We’ve just checked into a hotel room in Ecuador and we’re a bit bummed. Yes, yes. We love hotels. But we recently spent a week of our travels in a vacation rental apartment in the historic center of Quito, which we booked through Flipkey, and we want it back. Here’s why a vacation rental may be the best accommodation for your vacation too.
Plaza San Francisco is just one gorgeous reason why the colonial center of Quito, Ecuador was among the very first group of sites to be given UNESCO World Heritage status.
Vacation rental win #1: Free laundry
Having the ability to wash your clothes mid trip means you can pack less and avoid any baggage overage charges.
The living room of our vacation rental apartment in Quito, which we found through Flipkey. We loved the owner’s art on the walls.
Vacation rental win #2: Instant hosts/friends/city guides
The best vacation rental owners are also pretty good concierges. They’re proud of where they live and they want you to enjoy it too. Down here in Ecuador owners of vacation rentals also often speak better English than hotel staff members.
The owners of our vacation rental, Ken and Maria, are a US expat and an Ecuadorian artist respectively. Before we even arrived they welcomed our many questions and sent detailed emails with additional information and endless help with solutions to our particular questions and problems, like where to find nearby parking for our truck. We arrived in Quito very late at night and Maria even called to make sure we were safe and sound.
Ken and Maria also offer a walking tour of the historic center of Quito, where the apartment is located, and the apartment was full of maps, brochures, guide books, and other information about the city. They became instant local friends and enriched our visit on a much more personal level than any concierge ever could, including an illuminating evening of cocktails and conversation in their home.
The ornate gold-covered La Campañia Church in the historic center of Quito, Ecuador.
Vacation rental win #3: Space
Our vacation rental in Quito was 750 square feet (70 square meters). That’s the same size as the apartment we had in New York City before embarking on the Trans-Americas Journey and the place included tons of closet space, a living room, and a desk and working area (important for us). It also included a complete kitchen.
We made good use of the kitchen in our vacation rental apartment in Quito, Ecuador, which we found on Flipkey.
Vacation rental win #4: A real kitchen
We’ve said it a hundred times: going to the markets and supermarkets in a new country or new city is one of the fastest and most entertaining ways to get inside the culture. With a full kitchen in our vacation rental we immediately went in search of groceries at a supermarket chain called Supermaxi and discovered that groceries are much cheaper in Ecuador than they are in Colombia, there’s a major brand of canned food here called Snob, and you can buy liquid hand soap called Sanity. Good to know.
In addition to the cultural immersion to be had at the Supermaxi, having a real kitchen meant we could eat what we wanted and do it on the cheap. We made fresh pasta sauce, roast beef, and chicken fajitas. There were pancakes and fruit salads for breakfast and big green salads for lunch. We were not at the mercy of the meat heavy menus at the local cheap eats restaurants or stuck fueling up on a skimpy hotel breakfast buffet.
Colorful Colonial restoration like this gives the historic center of Quito, Ecuador a look all it’s own.
Vacation rental win #5: Homey atmosphere
Maybe it was because we were in our vacation rental during Christmas but we really liked being in a homey atmosphere. Yes, we’re in Ecuador to experience Ecuador but it was nice to find touches of “home” like copies of The New Yorker on the coffee table.
There were even Christmas decorations up including wreaths on the door and a small tree with lights inside. Only a handful of (very pricey) hotels offer in-room holiday decorations and even fewer are going to have copies of The New Yorker for you.
We also appreciated the fact that the walls of the apartment were full of Maria’s black and white photos from around Ecuador which gave the place more personality than any hotel room.
That’s the Presidential Palace right in the heart of the historic center of Quito, Ecuador.
Vacation rental win #6: You know exactly what you’re getting
Even the best hotel websites can require a lot of hunting around to find full details about what’s included in your room and in your stay. We’d never used Flipkey before but we found their property description pages to be concise, complete, and easy to navigate with lots of pictures and a list-based format that made it easy to see exactly what amenities our vacation rental included right down to which appliances were in the kitchen. No guessing. No trolling around a website for ages. No disappointments. No confusion.
Comfy beds and more of the owner’s art in the bedroom of our vacation rental apartment, booked through Flipkey, in Quito, Ecuador.
Vacation rental win #7: No hotel tax or surcharge
This one is a bit controversial since one of the main complaints that hotel operators have about the growing vacation rental market is that vacation rentals are not subject to the mandatory taxes and surcharges that hotels must charge each guest and, they say, that gives vacation rentals and unfair pricing advantage. In Ecuador, taxes and surcharges add 22% to your hotel bill but are not applied to vacation rentals which adds up to real savings for travelers.
Quito’s Casa Alabado Museum has all the right ingredients: an impressive archaeology collection creatively displayed in a restored building that’s a treasure in and of itself.
Flipkey, which has vacation rentals available in 12,000 global locations including plenty in Latin America, provided our stay in Quito, Ecuador so that we could share our honest opinions about the experience
Here’s more about travel in Ecuador
Very nice place in Ecuador … I think I’m starting to drift towards this type of travel!
Yes, having the extra space is a real treat when traveling. And a kitchen too – sometimes you just don’t want to go out and eat. Looks like you booked into a great place :-).
Which is better: airbnb or Flipkey, and why?
Have used airbnb several times in the past, but when it comes to whole apartments its charges are excessive.
Hi Peter,
We’ve never used AirBnB in large part because they just don’t have a lot of options down here in Latin America. So, on that count, Flipkey wins since they’ve consistently got listings in all price points all over the place down here where our travels are focused. In Quito alone there are dozens to choose from.
I’d open this very good question up to comment from other blog readers too: anyone out there have an opinion about AirBnB vs.Flipkey?
Begging slightly to differ, although generally disapproving of airbnb for its excessive charges and reliably incompetent support, we found plenty of choice in Aruba, Colombia, and Panama, and rented in several cities. But perhaps Flipkey (whose name I admit I first heard only a couple of months ago) has more.
Could be, Peter. We’re done with Panama, however, and don’t plan on visiting Aruba. Will check back in with AirBnB options when we return to Colombia later this month. In the meantime, I just did a quick side by side re a city we do plan to spend extended time in soon (Cuenca, Ecaudor) and found 36 listings on FlipKey starting at $20 a night and 17 listings on AirBnB, many of them just rooms OR listings put up by B&Bs or other types of small hotels. For OUR needs (Latin America-wide, affordable whole apartment options not just rooms or B&B listings) FlipKey is still the better choice.
I think airbnb probably scores best when just a room is rented in order to share with locals. The cost of an overnight can come right down and there’s the concierge-like benefits you mention (you might like to edit ‘converge’ in your text, by the way). We have had very successful whole apartment rentals in Aruba, Bogotá, Cartagena, Dubrovnik, Venice, Skopje, and Perast (Montenegro), where the owners couldn’t have been more helpful, and demanded we call them if we needed anything at all. But for B&B and small hotels in general I agree airbnb certainly isn’t the way to go, and we found booking.com to be better, although only used in circumstances when it wasn’t possible just to show up and cast around for a room on arrival–almost always the best method. Will give Flipkey a look, if, after buying a new house, a family holiday can ever be afforded again. Also, you may be avoiding Aruba (and it doesn’t have a great deal to offer, especially to those already familiar with far more spectacular beaches), but if you’re considering Curaçao (which has much more), don’t forget I have a contact or two for you.
Would only add that Flipkey should probably be boycotted simply because it is owned by the egregious TripAdvisor, the worst idea in travel content since kaolin-morphine mixture.
I completely agree with going with a vacation apartment rental. Makes all of the difference.