​Weighing the Pros and Cons of Hotels and Vacation Rentals

Unless you’ve been hiding out in a cave, you know that vacation rentals have gone through the roof since the pandemic. Actually hotel occupancy has surged as well, particularly in resort destinations. (Not so much in big cities.) Many people have tried Airbnb or Vrbo for the first time these past couple of years. Folks have definitely been enjoying the benefit of living in a home (or apartment/condo) away from home while staying within their contained unit.

But now that we’ve all been breaking out of our bubbles far more, many are pondering if renting a vacation home is better than staying in a full-service hotel. Let’s weigh the pros and cons of the key factors that help you to select your place of lodging.

Price

While it might seem that vacation rentals give you a better bang for your buck, this is not always the case. It’s important to consider the price of a rental against all the amenities that a full-service hotel provides. Even if you don’t opt for daily housekeeping at a hotel, you’ll never have to bring out your trash. This small task of what we all have to deal with in our own homes can be a real bugaboo in a rental. It’s not unusual to have to stuff your trash and recyclables in the trunk of your car when you leave an Airbnb to drop it off at the nearby dump. Even with a rental car, this is always a less-than glamorous chore and not a fun way to end a vacation.

Hotels also provide concierge services, bellmen, valet parking and all kinds of other bennies in addition to perhaps an on-site restaurant and bar, a pool, a hot tub–well, you get the idea. Some of the most important services involve the ability to have an engineer show up at your door within a reasonable amount of time if your sink is clogged. Repairs are rarely expedited in such a speedy fashion with rentals where things do seem to break/not work right more than in hotels.

Fortunately most rentals do provide enough towels but if they don’t, tough luck.

Space

There’s no doubt that one of the biggest bonuses of a rental is the amount of space that you can typically obtain for the same amount of money you might spend at a hotel. This is largely why rentals have so much appeal. To put up your whole family in a hotel would likely ring in more than for a rental. Plus, the space is entirely yours, or at least for the period of the rental.

Anonymity

One might think that you can be more anonymous–or more to yourself–at a rental but that’s not necessarily the case. The whole process you go through in renting a property requires that you reveal more about yourself than for a hotel stay. Then again some people really like the contact they have with let’s say the owner of a property that’s on Airbnb. But others don’t care for all of the messaging back and forth, special instructions or meet ups for keys and other matters that have to be dealt with when staying in a rental. A lot of hotels now have even streamlined their check in process and have employed contactless check ins. Most have done this very successfully and also make you feel welcome by introductory texts and other outreaches during and after your stay.

Being Reviewed

The whole review process is a little sketchy throughout the hospitality industry but most especially with rental properties. For Airbnb, for example, most guests don’t want to emphasize the things that went wrong in their stay out of fear that the rental host will write a less-than favorable review about them. If you go to a hotel, you can write a review afterward but no one from the hotel will write one about you! This review process can make some guests paranoid, especially when checking out. God forbid you misplace the one and only paring knife that was in the rental’s kitchen drawer, the one you “borrowed” for your picnic. That might be a bit of an exaggeration but try leaving a rental property and finding out that you can’t find the key. That can turn you inside out. And then you freak out that that’s going to incite a mark against you in the review that the host writes about you. No such thing happens in a hotel, even in an old historic property that might still be using good old fashioned keys.

All of the above also applies if you break something. If you’ve left those Venetian blinds askew at the hotel, no sweat; at a rental, a move like that can instill panic.

Living in Someone Else’s Space

OK, some rentals are very neutral and you see no sign of the person that owns the property. In other places, you definitely become well-acquainted with the owners just by being in their space. Even if family photos have been removed, in many instances their clothing has been pushed to one side of the closet, their toiletries are stashed under the bathroom sink and their fridge and pantry remain half full, leaving just enough room for your goods. Now this can work to your advantage if you find yourself in a cabin in the Adirondacks during a storm and desperately need a tumbler of scotch. (Hey, who’s going to notice?) And a lot of people find it charming to discover how other people live. One could say that some folks are curious–or even nosy enough–to revel in the fact that someone else’s secret garden has been made available to them. But other people feel uncomfortable with this; they want to have their own seaside vacation without feeling that they’re living in someone else’s house. Once again, sometimes that’s the tradeoff for enjoying a big kitchen, living room, playroom, deck, yard and so much more–you just have to decide what’s important to you and pay careful attention to the information provided online for both rentals and hotels.

Character

The above theme provides a good segue into the uniqueness you can find in a property. With rentals, you can stay in a house at the end of a pier, a treehouse, a lighthouse, or even a cave, to give you some examples. Although there are all kinds of hotels with varying styles, looks and character, it might be harder to find something as original as what you can unearth in a rental. Plus, once again, you just might enjoy living in that geologist’s home in the middle of red rock country. It is most certainly filled with all kinds of cool rocks and likely a few gems.

Location

Some areas are so remote that you can’t find a decent hotel there but you can find a cool rental. Even in a big city, you might opt to be in a rental in a quaint neighborhood rather than in the middle of the hustle and bustle of urban life. Be careful though since sometimes addresses can be a bit odd for these units–even if you’re in the center of town. GPS might have your Uber driver drop you off at a location that’s a good three blocks from where you want to go. In a foreign country, in particular, that might represent not only a big schlep (with overstuffed luggage after a long flight) but it also can be very unnerving because there’s no front desk clerk to contact.

The moral of the story is to each his own. Just do your research and weigh the pros and cons carefully and always, always manage your expectations.