Traveling is a lot of fun, but one of the biggest challenges is finding a place to stay while you are away. In recent years, Airbnb’s have become among the most popular and often affordable ways to travel. Average people lease out their unused spaces to make a little money while helping the weary traveler find a place to rest. Even though the trend has taken hold, there remains some significant benefits to hotels and resorts for travelers. If you are on the fence about whether to rent an Airbnb or stay at your favorite hotel, here are some advantages hotels and resorts have over short term rentals.
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Consistent Quality
When you rent a short term rental, you can never really be sure what or who you are renting from. Countless reviews of some Airbnb’s have noted bugs, rats, holes in walls, and other uncomfortable attributes none of us want to sleep with. Unfortunately, these issues are common as not all renters are adapted to keeping up a property properly. Property management is a huge problem in the short term rental avenue of travel.
Hotels and resorts throughout the world pride themselves on providing consistent quality in all their properties. Property management is not just a notion with resorts and hotels, but a way of life. Professional rental establishments make an effort to provide consistency in their cleaning and quality control measures. They also have a staff available 24 hours a day to contend with any issues during your stay. With a short term rental company, you may or may not have a staff available to fix problems that arise.
Last Minute Options
Airbnb’s and similar short term rental properties often require advanced reservations, but that is not always an option when you are on a road trip. Changing a reservation can be a hassle if you run into delays such as roadwork while using a short term rental, but not with hotels and resort stays. It is easy to call the resort or hotel and simply switch the reservation. Rarely will you run into issues with overbooking and these facilities often have measures in place to contend with late arrivals, checking in, and altering reservation needs at a moment’s notice.
Loyalty Programs Are Great
Loyalty programs have become a true necessity in the hospitality industry. These programs reward travelers for using a specific hotel or resort chain most. Loyalty programs offer free stays and other rewards for frequent travelers. This is not something you will likely ever see with the short term rental industry as each owner sets their own rental standards for their property. There are a few renters that are organized enough to manage a loyalty program, but it will never be up to the standards the hospitality industry has set for these programs.
Research Not Required
Finding a short term rental can be difficult and when looking for the right property to rent, intense research is required. While looking, you will view reviews of the property, amenities, location, and various other attributes to ensure it is exactly what you need for your trip. It takes a lot of time and dedication to perform all research necessary to find the right rental.
Resort and hotel rentals do not require such intense research. Generally, the location will be in a high traffic area, so location is never a problem. Reviews of the property are easy to find and are generally managed by the property management team. Photos of rooms, amenities, and other essentials are also easy to see on just one site. The ability to simply book and enjoy your vacation is among the best attributes of staying at hotels and resort properties.
Resolve Disputes Easily
Unfortunately, disputes can happen no matter if you stay at a short term rental or a professionally managed property. Indecencies in charges, issues with the room, or a number of other issues can happen quickly. At an Airbnb, you might have to wait months for your issue to be resolved and when the problem is monetary, you might not ever be able to get your money returned, depending on policies in place for the site used to book the property.
Hotels and resort properties work differently. They have a desire to make every customer happy and will work directly with them to resolve issues quickly. Resort and hotel staff have the authority to return fees without going through complicated red tape. In most cases, your money is returned immediately and even if you have to wait a few days for the transaction to go through, it is far better than months of back and forth between an online rental site and the one who rented the property.
Easier Booking Process
One of the most common drawbacks to short term rental properties is the site’s unreliable booking procedure. With these rentals, you often have to send a booking request. The request can be accepted by the owner of the property or rejected for any reason they choose. The renter can believe they have a secured booking and the very next day, their request might be rejected causing them to repeat the process until an appropriate rental is found and approved. The process can take a long time and requests can be denied over the smallest of details.
Hotel and resort booking is instant. Once you have secured your spot, you can know for certain you are able to stay at the establishment. Resort and hotel properties have a keen desire to fill every room possible and are more adaptable at meeting requests and providing flexibility throughout the booking process.
The need to travel is within all of us and often, the allure of short-term rentals comes from the price, but always remember, you get what you pay for. If a property is too good to be true, it probably is. Hotels and resorts have been there for our travel needs for over 100 years and during that time, professionally managed properties have learned what the traveler wants and how to give it to them. Stick with the professionals and leave the short-term rental properties to novice travelers.
