Vacation Rentals

In most cases there are Internet pages in which vacation homes are offered. The portals are often for a specific market, e. g. Germans renting vacation homes in Scandinavia. The general platforms I am aware of (such as HomeToGo) seem to be more expensive than the specialised ones and they do not provide the value of being present at the location - all Danish providers are for example.

Further more there is the wom-market (word of mouth). The best houses are not online - they have their "closed" customer base where people only get into based on personal recommendations. If problems occur with the new guests not seldomly the new guest and the recommending guest are out of base.

I've been booking vacation rentals since decades before Air BnB existed and everyone jumped on board.

In the old, old days, I used to find them in the newspaper classifieds, in a section specifically designated "vacation rentals." I suppose the modern-day equivalent of that would be a site like kjiji.

Since then, I've used sites like VRBO, Home Away, Flip Key, and others. Nowadays, places tend to be listed on multiple platforms (i.e. Air BnB AND VRBO), but not always.

Trip Advisor, Expedia, Booking.com and the like often have a vacation rentals filter.

Some places have rentals listed on their local tourism sites or information sites (DiscoverNaramata.com, https://www.castanet.net/).

There are also companies that list and manage rentals, and they have websites, although these rentals can sometimes be a bit more spendy. (e.g. https://www.okanaganvacationhomerentals.com/)

Just an example: VisitDenmark names various providers in this article about Danish holiday cottages.

Nowadays, places tend to be listed on multiple platforms (i.e. Air BnB AND VRBO), but not always.

A good thing to do is when you find one that is interesting, you look for the name, most have uniques names like "City View Apartment" with that and the city you can google and see if its on another platform. Sometimes I have found them by looking for unique wording in the description like "stunning balcony overlooking the Nile" and tracked them down by googling the wording.

Different platforms might have different prices and different terms and conditions. You might like one more than the others. But do be a bit careful. I live in a flat that was once an short-term rental. Hasnt been on the market in 2 years. Out of curiosity I googled the name that it use to market under and I got a lot of hits. Unheard of companies trying to rent it. Companies it was never listed with. Mostly in Asia. I have no idea if the sale would go through if someone actully tried to book it. If it did, they would be very disapointed.

Another thing, if you go to a large platform like AirBnb and you notice that the listings have a registration or license number, be assured that it is required that they be licensed and post it. If you see flats without one, be wary. You always get what you pay for .......... or less.

There are two different business models.

On the one hand there are pure agents / brokers (AirBnB & Co.), on the other hand there are the operators of vacation homes such as listed in the link for Danish vacation cottages (not necessarily and very seldomly the owners).

The difference for customers is huge, because while anonymous agents are only concerned about their commission (interest ends after booking - ya blabla ratings), the operators of vacation homes / houses / cottages are caring about your whole stay, the quality and a smooth process up to the end, because in the worst case they may have a loss of the rental and in worst case of reputation. For this reason, vacation home operators usually have at least an office and a small team on site to deal with questions and problems for customers. This is not the case with anonymous agents sitting somewhere on the planet.

For agents every additional contact with you is just a cost issue; for operators it is a chance to build customer relations.

Another customer advantage of operator model: in the event of problems, the customer has only one contractual and therefore contact person incl. faces and responsibilities - so solutions are usually differentiated, quick and uncomplicated. This works very seldomly with anonymous organizations.

MarkK, are you sitting down? I dont disagree with you. LOL

One finer distinction or catagory that I might add is a hybrid system. There are a lot of "operators" as you call them that use the platforms like AirBnb as marketing and collection tools. If you were to go to AirBnb and find a fllat and then click on the Host (Host does not equal Owner) and you see they have 6 other flats then odds are its an Operator. More accurately, its a managment company hired by the Owners to run their business.

Those guys have two clients, tourists and owners. The tourist that they have to keep happy to get the good reviews and income stream that they need to keep the Owners signed up with them. Its not uncle Árpád renting out the flat he inherited from dead aunt Boglárka. Those are the worst. They really dont care about the business, just trying to make a few bucks if they can without working too hard.

Your distinction is still valid, but in this case the distinction is softenend a bit.

A bigger determining factor may be the local regulation of the business. The wild west of short term rentals is coming to an end and thats good for everyone.

In my city new legislation requires that they are inspected, licensed and rated (1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 stars). All of that information has to be in the marketing and on the door. The Owner's name must also be in the flat along with contact information. "This flat is owned by Zolton Marcus and managed by Apartments Unlimited plus phone number".

The renters can be assured that the flat is code compliant, has smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, a CO2 detector (if there is gas), a certain number of bed linnens, towells, soaps, pots and pans and is clean and in good repair. All inspected by the government, just as if it were a hotel. The building home owner's association can ban new short-term rental units, and the license ends if the unit changes ownership; allowing the home owners association word in if it can be continue as a short term rental. The number of licenses issued each year is also regulated.

Short term rental units pay a higher Common Cost (condo fee) and that helps keep these old buildings in better repair; and the visitors pay the same taxes as hotel guests. Profitable short term rentals also protect the apartment buildings from complete take overs from "boutique" hotels and that is protecting the neighborhoods.

Doing things with a lot of thought became a necessity. The first over reaction was a ban on new licenses. When that happened real estate prices took a nose dive and in a country where 96% of the citizens live in a home owned by one of the residents of the home the nose dive in values put a world of hurt on the locals. So they got smart and came up with a win - win strategy. Well, lets hope thats the result. Time will tell.

If someone has social concerns, then look for cities like this one where your tourist dollar is supporting the will of the locals. For instance, I think Paris is very similar.

Booking.com has gotten into the act... They're not just about hotels anymore.