CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — In recent Protecting Your Money segments about holiday travel, local professionals have offered advice on the importance of travel and rental car insurance.
Today, a local parent, and an accommodation professional speak about airbnb's and timeshares.
Whenever Marilyn Brodeur and her growing family begin making travel and accommodation plans, they have certain amenities in mind.
"Things that are important to me when traveling, because we have young kids, is being able to have the whole, the whole unit to ourselves," she said.
Brodeur says she usually begins her search on airbnb, mostly because its choices offer flexibility and novelty.
Rick Bennett is co-owner of Trip Angle, which is a marketplace for property owners to list their properties for renters to discover and make reservations. He says if travelers, like the Brodeur's, would just take a little more time to search, they would realize significant savings on a rental.
"If you can find the individual owner, you're going to find it for considerably less," he told us. "Considerably, 'cause they don't have the overhead airbnb is taking out."
From time to time, Brodeur says she'll check out timeshares, but unless there's a significant discount offered through a promotion, "we have found that with hotel timeshares, that they just charge such an expensive annual maintenance fee every year, on top of the price of the timeshare itself."
The Better Business Bureau says always get the details in writing, avoid wiring money, call the rental property owner, as Bennett suggests, and be cautious of unsolicited offers.
