If you are on a tight budget and want to avoid the ever increasing prices of a fancy hotel, then opt for a homestay, where you get the feel of being in your own home, with home-cooked meals and a freedom to check in and check out as per your convenience. Moreover, if you are visiting a new place for studies, work or an extended stay, then homestays are best place to put up. But before you seal the deal, here’s what you should consider.
Here are all the boxes that you should tick before you end up choosing a home stay for your next vacation.
Location check: Your homestay should be positioned centrally and have easy access to most modes of transportation to important places nearby. There’s no point in booking a lovely place which is very secluded and too far from major attraction sites. In this way, you might save on the accommodation but spend double on travelling. Moreover, whether you are travelling alone or with family, safety should be given prime importance. Thus, the neighbourhood should be guarded and secured at night.
Pay attention to reviews: Move beyond the star ratings. Check minutely reviews of people who have stayed in the property / ies you are considering in the past six months. This gives you a fairly recent idea of the place and its maintenance. Further, when you check the pros of a place, also glance over the cons. Check if any customer highlights any complaints of shortcomings of the place.
Cleanliness is most important: Always try to gauge how clean the place is through customer photographs. This is because, in a place like a homestay where multiple people visit each day/week, hygiene should be properly maintained. Any compromise to that should be a complete rejection from your end.
Check for amenities: Always check if you have all the amenities in the homestay that you are looking for. The basic that one needs today are Wi-fi, hot and cold water, air –conditioning or heater, parking (if visiting with your own car), kitchen access or laundry and anything else as per your requirements.
House rules should be respected: Remember a homestay means you are staying in someone’s home. So, check if they have any house rules and respect them. These include by what time you are expected to return every night, whether you may bring your friends (if applicable) to the place, is the place pet –friendly, etc.
Double check photographs: Often professionally shot photographs which are put up from the pages of the home stay hide the real problem. Thus, try to go with the customer photographs more. And check if the photographs uploaded on by the venue and the customer photographs of same places are actually same. In most cases the customer photos will show the real deal.
Host behaviour: You can get a general sense of the host's behaviour when you start the booking conversation. If you notice that they respond late, half-heartedly or even while on call do not directly answer your question, then it might be better to stay away from them. But if they are quick in communication, try to go that extra step to solve your issues or accommodate special concerns, then it means that they genuinely value their guests.
Cancellation policies: Before booking, just for safety, make sure you understand the cancellation policy. While most people do not cancel, one can never tell when emergencies come up. For those cases, make sure that you know the rules and don’t end up losing a lot of your money.
Area of concern: While you are researching for a place to stay, if you notice that the homestay is offering the rooms at an unbelievably low price inclusive of all services, then think again or try to verify from people who have actually stayed there. If there are no recent reviews, or the photos look plagiarised, there is incomplete information; then it is best to avoid such a place.
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