Cannon Beach Vacation Rentals: Having Fun on the Oregon Coast

Cannon Beach Vacation Rentals
Website: VisitCB.com
Location: Cannon Beach, OR
Quick Quote: “With LiveRez, our online bookings are up.”

For Cannon Beach Vacation Rentals and General Manager Brian Olson, it’s all about having fun.

The company, owned by Linda Beck-Sweeney, is just coming off its 13^th summer and likes to spread that fun around to its owners, its guests, its staff and more.

“The bottom line for us is that we want our owners, our reservationists, house cleaners…everyone to have fun,” Olson said.

The “having fun” concept fits in perfectly with the company’s location in Cannon Beach on the gorgeous Oregon coast.

“We’re in one of the most beautiful places in the Northwest as far as I’m concerned,” Olson said.

And it’s not hard to find something fun to do there, either.

Guests looking for natural beauty and amazing wildlife can check out the nearby attraction of Haystack Rock, the third tallest intertidal structure in the world, which is part of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge.

For those looking for a culinary experience, there are many world-class restaurants right in town. One of the favorites among guests is EVOO, a culinary school in Cannon Beach that offers two and a half hour dinner shows that feature four courses made with locally sourced foods.

About 45-minutes away is the famous Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria. And if you’re looking for some fun for kids, just 7 miles away Seaside offers arcades, bumper cars and more.

With the coastal mountain range just minutes away and the beach as close as your back door, guests can stroll along the ocean shore or hike through the wilderness.

“You’ve got this unique spot where you can do a lot of things,” Olson said.

Guests also have a lot of options for where to stay if they book through Cannon Beach Vacation Rentals. As a full-service vacation rental company, the business manages about 68 properties. The company offers everything from a sleeping room that runs about $45 to $50 a night in the winter to properties that rent as high as $700 to $750 a night. Whether you’re looking for something on the ocean or something that sits back off shore with a beautiful view, Cannon Beach Vacation Rentals has the house for you.

And when you arrive, you’ll see they have some other items for you, as well.

All guests are given an insulated shopping bag with two mugs and a half-pound of coffee from Sleepy Monk Coffee roasters, in addition to “CBVR Bucks,” $5-off coupons honored at eleven local stores.  It’s just a small part of how Cannon Beach Vacation Rentals shows its appreciation for its guests.

Thanks to a new program, guests that have stayed with the company three years or more are given a glass sand dollar created by a local glass artist. Olson said each year the color of these sand dollars will change, so the company’s guests can collect the whole line.

“Our guests love them,” Olson said of the glass sand dollars. “They like the fact that we appreciate them. And they look forward to making their reservations for next summer.”

Many of these guests stay in the same homes, year after year, and that’s a testament to the relationship Cannon Beach Vacation Rentals has not only with its guests, but also its owners -- many of which have been with the company for years.

“Our owners appreciate that we let them use their homes how they want to,” Olson said.

The company works closely with its owners to ensure that properties are updated and to make sure the owners can use the home, as well as guests. It really boils down to a partnership approach – a lot like the partnership approach LiveRez takes with the management companies in its network, Olson noted.

“We look at it kind of like LiveRez does: Our home owners are our partners,” he said. “And we’ve just got a great staff that makes sure they’re taken care of.”

Since switching to LiveRez in January of this year, Cannon Beach Vacation Rentals has noticed some exciting changes.

“With LiveRez, our online bookings are up,” said Olson, who also noted increases in the company’s website traffic.

LiveRez has also allowed the company to expand its concierge services. Guests can now order packages, book surf lessons, order roses and more, right from the website.

“Our guests like it,” Olson said. “It’s that added amenity that they’re used to getting at hotels that we’re trying to make available through vacation rentals.”

In addition to these added benefits, Olson said the new website – while still remaining true to the look and feel of their old website – has afforded the company to add new features that it wasn’t able to before. Among those new capabilities, Olson liked the image slideshows, how much easier it is searching for properties, and the site’s ability to take online bookings.

These new features have allowed the company to stay busy – very busy.

“We’re seeing record-setting numbers in September and October,” Olson said.

But the company’s busy schedule doesn’t stop its staff from having fun. Every Friday from Memorial day thru Labor Day, the company’s owner, Linda Beck-Sweeney, buys hot dogs and hamburgers, and Olson comes by on his day off and barbecues for the crew – and for guests and owners if they want to stop by, too.

“We do that every Friday during the summer, so we can have fun!” he said. “Because, it’s a lot of work in this business.”