The Society went live with upgrades to thesociety.com last week. Exciting additions include a destinations directory, member-to-member messaging, community search, and a new home page. While there’s still much to do in the ever changing website, increased buzz about the company and site features has been very encouraging.

The biggest item in last week’s publish was the addition of destinations. Visitors are now able to browse through geographic locations featuring local vacation rentals, golf courses, snow resorts, weather, and other local information. Vacation rentals and activity listings allow easy access to local resources through the new destination pages as well. Headed by The Society developer, Greg Pasquariello, Further additions and enhancements to this feature are being made daily.

The Society community members keep in touch through Cicada developer Jim Duncan’s new member inbox, and Cicada developer Ben Bonnefoy’s community search. The community search makes finding other members a snap! The inbox allows members of The Society to send private messages to each other and keep up to date on the latest community events.

Scott Berkley, co-founder, had a vision that inspired my work on the new home page design and development. Colors are richer, focusing on the luxurious mood. Luxury vacation rentals are emphasized through an animated slide show, and easy access from a new map and featured destinations. Conversions of other pages to the new design/functionality are in the works.

Everything seems to be moving so fast! More updates will be posted as they surface.

The Fairmont Hotel group is located throughout North America and is the largest luxury hotel chain in the country. The Fairmont prides itself in its history, and indeed it should, as the hotels were some of the first buildings to be constructed in prominent cities of North America.
By providing its guests with intriguing and luxurious features and programs, such as the Fairmont President’s Club, this hotel makes each traveler feel important.
There are also specialty packages available to create special weekends for specific travelers, such as the Pajama Party Package (a.k.a. ‘The Girls Just Want to Have Fun’ package). This specialty package is a great way for friends, sisters, daughters and mothers, or any group of girls to bond and have a great time. The highlights of the package include a two nights stay, a Mix and Mingle Dinner Reception, a Saturday Night Dinner Gala, a Sunday brunch and key note speakers.
The Fairmont goes above and beyond to make sure that their clientele are well taken care of, and the Pajama Party Package is just one of their many great ideas for providing a memorable experience for their guests.

As hotels continue to thrive and improve in providing their guests with creative and unique packages, it is necessary for property managers and homeowners to come up with more and more creative ways to fill up their vacation rentals.

Check out The Society where you can book a weekend for any type of get-together. Even better, book a platinum property where you can receive a 24-hour concierge, and host a party of your own!

Perfecting your luxury home is an ongoing process, and let’s face it, one that will never be finished. With the rate in which technology and trends move, there will always be something bigger and better in the next home over. In “Luxury Homes: Custom Features Bring the Outdoors Closer” by Elaine VonCannon, the new trend of having a second kitchen and living room in your backyard is described as the new luxury.
Necessities for this development include having an outdoor space that matches the rest of the indoor designs and colors of the house, while still providing a space that is unique. It is to be considered an addition, therefore the overall ambiance must stay the same. Outdoor kitchens bring luxury to a new level, as these are expected to be equipped with everything the indoor kitchen subsists of as well. This includes sub-zero stainless steel refrigerators, full marble countertops, and of courses, a lavish grill.
Additionally, a luxury backyard wouldn’t be complete without a fabulous pool and hot tub. As VonCannon states, “hot tubs are almost becoming the norm in the luxury home.” To add a little home comfort around your high-tech surroundings, try adding the southern comfort of a wrap around porch complete with a swing. This will bring back the feeling of “nostalgic memories of grandmas’ porch, drinking idea tea, courting, or eating a family supper on Sundays.”
The new luxuries are upon us. Not only are you requested to have top of the line outdoor amenities, but you now need to give the ambiance of southern hospitality as well!

More and more families are aiming their vacation-hungry eyes towards vacation rentals, destination clubs and other luxury home getaways. They are tired of cramped hotel rooms with no privacy, dining out every meal, and having to worry about loud neighbors at all hours of the night.
They are coming to book your vacation rental properties, so here is how to make your vacation home family-friendly.
In Homeaway’s blog, Christine Karpinski deciphered how to carefully adjust your home into one that can be used for families with children of any age. Some of the more obvious tips include having emergency numbers posted, making sure there aren’t any sharp corners around and keeping any poisonous, chemical cleaning supplies locked high and away from a toddler’s grasp.
The more uncommon tips, but ones that are just important include having dishes and cups that are small enough for a child’s grasp and making sure there aren’t any long drapes that a child could get caught in.
For more advice on child safety, read “Seven Ways to Make Your Vacation Rental Home More ‘Kid Friendly.”

Let us know your great ways to child proof a vacation home!

If your customer satisfaction rate has begun to dwindle, but you can’t find anything wrong with your home or location, perhaps it is the simpler details that are hurting your sales. Believe it or not, the color palate in your house could be to blame. In Adam O’Connor’s Home Decorating Tips off of VRBO, the top color tips were explained.
The most important factor is to have a color scheme that goes throughout the entire house. This means that the paint on the walls must compliment the furniture, along with the rooms of the house and any décor. The color palate must emit peacefulness and calm, nothing brash or loud.
The one exception of a completely matched room comes with borders. As O’Conner states, “Borders can be painted a different color from the rest of the room and furnishings and yet still appear tasteful and matched.”
Therefore, one might find it beneficial to either grab an interior decorator (if you have an untrained eye), or scout through your house yourself to see if your home’s ambiance is relaxing or just plain harsh on the eyes. Say goodbye to that fire-engine red and an empty house, and say hello to a calming blue atmosphere and customers!

In a time where travel consists of opening a website and clicking on a flight matched with a hotel, I was shocked to find a truly unique travel website, http://www.far-and-near.com/. Not only was it informative, but poetic, rustic, and romantic as well.
The mystery blogger is both nameless and faceless, but by searching through the archives, an image of this person begins to appear. The archive contains short poems of each country visited, (some are two lines, others are twenty) but with each you receive more information than you ever could at generic travel sites.
Each poem is then accompanied by a few photos (some have only one), which compliment the poem and were obviously selected to portray the destination in one shot. Although there are many exotic destinations in the archives, my favorite was the depiction of New Orleans. By viewing this photo, and reading this three-line poem, you will nod your head and understand this city completely.