Types of Vacation Rentals: What You Need to Know

Vacation rentals are a great way to get away from it all and enjoy a unique experience. Whether you're looking for a luxurious villa, a cozy cabin, or a studio apartment in the heart of the city, there are plenty of options to choose from. Common types of vacation rentals include condos, houses, townhouses, and villas. Each type is unique in terms of size, costs, available services and more.

For example, villas tend to be the most luxurious and expensive, while condos tend to be smaller and more affordable. If you're looking for a fishing getaway, a riverfront cabin could be the perfect choice. It offers solitude and the benefit of “getting away from it all”, as well as being able to fish (see our article on types of fishing boats), walking and, if deep enough, sailing. On the other hand, if you're looking for a metropolitan vacation, you can stay in style in a luxurious high-rise apartment.

You'll have access to all the excitement that urban environments offer, but you can also come back after a long day (or night) and relax in your own comfortable space. Vacation rentals or short-term properties are accommodations that travelers can rent on a short-term basis. These accommodations range from high-end luxury properties to spare rooms in other people's apartments and can include houses, condos, villas, apartments and even tents, yurts and boats. A vacation rental is the temporary rental of a furnished apartment, a house or a professionally managed hotel-condominium complex to tourists as an alternative to a hotel.

In many counties, towns and cities, local authorities try to regulate or ban vacation rentals following complaints from local residents or competing accommodation companies. Another major concern is that people can create fake accounts and advertise vacation homes that they don't actually own. The vacation rental market is much larger in Europe than in the United States, and Florida is a popular villa vacation destination for Europeans. Vacation rentals are available in most states in the U.

S., and they are prevalent in major tourist areas such as Florida, Hawaii and California, as well as in other coastal areas with beaches, where they can be called beach houses. Most vacation rental management companies work on a commission basis, which means they don't offer a guarantee to the landlord in terms of the weeks that will be rented or the income earned. Many vacation rentals are equipped with kitchens, giving guests the opportunity to save money during their travels by cooking in-house rather than dining out for every meal. In addition, a large 21% segment of unsold inventory is available as vacation rentals. A timeshare may still be available as a vacation rental if a landlord decides to put their own week (s) into a vacation rental program. Finding the perfect location away from home is often the number one priority when selecting a vacation rental property. Do that and you can be sure that you will spend your long-awaited vacation in a rental space that works best for you personally. Some vacation rental properties offer full service, similar to hotels, while others offer guests complete and total independence.

Vacation rental properties are managed by landlords or by professional managers that landlords have hired.

Cathleen Testa
Cathleen Testa

Typical travel ninja. Hardcore food enthusiast. Evil webaholic. Avid internet expert. Unapologetic social mediaholic.