Lodging Searches: A Few Tips

It's still a few more days until I can attempt a purchase of train tickets through RENFE, so while I'm waiting to get to the 62 day window on that, I thought I'd jot down a few notes about finding rentals and hotels to stay in.

Identifying the Right Sources

We travel for a pretty wide variety of reasons, and the reason we're traveling is an important determinant of where I spend most of my time searching for places to stay. If it's just Jana and I off for a short getaway, I'm usually looking for a hotel/B&B. Jetsetter, Tripadvisor, bedandbreakfast, Tablet, etc. are great options for this kind of target. If the Little Lady is along for the same kind of trip, ideally we want a little more space, so looking for short-term apartments/houses also becomes attractive in addition to the hotel sources above. For that, airbnb is one of the best options because they have a pretty substantial portfolio of owners who will rent on a nightly or at least less than weekly basis. If it's a traditional week-long family vacation, we're usually looking to rent a house. Airbnb can be fine for this, but flipkey, homeaway, and vrbo become better options. They focus on rentals for a week or more. Finally, if it's a work or long-term stay of some sort, airbnb can be useful if you can find a listing with substantial discounts for monthly rentals. But those are a bit few and far between. For this kind of search, very localized options such as local apartment brokers and classified ads work best.

Start with Location Constraint

With all the resources available, it seem overwhelming to sort through all the information. What I recommend is trying to narrow down your location as much as possible as a first step. Instead of Cape Cod for a vacation rental search, maybe you know you want to be up by Provincetown. Adding a location constraint like this at the outset will greatly reduce the number of options available, which is both a blessing and a curse. If you know where you really want to be, though, this is really helpful. If you cannot find an acceptable place in the ideal location, then expand your search. I've found that most of the time there are too many options not too few. In some locations, however, that won't be the case.

Reviews

Reviews, when available, can be a great resource. Tripadvisor does very well with hotels and increasingly well with other sorts of lodging options. The sites I mentioned above as resources almost universally provide opportunities for guest feedback on the properties listed. To avoid disappointment, I try to stay away from rental properties that don't have at least a few reviews, and of course the reviews need to be at least mostly positive. Discount negative reviews that are short on specifics. For big hotels, there can be hundreds of Tripadvisor reviews. You clearly don't need to read them all, but an overall high rating does not necessarily mean you'll be happy with the hotel. Look at some bad reviews and see what people mention. If they just had ridiculous expectations or got ticked off because of some random situation largely outside the hotel's control, discount the review. Find some positive reviews that are actually detailed. See what they say and see if the things they like align with what you like in a hotel.

Pictures

This applies mainly to vacation rentals. Look at the pictures. If there is not a picture of a room you care about, assume it is not good. Ask to see one by contacting the owner. But if there's not a picture, it's hard to complain about misrepresentation. In my experience, the pictures on rental sites are exactly matched with reality. The fact is, if this were not the case, the owner could be outed almost immediately through the review process. Accusations of inaccurate photos are probably the kiss of death for an owner. Beyond the photos, pay attention to descriptions of bed sizes and bathrooms (bathroom photos are really important) and views (better see pictures here, too, or I imagine the worst).

Communicate with the Owner

Again, for vacation rentals: contact the owner before booking. Ask questions. Even if you don't have any, ask anyway. Why? Because how fast they reply and how easy they are to deal with at this point is a major piece of evidence about how they'll behave if you have an issue later on. If they don't behave well when trying to get your business, it's a safe bet they won't behave well once they already have it.

Chill Out

It's really easy to obsess over a hotel or vacation rental choice. I do it all the time. But I suspect that most of the time, once you have it narrowed down to a few of the best options, there are no bad choices. So don't sweat the final decision too much. If you put in some work early on, the final choice will be an almost sure bet.