A new kind of hotel
I am at the age where I should be staying in nice 4 stars hotels with the Irish breakfast waiting for me and all my worldly comforts, luckily I hate that kind of lifestyle and am happy to bunk down even luckier my family are happy to do the same, don’t get me wrong everyone loves some comfort but local knowledge, no 8am knock on the door, being able to come and go as I like and eat when I like means I prefer to stay in these “new kind of hotels”
I have used VRBO for the last 4 years all over the world, always excellent but these are kind of impersonal, you generally are renting from an owner and there are instructions where to pick up the keys so local knowledge is a little weak. I have used these guys all over though, San Francisco 3, Florida 2, Europe 6 times and they quality of the properties are usually superb.
One of the “new” guys on the block, in my eyes anyway is Airbnb which despite the unusual name is a fantastic company. I speak from experience on this one having spent the last two weeks with my family wondering around Europe staying in Airbnb properties. They really are excellent with local knowledge and properties from a couch to a castle plus they are having a party in Dublin tonight and I will be there with some MAXROAM goodies. I see in Techcrunch today that this area is also hotting with the launch of One Fine Stay.
Last but not least is the all new Hostelworld, have you seen their new website? , excellent job and now so easy to navigate, Hostelworld is the granddaddy of them all with over 24,000 properties worldwide,with availability in 23 languages and multi-lingual customer support in 4 continents. You can know book your flights with Hostelworld also. Hostelworld are partners of ours at Cubic Telecom.
Do you have any holiday or travel tips?
NB Airbnb does more than just holiday accommodation: They allow the renter to accept longterm tenants, too. When I took a three month contract in Palo Alto last year, I found a lovely cottage that I called home from November until February. The landlord got rave reviews on Airbnb and was indeed exceedingly accommodating – I even got to have as many organic fruit and veg from the garden as I wanted, as well as free range eggs from her hens. (This was in the heart of Silicon Valley, a 7 minute walk from both Menlo Park and Palo Alto train stations.)
for car hire in Europe, i find car hire 3000 really competitive in most locations