Vacation rentals book up ahead of 2015 Car Week

It’s about to be one of the busiest times of the year for short-term vacation rentals. Car Week is just around the corner and people are willing to pay the big bucks for a hotel or house on the Monterey Peninsula.

According to the Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau, 85,000 people attended Car Week last year. They report more than 70 percent of ‘out-of-towners’ stayed overnight in Monterey.

NewsChannel 5 spoke with the staff at Monterey Bay Vacation Rentals Tuesday. They said vacation rentals are going for anywhere between $3,500 and $25,000.

They said they’ve been super busy with booking. The economy is improving, more people are traveling and they’re seeing that impact.

“It’s been the craziest it’s ever been. People pretty much booked the larger properties a year in advance so right now we only have a couple left. We’ve gotten a couple of new owners. But we’re still waiting for those to fully book. We maybe have four or five properties left out of the 100 we have,” Ashley Auria said, with Monterey Bay Vacation Rentals.

The tourism good for our local economy. According to the Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau, taxes generated by Car Week last year amounted to $4.8 million dollars.

Car Week kicks off August 10 and runs through the 16th.