Why My Family Chooses Rental Homes Over Hotels When We Travel

It's a setup that makes sense for us.

My family enjoys seeing different parts of the U.S., and we've been known to take our fair share of road trips. Sometimes, in situations where we'll be staying in a different city every night, it makes sense to book a series of hotel rooms. But when we're planning to spend a more meaningful amount of time at a single destination, we'll almost always book a private rental home over a hotel.

Going this route has some drawbacks. Hotels tend to have flexible cancellation policies. Sometimes, you can back out with just 48 hours' notice and avoid having your credit card charged. Private rentals typically require you to cancel well in advance of your trip, and if you cancel just a few days ahead of your stay, you might lose all of your money.

Also, when you book a room at a well-known hotel chain, you know what you're getting. With a rental home, you run the risk of the property being less updated or clean than you'd like it to be.

Despite these drawbacks, rental homes are generally the preferred lodging option for my family. Here's why.

1. They can be cheaper

A private home won't always cost less than a hotel. But for us, it often does.

The reason? We're a family of five, and many hotels require you to upgrade to a suite or larger room once you have more than four people in your party. As such, the nightly rate on a rental home is, for us, often more competitive than what a hotel wants to charge.

Plus, rental homes commonly come with a fully equipped kitchen. Granted, I don't always want to cook while I'm on vacation, but I will usually buy breakfast foods to avoid having to hit up a cafe or diner for a quick morning meal. The savings there can add up for a week-long stay.

2. They offer more space

Cramming two adults and three children into a single hotel room doesn't usually make for a relaxing vacation. If we're on a road trip and simply need a place to sleep for the night, then sure, that works. But when we're spending a week in the mountains or at the beach, we want a comfortable home we can spread out in.

Plus, my kids are fairly young, which means they should, in theory, go to bed at an earlier hour than when my husband and I go to sleep (in practice, they often stay up way later than they should, but that's a different story). When you're all stuck in the same hotel room, you (meaning me) can't exactly stay up later to read or watch TV. In a rental with separate rooms, that's not a problem.

3. We can often bring our dog

Many private rental homes don't allow dogs. But we tend to try to book our lodging early to snag those homes that do.

Being able to bring our dog on vacation spares us the cost and hassle of trying to find a dog-sitter. And, frankly, it spares me the mental load of worrying if my dog is being well cared for.

Now some hotels do allow dogs on the premises. But if you read the fine print, rooms that are dog-friendly are often limited to dogs of a certain size -- say, 40 pounds or less. My 75-pound mutt generally isn't eligible to bunk with us at a hotel, even if it is a property that allows dogs in some of its rooms.

The right choice for us

Private rental homes are usually the right choice for my family when we go on vacation. If you're used to staying at hotels, you may want to give booking a rental home a try and see if it saves you money or makes for a better experience.