Travel Tip 135
Red Flags in Rental Descriptions
Close to the center of town is nice, unless the listing doesn’t warn you that it’s on a busy road.
The top three red flags to look for in vacation rental descriptions.
This follows last week’s travel tip about the top three red flags to look for in photos of vacation rentals.
Ready to get an apartment or a house for your next trip?
There are plenty of benefits to having more than a hotel room, but it takes more time to research because there’s a lot less standardization for private vacation rentals than for hotels.
Again, I’m not here to sell you a particular rental company, just to warn you what red flags to look for on all these platforms. Some have better quality control than others, but all have misleading listings, even unintentionally. One of the most popular platforms recently reported that they had removed 200,000 listings and odds are that somebody booked, or tried to book, most of those before they were removed.
Here’s my top 3 red flags to look for:
The listing for this apartment in Medellin, Colombia said it had a courtyard garden. I would call it a “covered space with potted plants” but not a courtyard or a garden.
Vague descriptions like “minutes” from popular destinations.
All descriptions should be specific and detailed. Vague descriptions could be a sign of details that the owner wants to hide, or an inattentive host, both of which you want to avoid. One of the most frustrating things about sifting through vacation rental descriptions is that you usually don’t get the exact address until after you book. The owner should know that and should write detailed descriptions so you can make informed decisions even without the address. A five-minute walk from the museum you want to visit is very different from a 45-minute walk, yet technically either can be just “minutes” away.
Short descriptions that don’t give you enough information.
Both apartments above were listed as having a view - but didn’t specify if it was a mountain view or a city view. A detailed description of the kitchen, even if short, is important, but if that’s all you get, it’s not enough. You need to see a description of every room that is included in a listing. I once rented an apartment that seemed vague, because it was listed as a one-bedroom apartment but there were photos of three bedrooms. Buried in the details, the description clearly stated that any unused bedrooms would be locked – and when I arrived one bedroom was open and the other two had padlocks. Odd, but practical, I guess. Hosts should err on the side of writing too much, so people who have the time to read the whole description can get all the information they need.
I left a detailed review of this place that the “minibar” in the listing was actually an empty mini fridge that wasn’t plugged in or cold when I arrived.
Negative reviews that are very detailed.
Always read the reviews! The combination of vague descriptions from the host and detailed negatives reviews is something to avoid. Detailed reviews are also helpful because if the complaints are all about the kitchen, but you plan to eat out every meal, then you can ignore those reviews. Also, beware the reviews that give five stars, or whatever the top marks are, but then are full of negative details. They could have clicked five stars when they intended to give one, or the trip overall was five stars, and they wrote only negative things about the apartment because they loved the trip more than they hated the apartment.
The description of this apartment said it had a “fully stocked kitchenette” but I still wasn’t expecting this.
What to do?
Dig deeper on any property you’re interested in before paying a deposit: read all the descriptions for the apartment, neighborhood, restaurants, attractions and walkability. Read listings on other platforms of similar properties and check if the same place is listed on more than one platform. Try to read between the lines of reviews and contact the host with specific questions. The host should reply promptly with detailed answers. If they don’t reply promptly before you book, you have to wonder how attentive they’ll be if there is an issue after you’ve paid.
I will soon add the Rough Guide to Peru to this stack of guidebooks I’ve updated!
This week I finished updating the Rough Guide to Peru, which is scheduled to be published at the end of April! I’ll let you know when it’s available so you can get 30% off. You can get 30% off all the Rough Guides and Insight Guides I’ve updated with my code AUTHOR0018
