Anonymous
Post 07/10/2025 19:26     Subject: I tried the condo rental instead of hotel.. it was not feeling like a vacation doing dishes, cooking, laundry

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We tend to rent condos at the beach or mountains and prefer centrally located hotels when visiting cities and hotels/resorts when visiting islands (ideally smaller boutique resorts).

When staying at a condo at the beach, we hit the grocery store but we don’t overdo it. We keep some staples on hand, but we still get our coffee (and baked goods) from a cafe and typically eat dinner at restaurants or bring in food. So, I don’t really cook at the beach.

We usually do laundry at the condo to stay on top of towels. But laundry isn’t hard, and everyone knows how to do laundry (including my husband and kids).

Everyone pitches in to keep the condo clean throughout the week. There’s a cleaning service, so I don’t scrub anything. It’s NBD.

If you haven’t cruised yet, you should try it. No cooking or cleaning. No laundry. They clean your cabin twice a day and provide turn down service. Room service is included. It’s the most relaxing vacations for moms. There’s really nothing else like it. You can send your DH off with the kids while you lay in the sun with a drink in your hand. Bliss!


Would rather cook every meal on vacation and do all the dishes every day by hand than go on a cruise. But hey to each their own.


+1

I think the only way I’d ever do a cruise is if a family member wheeled me onto a cruise ship….against my will.

I don’t understand how you all group “cruises” together. I’d never go on a carnival cruise but a high-end cruise to the Galapagos? Yes, please. It just makes you sound close minded.


Nah. I’ve done my research on cruises. Talked to friends and family, seen pics, videos, checked routes… not for me at all. I know me and it’s not how I ever want to vacation.

And you and I both know what was meant by “cruise”. Pools and drinks, not turtles. 😄
Anonymous
Post 07/10/2025 17:43     Subject: I tried the condo rental instead of hotel.. it was not feeling like a vacation doing dishes, cooking, laundry

Anonymous wrote:We have 3 kids and DH sometimes snores, so I like to have a separate bed I can move to in the night if needed. In an airbnb, we can all get our own bed, as well as multiple bedrooms. That is the biggest perk.

The other main perk is we can all sleep in however long we like without worrying about waking the group. (DH is a 5:30 riser, youngest dc is usually up at 6:30, and the older two and I like to sleep to 8). The first ones up can have some coffee/cereal and watch tv in the living room, work on a puzzle, etc. while waiting for the rest of the group.

Same thing at night- everyone can go to bed at their "bedtime" and not get out of sorts with their schedule, but then the rest of us don't need to tiptoe around.

As far as cooking, we usually get tired of restaurant food if we eat out every meal. It's nice to have some snacks and easy grab n go items on hand - fruit, cereal, yogurt, bag salad, sandwich items. Sometimes it's nice after a busy day of activities to order in food and sit in the dining room or eat dinner on the couch (where we can all fit comfortably), using real plates and silverware, and watch a movie.

At an airbnb house, the kids can play in the yard, go in the hot tub, play ping pong in the basement, or foosball in the garage, or whatever amenity there is, while DH and I can have a little time to enjoy a drink and some quiet.

I personally like to be able to do laundry so I don't come home with loads of laundry to do.

We've probably stayed in 25+ airbnbs and never had to spend more than 10 minutes on the clean up process. I can't remember the last time I've had to strip a bed.

Obviously not all airbnbs will be good (nor will all hotels) but there's nothing inherent about an airbnb that you to do laundry, or cook, or wash dishes, etc.


I think my kids are younger than yours but basically everything else about this is 100% why I like airbnbs.

I do prefer to stay at hotels when I'm traveling for work, though. But even then.... if the hotel doesn't have a fridge I get sad. I like to be able to keep my own bottle of wine, little thing of salsa to snack on, maybe some yogurt for breakfast, leftovers.
Anonymous
Post 07/10/2025 17:32     Subject: I tried the condo rental instead of hotel.. it was not feeling like a vacation doing dishes, cooking, laundry

Anonymous wrote:How do you manage to make it fun while doing the exact same activities you do at home?

People rave about the air bnb and I was hoping this would bring me closer to that world.

What did I do wrong? How do you balance the fun and relaxation if you do all the work you do at home?


Breakfast and lunch at the AirBnB only. Depending on where we are, we frequently pack lunches to take with us, sandwiches and fruit. Dinner out, always. A variety of mostly casual/inexpensive places, but a nicer place once or maybe twice in a week.
Anonymous
Post 07/10/2025 17:29     Subject: I tried the condo rental instead of hotel.. it was not feeling like a vacation doing dishes, cooking, laundry

Anonymous wrote:How do you screen for rentals that don’t require you to strip the beds, start a load of towels, run the dishwasher and take out the trash? I don’t want to do any of those things. I agree the food issue is easy enough to manage.


You can't screen for it, but if you go to house rules in the listing (at the very bottom of the page), it lists what you need to do before you leave. Whether that's accurate with what they tell you when you get there, who knows, but you can see if they have a long list of rules.
Anonymous
Post 07/10/2025 17:23     Subject: I tried the condo rental instead of hotel.. it was not feeling like a vacation doing dishes, cooking, laundry

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We tend to rent condos at the beach or mountains and prefer centrally located hotels when visiting cities and hotels/resorts when visiting islands (ideally smaller boutique resorts).

When staying at a condo at the beach, we hit the grocery store but we don’t overdo it. We keep some staples on hand, but we still get our coffee (and baked goods) from a cafe and typically eat dinner at restaurants or bring in food. So, I don’t really cook at the beach.

We usually do laundry at the condo to stay on top of towels. But laundry isn’t hard, and everyone knows how to do laundry (including my husband and kids).

Everyone pitches in to keep the condo clean throughout the week. There’s a cleaning service, so I don’t scrub anything. It’s NBD.

If you haven’t cruised yet, you should try it. No cooking or cleaning. No laundry. They clean your cabin twice a day and provide turn down service. Room service is included. It’s the most relaxing vacations for moms. There’s really nothing else like it. You can send your DH off with the kids while you lay in the sun with a drink in your hand. Bliss!


Would rather cook every meal on vacation and do all the dishes every day by hand than go on a cruise. But hey to each their own.


+1

I think the only way I’d ever do a cruise is if a family member wheeled me onto a cruise ship….against my will.

I don’t understand how you all group “cruises” together. I’d never go on a carnival cruise but a high-end cruise to the Galapagos? Yes, please. It just makes you sound close minded.
Anonymous
Post 07/10/2025 16:38     Subject: I tried the condo rental instead of hotel.. it was not feeling like a vacation doing dishes, cooking, laundry

We have 3 kids and DH sometimes snores, so I like to have a separate bed I can move to in the night if needed. In an airbnb, we can all get our own bed, as well as multiple bedrooms. That is the biggest perk.

The other main perk is we can all sleep in however long we like without worrying about waking the group. (DH is a 5:30 riser, youngest dc is usually up at 6:30, and the older two and I like to sleep to 8). The first ones up can have some coffee/cereal and watch tv in the living room, work on a puzzle, etc. while waiting for the rest of the group.

Same thing at night- everyone can go to bed at their "bedtime" and not get out of sorts with their schedule, but then the rest of us don't need to tiptoe around.

As far as cooking, we usually get tired of restaurant food if we eat out every meal. It's nice to have some snacks and easy grab n go items on hand - fruit, cereal, yogurt, bag salad, sandwich items. Sometimes it's nice after a busy day of activities to order in food and sit in the dining room or eat dinner on the couch (where we can all fit comfortably), using real plates and silverware, and watch a movie.

At an airbnb house, the kids can play in the yard, go in the hot tub, play ping pong in the basement, or foosball in the garage, or whatever amenity there is, while DH and I can have a little time to enjoy a drink and some quiet.

I personally like to be able to do laundry so I don't come home with loads of laundry to do.

We've probably stayed in 25+ airbnbs and never had to spend more than 10 minutes on the clean up process. I can't remember the last time I've had to strip a bed.

Obviously not all airbnbs will be good (nor will all hotels) but there's nothing inherent about an airbnb that you to do laundry, or cook, or wash dishes, etc.
Anonymous
Post 07/10/2025 16:19     Subject: I tried the condo rental instead of hotel.. it was not feeling like a vacation doing dishes, cooking, laundry

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:How do you screen for rentals that don’t require you to strip the beds, start a load of towels, run the dishwasher and take out the trash? I don’t want to do any of those things. I agree the food issue is easy enough to manage.


Have never seen those things listed in the listing, and normally not even when you get the booking done. Usually it's in the sheet that's located at the house/apartment. So gonna be tough to try and filter those out.

We are used to do them and normally take like 10 minutes, so have never had an issue with it, but my only thought is that everyone has their own preferences/desires, so if that's a priority for you, understood. But yeah, hard to filter for. At best you could send a message before booking asking if those are requirements.


I actually don’t have an issue with taking trash out, stripping sheets, and starting the dishwasher. It takes ten min AND it means the guests before you had to do the same thing. It’s also pretty typical at beach house/condo rentals, so it’s not some weird airbnb thing.

I have a friend who worked in housekeeping at a major hotel chain. The stories of how they “cleaned” rooms was horrific.
Anonymous
Post 07/10/2025 16:13     Subject: I tried the condo rental instead of hotel.. it was not feeling like a vacation doing dishes, cooking, laundry

Anonymous wrote:How do you screen for rentals that don’t require you to strip the beds, start a load of towels, run the dishwasher and take out the trash? I don’t want to do any of those things. I agree the food issue is easy enough to manage.


This is what I have no interest in doing at all on vacation. Last vacation we went to Hawaii and the hotel bathroom light and fan didn’t work when we checked in. Got upgraded immediately to a room where everything worked.

The last time we went to Hawaii before that we stayed in condo rental and it was awful. I don’t want to strip the beds and put them in the washing machine and do dishes. I don’t want to cook breakfast or dinner to save money.
Anonymous
Post 07/10/2025 16:13     Subject: Re:I tried the condo rental instead of hotel.. it was not feeling like a vacation doing dishes, cooking, laundry

Anonymous wrote:I like airbnbs for the extra space, laundry, and ability store food and easily eat when you want to - my DCs can be a challenge to get out of the room for a restaurant and are usually tired at the end of the day.

A happy medium is a hotel with suites and kitchenettes.

Cleaning - be sure to choose airbnbs that don't require it other than maybe taking out the trash at the end.
Food - You can still do delivery or eat out at any time.
Location - hoping you're choosing airbnbs in good locations - isn't there something outside of the room that you want to be doing most of the time? Less time in the room = less mess, etc. Otherwise, yes it would be better just to stay home.


+1 I have two young kids and we get AirBnBs to have more space, outside yard, kitchen for snacks, etc. We don't do full grocery shopping and cooking on vacation. I agree that to me that's not a vacation. But we get some breakfast stuff to keep that easy, and sometimes takeout can be nice at the end of a long day out and there's a nice table to eat on. Mostly we still eat at restaurants.

I don't see why having a kitchen means you have to cook??
Anonymous
Post 07/10/2025 16:08     Subject: I tried the condo rental instead of hotel.. it was not feeling like a vacation doing dishes, cooking, laundry

Anonymous wrote:How do you screen for rentals that don’t require you to strip the beds, start a load of towels, run the dishwasher and take out the trash? I don’t want to do any of those things. I agree the food issue is easy enough to manage.


Have never seen those things listed in the listing, and normally not even when you get the booking done. Usually it's in the sheet that's located at the house/apartment. So gonna be tough to try and filter those out.

We are used to do them and normally take like 10 minutes, so have never had an issue with it, but my only thought is that everyone has their own preferences/desires, so if that's a priority for you, understood. But yeah, hard to filter for. At best you could send a message before booking asking if those are requirements.
Anonymous
Post 07/10/2025 16:06     Subject: I tried the condo rental instead of hotel.. it was not feeling like a vacation doing dishes, cooking, laundry

Anonymous wrote:How do you screen for rentals that don’t require you to strip the beds, start a load of towels, run the dishwasher and take out the trash? I don’t want to do any of those things. I agree the food issue is easy enough to manage.


You can’t. I’d say 95% of Airbnbs ask for
Dishes to be started or washed, and trash to be removed. Most don’t require the sheets or towels thing, but they might ask that you pile the towels somewhere. I’ve actually never been asked to start towels.

I religiously read the reviews and never stay anywhere with lower than a 4.9 and 25 reviews. If the cleaning requests are unusual or arduous, it’ll probably show up in the reviews.

Anonymous
Post 07/10/2025 15:32     Subject: I tried the condo rental instead of hotel.. it was not feeling like a vacation doing dishes, cooking, laundry

How do you screen for rentals that don’t require you to strip the beds, start a load of towels, run the dishwasher and take out the trash? I don’t want to do any of those things. I agree the food issue is easy enough to manage.
Anonymous
Post 07/10/2025 15:18     Subject: I tried the condo rental instead of hotel.. it was not feeling like a vacation doing dishes, cooking, laundry

Anonymous wrote:
Hotels only.
Zero desire to stay in anyone's home while on vacation - Ever.


Most are full time rental properties not really someone's home.

You never rent a beach or lake house?
Anonymous
Post 07/10/2025 15:17     Subject: I tried the condo rental instead of hotel.. it was not feeling like a vacation doing dishes, cooking, laundry

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We usually stay in hotels if it is less than 10 days.

More than 10 days, we absolutely stay at AirBnB, and we make breakfast at home and most other meals from outside. We also explore local farmers markets, get takeouts and I have zero problems making quick sides of veggies, soups, salads, rice etc to round off the meal.

My family has no issues with dishwashing, laundry, cleaning and making our own beds. It hardly takes 10-15 minutes. Even in a hotel, we are in the habit of straightening our beds and keeping the rooms clean.

BTW - I have worked for a big hotel company (rhymes with chariot) and I will alway, always, clean my hotel room surfaces, check beds for bedbugs and body fluids, and wash all the mugs, cups, spoon and glasses in a hotel room with dish soap that I carry. The way housekeeping cleans is NASTY.


Can you elaborate on the nasty cleaning? What do you mean?


Are you from HQ?
They are tasked with cleaning every room within certain very short time-frame. And trust me they have a checklist to go through. So, once the guests leave, they use the used guest towels on the floors to clean everything - top to bottom. Which includes... tumblers, cups, mugs, toilets, mirrors, counters, floor, sink, shower, bathtub, shower door, coffee carafe, table tops etc.
Anonymous
Post 07/10/2025 14:53     Subject: I tried the condo rental instead of hotel.. it was not feeling like a vacation doing dishes, cooking, laundry

Anonymous wrote:Breakfast: simple no-cook stuff like cereal, fruit, yogurt, bagels, send DH out for donuts...

Lunch: again simple and no-cook: sandwiches, fruit, chips. Use paper plates.

Go out for dinners.


This is exactly what we do. We actually love exploring the local bakeries and coffee shops if we feel adventurous, otherwise its bagels or cereal or yogurt and fruit for breakfast.
My rule is I NEVER cook during vacation.
I did during COVID but that was the one exception.

We love the additional amenities of many air bnb 's like a pool table or ping pong table, pool, on a lake, etc., the additional space and privacy.

I only stay in hotels when we go to NYC or for a quick overnighter/weekend.