If you have never expored the possibily of renting an apartment, villa, or even a full house for your vacation / travel needs then I highly recommend you read this. Clearly for short term stays (< 3 days), a hotel is the way to go. But for longer term trips, nothing beats the convenience of having your own place to call home with multiple bedrooms, multiple bathrooms, a kitchen, parking, etc... You can find short term rentals just about anywhere you would like to go.

Consider this, on a recent vacation to Honolulu my family and I looked at the "Hilton Hawaiian Village". It is considered the "Ritz Carlton" of the Waikiki, and it has great rooms, great restaurants, great beaches, and tons of other activities. However, when you stay there, you are only getting a room. One room. During the busy season that one room can cost upwards of $300+ per night. My wife and I are very close with are kids, but the idea of spending a week in one room with my wife and I in one queen bed, with our 2 and 6 year old three feet away from us in a second queen bed at the outrageous cost of $300 per night seems a little steep!

In comes the idea of a rental unit. In Hawaii alone, there are thousands upon thousands of rental units available for anywhere from $50 per day (for a small studio/cottage) to multi-million dollar mansions for much more. Our family settled somewhere in the middle on a $350 per night 4 Bedroom 3 Bath house in the prestigous Hawaii Kai neighborhood with it's own private pool, hot tub, and 2 car garage. So insted of 2 adults and 2 kids stuffed in one small room with 2 beds, my wife and I had a great master suite, and the kids each had their own room, and we invited my mother-in-law to stay in the 4th bedroom. It was great. Plus, having a kitchen is essential with the kids there, and it was great to have two TVs so kids and adults can relax watching different things. The private pool and hot tub where great, and we were only a few minutes drive from the best beaches (Waikiki and Haunama Bay) when we wanted to get sandy. All in all, it was a fantastic experience. If you want specific information on the unit we rented or other units in that area you can email me at rental@DiscountFamilyTravel.com.

But accept this word of caution. Whenever possible, get references of past tenants, or use a rental service that allows past renters to post feedback on the unit that you are considering. On another trip to Salt Lake City, UT, we rented a furnished apartment for a month and a half from TMA Corporate Suites. At first site, we were somewhat pleased with the apartment. It's location was fantastic, right in the Sugarhouse area of Salt Lake City, and close to everything we needed. But that is where this rental's qualities ended. After parking (in the lot that was being rebuilt leaving dust all over our car every day), we learned that our unit was in the basement, and we had the longest walk from our parking space to our unit. Barely any light got into the unit, and it always had a cool damp feel to it, because it was under street level. Our first night sleep was disrupted by the fact that the matress had some sort of red stain (to their credit, the people at TMA Suites did replace the mattress within a few days) and we were woken up by the showering neighbors. I have to say, that I have lived in apartments before, and this building seemed extra noisy in terms of transmitting water related noise all around. Enough to wake us up at 5AM daily.

Had we seen and read reviews of this location, and of TMA Corporate Suites in general, we probably wouldn't have rented from them.

Unfortunately, our problems didn't stop there. We had put up a $300 fully refundable deposit with them, which seemed fair for a furnished apartment. Before leaving we cleaned the apartment meticulously. It was cleaner when we left than when we got there, and we even made sure to run and empty the dishwasher because we knew if it took them more than 2hrs to clean the unit they were going to deduct from our deposit. Shortly after moving out (incidentally, we moved out 1 day early but they wouldn't refund any rental fees) I began to inquire when they would refund my $300. It was then that they first told me that it would take 4 to six weeks for all of the utility bills to come in to make sure they could refund my deposit. I guess they wanted to make sure I wasn't siphoning gas from the fake fireplace and stockpiling it for my own use, because I can't imagine any other way we really could have run up much of a bill on the utilities. In any case, I spent the next 10 weeks sending them reminders/questions/followups about my refund, and got nothing but the standard reply of "it's on it's way". Finally, almost three months after leaving the unit, we received our refund. However, the company had taken it upon themselves to deduct $40 from the deposit for carpet cleaning expenses claiming that there was a pet smell in the unit and pet hair all over. Imagine my surprise, cause we don't have a pet.

In any case, it is long since past the deadline for me to challenge the charge on my credit card, and I am out of state, so it would be difficult for me to take TMA Corporate Suites to small claims court, so the only recourse I have is to file a compalint with the Better Business Bureau of Utah (which I have done) and to warn other would-be renters to make sure to clarify the terms of their deposits, and to clearly document the condition of the unit before they leave. This is good practice in any situation, but especially if you fail to take my advice.