It’s apparently the “winter of the road trip,” because that’s our only travel option. And for a lot of people, this means driving somewhere (likely remote) and renting a house or apartment from Airbnb or another home-share app. Ideally, you’d be travelling with the people in your “quarantine bubble,” but given how long it’s been since we’ve seen each other (and that the pandemic definitely isn’t over), it can be very tempting to throw caution to the wind and go on a group holiday. We’ve already gone over ways to make any COVID-era trips safer, but let’s talk about another issue with sharing a holiday rental with a group of people: parking.
Pay attention to parking
As Summer Hull pointed out in a recent article on The Points Guy, if a rental listing says the house sleeps six people, that doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s parking for six, or even three vehicles on the property. This is something you’re going to want to find out about before your trip. The last thing you need is to start a relaxing holiday arguing with your friends over parking spaces. This could be especially problematic if people are arriving at night and unfamiliar with the area, including on-street parking regulations.
The good news is that there are ways to avoid this situation. First, check the rental listing. Ideally the number of parking spots on the property itself will be listed, or the host will note that the only parking available is on the street or in a nearby lot. If that information isn’t included on the listing, message the host to ask about it. Then ask them for advice and/or suggestions on where and how to accommodate a certain number of cars. If nothing else, they should be able to give you tips on which nearby side streets are best for parking overnight.
And while this isn’t really relevant right now, if you’re going somewhere with snow, ask the host about snow removal. (Will there be enough parking on the driveway? Will the driveway be plowed? That sort of thing.) In short, if you’re renting a group holiday house with multiple parties driving, make sure you’re aware of the parking situation before you arrive.
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