In the last 5 years the vacation accommodation industry has seen a huge shift to private rentals and the days where hotels ruled the roost are long gone. As the internet community has grown and changed, so have accommodation options and in today’s world there are far more private rentals up for grabs as people look to share or rent out their homes and apartments to would-be holiday-makers. There are several options online to find vacation rentals and in this article we’ve rounded up what we think are the best, and most successful ways to find them.

AirBnB

 

AirBnb is a community of people who rent out their entire properties or spare rooms to visitors and in recent years the size of the community has quadrupled and currently has over 1,500,000 listings in over 34,000 cities in the World. The website uses a review system so that you are able to get a first hand account of your prospective accommodation before you arrive. With a community this size there is an enormous range of options for all budgets and desires with properties ranging from eco-lodges, recycled caravans, penthouse suites and everything in-between.

CraigsList

Despite it’s somewhat sketchy classifieds, CraigsList can be a great way of finding vacation rental properties. With Craigslist you are able to drill in to classifieds from individual cities and districts, what is great about Craigslist is that you can also post classifieds into these areas to let people know what you are looking for. When searching for a property it is best to cast your net as wide as possible and whilst the success rate on CraigsList may not be as high as other means, it is still worth doing.

FaceBook Groups

 

Social Media is a great way to look for rental properties and none-more-so than local Facebook groups. There are plenty of groups that have been set up by either ex-pats, fellow travellers or local businessmen looking to rent out their apartments. One of the best things about joining a group such as these is that once you’ve posted your request for a property you will find people commenting and pointing you in the direction of where you can search or in the direction of someone who has property available. The trick here is to have local knowledge and by joining a local Facebook group that is exactly what you will get.

HomeAway

HomeAway operates in a similar way to AirBnb although it places more impotence on rental of entire places than room-shares and the properties are often a little more expensive than on AirBnb. The website has over 1,000,000 rental properties in over 190 countries and these comprise of houses, apartments, barn conversions and condos. Much like AirBnb and other such websites HomeAway offers a review procedure which gives you an insight to the pros and cons of each property. The site also has a comprehensive filter system where you can select number of bedrooms and the amenities that you require to give you the perfect results when searching for a vacation rental.