Berlin Holiday Rentals - An Insight (Part II)
This article is the second in a series of articles focusing on Berlin holiday rentals. In the last article, we discussed the advantages of Berlin holiday apartments over Berlin hotels. In this article, let us delve into the issues one should consider while booking a holiday apartment in Berlin.
Booking a holiday apartment in Berlin:
Finding
apartments to rent in Berlin is easy, if you know where to look. Depending upon the duration of your visit, your budget, your preferred location and other requirements, there are several online resources that you can visit.
Most vacation rental listing sites with a global presence such as homeaway.com, holidaylettings.co.uk and flipkey.com have apartment listings in Berlin as well. You can also check out sites that focus on Berlin alone or feature only major destinations such as RatedApartments.com and Miniloft.com.
While searching for an apartment rental in Berlin, one of the most important aspects to look for is its location. Choose a location that either is close to or offers easy access to your areas of interests in terms of both attractions and activities. If you are on a business trip, then location becomes an even more important point to consider, especially if you prefer an easy commute.
Secondly, check if the
holiday apartment meets the requirements of your party in terms of sleeping capacity, entertainment facilities, any special needs etc. Often it happens that there may be just 2 bedrooms, but the sleeping capacity may be posted as 6; additional sleeping facility may be a sofa bed in the living room. You may want to check your and your party's comfort level with the sleeping arrangements.
Thirdly, if you are on a budget, you may want to cook at home and divert the savings from meal expenditure into far more enjoyable pursuits. A good way of checking if the rental is suitable for this would be to check the availability of a fully equipped kitchen as opposed to a kitchenette and the apartment's proximity to grocery stores and departmental stores. Most sites give an idea of this by mentioning the approximate or exact distance between the rental and essential stores.
Another point to consider is the suitability of the holiday rental in terms of specific requirements such as pet-friendliness or wheelchair accessibility. Most rentals in Berlin are not pet-friendly so you may have to scout around a lot more or opt to leave your best friend behind. For wheelchair accessible properties, ensure that the rental is either on the ground floor or has an elevator or lift in the building and that there are no stairs within the rental.
Interacting with the owner of the Berlin holiday apartment through mails and phone calls goes a long way in solving any such or similar issues or concerns you may have regarding the apartment.
