Whether it’s a sign of my travel style ageing changing, or a simple reflection of my affection for a more independent travel style, I love staying in rental apartments when I holiday. I feel like I’m getting a more ‘local’ experience of a city, and have found hosts are usually more than happy to recommend their favourite neighbourhood spots. It’s convenient to be able to have a meal in a kitchen, rather than a big breakfast buffet, and nice to be able to retreat to a cozy lounge rather than a shared dorm room for a break from a big city. To date, around 90% of my holiday accommodation has been rental apartments – so here’s my top tips on how to find a great one.
Find a great neighbourhood
Great view from our central Lisbon apartment
You can often find neighbourhood guides on websites like Air Bnb or Lonely Planet, or if your favourite bloggers have been they are bound to have some tips on their favourite areas. It’s best to do a bit of background research – if you’re looking for a relaxed or kid-friendly holiday, then you probably don’t want to be staying on the clubbing strip. If the monuments and museums are your primary drawcard, being right in the middle of the shopping district might not be ideal. If you’re after a foodie holiday, assessing where the best restaurants and cafes are can give you a good guide – check out my ‘Eating My Way Around‘ posts for some handy maps! It’s also good to check out how easy it is to get around a city to assess whether you are going to be walking distance from what you want to see, or whether you need to make sure you’re near some good transport links.
Be clear about your apartment type
Websites like Air BnB offer a choice between shared rooms, shared houses, and having the apartment to yourself. For the latter, usually you’ll meet the host just to pick up the keys and have a quick tour of the apartment, then it’s yours until you check out. Otherwise, the host may live in the house or apartment, or be regularly on site. Other providers, like Go with Oh, often offer serviced apartments, the ultimate blend of independent and hotel accommodation. Depending on whether you want cheap and cheerful, so are happy to share an apartment, or whether you’d prefer your privacy, and your group size, each of the different options may have positives and negatives for you. Generally I travel with a group of 4 to 8 friends, so we almost always opt for having an apartment to ourselves – it works out well cost-wise, and we like to feel like we have the place to ourselves.
Study the descriptions carefully
Best couch ever in Reykjavik!
Lots of places will have only one or two actual bedrooms, and frequently extra beds are added with sofa beds or mattresses. If you’re with a group who like their comfy beds, this might lead to some tension! Make sure you read the descriptions of the apartments carefully, as they should spell this out. Same goes for places that are four flights up without a lift, have two toilets for ten guests, or only a toaster in the kitchen. I’m not saying these are necessarily bad – just that it’s on you if you got caught up with having a central London apartment and didn’t check whether it had any windows to enjoy those views!
Be a great guest
I’m sure it goes without saying, but given a lot of the rental apartments work on ratings and reviews, it’s in your own interests to treat your rental apartment well. Just as I wouldn’t advise staying with a host who has lots of questionable reviews, hosts are going to be less keen to have you stay if your reviews aren’t stellar.
My Experience – The Worst
The view from our Cologne apartment – unfortunately the best part
We left it late to book our accommodation in Cologne for the Christmas markets and ended up getting a room in an incredibly central location near the Haymarket. That part was great, however as we’d left it late the room was one where we shared a bathroom with others, rather than having our own as is our normal preference. It turned out that the shared bathroom was one between about 10 people, and the toilet was inside it too rather than separate – not a great situation! Our host had mixed feedback on his profile which in our subsequent experience was justified, as he became irate when our flight was delayed, meaning our arrival was too, even though we kept him updated. When it was time to leave things got even weirder… we were apparently the last to check out on the day and when we were at the airport began receiving strange messages from him accusing us of leaving a door open and his laptop being stolen! Of course, we had done nothing of the sort. We sent him a few messages to that effect and there was never any follow-up from him – he even left a review of us as “Ok”! Very strange.
Lessons learnt: Trust the feedback on the host and if they sound dodgy, try somewhere else. Book well ahead of time if you can, and if you’re going for a place with shared bathrooms, make sure you ask the host how many people will be sharing!
My Experience – The Best
It’s really hard to choose! One standouts that springs to mind are the Munich apartment we had for Oktoberfest where our hosts supplied handy tips, great directions and even the costumes, including tailoring one specially to fit my friend. Another is the Paris apartment I shared with my sister in Bastille, which was super spacious for Paris with a lovely big lounge for us to rest our tired feet in, and a great location. Special mention to the comfy couch in our Icelandic apartment, which seated all five of us with ease.
Our San Sebastian apartment
But I think the top apartment overall would have to be the fantastic apartment we stayed in recently in San Sebastian. Our hosts were charming, going out of their way to meet us a few blocks away where it was easier to direct a taxi to and then guide us through the streets. They taught me how to say that I was lactose-intolerant and couldn’t eat cheese, and left recommendations for great pintxos places. The apartment itself could not have been more central, was spacious and modern, and beautifully-decorated. A total holiday apartment win!
So there are my top tips – have you stayed in a holiday rental apartment before? Do you have any great tips of your own?
