Over the past few years we have rented many places to stay through online sites, mostly VRBO, Flipkey, HomeAway and BookaBach. The vast majority of rentals have been relatively close to their photos and descriptions. We've also found the owners or agents to be reasonable to work with, including our stay in Sicily where we used Google Translate to explain that the refrigerator was not working properly. As minimum we always look to rent places with wi-fi, TV, heat/air (as what we feel is appropriate for the climate), shower, a queen or king size bed, towels and linens, and a kitchen we can work in given the amount of time we will be staying.
One interesting moment in each rental is finding what's been left for us in the refrigerator and pantry. Owners may make a point of leaving tea, coffee, milk, basic spices and sometimes biscuits or fruit to get us started. Some places are barren of food - to the point that there may not be even salt and pepper. In other cases there is an accumulation of what previous renters have left and the cleaners have not removed. Once when renting a home in Vermont the pantry included everything from onions and 5 lbs. of potatoes to a quart-sized jar of capers from Costco.
One interesting moment in each rental is finding what's been left for us in the refrigerator and pantry. Owners may make a point of leaving tea, coffee, milk, basic spices and sometimes biscuits or fruit to get us started. Some places are barren of food - to the point that there may not be even salt and pepper. In other cases there is an accumulation of what previous renters have left and the cleaners have not removed. Once when renting a home in Vermont the pantry included everything from onions and 5 lbs. of potatoes to a quart-sized jar of capers from Costco.
The winner for "most diverse food items" in our New Zealand and British Columbia trip is the condo in Vancouver. In addition to tea, coffee, sugar, olive oil, spices and condiments we were supplied with: a quart of pickled turnips, 4 liters of canola oil and a quarter of a bottle of Maker's Mark (we found the Maker's Mark in the freezer).
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