About Scott Petoff

About Scott, Travel Blogger and Time Off Maximizer

Scott started Meliovation™ back in 2002, merging his love of travel with diverse experience in consumer software design and technology product development. In the years to follow he published the award-winning (SIC 2006) Vacation Designer™ line of software products, guiding independent travelers to research, plan, and print the perfect trip itinerary. During this time Petoff became an expert in online travel planning while broadening his knowledge of world travel.

After years of juggling work and life, career and family, busy time and leisure time, responsibilities and dreams, … he came to a life altering realization. What is truly at stake for working people everywhere is their own free time. Time for life, time for family, time for leisure and time for dreams. Life is short so the need to maximize time off from work must be the #1 goal!

Determining the optimal balance of work and life at every family and career stage is critical to happiness and success. Embarking on frequent leisure trips is only one way to ensure a healthy work-life balance. There are so many other opportunities to take advantage of your time off from work to spend with family and friends, continue your lifelong education, volunteer to help others, challenge your mind and body, pursue a dream, or simply get the relaxation time you deserve.

Scott took this powerful insight and launched Vacation Counts™ in 2010 to help people “Take More Time Off.” The goal of the VacationCounts.com™ website, blog, and technology resources is to empower people to maximize their time off from work and live life to the fullest.

Petoff’s Work-Life Background

What does it take to run VacationCounts, sharing the advice and techniques to empower everyone to have a remarkable work-life-vacation balance? With a bachelor’s degree in Psychology specializing in work and economics, Scott has deep knowledge about both life happiness and workplace issues and trends. Combined with that is over 15 years of experience designing and building software solutions in the fields of travel technology, human resources, and web applications.

Over the course of his career, Scott has worked at more than 10 companies in the U.S. and lived in four different states. That’s New York, California, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania if you’re counting. Each job allowed him to appreciate the wide spectrum of vacation and time-off HR policies and the difficulties of achieving the perfect work-life balance.

Petoff also helps travel businesses get more bookings via his BookingCounts site. That blog is written for independent hotels, tours, vacation activities, and online travel agents. It offers how-to advice on travel email marketing, remarketing, and landing pages with the goal of “Book Now” conversion optimization.

This unique combination of traits enables Scott to be the leader and voice of VacationCounts to take more time off for family, travel and enrichment. People need a reminder to take full advantage of their vacation benefits plus ideas on how to leverage time off from work now and throughout the year.

Scott and his wife Jenn (aka Dr. J) On Vacation

Read our personal travel blog Sidewalk Safari where our local and international travels are captured one step at a time with stunning photos and practical advice.

Together we’ve traveled to over 50 countries and counting. Our travel philosophy is that every place is worth visiting – at least once. Be inspired to visit interesting places in the US and around the world even when you work a full-time job. This is how we maximize our paid vacation days.