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Probably not on its own, but its an excellent example of how consumers can vote with their buying dollars to sway market demand to bring more environmentally friendly products into the marketplace.

Bamboo flooring is a rising trend in home flooring and a great alternative to traditional hardwood floors. It is the most environmentally friendly natural hardwood flooring alternative you can select for your home, it is a renewable resource, is stronger than steel, and has a greater resistance to expansion and contraction problems associated with temperature and humidity changes.

The bamboo grass is one of the fasted growing plants on the planet, only takes 5 years to grow to maturity, and can provide 25 times the bio mass of a comparable stand of trees. Bamboo is harvested every 5 years, and starts to re-grow immediately with new shoots when harvested. Bamboo is also strong and has a tensile strength exceeding mild steel. It can withstand up to 50,000 pounds of pressure per square inch versus some steels 50,000 psi ratings.

Bamboo flooring is also become a very trendy interior design statement with its rich and beautiful golden earth tones. It is important to shop around for a quality bamboo flooring product that contains no formaldehydes in its binding compounds. Many offshore brands use cheaper binding agents that may contain formaldehydes, and this can cause indoor air pollution problems down the road as all chemical compounds will slowly release their toxins into the air.

So why look to bamboo to save the environment? Bamboo is an excellent replacement product for much of the hardwood species that are being harvested in our global equatorial rainforests. Once harvested, these hardwood species often never grow back due to the thin layers of soil and lack of sunlight under the jungle canopies, and if they do grow back it can take up to 200 years! Our global rainforests are the lungs of our planet and provide a significant contribution to our global oxygen production, second only to the ocean.

By selecting bamboo flooring you reduce the consumption demand for rainforest hardwood materials, and in the process help save to the environment for our future generations. For more information and tips on bamboo flooring visit: http://www.laminateflooringzone.com/bamboo-flooring.htm

About the Author

About the Author

S.A. Smith is a freelance writer, contributor, and editor of the Laminate Flooring Zone and can be reached at http://www.laminateflooringzone.com

You’ve put the finishing touches on your vacation rental property and you’re ready to open the doors to the hoards of awaiting guests. And now the big question is, “How many guests do you have confirmed this season at your vacation rental property?”

Unfortunately, that’s the one question many vacation rental property owners leave to chance. Whether you’re approaching your first rental season or your tenth, you can’t expect your vacation property to fill with guests without aggressively marketing it. You’ve got to let vacationers know it’s out there and why they should choose it over all the other properties that are available.

Vacationing might very well be America’s favorite thing to do, but the vacation rental market is an extremely competitive market. Many vacation property owners leave the tasks of marketing and booking guests to businesses that specialize in renting vacation properties. That approach is fine, as long as you’re getting the results you’re paying for.

If you’d rather market your vacation rental property yourself, start by creating a web site for it. Fill the site with photos that actually highlight the property’s features. For example, don’t just take photos of the living room; be sure to also capture the view outside the sliding glass door. Use words to help describe the property’s best features including accurate distances to area attractions. Add a booking calendar and display rental rates. Build your rental business around satisfied guests. Offer guests incentives such as discounts to entice them to re-book next season. Use their testimonials to add credibility to your vacation rental property.

There’s much more you need to do to ensure your vacation rental marketing efforts are successful. Regardless of how you may have imagined it, owning a vacation rental property takes a lot of effort to become a profitable business.

Kent Krueger has been involved in the Travel industry for over 3 years. He has advised many people in the industry and the corporate world on travel ideas, savings and successfully marketing personally owned vacation home rentals. Kent is the President of The Rental Network, which owns and operates two websites to help both rental owners and vacationers alike. You can visit them at Vacation Home Rental and http://www.evaca.com