Lets talk accommodations with kids!
Things I look for in an Airbnb
First- why Airbnb/vacation rental?
We usually book an apartment because we have extended stays, we want comforts of home to make things easier, and in general they’re more budget friendly. Many hotels in Europe have a 2 or 3 person occupancy limit. And they are strict about it, you will need to show passports at check-in. So as a family of 4, if we needed to book 2 hotel rooms that would add up quickly! There are, of course, times we stay in hotels, but that’s usually for shorter stays especially in major cities or by airports.
As someone raised in the US there are certain things I take for granted. But when traveling abroad, there are cultural differences and things we may consider standard are just not the norm. That being said, there are some important non-negotiables I make sure to double check vacation rental listings for. Some of these aren’t intuitive, especially if it’s your first time planning an international trip, or your first time traveling with kids, or both! So here’s my wishlist:
- Air conditioning- if you don’t see the words written, it’s not there! You can also play detective and look for the units in the pictures.
- 2 bedrooms- the kids are fine sharing a room.
- Washing machine (dryers are very rare)
- Balcony (if it’s a warm weather trip)- this is an important part of our strategy because we don’t usually travel with other family members who can watch the kids. So we don’t “go out” per se. We do of course keep the kids up later than normal for dinners, walks, and gelato. But when we get back, we put the kids to bed, and sit on our balcony with our 5€ bottle of wine and relax, listen to the water, people watch, etc. This is another major way we save money on our trips since we can’t go out and party at night anyway.
- Take note of which floor the apartment is on, and if it’s in Europe usually add 1. They normally call the ground floor 0. If the description doesn’t specify that there is an elevator, there isn’t. You might not want to book a 4th floor apartment (probably 5 floors up) with no elevator if you have stroller age kids or multiple big luggages.
- Parking spot available, not just street parking (if we are renting a car).
- Walking distance to public transportation (if that’s what we will be using, not always the case).
- Grocery store within walking distance.
- A good amount of restaurants, cafes, and bars within walking distance. Note- “bar” in Italy is not the same as bar in the US. A bar in Italy can be a small restaurant or cafe, they’re usually family friendly though they may not be very spacious.
- Linens/towels/cookware included
- WiFi- again if it doesn’t explicitly state it, they don’t have it. I have made this mistake. Don’t get me wrong- it was serendipitous to not have a phone for 10 days, but it was unexpected.
- Last but NOT least- good reviews! This is important. We want to make sure that the property is reliable. We look for places with many reviews (at least 10) and a high overall rating. And I honestly read every single one to consider how important the complaints are to me.
You’re probably thinking "what's all this going to cost me?” and the answer is “A lot LESS than you are thinking!” We have stayed in some really incredible apartments that ticked all our boxes all for under $230/night. I mean this is less than I’ve paid for a Holiday Inn by Sesame Place, and I know for a fact if I were to have a beach staycation on the East Coast where I live, it would cost at least 4 times more.
You can, of course, spend more but we always look for budget friendly places because we like to go for around 16 days.
