I’m a frequent traveler, so I was excited when I saw yesterday’s headline at the Elliott Blog about “8 things travelers should expect in 2008.” I, like so many other travelers, was looking for a little good news after some of the major travel headaches and rising costs of last year. While it seems in most areas I may be disappointed again, the post offers some good strategies about how to get around each roadblock.

My personal favorite was this:

Hotels that take you for granted
This is probably the last thing you want to hear before checking into a hotel, but I might as well tell you: your resort doesn’t need you. Next year will be another seller’s market for hotel rooms, according to the influential lodging analyst Bjorn Hanson of PricewaterhouseCoopers. He’s looking for a jump of nearly 6 percent in average daily room rates. Let me connect the dots for you. Higher room rates and near record-high occupancies (about 63 percent) means hotels can pretty much charge you whatever they want. They can invent new surcharges and fees and they can get away with them. And they know it. How to get around it: Look for a lodging alternative. I wrote about several of them recently.

He’s exactly right! As frequent travelers or once a year vacationers, we don’t have to stand for outrageous hotel price hikes and surcharges in 2008, we simply have to invest just a little bit of time seeking a lodging alternative.

Professionally managed vacation rental homes, like those listed on PickPackGo, are that perfect lodging alternative. They are maintained by local property management companies with staff on-site to help any time of the day or night if there is an issue. Property managers help to ensure the homes and condos we choose are in good shape and ready for our visits. With a vacation rental, we travelers can enjoy more spacious and affordable accommodations than hotel rooms, particularly when we’re traveling with our families or groups of friends.

That’s a better way to travel in 2008 that I’m definitely behind!