There are many reasons why you might want to choose a private rental for your next vacation. In current times we are in the pandemic so private rentals are really a smart way to go for a vacation, but even when it’s not the pandemic, a private home/condo rental is an ideal set up for vacation lodging. My family has rented a house or cabin on multiple occasions so I will tell you why it’s fabulous to rent, both during and after the pandemic, plus give you a list of things to look for as you search for your rental home.
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My family of five has rented cabins in Minnesota and beach houses in both Florida and Mississippi. It’s a really great option for families to rent a home while on vacation. Want a great experience, lots of space, and privacy? Consider renting a home, cabin, or condo for your next travel experience. Read on to find out exactly why.
Why Choose Private Rentals for your next vacation?
- privacy, privacy, glorious privacy!
- private outdoor spaces, decks, patios, beaches, waterfront, yard
- provides lots of space for your family to really spread out
- often offers multiple bedrooms
- enjoy a private kitchen, which includes a nice fridge/freezer of course…ding ding ding! So important to be able to purchase your own food and have the storage space on vacation to accommodate it and cook it
- multiple bathrooms (very important for larger families)
- provides a quiet place to relax and enjoy your vacation
- you can bring extra things you may not have been able to when staying at a hotel or resort
- it can be a cheaper option than other vacation lodgings
- laundry facilities accessible
For Sanitary Reasons Like for COVID— Makes Private Rentals a perfect vacation option
Right now, in the thick of the pandemic, a rental house is the perfect ideal vacation because it’s safer. You can ask the owners how they sanitize and if you are still unsatisfied, you can wipe down the whole place with antiseptic wipes before you touch anything.
You can reduce your exposures to others by staying at the cabin the whole time by shopping carefully, then cooking all your own meals at the rental. It’s just safer because you can cook all your own food and not have to take any unnecessary risks by going out to eat. You could even get meals delivered in many areas.
Most rental properties have great amenities so getting your entertainment right there at the rental property is often possible. Whether the rental property is on water or has a pool or hot tub, you can entertain yourselves right at the home for the duration of the vacation if you wanted to. There are many easy options for fun even staying at the rental such as watching movies, playing games, reading a book, or working on hobbies you packed along.
Privacy
The biggest reason to rent while on vacation for me is the privacy it provides. The whole place is just for you and your family so privacy is maxed out. You get privacy for meals, for relaxation time, for a living room space (often lacking in a hotel room), and any amenities the rental may offer such as a private beach, pool, sauna, or hot tub.
The value of privacy just intensifies that big ahhhhh! feeling you get while on vacation. That’s one thing I want to amplify!!
Outdoor Privacy is a HUGE bonus!
Privacy goes a long way in making a vacation special and comfortable. I love the ability to have a private deck or patio. My husband and I can sit and look out over the water (we almost always rent a home on the water whether it be a lake or the ocean). We can enjoy an adult beverage. We can grill. The ability to have a private outdoor space increases my enjoyment of a vacation immensely.
A private beach or any type of waterfront is a huge asset when renting a home. The space to lounge on the beach, swim, and area for kids to play in the sand is a huge bonus. It’s super enjoyable. We’ve rented cabins that have kayaks too which have always been a really big hit with my boys. Fishing off a private beach is also a tremendous benefit to waterfront renting.
Our last beach house rental provided crab traps so the boys could enjoy catching and releasing crabs along the shoreline. This was so much fun for my boys!
Sitting on a private beach with a drink in hand and a good book is my idea of a fantastic vacation spot!
Lots of Space!
With a family of five, especially having teenagers, enough space, and one’s own private space becomes very important. The idea of cramming us all into one room such as in a hotel room or a resort room definitely sounds miserable. The kids crave their own space and alone time away from family (moody, hormones, cool downtime, etc.). Renting a home often provides this very needed aspect. We always look for a home rental that has four bedrooms. Making everyone happy is important!
Spreading out is nice too because it helps to keep everyone free from the irritation of getting on each other’s nerves due to being too cramped up together. Space to move is really underrated as far as creating a happy free-flowing environment. There are multiple places in a cabin or home to play games, to sit and read quietly, to listen to music on earbuds, or to just get some peace. This will not happen in a common hotel room. I can tell you, there is no peace to be had in a small hotel room with three teen boys!
A rental home is nice too because while some family members may be inside, some may be outside. With a rental, there are just so many places to hang out and that’s huge for increasing the enjoyment of a vacation. Yes please!
Bedrooms
One of the biggest bonuses in my mind is that with a house rental each family member can have their own bedroom for the duration, and mom and dad get their own room too (couple privacy is needed while on vacation for full intimate enjoyment;)
This multi-bedroom aspect is also important for young kids who need a quiet space to nap in.
Renting is great for sleep promotion too. Each person can have a fan in their bedroom if they want, or not use one. Separate bedrooms are just quieter for promoting good sleeping if anyone snores in the family and keeps others up. Plus, having private bedrooms just gives everyone somewhere private to go and unwind, to simply hang out, talk on the phone, text, etc. It gives everyone a private place to dress other than a bathroom and to just spread out their personal items, or watch what they want on tv.
These are all important things while on vacation. Happy kids, happy parents, yes that’s what we want!
Kitchen
So, there are good parts and bad parts of having your own kitchen. First off, you are cooking. Meaning, obviously, there is work involved. So if you don’t enjoy cooking, this is a downfall, however, you could also order out or buy premade meals to accommodate this drawback and make it better. But … if you love to cook, now you have the time and the space to do it, and more at your own leisure so it becomes more enjoyable.
In having your own kitchen, you can buy foods you know your family likes so that also increases the enjoyment of choosing private rentals for a vacation space. You can enjoy leftovers easier as well because you will have the fridge to put them in.
You will have dirty dishes, so that’s a drawback, but I’d never rent a home that doesn’t have a dishwasher personally. Or purchase paper plates to minimize dishes if you so desire.
It will have a freezer so that increases the options for what types of food you can purchase to use. Hello, frozen pizza!
Having a coffee pot is also a huge plus for enjoyment of having morning coffee (out on the deck or patio please!).
Multiple Bathrooms with Private Rentals
While it’s true smaller rentals may have only one bathroom, many have multiple or at least two. This becomes of utmost importance in a larger family when one or more one members need to use the facilities at once. Urgently! Having multiple bathrooms reduces the panic and pain of needing to wait. Plus, with multiple bathrooms, more than one person can shower at a time so that’s a big plus too.
A Peaceful, Quiet Space
Renting for us has always meant we have been fortunate to have a quiet peaceful space to enjoy our vacation in. Of course, you could end up with loud neighbors, but that has never happened to us on a rental. We have been in hotels or resorts where partiers were loud at night, but at a house or cabin, this is much less likely, unless your neighbors throw a big bash, but still, most likely, it wouldn’t be every night like it could be in a hotel or resort.
Having your own space is just peaceful. And Quiet. And so very valuable when wanting to get away and recharge while on vacation. The mornings are quiet. The afternoons are quiet. And the evenings and nights are quiet unless your kids are screaming that is! Ha! But my point is the sounds are your family sounds, which you are used to anyway, not strangers staying in the room next to you.
Be careful when choosing a place to rent so that you don’t pick a home near a loud road, highway, or something like an airport.
Private Rentals often have more space so bring all the extras…
Private rentals have extra space over a typical hotel room or resort room, unless you are renting a suite of course. But having more space means you can bring more items along on your vacation both for comfort and enjoyment. If you fly, you will have reduced ability to bring more, but if you drive, you can bring as many extras along that can fit in your vehicle as possible.
My family has driven to our rentals so we brought extras including fishing poles, a metal detector for hunts for treasures on the beach, beach chairs, games, and our own pillows/blankets for comfort. It’s nice to be able to bring some of your home along with you when driving to a rental home.
I’ve even brought food I already had at home along to help reduce the cost of purchasing food while on vacation, plus this uses up the food so it doesn’t go to waste.
If going to a beach or lake house you can bring along floaties, beach chairs, beach umbrellas, and sand toys. Some rental places do provide these things, you just need to check the description to see what each one provides.
It’s Cheaper!
The big bonus here! This is a huge benefit for private rentals, it’s often cheaper than staying in a hotel or resort. Now there are obviously going to be exceptions to this but in our experience, a home/cabin rental has always been cheaper than other indoor lodging.
What also makes it cheaper is you can make your own food so you aren’t paying to go out to eat for every meal because you can cook.
It’s also cheaper if the rental provides entertainment at the rental such as a boat, kayaks, fishing poles, fire pit, pool table, gaming systems, or pool/hot tub. If there are more amenities to enjoy at the house, this reduces the cost of your vacation because you aren’t going out and paying for entertainment quite as much. With fabulous amenities, you get to enjoy entertainment right at the rental, which is perfect!
Laundry Facilities
Most private rentals have laundry facilities for renters to use. Not that you want to do laundry while on vacation, but it’s just nice to have the option if you want to wash something. Or, often I find it a benefit to keep up on laundry along the week so when we return home it isn’t this horrible buildup of of laundry to do.
I also like it for washing swim suits and towels that get dirty from lake water or sea water, and of course, the pesky sand.
It’s also great for fixing that uh oh moment when you spill salsa on your favorite white shirt the first day … with a washing machine on-site, you can fix that problem really quickly and easily!
Handy Checklist for what to look for in private rentals
Does the rental have what you want? Here are some things I look for as necessities when we are searching for a rental unit for vacation. I hope my list helps you in searching for your perfect vacation rental.
- central air conditioning is a must
- room fans are nice, not essential, but nice
- a dishwasher is a must
- a coffee pot, yes please, and do you need to bring filters?
- any other kitchen appliances provided such as a crockpot or air fryer or waffle maker
- dishes and cooking utensils provided
- any wraps or baggies provided (or bring your own)
- enough bedrooms to accommodate my family of five
- a separate dining area
- a deck or patio with seating
- private outdoor spaces
- private beachfront or waterfront on a lake
- any extra: kayaks, canoes, fishing poles, fishing boat, water toys, sand toys
- games, cards, toys provided
- pool table or other game room is nice, though not essential
- pool or hot tub is nice, but not essential if on the water
- is it a good-sized yard?
- not near a loud road
- not near a loud business like a bar or airport
- what does the nearby down offer? a grocery store? bars? restaurants? fun things to go and do?
- can pets come?
- how often is it cleaned (very important during the pandemic)
- is there a parking space for a vehicle if driving your own car or renting one?
- Do you need to clean anything before leaving?
- is there a grill
- is there a fire pit
- Do they have a garbage service?
- Is there internet/wifi available?
- do they have a gaming system?
- Are there any games/cards available for use at the rental?
- Do they provide towels? soap? beach towels?
- Will anyone be coming to the property during the stay?
- Are there neighbors nearby?
- What is the normal noise level at the property?
Looking for more ideas for rental properties?
Here are a few helpful posts I’ve written on rental properties. I hope they help you in your vacation planning.
I hope you have found this article helpful. Please share it with others on social media if you’ve found it helpful. Thank you for visiting my site and have a wonderful vacation!
Copyright ©2020 Julie Hoag Writer. All Rights Reserved.
Hello! My sister and her friends have been thinking of having a small gathering next weekend. It’s great to know from your article that we are able to enjoy all the freedoms and comforts of staying in a home by renting a house that fits into our budget. I’ll let her take this option into consideration when she makes further arrangement for the gathering later.
Yes definitely! I hope you enjoyed your time!