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

Thanks @QueenOfWeeds we have to pay for cot and high chair which is fine but I will ask if it's a cot or travel cot x

@marmaladeandpeanutbutter

There is a current thread where the OP is very upset that the airbnb she booked didn't provide breakfast.

She is insistent that the "bnb" part of the company name promises bed and breakfast, although she is silent on whether she was provided with an air bed for sleeping on.

We stayed at a Marriott Villa earlier this year. Total game changer for us. Serviced like a hotel room with the perks of high quality finishes, a kitchen, washing machine etc.

I'm put off airbnb by the cleanliness levels compared to a hotel as. The past 3 I've been to haven't been far off the Marriott villa cost.

These trips were just prior to covid and 2 since. In some cases the photos showed new cooking sets/cutlery etc and on arrival- it was different. 1 place apologized about the lack of chopping knife and board which the previous guest had apparently taken!
I wouldn't be booking anywhere where things weren't fully transparent
Neither would I, but equally, I shouldn't need to contact a property to check exactly how many forks they provide! It was more a reminder to the OP, to check clearly on pics what is included in terms of cooking facilities, because they mention buying up alot of freezable things- but there might not even be a freezer!

Why do people seem to think all resorts are AI?
I don't go to AI resorts. I have only done so once and I didn't really like it. It feels cheesy.

All the resorts I go to have breakfast buffet included then just pay for meals like at any hotel.

Charged €150 for cleaning. Kids club is nice and you can do an aparthotel which is a good mixture.

We’ve always done gite/villa self catering with ours, from tiny upwards. But we don’t use kids clubs or enjoy entertainment etc, we like peace and scenery. We always play with our kids or they play together.
i guess the cons are that you have to cook - at least breakfast, and you have to stack the dishwasher and put a wash on etc.

We self-catered this summer and it was idyllic. Amazing for the kids to have the pool right outside the kitchen window, I could either get in with them or lounge in the shade 2 metres away, and they gained so much water confidence!

We did a big shop soon after we arrived, chucked lots of fresh pastries in the freezer - they defrost in seconds in the oven and were gorgeous without having to leave the house or get dressed!

Supermarket fruit and veg was incredible, leagues ahead of here. The cheese, the charcuterie, the fresh fish... Nom nom nom! We ate like kings but could also just make pizza and pasta for the kids if they were feeling unadventurous.

I love the privacy of a villa and am much more comfortable doing our own thing than negotiating around other hotel guests. It's much more relaxing to me. The only caveat is that my 2 kids are old enough to be in the water with our backs turned, and 90% of the time they play really well together - if that's not true for you then you might not get much of a break without the kids club? But I'd really recommend trying it at least once.

I'm a big fan of villas/gites and only use AirBNB now. I have a horror of all-inclusive hotels full of other people and noisy kids, plus only having one room (or 2) as private space. I think you won't go back once you’ve sampled the privacy, peace and feeling of home.

Just because there a kitchen doesn't mean you have to self cater, but I personally love to put the kettle on in my PJs and sit in a lovely garden drinking tea while everyone else is still asleep in their own rooms... then maybe go out for the day (lunch in a restaurant) followed by a quiet evening at 'home' with a BBQ (DH cooks, minimal washing up). Or a cheaper option is to prep a picnic to take out with you and buy a really nice easy to cook meal (equivalent of a M&S oven ready job, or a rotisserie chicken or paella from a market reheated) with a bottle of wine. I enjoy shopping in foreign supermarkets as they have interesting things.

In terms of cleaning, check the policy but I always wipe around, empty bins and put things back where we found them - never anything more.

Another tip - look at the location of Google Maps to check how built up it is and whether there's anything nearby you wouldn't want (nightclub, sewage works, whatever).

Forgot to include the joy of hanging up laundry in the morning and it definitely being dry by the evening if not earlier, stains bleached out by the sun, and being able to re-wear things during the week, as opposed to taking home 2 suitcases of dirty washing or paying a fortune for hotel laundries. MIL can't understand why we don't stay in hotels and why we want to do laundry on holiday... it takes 5 minutes to hang a load out and 2 minutes to bring it in...

The amount of cleaning and inconsistent quality puts me off. Also most air bnbs have those very hard foam mattresses which I personally don't like.

Plus point is when kids are younger you can put them to bed and hang out in a different room or even in the garden

Please consider aparthotels or villas instead, be considerate of local people who need a home. The short notice cancellation, ridiculous rules in some cases, and any other horror stories should be enough reason though to avoid this part of the spiv economy.

@WoolyMammoth55 they will be 6 months 3 and 4 years we wouldn't use a kids club so that doesn't bother us happy to play with them . It looks very private and detached I'm mostly looking forward to being able to go topless and not have dodgy tan lines 😂

I'm really looking forward to it now we've booked I reckon it will be our new way of holidaying the all inclusive was 4* star and the food was so average ! Plus people running up and down the corridor at night was awful. The only people I want to be woken by is my own kids and that's at a push 😜

I've stayed in dozens and have never 'cleaned' beyond a wipe round the kitchen and emptying bins. Check quality by only using Superhosts and/or places with lots of good reviews. Of course beds vary - saying most beds have a certain type of mattress is ridiculous! You can message the hosts to ask wh the mattresses are like, if it bothers you that much.

I've stayed in loads of Airbnbs/villas from Booking.com and never had dodgy mattresses! Just read the reviews!. The place you've booked sounds wonderful. You'll never go back to an all inclusive!

@mirmc 😄 thanks I hope so! Reviews are great all 5 star

No they don't mostly have hard foam mattresses! Why post this nonsense?

To me this sounds quite stressful basically having to do all the same work as at home (shopping, cooking, cleaning, laundry) with the additional stress of having to worry about DCs around the pool. If you are that near to the beach, shops, and restaurants then it might also be busy with people near the property so it might not be secure to let DCs play in outside space, leave windows and doors open etc. I'd much rather be in a hotel where the catering, cleaning, security is provided so I could enjoy a break from it all.

@Areolaborealis why would you be doing laundry out of interest on a villa - unless you opted to by choice ? You don't do it in a hotel - you just usually bring it back with you

@Hucklemuckle AI seems to be an obsession with some- I don't get it - many are really expensive for very mediocre hotels and food unless you are at the pretty high end - and unless you are drinking large amounts and gorging all day often aren't good value-it's not being snobby about it- I just don't get why you pay say £5k - whereas you can get a nice villa or apartment with a pool plus flights for say £3k - eat out relatively high end every night plus drinks both out and on patio and have masses more space for very similar money , if not less

I was thinking the same thing. I guess you have rhe option to do laundry there if you need to, which is probably less stressful than going to a laundrette. Or hotels have a service but it's often very expensive. Also some Air bnbs do offer regular cleaning.

Airbnb or villa/apartment is so much better than a hotel when you have kids. More room, more flexibility. Eat out if you like, or grab a pizza, get bread cheese salads etc. Put the kids to bed, drink wine on the terrace. No competition .

@Areolaborealis some of this was my worry but it's saved us £3k of the package deal and for that we have a 5 bed villa with own pool meaning everyone has their own bedrooms and me and my husband have space on an evening to enjoy baby can be put in a nice AC room for naps and the other kids can keep playing. The £3k we've saved we won't spend that much on food will still have plenty left over to book a small uk trip.
The property is gated in a residential area so I don't worry about noise. I'd have the pool to worry about in a hotel i certainly wouldn't be counting on anyone else other than us to watch my children in or near water that's my job.
We are being cheapskates as it's £80 a suitcase so I will just take 2 and do some washing I don't mind it will dry so fast.
Won't be cooking will get pastries / fruit/ yoghurt for breakfast and eat out the rest plenty of ice lollies in the freezer

And cleaning?

It's not like being at home at all as there's no cleaning except keeping the kitchen usable and picking up major spills which you'd do in a hotel anyway eg if you dropped crisps all over floor. Then you just pack up at the end of the holiday, get rid of rubbish and the cleaning is done on the changeover.

Plus you eat out or get takeaways, or easy food from the supermarket. It's not like you have to stand there chopping veg up every day.

When we self cater we spend all our time on the terrace or out and about so the inside of the property isn't a particular concern as long as it's clean and functional.