Posted by: teachertraveler8
Rental Apartments in Spain - 08/16/14 06:45 PM
This past summer, my teenage son, husband and I were in Spain for nearly 3 weeks together. As we were planning our accommodations last winter, we decided that renting apartments would be more cost-effective than staying in hostals or hotels. Most hostal rooms run $35-$50/night and when you multiply that by 2, it’s about the same to rent an apartment that also has a kitchen and living room.
We used three different websites for our rentals. The first was Airbnb in Lekeitio, Spain. Lekeitio is a lovely seaside fishing village in the Basque Country. Airbnb at the time we booked only had one apartment for rent, so we chose that one. The advantage of Airbnb is that you pay when you book, so there is no transfer of funds to the host. The disadvantage is that you pay when you book, so you pay for a rental months in advance. (This isn’t always such a bad thing, either, because it spreads the cost of the vacation over several months) The apartment was as pictured in the listing. The host was great about responding to our questions. It helped that I am proficient in Spanish because he didn’t speak English. With Airbnb, the website holds the payment for 24 hours after arrival in case there is a problem with the rental. We didn’t have any issues, so we didn’t have to test them to see if this was true. The apartment was a bit rustic and old-fashioned. As an American, I try to lower my standards a bit when traveling abroad in terms of space and amenities. This was a perfectly adequate apartment and I would rent it again. The average price for all the apartments we rented was around 100 euros/night or $140.
The second rental was in San Sebastian, Spain. My husband found a website called “Rentalia” that services Spain, Portugal, Italy, Croatia, and Andorra. It was similar to Airbnb, except for the payment options. The hosts could set their system of deposits and payments. The apartment we chose wanted a 10% deposit via a money transfer. This made me slightly nervous, except that it was only 30 euros. If it had been much more, I might have reconsidered. Upon arrival, the host wanted the remaining amount, plus 150 euros for a security deposit in cash. That is always a bit tricky because of the limits imposed by banks for withdrawal, but if you plan ahead, it’s fine. The security deposit was returned to us on the last day of our stay. The apartment in San Sebastian was perfect. It was located 5 minutes from the beach and the Old Town and right on a main street. We were up high enough so that ambient noise was not an issue. I noticed that some rental places wanted a 50% deposit up front. I would probably be reluctant to wire transfer hundreds of euros, although now that I have used the site, I see that it works.
The final rental was through a website called http://negre.us/apartments/. We found it through VRBO, which operates prolifically in the US. Contacting the host was easy and the website had many apartments to choose from. Since this was a business for the family, they had two buildings in Barcelona with apartments. They were located in the Eixample district of Barcelona, not far from the Gaudi buildings and the Sagrada Familia. I liked it because it was a more tranquil, residential neighborhood. My husband said that he would prefer staying in the Gothic Quarter next time with all the action. This website wanted a 25% deposit and used Paypal as the means for transferring the money. I felt comfortable with this. Upon arrival, we could pay the remainder using Paypal or cash. We opted to pay with cash since we didn’t have to deal with the extra foreign transaction fees imposed by Paypal.
Since the Barcelona apartment was a family business, there was a lot of attention to detail. There were employees on call 24 hours to answer the phone or email questions. They provided a list of places to eat, have tapas, or coffee. In the apartment, there were Barcelona tour guide books in multiple languages. When we needed to print tickets, all we had to do was email them to the office manager. Although there were towels, they also lent us special beach towels for our excursion to the beach.
Overall, we were extremely pleased with the apartment rental option in Spain. I have to admit that before we left, I was wary and hoped that all would go well, but in the end, there was nothing to worry about. I suppose that with anything, it is best to be cautious and use good judgment. I would not hesitate to rent again, even if it was just me or a couple. The comfort of having your own living room and kitchen is quite nice after a busy day of touring.
We used three different websites for our rentals. The first was Airbnb in Lekeitio, Spain. Lekeitio is a lovely seaside fishing village in the Basque Country. Airbnb at the time we booked only had one apartment for rent, so we chose that one. The advantage of Airbnb is that you pay when you book, so there is no transfer of funds to the host. The disadvantage is that you pay when you book, so you pay for a rental months in advance. (This isn’t always such a bad thing, either, because it spreads the cost of the vacation over several months) The apartment was as pictured in the listing. The host was great about responding to our questions. It helped that I am proficient in Spanish because he didn’t speak English. With Airbnb, the website holds the payment for 24 hours after arrival in case there is a problem with the rental. We didn’t have any issues, so we didn’t have to test them to see if this was true. The apartment was a bit rustic and old-fashioned. As an American, I try to lower my standards a bit when traveling abroad in terms of space and amenities. This was a perfectly adequate apartment and I would rent it again. The average price for all the apartments we rented was around 100 euros/night or $140.
The second rental was in San Sebastian, Spain. My husband found a website called “Rentalia” that services Spain, Portugal, Italy, Croatia, and Andorra. It was similar to Airbnb, except for the payment options. The hosts could set their system of deposits and payments. The apartment we chose wanted a 10% deposit via a money transfer. This made me slightly nervous, except that it was only 30 euros. If it had been much more, I might have reconsidered. Upon arrival, the host wanted the remaining amount, plus 150 euros for a security deposit in cash. That is always a bit tricky because of the limits imposed by banks for withdrawal, but if you plan ahead, it’s fine. The security deposit was returned to us on the last day of our stay. The apartment in San Sebastian was perfect. It was located 5 minutes from the beach and the Old Town and right on a main street. We were up high enough so that ambient noise was not an issue. I noticed that some rental places wanted a 50% deposit up front. I would probably be reluctant to wire transfer hundreds of euros, although now that I have used the site, I see that it works.
The final rental was through a website called http://negre.us/apartments/. We found it through VRBO, which operates prolifically in the US. Contacting the host was easy and the website had many apartments to choose from. Since this was a business for the family, they had two buildings in Barcelona with apartments. They were located in the Eixample district of Barcelona, not far from the Gaudi buildings and the Sagrada Familia. I liked it because it was a more tranquil, residential neighborhood. My husband said that he would prefer staying in the Gothic Quarter next time with all the action. This website wanted a 25% deposit and used Paypal as the means for transferring the money. I felt comfortable with this. Upon arrival, we could pay the remainder using Paypal or cash. We opted to pay with cash since we didn’t have to deal with the extra foreign transaction fees imposed by Paypal.
Since the Barcelona apartment was a family business, there was a lot of attention to detail. There were employees on call 24 hours to answer the phone or email questions. They provided a list of places to eat, have tapas, or coffee. In the apartment, there were Barcelona tour guide books in multiple languages. When we needed to print tickets, all we had to do was email them to the office manager. Although there were towels, they also lent us special beach towels for our excursion to the beach.
Overall, we were extremely pleased with the apartment rental option in Spain. I have to admit that before we left, I was wary and hoped that all would go well, but in the end, there was nothing to worry about. I suppose that with anything, it is best to be cautious and use good judgment. I would not hesitate to rent again, even if it was just me or a couple. The comfort of having your own living room and kitchen is quite nice after a busy day of touring.
