Accommodation Types: A Comprehensive Look
Accommodation Types
Disadvantages of ‘On Your Own’ Accommodation
- No meals provided; guests must cook or eat out.
- Lack of official classification for services may lead to unexpected issues.
- A detailed contract is recommended to outline included and excluded facilities, as well as the rights and obligations of both parties.
‘On Your Own’ Accommodation
This type of accommodation does not include food services, and facilities such as bathrooms and kitchens are not shared with other guests (except at campsites).
Types of ‘On Your Own’ Accommodation
1. Rented Accommodation
- Includes various options with differing services and prices:
- Studios: Sleeping, living, and cooking facilities in the same room; bathrooms can be shared or en-suite.
- Apartments: Separate bedroom and living/kitchen areas.
- Holiday Houses, Chalets, Villas, and Cottages: Suitable for larger groups, typically with at least two bedrooms.
2. Camping
- Wild Camping: Not allowed everywhere due to hygiene, ecological, and fire risks.
- Campsites: Provide basic facilities (toilets, showers) and recreational areas (playgrounds, swimming pools, entertainment).
- Tents: Affordable but inconvenient in bad weather and require setup at each location.
- Trailers: Tents on wheels attached to a car for easy transport.
- Mobile Homes: Include caravans (towed by a car) or motorhomes (campers) that serve as both transport and accommodation with kitchen and bathroom facilities.
- Bungalows: Typically low-rise buildings with verandas; styles and facilities may vary.
3. Other Options
- House Swapping: Two homeowners exchange homes for a limited time, often arranged online. Usually involves no monetary payment unless accommodations differ significantly.
- Couch Surfing: A hospitality niche where homeowners offer free accommodation on a couch or in a spare room. Stays are typically short, and no payment is required.
New Accommodation Trends
New trends are developing in accommodation to cater for different niches of travelers.
Hotels
- Capsule Hotels: Started in Japan, the capsule hotel is a unique type of hotel that usually provides cheap, basic overnight accommodation in a number of very small and functional rooms called “capsules.”
- Eco Hotels: An ecohotel is an environmentally friendly type of accommodation aiming at promoting sustainable tourism and green living through the use of renewable energy sources, recycled materials, and organic locally-sourced produce.
- Fragmented Hotels: Rooms, studios, and apartments spread in a relatively close area, for example in an ancient village, and managed under a unique business structure.
- Horizontal Hotels: In a horizontal hotel, guests are allocated in bungalows rather than in hotel rooms.
- Pods: A pod is a prefabricated standalone structure that provides basic accommodation.
- Pop-up Hotels: A pop-up hotel is a temporary lodging establishment, usually set up for specific events like festivals, corporate events, or weddings.
In Nature
- Glamping: Glamping is a combination of the words glamorous and camping. The campsite offers high levels of comfort and even luxury accommodation, and there are more amenities available compared to a regular campsite.
- Ice Hotels: An ice hotel is a non-permanent hotel built from ice and snow.
- Lodges: A lodge is a small rural house occupied seasonally. Full-service lodges offer amenities like air conditioning, the Internet, and swimming pools, whereas basic cabin lodges provide only basic amenities.
- Treehouses: A treehouse is a structure built among the branches of a tree.
At Someone’s Home
- Homestays: This refers to the activity of finding accommodation with a local family to get full immersion in the local culture.
- House Sitting (and pet-sitting): This means that guests will “babysit” someone’s house and the owners’ pets while they are on holiday.