Travelling requires careful planning, especially if you only have a set budget. Aside from choosing your destination, you also need to consider your itinerary, lodging, food, flight schedules, and other transportation arrangements. If you don’t do your research, you’ll end up spending more than you initially planned.
Lodging: The Most Important Part Of Your Holiday
Of all the travel factors that you need to take into account, your lodging is perhaps the most important one. Lodgings that aren’t at par with your standards may still be livable, but you certainly wouldn’t find them comfortable.
At its worst, poor accommodation can ruin your entire trip. Thus, you have to consider what kind of traveller you are to ensure that your lodging choice will match your needs.
This is where vacation rentals come in. Hotels typically just provide rooms to their guests. Unfortunately, some of them have tight spaces. Cheaper accommodations, like hostels, on the other hand, will sacrifice your privacy in exchange of affordability.
Meanwhile, vacation rentals are now becoming part of popular travel deals because you get to rent a whole condo unit or even a whole house. The best part is that the space is all yours.
If you’re debating whether you should go for a hotel room or a vacation rental, listed below are five reasons why the latter is the better choice if you want to save money:
More Amenities Are Included
Hotels that have “complete amenities” are bound to be more expensive. Generally, you also have to pay additional fees for services, like parking space, Wi-Fi, phone, cable TV channels, laundry, cleaning, and mini-fridge snacks and drinks.
In vacation rentals, most of those amenities are already included in the daily rate. And, if you plan to bring your pet along, you’ll have a higher chance of finding a place that’s pet-friendly. For a much cheaper price, you get access to more services, so you can easily reallocate your money to other trip expenses.
Utilities For Food And Entertainment
Most rental places are literally the “home away from home” type. This means that they come with kitchens, refrigerators, and entertainment systems, so you can comfortably stay “at home” when you’re done with the day’s itinerary.
If there’s nothing particularly special about the food in the area, you can choose to cook your own food instead, which is much cheaper. You also don’t have to bother going to other places to keep yourself entertained because aside from TVs, rental places are also equipped with board games and, sometimes, even video game consoles.
Low-Maintenance Means Lower Rates
Hotels require staff to do a number of services, such as cleaning and restocking supplies. Thus, they tend to charge higher rates because they need money to keep their business sustainable. That said, hotels with cheaper rates aren’t exactly better, because this usually means that other aspects of their service are compromised.
On the other hand, vacation rentals are very low-maintenance. Owners leave it to the renters to do the cleaning and manage their own supplies. Hence, they don’t need to pay more service people than they need to.
It’s worth noting, however, that some rental places charge a one-time cleaning fee for your whole stay. Still, that’s a lot cheaper than having to pay daily cleaning services in a hotel.
Privacy, All In One Accommodation
If you’re travelling in big groups, even the biggest rooms in hotels may not be enough. To have some privacy, you’ll need to book multiple hotel rooms to accommodate all of you. Fortunately, many vacation rentals have multiple rooms, so privacy wouldn’t be a problem. Best of all, you simply have to come down to the common areas to bond with each other. Overall, the fees that you’re going to pay per person will be much cheaper if you choose rental places.
Longer Stays Usually Come With Discounts
While hotels do feature discounts for multi-day stays, those aren’t common. Rentals, on the other hand, can give you cheaper rates if you plan to stay longer. Some trips really do need longer stays for you to fully appreciate the place. Fortunately, vacation rentals allow you to enjoy longer trips without messing with your finances.
Get A Bargain On Your Trip By Renting A Place Instead
Travelling doesn’t have to be expensive. If you look in the right places, you’ll find bargains that can make your trip absolutely worth it.
To plan accordingly for your vacation, you can start by choosing to look for rental places instead of hotels. This way, you’ll be able to save money on lodging—all while possibly getting more amenities out of it.
