New Year's Eve 2010-11

[Cuthbad]

New Years Eve is a Friday night this year and we have a decision to make.

The Ocean City place is going from $1200 a night to $1500 and it's losing a bedroom. The price per person might be similar if we do just Friday and Saturday night. More if we start Thursday.

Lets assume we want to square this away in the next few weeks because we have a very tentative hold on the Ocean City place for next year. We need to make a decision.

If anyone has any ideas or can hunt up an alternative place with all the cool attributes of the current house for less money please post about it.

Please click the watch this topic link below to receive updates.

[Cordelia]

gah. It's hard to think that we can have the same price for less days, that kind of hurts. And paying more is not really an option. (for me anyway)

The place is great, but deteriorating quickly, especially with the lack of special interest from the land lady. She is over us, I'm sure. I agree that it's better than nothing, or better than say going to a house we've been to in the past. So if we look for another house, it really has to be better than this one. And of course, I'd have to assume, it will be more expensive.

However, we do have to remember that we never thought we'd do better than the Poconos, or even the Viking Long Room house. But we did. So let's put our chins up and have a look around.

Tami, what are the resources you used to find the Ocean City place? Where is a good launching place for this search?

[Galen]

Re: finding new places - I just googled Catskills, NY and vacation home rentals, navigated to the most likely site, and started looking at properties available. How far north will people want to go? Hunter Mtn? Lake George? Finger Lakes?

Saw the Hunter Mountain place we had rented before (Your Own Inn) still listed.....same contact is listed on another place (Your Own Country Estate), looks to be more expensive. http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p170602
Did we deal okay with the landlord (Brett) at the Hunter Mtn. place? Anyone remember? Your Own Inn was too small for us, IIRC?

Saw this place too, looks interesting: http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p182802. And it's way cheaper than Ocean City.

Another good option is the Train House, we'd probably want to get the Train Station next door with it, but that will bump price up:
http://www.thetrainhouse.com/
http://www.thelittletrainstation.com/
http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p139588

This one seems too corporate, hotel-like, and we don't cook our own food. But I'll throw it out there for people to look at. http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p224136

This one seems a bit TOO big, but price is not out of line....looks like a camp property:
http://www.vacationrentals.com/vacation-rentals/14637.html

This place is a grouping of cabins of various sizes, not sure we'd want this, but it's not ridiculously priced either, but it is way up in Lake George: http://www.vacationrentals.com/vacation-rentals/17762.html

Galen
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[Eleanor]

Ok, VBRO was in fact one of my main search sources. I basically googled "vacation rental homes" and added states after it for an idea.

The $1500/night price is what Sue Bacastow is offering us. Her place will offer 14 bedrooms next year, with sleep space for 39. This year we had space for 43, and used space for 49 (not everyone had a bed).

The Hunter Mountain place where the lost weekend was held 5 years ago was lovely, and perfect for 10-15 people. We were 40. The Poconos was perfect for 16, we were 30. Bridgeton had a terrific amount of space, but not enough bathrooms or privacy, and the location was crap. Price-wise, we paid $3500 for the Poconos house in 2005, and about $2500 ($2000?) for Bridgeton in 2006.

One of the reasons that we started to look in South Jersey instead of the mountains was the weather. People had a rough time driving to the Poconos house because of snow. I remember it snowing on my way up to Hunter Mountain, as well, although the weather turned out to be very nice that weekend.

So there you go. That's the research that I've done. Shaun and I have found many places, but we suggested Ocean City for its combination of location (houses by the ocean least likely to have ice), and cost per bed.

Haven't looked through all the links that Dan put up, but they do all seem to be north. And a group of cabins in December? Wrong time of year for that.

Hey, if anyone wants to spend $380/pp, I can put up some awesome links.

Tami

[Cuthbad]

The Hunter mountain place was great and inexpensive cause it was off season. In the winter it's way more than we're paying now.

The landlord at the time was great and was in Lakewood NJ. I really dealt with his agent up there who was very helpful and nice.

Not sure if it has the same owners now.

[Galen]

I figured, reducing cost is the main issue, the further we go into the boonies, the cheaper it gets, but the longer we have to travel to get there, with an increase in chance for bad weather. Gotta find the happy medium, I guess. For me, after making sure we can fit into the place, cost is the first thing to consider, then worry about getting there and other travel issues.

A problem is that if we go with a smaller place because fewer people can afford it, then later on people decide they want to go, or they can afford it....heck, I decided to go this year pretty damn late myself. GUILTY!

At any rate, I assume, NY/NJ/PA to be the only states we gonna consider?

OK, here's some more:

NJ - Beach Haven -
http://www.greatrentals.com/rental-property/p146142
http://www.greatrentals.com/rental-property/p151943
http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p236213

Pennsylvania:
Lake Wallenpaupack (15 BR's, but looks small in area):
http://www.greatrentals.com/rental-property/p131270
Seven Springs: http://www.greatrentals.com/rental-property/p194657 (looks a little small, but again, we've been in places that were this size or smaller
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[Cuthbad]

Well it would be nice to include everyone but really it makes it very hard on the planning.

I'd be up for going to Lake George for example, if it was cool. I'd also pay $200 a night. So I'm not a good example.

I think it would be interesting to poll the people who came this year and just ask how much they would pay for 3 days in a convenient location.

The alternative of course is to just get hotel rooms somewhere cool for the one night. I did one in NYC that wasn't too expensive. Had a buffet and open bar till Midnight.

[berelinde]

I'd be willing to offer my house for free. Granted P'burg, NJ isn't scenic, but I've got 4 bedrooms I don't sleep in and crash space for a small army.

But 4 bedrooms isn't 14. Sorry.

Anyway, I know it's a whole weekend, but I don't have a lot of breakable shit.

Thoughts?
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[sharky]

when we went down to the beach new year's eve there were several for rent signs on the houses. The area seems to work. It might be worth it to look into those

[Arnacai]

[sharky]

most of the signs were from agencies. I can try to google local ones this weekend, see what comes up.

[Eleanor]

Having heard nothing in a while, I think I'm making the unhappy decision to ask for my deposit back.

Tami

[Victoria the Blonde]

This would mean we totally need to find another place or we resort to smaller spread out parties. I am all for all of getting together.

[Galen]

I'd prefer one big party too. javascript:emoticon('')

This place is definitely big enough, but I think costs more than last year's. It's on Hunter Mtn in NY, near to the other place we were at before on Hunter.

http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p182802
it's also listed here as "Grand Lady Victoria" - betcha Vicky likes the place! javascript:emoticon(''): http://www.catskillhouserental.com/

There's a cabin on the property as well that's a separate rental, http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p266991 but we could take that too for extra space (and of course extra cost). It is separated from the main house, dunno how much people may want to trek in the cold between places.

Place has a 2 night minimum for weekend or weeknight, so if we want thursday 30th or Monday 2nd we have to take both swing days.

Altogether could sleep 45+ - 28 bedroom spaces, bunch of couches and sofabeds. Place looks awesome, lotsa pics. We can get a deal if we book it early - price quoted for a group our size was flat 2500/night, 2000 if we book early (say, March) 4 nights. Could we hack 2000/night if we fill the place? That's say ROUGHLY......65/person/bedroom spot/night (1820) and 40/person/sofabed space/night (I guess some are singles, some doubles?), and floor space after that 25/night.

Tami, how'd you price kids into this?

If it's only Fri-Sun, that makes it 2500/night, so ~75/person/night bedroom space (2100), 50/person/night sofabed-couch space and floor space after that 25/night still.

Do I have cash for a non-refundable deposit of this size? No.......
Am I willing to do more phone/leg work up here? Yes.....
Look further?

What y'all think?
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