Original publication: April 16, 2023
Revised: May & June 2024
Want to find great rental properties around the world for a fraction of the price listed on Airbnb and other platforms? Here's my process for finding great accommodations and renting directly.
Click here to watch a YouTube video explaining the process.
Option 1: Find Real Estate Agents for Rentals
Go to GoogleMaps and type in the city and country you want to visit.
Search for Real Estate Agents and click through their business websites.
Contact some of the agents providing them with your rental criteria, dates and budget.
They will respond with a list of available options that match your criteria from their rental inventory. If you like an option, let them know and ask about next steps.
Often they ask for a deposit, and then you pay rent in cash upon checkin.
Option 2: Find Local Owners & Property Managers from Rental Platforms
Go to Airbnb, VRBO, or similar sites and search for rentals in the desired destination. Make sure to use the filters to find rentals with the criteria you want.
Click on the Host profile. Look for identifying information about their business and contact information.
If you found their contact information, follow the Steps 3-5 in Option 1 above.
If you you are unable to find their contact information, see if you can find their listing on GoogleMaps. Compare the Map within Airbnb to GoogleMaps. Often contact information can be found in GoogleMaps.
If you are still unsuccessful finding their contact information, send the Host a Message within Airbnb. Ask if they have a business website for their rental(s).
Once you found a way to communicate off those rental platforms, follow the Steps 3-5 in Option 1 above.
Option 3: Facebook Pages and Groups
Join all the Pages and Groups for the area you want to visit. FB Marketplace also has sections for rentals but be very careful to do your due diligence to ensure the rentals are from legitimate landlords.
Within the Pages and Groups you have joined, use the Search feature for "rentals in (city, country)".
Read through posts and their comments. Owners, property managers, and real estate agents will post their rental info in these threads as they are actively seeking tenants. Reply to threads to inquire about rentals.
If you don't see many posts, then create one yourself, including what you're looking for and dates.
Check your messages and communicate further privately about budget and specifics.
Follow Steps 3-5 in Option 1 above.
Paying Deposits
If I am in the city and can meet up with the owner/agent, then I will pay the deposit in cash. However, if I am securing a rental in a far away location, I will send a deposit through Wise. The owner/agent provides me with their banking information and I am able to send local currency to them by bank transfer or even using a credit card. Often I send a deposit between 20% to 30% of the agreed monthly rent amount.
Paying Rent
When I rent direct using one of these options, more often then not, I pay rent in local currency at time of checkin. Cash is king around the world so I keep a checking account at Charles Schwab (CS) specifically for ATM withdrawals. CS reimburses all ATM fees world wide and they give the daily currency exchange rate at the time of cash withdrawal.
The one time I've rented direct and only had the option to pay by credit card was when I rented apartments in Aruba through Keller Williams agency. They had a secured website to collect payments but the downside was that I had a 4% processing fee. That was a good opportunity for me to use a credit card for earning points for future travel rewards, and I still saved significantly compared to renting through platforms.
I have also paid rent via the Wise App, just like how I had sent a deposit. Wise performs the wire transfer between my bank and the landlord's bank, handling any currency exchanges too.
How much can I save?
The most I have saved is 75% thus far, and that was in Aruba. Rentals were going for $2,000 per week and I secured a monthly rental for that same amount. And generally I save between 20% to 40% renting direct from owners who also cross post on Airbnb and similar platforms.
There's plenty of factors to keep in mind though as you're searching for the best deal. Are you traveling to a region during high or low tourist season? Low seasons are when you will find the most amazing deals. The closer you are to a beach, or living on an island, is always going to be more expensive than living inland. That's general real estate and cost of living for you. Islands are particularly more expensive because everything has to be imported to the island by ship or plane.
Check out these short posts about my rental criteria and destinations:
If you find value from these ideas and want to show support, feel free to Buy Me A Coffee:
Why not book through airbnb and similar app. If you're using the site to find these amazing places, we should also support them so they stay in business. It hardly seems like a fair way to save money. Also by not using airbnb or booking or similar, we give up all rights to refunds and claims later. It seems like we should be more aware of the impact of our money while traveling and not use sites to find places…and then abusing the site's tou just to cheat the system doesn't seem like the right advice to spread to other travelers.
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