Looking back, our family travels quite a bit – both for business and for pleasure. We traveled extensively when Caitlin played for a local softball team that competed nationally. We traveled a lot during her sophomore and junior year of high school as she visited colleges on both the East and the West Coast. Nowadays, it’s just Jim and I travelling; several times a year, we’ll go away for a few days up to a week. But twice a year, we’ll go away for 10 days to visit Caitlin – once in Boston during the school year and another time in Florida for Spring Training.
Having stayed in both hotels as well as vacation rentals, Jim, Caitlin and I agree that we much prefer staying in vacation rentals should our travels be longer than a couple of days. In future posts, I will share with you, some of our wonderful vacation rental experiences as well as our not so great ones. Additionally, I will share tips on how to choose a vacation rental. But for now, I wanted to share with you our reasons for choosing a vacation rental over a hotel.
6 Reasons to choose a vacation rental:
- Way More Space – Space is the number one reason why we choose vacation rentals. Vacation rentals, on the whole, offer more square footage per person compared to a standard hotel room. Hotel rooms are just that – a room. I’ve found that we’re constantly stumbling over each other in such a small and confined space. With vacation rentals, depending on your rental unit, there’s usually separate living and sleeping quarters. We love that there’s room in our vacation rental to stretch out, unwind and enjoy quiet time.
- Feels Like Home – We love that a vacation rental feels like home. We like being able to arrive, unpack once, and feel right at home immediately. We like having a couple of sofas to lounge on, and several TVs for viewing options. When at a tropical destination, we like sitting out on our large private terrace or lanai and watch the sunset, just like we do at home.
- Conveniences of Home – We like having a full kitchen – with fridge, stove, microwave, dishwasher, glasses, dishes and cutlery for the times we eat at home. We like that our favorite foods and drinks are steps away in the kitchen. We particularly love having our own laundry facilities in our unit; this way, we can pack lightly for our trip.
- Lots of Privacy – We like being able to wake up anytime we want. We don’t have to worry about Housekeeping knocking on our door in the morning. We don’t have to worry about returning too soon because housekeeping hasn’t done our room. I also like not having to pick up after myself before housekeeping arrives. For us, our vacation rental is as much a part of our vacation as it is seeing the sights. We’re not the “ we just need a room to sleep” kind of people. We like being able to lie around the house reading on the sofa, sitting on the lanai or lying by our own pool. Unfortunately hotel rooms don’t offer the privacy we enjoy while staying in a vacation rental.
- Live Like a Local – We love living like locals whenever we travel. We love shopping where locals shops. For instance, when in Hawaii, we love going to the Farmers’ Markets to pick out fruits and vegetables that we cannot get on the Mainland. Similarly, we love to purchase fish that was caught that very morning and serve it for dinner that night. Unfortunately, we can’t shop like a local while staying in a hotel room.
- Save Some Money –One of my favorite activities, while on vacation, is cooking. I love cooking with local produce, grilling on our lanai or picking up pre-made foods to eat at home with a nice bottle of wine. Being able to eat in means we’re able to save some money. We’re also able to reduce our expenses by saving on parking as most vacation rentals offer free parking . Parking can be very expensive. Did you know that parking in Boston can run upwards of $50 a day? If staying in a hotel for 10 days, parking alone will cost you $500! Finally, most vacation rentals also offer free wifi, and local and long distance calling. When we add up the extra charges, it makes sense to choose a vacation rental over hotel for longer stays.
These are 6 reasons why we prefer vacation rentals over a hotel room. What about you, what do you prefer? What are your reasons for choosing one over the other? Do share!
