Mom's Guide To Travel

Trip Planning, Expert Tips, and Fun Ideas For Family Travel.

London Apartment Rentals Through The Ever-Growing FlipKey

london apartment rentals flip key

Grey, cold, dreary – that’s all I know of England. Of the five times that I’ve been to the country, I’ve only ever visited in either November or February. Why? It’s just happened to work out that way. However, for some reason, rainy weather doesn’t bother me when I’m renting an apartment, my accommodation of choice while I’m visiting London. This time around, I rented a place on my own and with confidence through FlipKey.

 

London Apartment Rentals Flip Key
Spacious living room made the stay feel more like home.

I didn’t expect November to be a terribly popular time to get accommodations in London but as I procrastinated longer and longer to book one and watched my once-plentiful options on the FlipKey site dwindle, I realized I miscalculated. London apartment rentals are a growing trend and have become more popular with the increase in online portals.

The very first time I rented an apartment in London was right after college with a group of girlfriends. Three of us had birthdays in February so we took a spur of the moment trip to London. We rented an apartment from a co-worker who worked in our London office and the whole transaction was seamless because we knew him. At the time, there was no FlipKey or any other online market for apartment rentals.

 

London Apartment Rentals Flip Key
I don’t like having to get dressed for my tea or coffee in the morning..call me antisocial.

I don’t know what people did in the past when they wanted to avoid renting hotel rooms. I guess it was through personal connections like ours or maybe even private realtors. The point being, you needed some assurance or insurance that you weren’t going to get scammed.

And that’s why I’m liking FlipKey. Besides the fact that they’re a subsidiary of TripAdvisor, a site that I trust, they:

  1. Have a rating system for renters to use to grade “landlords” – from experience to email responsiveness.
  2. Have a sizeable inventory with 240,000 listings in 12,000 locations around the world.
  3. Offer a guarantee, in case things go wrong.
  4. Allow me to save my searches to look through the next time I return to the site.
  5. Look at past renters’ photos.

This trip around was all about going off the beaten path a bit so besides taking day trips out of the city, or staying the night in a castle, I wanted to stay near the Stockwell – Brixton area.

 

London Apartment Rentals Flip Key
The bed in the master room felt just as comfortable as any high-end hotel

My apartment was a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom flat that was the perfect size for my family of four (had I brought them). Your experience with who you rent from will undoubtedly be different from mine but I got the luck of the draw and had the sweetest “landlord”, Matt, who was patient and responsive while I was still here in the states and available once I got to London.

The apartment was immaculate, spotless inside and out. Both bedrooms had luxury hotel-grade queen beds that put a smile on my weary, travel-worn face. The master bedroom had an en-suite, a desk, ample closet space for my clothes, and led out to a small patio. The second bedroom also led out to the patio and had its own storage furniture for clothing and a desk. Its bathroom sat just outside. The bathrooms were small but they worked and that’s all that was important because I wasn’t planning on spending a lot of time in them.

The living room was an ideal size for a family as well with a couch, two love seats, a flat screen TV, and WIFI. If need be, someone else could have slept on the couch.

London Apartment Rentals Flip Key
It’s nice to cook some of your meals but Lord knows I could leave the dishes.

I’d say the best part of the apartment was the kitchen area. I was able to store food in the fridge, cook breakfast in the morning, microwave a snack, and make some tea. These amenities are key if you’re traveling with your family and trying to save a few dollars on food. But wait! The cherry on top was the washing machine. Most of the apartments I saw on the FlipKey London page had a washing machine, gold for a traveler not looking to pack up dirty clothes.

Tip: FlipKey is becoming increasingly popular (4 million monthly unique visitors) and London is one of its top markets. By de facto, if you see an apartment on the site that you like and fits within your budget, grab it fast! Chances are it will be gone the next day. There are no reservations and you usually have to pay for your apartment upfront.

My opinion: London apartment rentals are cost-effective for families. You get more for your money than a hotel room and it allows you to immerse yourself further in the culture of a city.

 

 

FlipKey provided me with a stipend to test out their service and rent an apartment during my stay. All opinions expressed within are my own.

Holiday survival tips

The holidays in our household can be a pretty stressful time. We celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s and three January birthdays right after one another (the 3rd, 6th, and 12th). Most of that stress seems to fall on my shoulders and I suspect that’s the same for many moms.

In addition, the holidays can be a battle determining where we are going to spend them. Will we spend them at home? Will we spend them with my family or will it be with his family? Will we alternate? Who will we travel to for Thanksgiving and who will we travel to for Christmas? Are we going to fly with the kids or are we going to drive?

You would think that after 7 years we would have figured it all out but I honestly can say that we haven’t quite gotten there yet. Each year, I decide around September that I am not going to get stressed out by the holidays and that I’m going to set some ground rules before the season is in full swing.

Here are 10 holiday survival tips that I live by to get me through the season:

  1. To keep the peace in the family, we try to alternate years where we spend our holiday. Thanksgiving is with my family one year and with my husband’s family the next. Same can be said about Christmas. New Year’s is a free-for-all…it’s wherever we have the best chance of securing a babysitter.
  2. I’m not a big fan of long lines and Black Friday although there is a sort of cult fever that the day creates for the frugal shopper in all of us. However, in general, I do as much of my holiday shopping on-line as I can. Many of the stores will honor their store prices on-line and even have exclusive on-line deals.
  3. The days of limitless gift-buying are few and far between in this economy, so I limit my gift buying to the children in our lives and opt for a grab-bag with family and friends.
  4. Since Black Friday does offer amazing shopping deals and we have three January birthdays in our house and several November and December birthday parties to attend, I take care of all the toy shopping on this day. In addition, I pay cash for everything!
  5. One of the most important things about the holidays is teaching my children the origin of these special days and what they mean. Before they receive anything, we read stories and I remind them what the holidays really stand for.
  6. Deciding whether we are going to fly or drive gets ironed out early as purchasing plane tickets for four is no cheap feat. I generally map out our family travel plans by late October and call it a day.
  7. One of the most important lists I create during this time is the gift list. I don’t do Christmas in July because our minds change at the drop of a hat, especially children. I determine a spending budget for gifts and stick to it.
  8. The holidays tend to be a time when people relax on their normal routines and pack on a few extra pounds. To alleviate any post-holiday regrets, I continue eating right and staying on my fitness regimen. It keeps me healthy, fit, and sane.
  9. I love planning out our holiday activity calendar. The calendar is filled with outings for Christmas tree shopping, viewing a festival of lights, catching a holiday exhibit and watching a Christmas show.  I post it in my kitchen for my husband to see so that he can put it in his Blackberry and neatly plan around the family-designated dates.
  10. Last but not least, I create our Christmas card list in November and mail our cards within the first two weeks of the month. The best cards are picture cards of the family instead of the standard holiday card. With card creating services like Tiny Prints, I can easily add a bit of personalization that a store-bought card just can’t.

Tiny Prints helps with survival tip #10. Tiny Prints provides stylish, modern and unique stationery from photo cards to personalized greeting cards to thank you cards and business cards. Offering exclusive designs from the nation’s top designers, easy card personalization, a powerful preview engine and top-notch customer service and paper quality, their designs have been lauded by numerous television networks, publications and celebrities. With Tiny Prints by your side the Holidays will be a cinch! They offer adorable Thanksgiving Cards, Christmas Cards, Hanukkah Cards, and even New Years Cards. All fully customizable and personalizable.

I’ve learned that setting ground rules, creating lists, and communicating my feelings early on with my husband, tends to ease the stress. The main obstacle is making sure that we are on the same page. Sometimes we are, sometimes we aren’t. However, when we keep in mind that the season is really about enjoying family and celebrating God, and not about spending money but about spending time, we survive with our heads above water and create lasting memories that no amount of money can buy.

“I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and Tiny Prints blogging program, making me eligible to get a $75 Tiny Prints gift certificate! For more information on how you can participate, click here.”

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