Q: "Christine, I am a little concerned about the overall economy, specifically the gas prices. They have gone so much up, and I am wondering how much it's affecting vacation rentals overall this year."

A: Well, Karen it's a good question. I know a lot of people are concerned about the economy; a lot of people are concerned about gas prices. I think what it's done, is kind of changed the market a little bit.

For instance, if you own a vacation home within close proximity to a major metropolitan city. Let's just say you own within 3‑4 hours of a major city. Those properties tend to still be doing OK, and I'll tell you why. People, who would have normally taken a vacation and flown somewhere, are now choosing to go ahead and pack up the kids, the dog, and everything in the car, and driving. Driving 3, 4, five hours, is still much less expensive than it is to fly somewhere, especially with the whole family's.

So, the people who are in driving markets seem to be doing OK. We are seeing a shift in the reservations, as far as how far in advance people are actually booking. For instance, in a tough economy people don't want to plan way far in advance, so they kind of wait until last minute. We're seeing a lot more last minute reservation requests, and bookings.

So make sure that you are set up to be able to take credit cards. That will make it easiest to be able to take a last minute booking. I mean, for instance today, I took a booking for tonight. Imagine that! I just took their credit card, sent them the directions, sent them the confirmation, and boom—We're done!

I would not have been able to do that if I had to have them overnight me a check, it just would not have worked. The other thing is if you are in a flying market, then you need to watch the prices of airline tickets, and try to tie your check‑in and check‑out dates with some airline specials.

For instance, let's just say, Hawaiian airlines is running a special, Wednesday‑to‑Wednesday. You can depart California on Wednesday, and leave Hawaii on the following Wednesday. Well, guess what? Your check‑in day and check‑out day should be Wednesday, don't make it Saturday.

So we have to be little bit more flexible, and hopefully the economy will rebound quick enough, especially before next summer, when it's the busiest season for most of us.