This summer, most Americans are expected to stay fairly close to home. A recent survey conducted by MMGY Travel Intelligence and the U.S. Travel Association showed that most travelers felt safer in their own cars than on an airplane. Only about 20 percent of the respondents said they were willing to drive 500 miles or more one way to reach their vacation destination.
Families with school-age children are facing the fact that most summer camps have been canceled. Angela Rice, a co-founder of Boutique Travel Advisors in the Scottsdale, Ariz., area, said that some clients are looking at rustic long-term rentals — near lakes, trails and waterfalls — as an alternative. She has received inquiries from clients with children who are looking to take road trips to a “lodge, ranch, ski resort town,” or anywhere with stand-alone lodgings and outdoor activities.
“Once they drive all the way out there,” Ms. Rice said, “they want to stay awhile.”
Many travelers are ready to depart immediately, perhaps because they have cabin fever, feel more comfortable as officials relax restrictions or are unsure about booking too far into a future with hazy conditions. Evolve Vacation Rental, which manages 14,000 vacation homes across the country, said trips booked within seven days of departure are up 300 percent compared with last year.
Earlier this month, Alex Lucey, 30, and seven friends booked the entire six-room Waldo Emerson Inn in Kennebunk, Maine, for the month of June. While the group, who are in their late 20s to early 30s, “spends money judiciously” and wouldn’t normally rent a house for so long, “we saw the distancing measures were going to continue for a few more months at least,” he said.
They all wanted to get out of New York City. Mr. Lucey, an investment banker, said he will keep his work schedule during the day, but looks forward to hanging out in the evening with his friends, eating dinner outside and going for hikes and bike rides on the weekends.
“It will be a meaningfully different experience than my apartment in Brooklyn,” he said.
The worry over virus transmission has other groups and families choosing smaller properties they can rent out entirely, so they won’t cross paths with other guests in the hallways or dining rooms.
Amy Lansky of Princeton, N.J., rented an oceanfront house in Maine for 10 weeks starting in mid-June. For her family of five, including school-age children, “summer is usually a social time at home,” with friends and camps and going to the local pool, she said. But with the pandemic, she was looking forward to “isolation” in Maine, going to the beach and for walks and bike rides without seeing many people.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/26/travel/summer-rentals-long-term.html
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