Corner Office Anywhere

I spend  most of my time in vacation rentals outside of the United States and now have a tried-and-true routine on arrival at a new temporary home. This ensures that I identify any major problems early on and get the ball rolling on a resolution. Short term apartment rentals competing for the best ratings on AirBnB, VRBO, and the like in the states tend to provide similar experiences. In the far-flung countries where I spend most of my time, differing cultural norms, building standards, and overall available quality may lead to vastly different on-the-ground experiences even for properties with high ratings. That is why in addition to the checks that I do prior to booking to make sure I will have what I need, I also run through the below checklist as soon as possible after arrival to make sure everything I need is present and working for my stay.

Confirm all external doors and windows lock

Safety first. Don’t forget to check balcony doors.

Log into the Wi-Fi

If you are getting a walk-through from a human, often this is one of the first things they will do with you, but otherwise do this as soon as possible on arrival. I also run a speed test both with and without my VPN on to make sure that the network will support my work and entertainment video streaming needs.

Run the hot water in the shower

There’s little that makes me crankier than a cold shower. Plus, unavailable hot water is one of the most inconvenient and hardest to solve problems on this list. Therefore, I will run the shower for a bit even if I am not using it right away. Luckily, most of the time I’ve run into this issue it has been a matter of getting looped in on the quirks of how to use the water boiler.

Turn on all lights and major appliances to make sure they work

This is one you may especially not consider, but will save you considerable headache. You don’t want to wait until its dark to find out your bedroom has no light or when you have prepped a whole meal to discover that none of the burners on the stove work. With things that take a while to run, like clothes or dishwashers, you can at least make sure that they turn on and are hooked up if they were promised in the listing.

Towels and pillows for every person staying

This is usually a miscommunication between the cleaning staff and the booking management, but you may need to coordinate with one or both to get your linens.

General cleanliness and broken items

You should document any broken items or significant problems with cleaning that you want resolved with photos and report them to the property rental management as soon as possible after arrival. If there are minor cleaning issues or normal wear and tear that need to be addressed but I don’t need someone to fix, then I usually just wait until my review at the end to send a private note to the rental manager. And don’t fear – despite the many horrible comments you may have seen in reviews, I have only once arrived at an apartment where the cleaning job was so poor that I asked for it to be redone immediately.

Kitchen and bathroom basics

One of my first stops in a new city is a grocery store, and I’ll do a quick sweep for consumable basics on arrival. It is unusual for a rental to be missing all of these but also for them to have all of them. I suggest you make a list that is adjusted to your own habits and needs.

• Dish soap
• Hand soap
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Coffee
• Water if tap water is not potable
• Kitchen towel or paper towels
• Trash bags
• Laundry detergent
• Bodywash or soap
• Shampoo and conditioner
• Toilet paper

I hope you enjoy your next vacation rental stay! If you would like more content like this, don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter below.