Try a Vacation Home

Where are you going to stay on your next vacation? This is usually one of the first things you need to establish before booking any flights. You have to make sure that you can stay somewhere before making any travel plans relating to how you are going to get there.

If you are just a couple or even a couple with one child it is usually straight forward and hotels are usually the best option for convenience and cost. Once you have two or more kids it can get a lot more complicated.

In many destinations around the world there are rules and restrictions relating to the maximum occupancy levels of hotel rooms which can more than double the cost of your accommodation costs. Not to mention the fact that you and your partner have to stay in separate rooms with a kid or more each for company and the family separated. (adjoining rooms aren't always available).

A lot of search engines don't even allow you to search and consider the total number of occupants at the same time so you can waste your time looking for a hotel and then find that you won't be allowed to stay there unless you book two rooms. For some this may not be a problem but we as a family prefer to stay in one room or a double room apartment so that we can be separated from the kids after they go to bed but not have the worry of them being in a completely different hotel room.

When we went to Europe recently we found that in almost every destination the private search for accommodation yielded the best results in relation to location and amenities and cost. We also found that in many cases it was a great benefit to be "living like a local".

We found a great apartment in Paris very close to some of the main attractions that more than adequately housed our family of five. Not only that we had our own kitchen, tv, free portacot and free wireless internet connection and a very newly renovated comfortable apartment. We were met by the owner and given lots of tips to make our stay comfortable. The rent of this apartment was a lot cheaper than any of the hotel accommodation we managed to find that would accommodate us and I am sure was in a much higher star rating than if we invested the same amount of money in the hotel system.

The same occurred in Venice. This was extra special as we were really in with the locals this time which was a fantastic experience for both us and our kids. We had to find the local shop and saw the local kids going to and from school. (my kids thought it was great that they didn't have to go).

Another benefit to staying in private accommodation is just that. It is usually more private! You don't have to worry as much abou the kids making noise like you do or feel you have to staying in a hotel.

Don't discount hotels altogether as you can find ones that will accommodate larger families in certain destinations but you usually have to do a lot of searching and it usually involves some emails back and forth directly with the accommodation to confirm that you can stay in the one room or that the rooms are adjoining. We found a great hotel in Geneva that accommodated the five of us in one top room that was larger than the rest of their rooms. In Vegas we managed to find a hotel that was having such a great deal that it didn't matter that we had to order two rooms. (I can tell you now though we will only actually be sleeping in one of them!!) I couldn't stand to have the kids in a separate room to us and i doubt that my husband will want to sleep in a separate room to me.

My main tip today is to use the internet to your advantage. Try your search in as many ways as possible until you find what you are looking for. Also once you have found a private apartment online that you are interested in, search for it by name or location on all the other sites it is advertised on and read as many reviews as you can. Average these reviews as some people are really really fussy and others are way too blase about where they stay. Look at the comments and see overall how they make you feel about the place you are looking at. Do this for any hotel rooms as well. The reviews can tell you a lot about a place that their own internet website will not tell you, even the perks that may not have been mentioned.

Most of these private accommodations can be paid for using PAYPAL which means you can pay using your credit card over the internet without actually giving out your credit card to the people. You only have to give it to PAYPAL. Another benefit is that you usually only have to pay a deposit and can pay the balance either when you get there or when you checkout. (I personally like to pay via paypal and get my receipt just before we head off on the start of our journey as I don't like handling large sums of foreign currency and prefer to pay via credit card as there is some degree of guarantee by the bank if things go wrong). There is also a degree of protection when paying via paypal as they have a complaints system when the services aren't provided for etc.

Have fun in choosing your accommodation. If you are there to see the sights then sometimes location is more important than luxury. In other instances luxury is the reason you are there so go a little further out from the sights to get the luxury you are looking for. It is usually a trade off and you may want to be somewhere in between.