Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals in Destin Florida. Whether you are a family looking for a squeaky clean Destin Rental Home with a Private Pool or a couple looking for a romantic getaway in a Destin Beachhouse, Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals will exceed your expectations. Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals has the largest selection of quality pet friendly homes in Destin, Florida and throughout the Emerald Coast. Call us toll-free today at 877.432.7978 or email us at info@easystreet-rentals.com - we would love to welcome you, your family AND Fido to join us at the beach.
I can remember when I first retired to Destin 7 years ago, what was important to me was not only a nice place to live, but a community I could be a part of. I am happy to say I feel very much a part of this city and will be for the rest of my life. I am a member of the Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Rotary Club of Destin and a member of the Destin United Methodist Church. To feel more of a part of this city, probably one of the greatest things I did was attend the Destin Forward Class (2008) sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. This program taught our class just how paradise was run, the importance of our Harbor District, our fishing village heritage and the founders of Destin.
One of the greatest stories I discovered was how Destin was actually founded, and how the ancestors of those original pioneers are still actively involved in the city. I am proud to call one of those ancestors my friend, Dewey Destin, Jr. the great, great, great grandson of the founder of Destin, Leonard Destin. Dewey owns and runs two of the best seafood restaurants in Destin, Dewey Destin Seafood and Restaurant, and Dewey Destin's Harborside Restaurant. Dewey is also a City Counsel Member and has had a great influence in the direction of the City over the years.
The Destin family and Destin have been intertwined since Leonard Destin founded the area in 1835, but that is not where the story began. A few years earlier when Leonard, his father George and his brother William set out from New London Connecticut with three ships and ran into a hurricane off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida. Two of the ships, and Leonard's father and brother, were lost at sea. Stories had long circulated in the port of New London about the excellent fishing to be found off the Florida coasts, so even after the tragedy, Leonard decided to continue on and look for the best fishing he could find as well as a place to settle down.
In 1845, Leonard Destin met and married Martha McCullom from South Carolina and built one of the first homes in Destin (located about 100 yards from the current restaurant on the Bay). As a Yankee, Leonard was suspected of being a spy for the North during the civil war, and was imprisoned near Freeport, Florida. With Leonard scheduled to be hung, the circuit judge decided to spare Leonard's life because he was a fellow Mason. Following the war, Leonard returned to the the area and lived with his family of 4 sons and 3 daughters until his death in 1884.
1n 1879 Leonard Destin hired a 13 year old boy named William Marler who proved to be loyal, dependable and hard working. In a few short years Leonard gave "Billy" command of his own boat. Over the years Captain Billy sailed the mail in and out of East Pass and, to make things easier for locals, created an informal post office. In 1904, Captain Billy was formally made postmaster. An inquiry from Washington requested the name of the official new post office, and Captain Billy responded with "Destin" in honor of his first employer Leonard Destin.
Destin remained undiscovered and pretty much an island unto itself until the mid-1930's when the Marler Bridge was built, in honor of Captain Billy Marler, and the world began trickling into the Emerald Coast. In the 1940's and 50's most of the growth came from the influx of military retirees who became familiar with the appeal of Destin's white sandy beaches and cool sea breezes while stationed in the area. Condominium developers in the 70's and 80's provided the next growth spurt with Destin becoming officially incorporated in 1985. The rest, as they say, is history.
There are several other communities up and down the Emerald Coast that enjoy the same magnificent white sandy beaches as Destin, but what sets Destin apart is its fishing heritage and our wonderful Harbor. I have seen the plans for the expansion of the Harbor District and they are nothing short of amazing, with a 20 foot wide boardwalk that will be running from Harbor Docks all the way to the harbor entrance in front of the Emerald Grande.
I love this town and I can't wait for the next 20 years.
That's all for now.
Rick Scali
Rick Scali is the Owner of Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals in Destin Florida. Whether you are a family looking for a squeaky clean Destin Rental Home with a Private Pool or a couple looking for a romantic getaway in a Destin Beachhouse, Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals will exceed your expectations. Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals has the largest selection of quality pet friendly homes in Destin, Florida and throughout the Emerald Coast. Call us toll-free today at 877.432.7978 or email us at info@easystreet-rentals.com - we would love to welcome you, your family AND Fido to join us at the beach.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
My First Blog - Life on Easy Street - Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals
This is my first blog so bear with me as I learn this new way of communicating. There are few things I enjoy more than talking, especially about what interests me, so lets hope it will translate into blogging. I am passionate about the pet friendly vacation rental business, so I wanted to share my thoughts on that subject in this blog and hopefully answer any questions that may come my way. So here goes.
I retired from the credit union industry roughly 7 years ago and really planned to travel with my wife and our two pets, maybe play a little golf, and basically enjoy a new chapter in my life. The problem we ran into, however, was we couldn't find clean, well maintained vacation rental homes that we could bring our two pets that are an important part of our family. We wanted to find homes that we would want to stay in even if we didn't have pets, but would allow pets. We ended up staying at places that were pretty nasty, two I remember we walked in and then immediately walked back out because they were so bad. that's when it hit me that this could be a great market niche, clean well maintained homes that were pet friendly.
We sold property in California, did a 1031 exchange, and bought rentals homes in beautiful Destin Florida. We weren't really planning on starting a business, but we bought one home and started renting it as pet friendly, did so well that we bought another, and then a third, each time we didn't have any problem finding rental guests that appreciated being able to take their pets on vacation to a clean, well maintained rental home. Some of the same guests that stayed with us the first year are still coming back.
There are a number of rental companies here in Destin that offer certain homes in their inventory that are pet friendly, but frequently they have restrictions on the size of the pet and/or the numbers of pets. We chose to allow any size pet and any number of pets, we have pets as small as 3 pounds, and as big as 100 pounds. The record for the number of pets is 5 show dogs at one time in our Pineapple Cabana house. She stays with us about every other year. One year we even had a pet in a wheel chair, or I guess they called it a trolley. The dogs back legs were paralyzed so they were in this contraption that he pulled around with his front legs, and he got around just fine, just a happy little dog.
That's it for now,
Rick Scali
Rick Scali is the Owner of Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals in Destin Florida. Whether you are a family looking for a squeaky clean Destin Rental Home with a Private Pool or a couple looking for a romantic getaway in a Destin Beachhouse, Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals will exceed your expectations. Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals has the largest selection of quality pet friendly homes in Destin, Florida and throughout the Emerald Coast. Call us toll-free today at 877.432.7978 or email us at info@easystreet-rentals.com - we would love to welcome you, your family AND Fido to join us at the beach.
I retired from the credit union industry roughly 7 years ago and really planned to travel with my wife and our two pets, maybe play a little golf, and basically enjoy a new chapter in my life. The problem we ran into, however, was we couldn't find clean, well maintained vacation rental homes that we could bring our two pets that are an important part of our family. We wanted to find homes that we would want to stay in even if we didn't have pets, but would allow pets. We ended up staying at places that were pretty nasty, two I remember we walked in and then immediately walked back out because they were so bad. that's when it hit me that this could be a great market niche, clean well maintained homes that were pet friendly.
We sold property in California, did a 1031 exchange, and bought rentals homes in beautiful Destin Florida. We weren't really planning on starting a business, but we bought one home and started renting it as pet friendly, did so well that we bought another, and then a third, each time we didn't have any problem finding rental guests that appreciated being able to take their pets on vacation to a clean, well maintained rental home. Some of the same guests that stayed with us the first year are still coming back.
There are a number of rental companies here in Destin that offer certain homes in their inventory that are pet friendly, but frequently they have restrictions on the size of the pet and/or the numbers of pets. We chose to allow any size pet and any number of pets, we have pets as small as 3 pounds, and as big as 100 pounds. The record for the number of pets is 5 show dogs at one time in our Pineapple Cabana house. She stays with us about every other year. One year we even had a pet in a wheel chair, or I guess they called it a trolley. The dogs back legs were paralyzed so they were in this contraption that he pulled around with his front legs, and he got around just fine, just a happy little dog.
That's it for now,
Rick Scali
Rick Scali is the Owner of Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals in Destin Florida. Whether you are a family looking for a squeaky clean Destin Rental Home with a Private Pool or a couple looking for a romantic getaway in a Destin Beachhouse, Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals will exceed your expectations. Easy Street Pet Friendly Vacation Rentals has the largest selection of quality pet friendly homes in Destin, Florida and throughout the Emerald Coast. Call us toll-free today at 877.432.7978 or email us at info@easystreet-rentals.com - we would love to welcome you, your family AND Fido to join us at the beach.
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