3 Tips to Make a Vacation Rental Feel Like Home

 

Can you believe the school year is drawing to a close? The days of being a slave to the school's schedule are soon to be over and a summer of possibilities awaits. I'm not sure exactly the summer will hold but I am looking forward to vacation.

We're going into our fifth year of using vacation rentals for our annual family beach trip and I've definitely learned a thing or two about selecting the perfect rental. For this post I've partnered with HomeAway, the world's top online vacation rental marketplace, to share 3 Tips to Make a Vacation Rental Feel Like Home.

Each year since our oldest (Cakes) was 2, we've been traveling to Panama City Beach, Florida. There's something about going to the same place year after year that's not only comfortable for adults, but also creates memories and establishes a tradition with our girls.

I want my family to have the memories of the beach that I have from my childhood. That carefree feeling of learning to swim and enjoying time with family in paradise. I'm trying to reinforce these memories of our beach vacations with memories of my grandma who will be 87 this summer. We don't know how many more summer vacations she'll be able to join us on so we want to ensure our girls remember her presence as part of going to the beach so she'll be a lasting memory.

As we started prepping for this year's trip to Panama City Beach, I had to do a bit more work than I have in a few years. For the last three years we've been fortunate to stay at the same beach front rental but this year, we didn't book early enough and had to find a new place to stay. In the last six years, we've stayed in a vacation rental we've found on HomeAway more than any other place because we can find something with all the comforts of home.

Booking a hotel just isn't an option for our family. We like to do our own thing and not be confined to a shared space with hundreds of others, but we also travel with our bulldog wherever we go so finding a hotel that accommodates us is highly unlikely. This means HomeAway is our best resource when booking our family vacation and we usually can rent an entire home for a fraction of the price of a hotel room. It really is a win all around because we get to vacation with our family as a whole (dog included) and keep the routines of being at home. And we know that having an awesome place to call our own is what kids really want on vacation!

Aside from traveling with a pet, another big reason we love staying in HomeAway rentals is sleep. We've only stayed in a hotel once as a family and the hardest thing for us was getting the kids to sleep. Sharing one big room where adults and kids are both together make it impossible to ensure you're not going to bed super early or your kids aren't going to bed super late. I love when we book rentals that we can all have our own room. The girls sleep better at night which means the days are easier and our vacation is more enjoyable and my husband and I get some grown up time to enjoy each other's company after they've gone to bed.

A HomeAway rental really does become our home away from home. If you haven't stayed in a vacation rental, I highly encourage you to break the cycle with hotels and try out these 3 Tips to Make a Vacation Rental Feel Like Home.

1. Location, location, location. Choose a hotel that's centrally located to all that you want to be near. Take a look at the neighborhood and ensure that your vacation rental is in an area that fits the type of vacation you're looking for (family vacation, romantic giveaway, girls weekend, etc.).

2. Go shopping. A place never feels more like home than when you go grocery shopping and have all of your favorite foods and drinks ready. Meal planning will not only make the property seem more like home, it saves money too!

Tip: Don't forget these items that might otherwise be overlooked. You can always purchase these at your destination, or do like I do and bring them with you. Coffee filters, sugar for your coffee, salt and pepper, extra trash bags, paper towels, and laundry detergent.

3. Read the rental description and plan ahead. Is BBQing while on vacation a priority for you? Check the list of amenities and plan a head to bring (or buy) your own. If your rental has a washer and dryer, you can go light on packing and just do a load of laundry. The ability to do laundry is a must when staying in a rental with younger kids where blowouts or meal time messes are always an event.

Most beach rentals don't provide beach towels and forbid taking bath towels to the beach. Instead of buying all new towels, just bring your own. Tip: Don't just throw your beach bag into your suitcase – pack it with beach towels!

The countdown is on for our trip and I can't wait to visit the beach and stay in our HomeAway rental. Even though it's not ours, it feels like home while we're there.

Ready to go on your next vacation? Check out some of these favorite unique properties and enter to win in this awesome contest going on now!

Win a $5,000 Stay with the HomeAway Kidfluencers Contest

This summer, HomeAway is empowering kidfluencers by giving them even more control over their family’s travel plans with a chance to win a $5,000 vacation rental stay to anywhere in the United States in 2015. To enter, travelers just need to create a 15 to 60-second video of their kids describing why their family should win a vacation from HomeAway. Upload the video to Instagram, YouTube or Vimeo, using the hashtag #HomeAwayVacation and complete the entry form at http://bit.ly/1c0IN33 before May 29, 2015. HomeAway will select 10 finalists that will be voted on by the public from June 8 to 12 to determine the winner. For more details on the contest, visithttp://bit.ly/1c0IN33.

Where does your family stay when you're on vacation? Do you have any tips to make a vacation rental feel like home?

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of HomeAway.