Air b and b negatives I've not thought of ?

[mrssunshinexxx]

Went to Spain this summer for our first holiday abroad it was nice , 4 star all inclusive didn't really leave the resort other than to go to the beach right outside
Food was average and very samey, we were all in one suite2 adults 2 kids was very noisy at nighttime

due another baby soon so was really searching for a 2 bed suite with Swim up pool for next years hol cheapest I found was £7500 for a 1 bed penthouse so not even ticking all the boxes and very expensive!

Decided to look at villas / air b and b what had put me off previously was having to buy/ prep food on hol but actually the all inclusive was very basic so thinking maybe I wouldn't mind so muc.
Will do a super market shop stash freezer with ice lollies find a lovely bakery for breakfast bits and eat out on an evening.
Found a 5 bed bungalow with own pool that's detached for a fraction of the price right on the beach walking distance to shops restaurants. Am I missing something obvious as to why this will be a nightmare with 3 kids 4 and under ?
The place has a high chair and travel cot x

To be honest I can't think of a bigger waste of money than AI with 3 under 4s - you can't exactly drink much as have to be 'fully on it' -and chances are kids are eating bits from the buffet and that's it - and unless you keep them up all evening or go to bed yourselves at 9pm etc -you are kind of stuck in evenings in 1 room .

Give me a 3 bed apartment or a villa or even Eurocamp over any of this- get stuff in for breakfast and eat out rest of time or take snacks to beach and you would still be quids in over many AIs and have 5 times the room .

As others have said things I would check - pool safety - vital with very young children, air con - not great if place is really hot and doesn't have it.any extra equipment like high chair/ travel cot -

Having spent time in many AirBNB's but also places classed as self catering. Try to check exactly what facilities are included to actually cook! I've had places with a tiny, under counter fridge and no freezer at all, no microwave, 1 hot plate, 1 tiny, blunt chopping knife, no kettle, 1 cooking pot, no exhaust fan so the alarm went off every time we cooked and a rusty fry pan etc.
Ask on tripadvisor from past guests, look at pics etc so you can be prepared.

We’ve stayed in an apart-hotel before which was great. The pool was tiny so no real facilities but they served breakfast, you could order a beer by the pool then we put DS to bed and had a Deliveroo most nights.

Will your DH load / unload the dishwasher everyday? This grated on me when we stayed in a villa with friends.

I never used AirBnB but found that owners often advertise their properties on various websites.

We normally use Vrbo and never had a cancellation in 20+ years. I also see the properties on booking.com or other sites so you could see if there are any other ways to book.

Obviously things can go wrong but I only ever heard about AirBnB cancelling on very short notice.

Yep had Airbnb cancel a few times.Also now disagree on the basis of the community impact

Use a reputable letting company (e.g Vrbo) or book the villa as part of a package (e.g. either Jet2), so you're protected if there's issues with your flights or something.

Airbnb is completely unregulated, I'd never use them, but the word has become synonymous with all holiday lets.

There have been reports recently of criminal gangs buying up properties in Barcelona to put them on Airbnb. Renting out an apartment in a residential block is illegal (they need a tourist licence, which they don't have), but they just ignore it, or pay the fines, or perhaps buy off the officials who are supposed to check. All is wonderful low-cost holiday fun until there's a fire and it turns out that nobody is insured, so the renter whose kid knocked over the chip pan is on the hook for a couple of million for the damage to the block. Meanwhile local families can't find homes because 20 weeks of holiday rental at €1200 per week is twice as much income as 12 months normal rent at €1000 per month.

Was this recent ? We stayed in a few ropey places many years ago when there wasn't so much information available - but it's not difficult now to ensure that you can access full photos of all the rooms in the accommodation you are planning to rent - including checking it out on other sites and any reviews . Plus check with the accommodation owner / manager anything that isn't clear .

I wouldn't be booking anywhere where things weren't fully transparent.

Same for us, we've always self catered (camping, caravans or villa/cottage) . When DC were smaller and fussy could cater easily at a time and food that suited them.
Now teens and good to have space to spread out.
Occassionally they played with other dc at a campsite, but neither would entertain the idea of a kids club (we suggested it on a few camping holidays) In fact I've found that holidays were a time theat they actually got on and didn't fight.

I'm lucky though that DH loves cooking and food shopping so not all meal prep left to me, although we tend to eat out maybe 3 times and the odd lunch out.

VRBO, Booking.com and AirBnb are all just different platforms for owners to use to market their properties. Many owners advertise on some or all of them. None of them are more regulated than the others.

I lived in Catalonia and a lot of people air bnb'd their own homes and family holiday homes on a part time basis. It's really common for Spanish people to have coastal holiday homes they only use part of the year and this has been the same for decades before Air bnb. There are already a lot of restrictions about STRs in Spain so you are incorrect in your information. Many cities like Barcelona are incredibly stringent.

Also I list my own house in London on Air bnb and VRBO when I'm away. Many Londoners do this to help with rising rents and mortgage rates. It's also restricted in London. It's not all doom and gloom...

You're incorrect in your information. I list my own property on both VRBO and Air bnb. In fact Air b&b is more regulated than VRBO - they automatically cap you at 90 days in London due to local restrictions and also automatically send your revenue and details to HMRC. They also require you to provide more safety information than VRBO.

Air b&b has a rep but in recent years they've worked closely with local governments to ensure they are better regulated.

Most hosts list the same property on many platforms including VRBO, Booking.com and Air bnb. Personally I don't list on booking.com as the host can't restrict who stays there (I only accept guests with positive ratings since it's my own home).

You should get travel insurance either way.

To the OP there's a lot of misinformation on here tbh. I say that as an Air b&b host and as someone who books holiday stays in both Air b&b and hotels.

We've booked an air b&b holiday home for 6 adults and 3 children under 3 next month in Spain, as if you want the communal space and separate bedrooms for the kids it's much better and we have a private pool and garden.

Wherever you stay, always choose somewhere with good ratings. I'm on host forums and usually the only reason an established host would cancel would be for something urgently needing repairing. Hosts get big financial penalties for cancelling so established ones (lots of high ratings) are likely to avoid wherever possible.

We've been thinking the same thing- the privacy, peace and lack of sunbed wars in a villa is so tempting... and even being able to sit outside once kids in bed or even take a dip!

Anyone self catering in Spain may find it useful to know that many of the Mercadona supermarkets have a hot food counter to take away, and a microwave at the store entrance where you can heat it up some more.

We have found villas on a purpose built holiday pool complex are amazing, particularly because the pools are manned by lifeguards and you tend to see the same kids on vacation each day - it means the adults can relax more. Often the resorts don’t look like much online but are great once you arrive. Cooking on holiday is very basic - facilities usually let you do pasta, pizza, boiled eggs, chicken escalopes, easy stuff🙂 We buy fresh bread and croissants every morning, Usually we buy a bottle of virgin olive oil and some balsamic and a load of wine, cheese, salami and salad and that’s the adults evening meals sorted!

Air b&b has a rep but in recent years they've worked closely with local governments to ensure they are better regulated.

Really, because to the best of my understanding it's illegal to short term let a whole unit in Manhattan (although you can rent a room in your place so long as you remain present in the property) yet if I search Airbnb for a couple of months time there are hundreds of apartments to rent as a whole unit...

I mean he does when he's not working away so imagine he will pull his weight on hol @RedLeicesterRedLeicester 😂

I booked it 😁 now for the stress of trying to find a private car hire or taxi that has a infant car seat I cannot for the life of me work out why they start at forward facing ones only for infants that are 9kg
ERF should be rammed down new parents throats at first maternity appointment but that's probably another thread!

You are best off bringing your own car seat (in the hold for free). If it’s still an infant carrier you can usually belt them in without the base so quite easy to take away. Our only experience with hiring one was pretty bad - we struggled to tighten the straps and it fifteen seem to be installed correctly. An added bonus is that you can pad out the car seat bag with some extra nappies or beach towels etc.

When my kids were little we used to do all-inclusive holidays with kids clubs - Mark Warner, mainly.

We once did a villa holiday (little modern house on a complex in Spain) and (for me) it wasn't a holiday. We didn't hire a car/ do a big hypermarket run. My husband just walked most days to the little on-site supermarket with a list. So I was lying by the pool endlessly thinking about bloody food: 'We're low on apple juice, that salami is a bit dry and curled up where DH didn't close the packet properly yesterday'.

Depends what you want in a holiday too. I was a SAHM mum with zero support and one of my kids was hard work. I just needed to put them in kids clubs (which they LOVED) and have a proper break for a few hours a day. That villa holiday just felt like a change of location to me - not a holiday.

We have done airbnb all over Europe and never had a problem. We love it

It obviously isn't in a villa or airbnb.

@wishIwasonholiday10 I think I will have to and just the the pram wheels and adaptors and use the seat as pram for the short periods we will need to. Feel really conflicted as both my girls 2 and 4 are in rear facing seats at home so feel guilty not doing the same for them but there's no way we can manage taking all the seats plus luggage.

@2AND2GC we don't use kids clubs but appreciate some people do. There's a pizzeria 200m away and restaurants supermarket 300m so think we will be fine will find a nice bakery for breakfast hits every morning I'm excited now we've booked it and decisions made

Also check the cot dimensions/if bedding is provided. We’ve stayed at 2 places with DD as a baby, and neither provided cot bedding (and, of course, their cots were different sizes to ours). You can normally check a travel cot for free so it might be easier to do that, if you know your child sleeps well in theirs.