The best sites for vacation rentals
Renting a vacation cottage. It is already November and the first vacation plans are being made. Logical because if you want to book a cottage or apartment, you need to be here on time. On what sites can you rent good cottages now.
We usually camp
We prefer to go camping. But are we going away in the autumn vacations then I look for vacation cottages to rent. I've been doing this for about six years now and always have a free hand from the rest of the family to make a choice. We always go climbing in the autumn vacations and my job is to find an affordable cottage near a climbing area.
Search cottages for six people
By affordable, I mean that I want to stay between 400 and 500 euros. There are six of us, four adults and two children. The search vacation cottages rent is then three bedrooms and otherwise it makes little difference. Because we want to climb this week we have to go to the south of France or Italy for good weather. This year it became d Ardeche, as we were here from the summer and had not climbed then due to the high temperatures.
What site do I visit
Over the years there are four sites where I have found and booked vacation cottages and although I have a slight preference for two, I always check out all four before making a final booking. What sites are these:
Atraveo
Atraveo was the first site I ever rented a cottage from. For me, renting a cottage was new and we were very surprised about the house, which had a jacuzzi, a pinball machine and pool table. We never experienced this later. Beginners luck I would say. The site is clear. You type in where you want to go, when, with how many people and your wishes. Cottages appear in different price ranges. When you look for details for a cottage you see exactly on the map where it is located.
Novasol
Novasol has a number of vacation homes that are also at Atroveo. I once booked with Atraveo and ended up with Novasol as well. Most of the cottages I found in recent years came from Novasol's site. Searching for cottages on this site is the same as above, only here you can see more clearly where all the cottages are located. This is ideal for me as I am looking for climbing area. When you look at the cottages there are always many and extensive photos’s. It also says right away if you pay extra for linen, electricity and final cleaning. After payment you immediately receive all the information by email and about three weeks in advance you let the tenant know what time you expect to arrive on the day of arrival.
Problems with a cottage
We had problems with a cottage once and then I didn’t know that they have an emergency phone number at Novasol. Nowadays I take these with me just in case. The cottages are actually always from private individuals who rent out the house (temporarily).
AirBenB
I got to know AirBenB and HomeAway when we wanted to arrange vacation homes in America twice. We used both sites once. A house in the Poconos in Pennsylvania we found through AirBenB. We had direct contact with the owner and the key of the house was at the agreed place. We never saw the owner. The house was well taken care of down to the last detail.
Last year, I was looking for a cottage in Italy. this turned out to be quite a popular area on the flower Riviera. It was difficult to find a house back then. Both at Atraveo and Novasol they were too small or unaffordable and then I ended up at AirBenB. Here I found several cottages, again the search for the cottages is similar to the other sites and you can also specify a price range just fine.
Left a weird feeling with this landlord
I still have a strange feeling about AirBenB. I had three ‘weird’contacts with people last year. One did not respond to anything, the other wanted me to pay directly to him. I did not trust this at the time. At one point I had found a house and paid for it, when all of a sudden it could not go through on her part. The customer service at AirBenB was great back then.. I then ended up arranging a cottage at Homeaway.
The Poconos Pennsylvania America 2014 AirBenB
Homeaway
Also here we booked once for America in Georgia. And last year for Italy. In itself a fine site, the vacation cottages are easy to find, after filling in how many people, rooms etc. In America, everything was actually fine, also here we arranged everything via email and never saw the owner in person. Last year in Italy I had intensive contact with a German lady about the house. This went in English which was fine. However on arrival there appeared to be only an Italian speaking lady. With our hands and feet we managed, but then I found out that the house was rented by a (in this case) German organization.
A large organization behind the cottage rental
I noticed later that this happens more often with this site. Behind the rental of the houses, there is a larger organization. Good thing to check, though, so you know who your contact person is at the time you are in the cottage and there might be problems.
Finale Italy 2017, via HomeAway
Conclusion
Actually, every time I have been excited about the vacation cottages we were able to rent. Ideal of all sites is that you can save the houses you are interested in in your favorites. This makes it easy to find them later. The houses I rented were actually always similar to the pictures’s I saw online. Sometimes you are a bit short of plates and cutlery, there are no cleaning items available. Or an extra easy chair would be nice. That can always happen. My tip is to take your time and be sure to check out more sites, because there are very few vacation rentals that appear on the same site.
Do you ever book vacation homes and which site do you use?
