Just a few days after the CBC reported that Lake Superior State University’s 34th annual list of words or phrases that should be banished due to their overuse, misuse or uselessness included the word ‘staycation’, the UK Daily Telegraph reports that the Collins Dictionary is considering adding the word to its next edition.
There’s a number of other words that Collins head of content Cormac McKeown describes as ‘gloomy’ as they all relate to the current economic climate but he’s hoping they may be shortlived as popular expressions:
“With a bit of luck most of these will have slipped off the radar this time next year, but my money’s on bad bank and staycation to stay the course.”
I’m using the word ‘staycation’ a lot at the moment to describe the phenomenal increase in enquiries about vacation rentals so far this year. It looks as though more people are planning on staying closer to home and traveling less than a couple of hours door to door. This is good news for the rental industry, and savvy owners are capitalizing on this by advertising on listing sites that cater to the home-grown vacationer such as CottageLINK, Cottage Life Rentals and Cottages In Canada in our area of Southern Ontario.
The big issue that’s created by the staycationing trend is the rising number of people who have never rented before; have no clue about what’s in their back yard, and may have wildly inaccurate expectations. A few examples from my inbox:
‘We’re coming up to a cottage so we can skate’.
The perception that a frozen lake meant a 10 mile skating rink and all that was required was to lace up the boots and go, was established by a quick call to the client. No, they hadn’t considered there may be a foot or two of snow on top of the ice.
“We want a completely private cottage; miles away from anywhere – lots of water, no other people…..must have hi-speed internet”.
Umm….there’s unlikely to be a cell phone signal let alone a connection to the internet.
‘Would like a nice place – quite private but within walking distance to shops, restaurants and casino. We’ll be coming by bus so I hope there’s good taxi service in the area.’
There is a great responsibility here for owners and listing sites to educate the neophyte rental public about the area they are traveling to. Many owners take it for granted that everyone knows about the quirks and peculiarities of cottage country, since it’s only a couple of hours from the city, but this is rarely the case. Nor do I see the popular listing sites taking the opportunity to provide information beyond a couple of links to the tourism offices.
I’m going along with the Collins man…..’staycationing’ maybe here for a while so lets cater to the newbie renters and give them more information.
And by the way, my favourite new expression is “social notworking” – the practice of spending time unproductively on social networking websites especially when one should be working. Given the amount of time I now spend on Twitter, this one rings uncomfortably true!
Photo by Sam Spice on Flickr
