Rental

Do you prefer the comfort of a vacation rental over a hotel room? Is your schedule flexible, and are you curious about different destinations? If you're nodding your head yes, bookmark LicketyTrip.com. What's hot: LicketyTrip.com shows vacation rentals that are available this week or next. That's great, because other vacation rental sites make you dig into the property page and test various dates for availability. That can be very time-consuming. Sure, you have a smaller pool to choose from with this simple last-minute booking tool, but it feels more like an insider's short list than an empty database.

Your editorial (May 23), "Rent Control Makes No Sense," in itself makes no sense. New apartment houses are not subject to rent control. So, your statement, "That rent control causes owners and builders to shy away from apartment house construction," is not valid. When an apartment under rent control becomes vacant, the owners can rent that apartment at whatever rate the tarrif will bear. It is no longer under the rent control umbrella. However, after one year that unit is subject to the allowable rental increase.

Just returned from Edmonton, Canada, visiting the new mall (817 shops under one roof). You don't have to pay those $100 a night room rental fees. We stayed at the Relax Inn, 18320 Stony Place Road, Edmonton, Alta. T5S 1A7, close by the mall. It was clean and people were helpful and charming. My single room was $32.95 plus $1.65 tax. Reservations (800) 661-9563. ESTELLA HAYES Placentia

Those in favor of continued construction of office buildings in the face of an apparent glut of space cannot see the forest for the trees ("Revising Real Estate Tax Breaks Could Remodel Entire Industry," Viewpoints, Feb. 23). It makes no sense to spend money, consume material and build on valuable land when there is no pressing need for office space while completely neglecting the area of reasonable rental housing. Most new apartment buildings are in the luxury class; some people cannot afford to live anywhere.

DURING my planning for our annual family vacation in Europe, I was able to obtain an excellent rate on a rental vehicle. As always, I printed the e-mail confirmation and carried it with me as I approached the agent in Paris. When he handed me the form for my signature, I was surprised to see a total of $1,490 for the rental. I told him the rate was incorrect and to please review the file again for the correct rate. He continued to tell me the rate was correct. I finally remembered that I had a copy of the confirmation in my pocket.

In the Nov. 7 Apartment Life column ("How to Tell if Kitty's a Resident"), Kevin Postema suggests that a landlord could apparently make up an excuse to enter a tenant's apartment in the hope of seeing a prohibited cat. He quoted part of California Civil Code Section 1954 that permits entry under a very restricted set of circumstances, none of which include inspections for alleged rental agreement violations but which a misguided and unethical landlord...

Regarding Louise De Carl Adler's letter complaining about her travel agent ("Lodging a Complaint," Aug. 22): Let's consider that no matter what the price of the airline ticket, the most that a travel agent can make from commissions on a sale (with only a few exceptions) is $50 for the U.S., Mexico and the Caribbean, and $100 for all other destinations. If a client wants the travel agent to assist with car reservations and wants to use any discounts, i.e., AAA or AARP, the usual commission is 5% to 8% of the basic rental rate (for a three-day rental of $24.99 per day, that's about $5)