Yes..it will be a real joy to enjoy some days in Maui..It will make you the heavenly feel in vacations..

Danny,
Boy, you’ve hit the nail on the head as to what is keeping back vacation rentals vs. hotels more than anything else. I believe this is the fastest growing travel sector, but boy is it a mess when you want to rent a vr. It shouldn’t be this hard.
1. I have to agree with Aline who commented that most would be better off renting direct from owner than from an agency. Agencies are a throwback (in many ways) to preinternet days. Think calling travel agency vs. reserving with american airlines or expedia directly.
2. The direct from owner internet portal/listing business is still in the midst of expansion. Every body and his brother sets up a new site every day. I’ve got so many offers for sites to list on it is absurd (I own several vr’s/none in HI) – absurd for the owner and for the guest. The business started online in the mid 90′s with 4 major sites, 3 of which were bought by wvr group in the last year. My bet is that in the next 5 years you will be able to go to one of 3 or 4 main sites and find a great rental anywhere in the world. There might be some regional sites that do well also.
3. tripadvisor hasn’t figured out how to deal with vacation rentals yet, because they don’t allow individual properties to be listed yet, except as resources, so it is hard to get that feedback mechanism – though rentors.org (who propably hosted the availability calendar you saw)does host guestbooks for individual owners.
4. try being an individual owner and apply seo and compete in this business. i’ve been working at it self taught for a year and it stinks. often outplaced by totally irrelevent sites.
5. don’t give up – it’s still worth it to stay in a vacation rental rather than a hotel!

I have been in online travel for 11 years and can’t believe that it is still so hard to plan travel. I did a test for accomodation specific Google mashup but just replaced it with a swicki after I saw it at the SES exhibits in San Jose. (BTW – Sorry you are leaving, but I understand). The swicki gave me more the features I was striving for – now if only it would let me include exactly the sites I wanted. I have been including only official hotel sites and excluding third party travel sites. It will be an on-going process, but so far I really like the results – especially with the tagging and the opportunity to promote sites. If you get a chance, please check it out TripMojo. Thanks!

Danny, I’m surprised you would go to an agency first. My experience with agencies is that you get nowhere near the care and service that you can get from a good ‘vacation rental by owner’ (or value for that matter as the agent charges a fee which often puts the price up). Having said that, I understand that some people feel more confident that they will not end up in a dive!
Our little website (published under http://www.4star-mauirentals.com) used to come up on page 1 of Google for the search term ‘maui vacation rentals’(at times in the top 3 and sometimes even #1). We enjoyed that for almost 5 years. Then last November we were wiped off the map and have not been able to get back up there. Seems like the big agency sites are invincible now.
I’m shooting for ‘Kihei apartment’ keywords more now but still hanker after that fantastic traffic (and bookings) that we used to get from ‘maui vacation rentals’ and related keywords. Any ideas?

Dear Danny this comment is for you personally.
I have a website completetraveldirectory.com that may be of some use to you. It is a directory of travel related websites listed alphabetically by category. It is under construction and currently has 42,000 links.
David Lowry

Danny,
Maybe you should visit my client’s website, http://www.VRgateway.com/
It’s a new site, but it might be helpful next time you’re searching for a vacation rental.

Hey Danny…
Welcome to the toughest space in SEO/SEM…yup, it’s no holds barred here on the travel frontier…and you may well have found your next niche…Danny Sullivan, The Sherriff of Travel Spam…by the way, was that someone spamming your blog further up the list…
Best wishes on your new adventures…

I have had a great experience finding vacation home rentals all over the world. I’ve stayed on the Big Island in Hawaii, on the coast of Italy, on the ski slopes in New England. I booked through a travel club I am a member of – Hideaways Aficionado Club. They have an excellent web site that gives you details and photos on the vacation or villa rentals then you contact Hideaways and they give you the direct homeowner contact info. It’s worth looking into if you like staying in vacation home rentals. They also have resorts, hotels and cruises, too, and their newsletters are chock full of other member experiences, travel tips and some unbelievable deals. Their web site is http://www.hideaways.com. Seriously, check them out.