My partner and I are traveling nuts. We’d travel for a living when we could. A couple of years back while vacationing in Hawaii, we decided on staying two weeks rather than our usual one week. Somehow believing or perhaps subconsciously wishing there could be some economies of scale, I was sticker shocked when we checked out of our hotel – I was mortified.
Vacation rental homes are the answer!
A week later, while back at home I decided to seriously look at how we can maintain our way of life and love for traveling without paying a small fortune to get a one to a last-minute holiday. We were considering a trip for our family of five to London and Europe in a couple of years and with the money exchange rate doubling the purchase price of what I searched for a solution.
I discovered the reply to my cost-saving pursuit, vacation rental houses.
In plenty of circumstances vacationing is a time to get pampered with massages, room service, concierge service, etc.. When I was single and afterward married without kids, however, the pamper factor was crucial to our resort and vacation decision procedure. Discounting our new family structure with three offspring, a larger mortgage, and escalating prices all around, we’ve discovered that when we need to immerse ourselves in a new culture and place, renting a holiday home can give us everything we need in a travel experience and not break the bank to have a fantastic time. This is true not just for our Hawaii excursions but now for the majority of our European trips also.
Some of the vacation home rentals are fairly near a resort experience and still provide you the feeling that you’re a local rather than a vacationer. We’ve experienced fabulous restaurants and activities which were out of the tourist spots we would certainly have missed if we stayed at a resort.
If you remain in the UK for instance, there are lots of self-contained rentals for your stay, all fully supported by a service company team. The London vacation rentals are the London apartments and houses of residents temporarily away in the city. You’ve got the informality, warmth, and ease of a real home in a London property, at prices to suit most pockets. The town self-catering rentals were perfect for vacation or corporate rentals.
A summary of the choices we watched, in a nutshell, is as follows:
- Hotels – Maybe a bit too formal, particularly for a lengthy stay. Expensive!
- Bed and Breakfasts – Often just a cheap (and sometimes rather disagreeable) down-market resort, you may have to lodge uncomfortably near the owners of a private home and other guests
- Short rented commercial apartments – Cold and impersonal and the minimum stay of one week – no great if you would like to stay less
We discovered vacation rentals to be a great choice for the following reasons:
- Our brief stay central London vacation rentals were in London apartments and houses of residents temporarily away from town
- The apartments were screened for place and handpicked, they were areas where we’d be happy to live ourselves
- We found a place with a 3-day minimum, the minimum length of stay in the Majority of the London holiday rentals is 5 nights; all other areas we saw had a 7-night minimal
- Many of our London short stay, self-contained holiday rentals are no longer than 10 minutes from a tube station, often less
- Our leasing had a car to meet us at the airport and took us to our London self-catering apartment, it was by far the easiest way to get into town with lots of luggage
- We were met by one of our agents who let us in and gave us hints about the local area and answer questions. Our rental came with its mini-guide covering the local stores, local transport, bars, restaurants, and cafes
- Our beds were made up and towels set out, a weekly clean and change of towels and bed linen has been comprised as would be the end of stay cleaning and laundry; added cleaning and servicing can be arranged on request
- We were also supplied a starter pack of breakfast provisions to cover the first day or two of our stay
I just elaborated on this 1 example we discovered at a remarkably popular travel destination- London. Although for the majority of our journeys to rural, third-world destinations we continue to remain at the maximum star rated resorts we can afford. But given all the above benefits I just explained, we found that with most metropolitan cities, culturally rich places, and tropical holiday destinations, vacation house rentals are an economical way to experience a new and culture town.