Our vacation rental is a Colonial Williamsburg-style cottage in Bucks County, Pennsylvania (www.buckscountycottage.com). Shortly after moving into the 200-year-old main house, we took the cottage down to its studs and hired a local cabinetmaker we knew to transform it. That transformation involved a great deal of hand-planed wood, chair rail created from custom, authentic 18th-century "knives," a massive exterior brick chimney that is itself a work of art, and dozens of other truly soul-filling details.

The Cottage is furnished with 18th-century style reproduction furniture and Oriental rugs. It has a wonderful corner fireplace in the living room with raised paneling and a custom-built mantel. The kitchen is small, but quite serviceable. We've equipped it with everything our guests need to make basic meals and snacks.

As we explain in our online listings, the Cottage is really perfect for a couple looking for a romantic getaway or a weeklong vacation, or a business executive in the area for a temporary assignment or house-hunting visit. But because of our proximity to the world's only Sesame Place Theme Park, our guests also include families with one or two small children.

We also host visitors from throughout the U.S. and Europe who have discovered that our Bucks County Cottage is a perfect base of operations for day trips to Princeton, Philadelphia, and New York City.

Years ago, "Pianoman" Billy Joel had a hit called A New York State of Mind. For some reason that tune popped into my head the other day as I was reading a board post from a VR owner who said that not only did she make vacationers sign a multi-page rental agreement ("Drawn up by my attorney"). She also dinged their damage deposit for little things, like a broken dinner plate or toddler-made wall smudges.

This approach runs counter to everything I believe about being a successful vacation-rental owner. It occurred to me that what's really involved, overall, is your "state of mind"—hence the Billy Joel song.

In my opinion, your state of mind regarding your vacation rental should be this: "You're a host, not a landlord. And your renters are your guests, not your tenants."

If you adopt this state of mind regarding everything having to do with your vacation-rental property, you will definitely be successful.  

Both Alfred and I believe that staying in a vacation rental should be a truly special experience. And the best way to make it special is to think of yourself as a host and your renters as guests. Everything else follows from that.

Though we don't have as much time for it as we'd like, Alfred and I enjoy traveling in the U.S. and Europe, and being guests in the homes of other VR owners. We love "slow travel"—spending two weeks or so really getting to know a place and living like the locals. And there's simply no better way to do that than by staying in a vacation-rental home.

Two of the best places I know of for learning about and planning "slow travels" are Pauline Kenny's SlowEurope.com and SlowTrav.com (created by Pauline and now owned by Internet Brands).

When we're not traveling (which is most of the time, of course), we feel blessed to live and work in a 200-year-old farmhouse on the Delaware River, not far from where George Washington and his troops made their historic crossing on Christmas Day in 1776, and where Revolutionary War scholars and fans, TV news crews, and thousands of spectators gather every year on December 25 for the Annual Christmas Crossing Reenactment.