It’s that time again, we’re opening our fourth annual fundraiser for Passports with Purpose. This year we’re supporting the literacy program Room to Read — I’ve written about why I like this cause here, but that’s not what I want to tell you about now. Right now, I want to tell you that I have something great to give away as part of the fundraiser. It’s a $1000 voucher from HomeAway, the vacation rental company.
HomeAway has sponsored Passports with Purpose several years in a row and they’ve sponsored my travels personally. I’m a HomeAway fan, not just because of their support, but because I’ve used the service, spending my own money to book vacation rental properties. It works, there are great deals to be had, and while I like a nice hotel as much as the next person, getting a place with a kitchen, a place in a neighborhood where you can feel at home is a great way to travel. I’ve stayed in opulent city apartments and cute little neighborhood houses — a full range of accommodation, all booked through HomeAway.
There are a bunch of restrictions on the voucher, of course, as is typical with these things — the voucher is good for one stay only, meaning you can’t split it between properties. but splash out and get something nice, why don’t you? I’ve been poking around to see what you can get for $1000 — just short of a full month in a studio on the island of Kauai. Two weeks in a one bedroom in Manhattan. A long weekend in a ski condo in Jackson Hole. And yeah, there are lots of listings outside the US, how about this studio in Vienna, Austria? You’ll need to use it before the end of 2012, but that’s not going to be a problem for you, right? Hey, you could the use voucher to house your visiting relatives when they stay in your town, too. And lookit! You could stay here if you come to visit me! (Seriously, it’s in my neighborhood.)
If you want a shot at the voucher, all you need to do is make a donation to Room to Read through the Passports with Purpose site. I promise it will make sense once you click through. You’ll put your donation on the voucher line in the catalog of stuff we’ve got as incentives.Your tenner goes directly to Room to Read and helps fund those libraries we want to build. Then, at the end of our fundraising efforts, we’ll pull a name at random and someone gets a voucher. Maybe you. And a community gets a library. No small thing. You know this if you’re a lover of reading. And I’ve said it before, if you couldn’t read, you wouldn’t be here right now.
Give ten dollars. Get a shot at a HomeAway voucher. Support some kids in the gift that is reading. You can do that right now by going here.
I will definitely be entering the draw for this prize, Pam. I have booked a little garden flat for myself, my husband and the twins in Wimbledon, London for next June through HomeAway. Maybe we could use it for that. If not, we still need to sort out accommodation in Stockholm in July. When you are traveling with small children, having a kitchen and laundry makes all the difference!