Here are the top 3 things to compare and contrast vacation rentals to hotels

If you stayed in a vacation home in the past, then you probably realized all the benefits of staying in a vacation rental as opposed to a hotel. For those that have never stayed in a vacation home in the past, this article will shed some light on both these options.

Criteria: Value

Let us compare the value offered to travelers by vacation home and hotels:

Hotel rooms are generally cramped. Not many come with kitchen, appliances or other amenities. Phone calls are not free. Some hotels may offer a limited choice of breakfast as complementary but something many health conscious travelers do not like these days. A typical hotel room is 200 sq ft.

Vacation homes offer full kitchens with all appliances and many free amenities such as free calling, welcome packs, access to local attractions and facilities of the community. Some homes come with private pool and yard. A typical vacation home starts at 1300 sq ft (Ex: Timon’s Magic villa) and could be as large as 3200 sq ft (Ex: Disney Magic villa)

Criteria: Cleanliness

Vacation homes are rented by travelers who want to stay in a ‘home’ when they are traveling and tend to be more caring toward the home. These travelers stay for weeks at a time hence reducing the traffic to the vacation homes. Vacation homes are professionally cleaned by staff between each stay and leave the home with a personal touch.

Hotels as they cater to one or two night stays in most cases see a lot of traffic. Hotel staff does not take personal attention to clean the rooms as each room is just a number to them.

Criteria-Privacy

Hotel rooms are small leaving little or no privacy within the room. In addition, you must leave the drapes closed all the time to have privacy. With the shared walls and common walk areas that hotels offer, you will hear conversations from the next room and the walk ways as you are ready to snooze that may even keep you up all night long. With one bathroom offered by hotels, each person staying in the room must wait in line.

Vacation homes offer private entrance, dedicated or designated parking and walls and walkways that are not shared with anyone.  You also get more than one room (typically two to seven bedrooms), separate living, dining areas and a family area.  Multiple bathrooms are always a plus for vacation homes.

The Verdict

Though hotels have been long in the market of providing quick accommodation, their demand is quickly diminishing. With more and more vacation homes being made available by caring owners, they are quickly becoming the choice f many travelers.

Vacation homes are able to provide cleaner facilities that offer more privacy and convenience at a fraction of cost of renting multiple hotel rooms. Read more about renting a vacation villa versus hotel here.