There is nothing I love more than TRAVELING as a family. And then SAVING big time on that travel. Showing your family the world shouldn’t drain your life savings. And although most the time, we lovveeee to book nearly free hotel stays by maximizing our credit card points and miles, sometimes that isn’t viable given the number of people in your family or even specific location!
Don’t get me wrong I LOVE a $0 luxury hotel stay. However other times, for ease of travel with young kids, I really value booking a HOME for our trip.
And even when we are paying (crazy low!) out of pocket costs for a vacation rentals, I do still love saving in ALLLL the ways I can.
The closer I can get our vacation cost to ZERO, the happier I am. And honestly, sometimes the more enjoyable the trip!
Check out below the 5 ways we majorly save on vacation rental costs when traveling as a family!
Stay tuned to #5 for the way to save the MOST on your vacation rental costs (i.e. even as cheap as a totally FREE stay!)
Book FAR in advance
Honestly this is probably the most underrated tip on this list. I know, I know you always hear you should book wayyy ahead of time to get the best deals…BUT REALLY. You should.
The further you book in advance (we try to plan our trips 9-12 months in advance), the BETTER of a vacation rental you will be able to book for the LOWEST price possible.
Those unicorn properties that offer the most magical location or jaw dropping view (without a massive price tag)- will always, always get snatched up fastest.
Like this amazinnggg Airbnb with a view we will be staying at in Spain in October ($850 for FIVE nights!)
Or this unbeatable stay we booked for 4 nights in Costa Rica for less than $105 a night!!
So although booking an Airbnb 12 months in advance of your trip isn’t nearly as exciting as swinging a last minute reservation- I promise, promise it will lead to not only securing the BEST rental possible, but also help you save hundreds and hundreds of dollars!
Ask about other avenues for booking!
One of my favorite, lesser utilized strategies for saving on vacation rentals is just with a simple ASK.
Many times, owners of Airbnbs and VRBO’s have their own independent websites they list their properties on. The perk of these independent websites is that owners don’t have to pay the booking platforms (like Airbnb, VRBO, etc) all those hefty fees.
This can be immensely valuable, because many times owners will pass along those savings to YOU when listing their property independently.
For example, on a rental we are staying at on the Oregon coast this September we were able to save $1,200 by simply booking on the home’s separate website.
This one I actually easily discovered on my own too, because I saw that the Host was an independent management company from their logo on Airbnb. After a bit of googling, I discovered the EXACT same home listed on the property management’s website for hundreds less…AND they were running a 20% summer sale!
= MAAJJOOORRRR savings on this splurge property for us and our extended family!
Pro Tip: Run a reverse Google image search! Save that photo of the property you are eyeing on Airbnb and run a reverse Google image search to see if it pulls up across the internet on an independent site!
This can be such an easyyyyy way to save on vacation rentals! (If the whole affordable beach vacay thing is your vibe- don’t miss THIS round up!!)
Put free travel back in your pocket!
One of my favorite things to do is put loads of travel BACK in my pocket for the purchases we were already going to make anyway.
And with just a little bit of strategy, this is 100% possible (on not just vacation rental costs too!)
Use that rental costs to meet the minimum spend on a new credit card!
90% of our points are not earned by putting the purchases we were going to make anyway on the SAME card over and over…but on new credit cards.
This allows us to easily earn large, juicy welcome offers of points and miles for future travel (instead of just being able to take a few hundred dollars off our travel costs annually with the points earned from ONE card…we can take 4-5 bucket list trips a year for a FRACTION of the actual cost).
We use these points to transfer to travel partners of our cards to get nearly free hotels and airfare for our family vacations!
More on saving on vacation rentals
So by using an expense like a vacation rental (that we were going to make in cash anyway) to meet the minimum spend on a new card, we put a HUGE amount of free travel BACK in our pockets for future vacations!
For example, we just used a new Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card to make a reservation for an $800+ out of pocket vacation rental in Martha’s Vineyard (little to no hotels to book on points there!).
Not only did we get 3x points back on that travel purchase, we also knocked out a huge chunk of that minimum spend to get a massivveeeee pile of points back in our pocket.
Vacasa vacation rentals using Wyndham points
This is really the ONLY way to book vacation rentals directly with points. There are definitely some pros and cons to this strategy…however it is an option if you are looking to really save on that rental costs for your next trip!
There is really only ONE points vacation rental option: Through Wyndham’s partnership with Vacasa.
Here’s how this works: Wyndham is a transfer partner of both Capital One and Citi. Vacasa is a vacation rental management company that partners with Wyndham.
So you can transfer your points and miles from Capital One or Citi to Wyndham and book from the selection of Vacasa properties with points. 1 bedrooms are 15,000 points, 2 bedrooms are 30,000 points, 3 bedrooms are 45,000 points and so on.
There are definitely some nuances to this partnership, so take a look below at the pros and cons of this option for saving on vacation rentals!
PROS //
- You can book directly with points! No other option like this
- There is a sweet spot where many times you can find rentals labeled as a 1 bedroom (15k points/night) but actually sleep a lot more people .i.e. an office, loft, etc not being counted as a bedroom
- No taxes and fees included with point reservations!
CONS //
- More limited selection than Airbnb/VRBO…..Vacasa is not in every state and only a few international locations.
- Although it’s not publicly advertised, there IS a price limit…you can book a “one bed†property with points as long as the cost per night (with taxes and fees) is LESS than $350 per bedroom per night
- Not convenient…you cannot book online with points and must call to make a reservation!
We are alwayssss looking for creative ways to save on travel for our family, and Vacasa rentals using Wyndham points is such a great way to get some major savings on your next stay!
Reimburse yourself using credit card points + miles
OKAY, now for the easiest, most straight forward way to save on your next vacation rental…providing you the most flexibility and potential for discount!
Using your credit card points and miles to reimburse yourself for ANY travel expense is suchhhh a valuable travel saving tool to have in your pocket!
Now if you have been around here for anytime at all, you know I always preaching about the power of TRANSFERRING your points to travel partners of your card. 9 times out of 10 you will get FAR more value out of your points and miles by transferring them.
However, if your goal for a trip is a true $0 out of pocket cost, the “reimburse” feature can be a really powerful way to use your credit card points and miles.
The best credit cards for saving on vacation rentals
There are certain credit cards that give you the ability to use your points earned to reimburse yourself for travel purchases at a 1:1 ratio.
My favorite credit cards that give you this reimburse feature are the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card.
So say for example you have 100,000 miles earned in your Capital One account. You could use one of the Capital One Venture cards to reserve your vacation rental (on any website!) and then take that 100,000 miles and reimburse yourself for up to $1,000 of that rental cost.
Now, you would not want to do this with just any card.
For example, with one of my other favorite credit cards, the American Express® Gold Card, you CAN reimburse yourself for travel purchases using your points. However, you can redeem points to offset card charges at a rate of 0.6 cents per point.
Considering the IMMENSE value you can get by say transferring those American Express points to airline partners, this would really not be a good use of your AMEX points.
The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card not only provide the ability to reimburse yourself for travel expenses using your miles, but also are valuable cards to keep in your wallet long term.
These are fantastic “no brainer” cards that earn 2x miles on EVERY purchase. Not to mention the huggeeee value of providing unlimited airport lounge access for your whole family with the Venture X (truly this card is worth its weight in GOLD).
Saving on Vacation Rentals Continued
So although, no, you might not get the VERY MOST value out of your points and miles using them to cover vacation rental costs…free is FREE! And I so value to ability to get out vacation costs as absolutely LOW as possible with cards like this in our back pocket!
If you are serious about wanting to get MAJOR savings (like to the tune of pennies on the dollar) make sure to sign up for our FREE Masterclass: How to Travel the World (for nearly free!) HERE!
Not only are there ways to save on vacation rentals like above, but ENDLESS ways to get steeply discounted airfare and hotels on REPEAT over and over and over!
