How to find a better place to stay
Finding the right place to stay is a matter of knowing what to look for and how to look for it
AirBnB, Booking.com, Agoda, VRBO. With so many sites offering so many available listings how do you effectively sift through the available lodgings and find a good vacation rental property?
It’s an understatement to say that finding the right accommodations plays an important role in your overall stay. Sleeping well, feeling like you have a home-base, comfortably resting between activities, and even having somewhere to escape the noise, or get a break from the midday heat, is a major factor in how much you enjoy your trip. Every traveller has at least one story about a place that just didn’t cut it.
When we started traveling, long before the rise of the sharing economy, we would arrive at our destination, crack open our Lonely Planet guide book and pick out a couple of reasonable looking rooms. One of us would wait with the bags while the other went to check out the rooms. We’d select one of the three or four options in the guide book, sometimes selecting whichever happened to have availability. Needless to say, that’s no longer the case.
With the huge number of platforms offering short term rental properties, even after setting up filters, you can be left facing a couple of dozen potential places with all the right amenities and no clear path to the right choice.
So, how can you find a good VRBO, great airBnB or other short-term vacation rental?
These days, our first step is to search with wide parameters and only the most important filters set. This gives us a starting point, and a sense of how picky we can afford to be. It also gives us a rough sense of the price range we’re working with. Then we start narrowing down our results.
When we travel, we tend not to spend much time in our room. We value cleanliness and comfort, but some amenities, like a balcony or a stunning view are luxuries we are willing to pass up.
When doing your own research, an important step in finding the perfect airbnb is deciding on your family’s priorities. Separate the nice-to-have items from the must-haves. Are you willing to put up with noise at night if it means you’re closer to the city centre or main attractions? A set of earplugs can easily open up a wider range of noisier budget options, potentially cutting prices significantly.
What can you get by without? Can you make do with a fan instead of air conditioning? Are you likely to actually use the pool? Are you willing to sacrifice an ocean view? Toggling these option on and off can open up many additional properties, providing more flexibility and potentially some significant cost savings.
Search widely
Don’t limit your search to only one platform. Sometimes prices vary between vendors. In some cases the block of rooms allotted to one vendor is sold out, but another site might have availability. Check back often. Due to flexible cancellation policies, sometimes rooms that were previously unavailable open up.
Take full advantage
Because of the sheer number of vendors competing in this space, many reputable sites offer very flexible refund policies. Use this to your advantage by booking rooms that can be refunded. This allows you the flexibility to continue your search, upgrading as you go. Starting a little earlier, and improving your accommodations will help you narrow down the best airbnb listings for families.
Read the Reviews
Reading reviews is definitely an art that you get better at the more you do it. It can be overwhelming with so many varying opinions. Read our article on how to read Trip Advisor reviews to get our insights on how to filter out the noise and get better insights into the property you are considering.
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