The Vacation Home Store

(News Item #0012, Published: 07/01/06, Author: William Victor May, Costco Connection Magazine)

William May, a Costco member in Seattle and now President of the Vortex Organization, knows a little about furnishing a vacation home. In 1999, he and his family purchased a house on a popular lake in central Washington state. They decided to rent out the house when they weren’t using it, and outfitted it with supplies and furniture from Costco. That house worked out so well as a rental that May purchased several other vacation rental homes in Washington and in Hawaii. He also founded Vortex and went into the business of sales and management services for other owners, building a portfolio of 100 homes through his Web site, (sunspots.info)sunspots.info.

Outfitting a home from scratch can cost $10,000 to $30,000, and we estimated that we spent at least half of that at Costco, May says. We even buy all our cleaning supplies, paper products and more there. It’s a great one-stop shop for vacation homes. Among the top items on his shopping list: beach towels (We buy truckloads as we outfit the homes), hot tubs and furniture, particularly futons , which can comfortably transform a living room into sleeping quarters.

Yes, we could have done it all without Costco, but it would have cost more, taken longer and we would have to search high and low to match the quality, May says. We’ll be using Costco as we expand into other markets . Currently Vortex, through its Goldener Resorts and Sunspot Vacation Rentals Network provides vacation rental and other lodging in three states, six markets and for over 200 homes. - -Tim Talevich Home décor

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