Many readers here likely know of our love affair with renting apartments when we travel. Having a private room (or even one shared with a host) is a great way to get out of the hotel scene, have some extra space to yourself, and likely save some cash too!Over the years we've tried just about every service out there, and left most of them being rather disappointed. From having limited choices to only catering to high-end apartments, many of these booking services fell flat in the criteria we were looking for- leaving Airbnb to be the only suitable alternative.
After hearing about TripAdvisor's apartment rental service called FlipKey, we knew we had to give it a shot. Armed with a credit provided by their team, I was able to stay in two apartments during my brief stay in Paris to see what the service is all about.
So how does the booking site stack up to the rest?
First Glance: Numerous Options
After having used nearly every apartment booking website out there, the first thing I noticed about FlipKey was the abundance of options for any budget. While my search was limited to Paris, a huge city for apartments, I found myself with dozens of options in my price range (< $175/night) for a November stay just a few weeks away and quite a few under $100/night.
Not only did I find a lot of gorgeous looking apartments with great reviews, they were also in wonderful locations within walking distances to the sights I wanted to see.
I sent in a handful of inquiries, and waited for the response.
24 Hour Later A Few Slight Issues Emerge
On the surface, FlipKey's booking engine looks quite similar to other hotel and apartment sites you've likely used in the past. You can see the calendar, the price quote appears automatically, and you have to wait until the host replies back to confirm availability and book your stay.
Unfortunately for me, many of the apartments I had contacted came back with some negative information.
Several returned with price increases of anywhere from 25% to 100% of the listed price, and most cited the fact that they "can't continually update their calendar" to adjust for seasonal price differences (never-mind the fact I was traveling in low season and they increased the price from list value). A few others came back and told me I needed a 3-night minimum even though their profile page clearly states that it is not a requirement.
These two issues caused me to miss out on a few apartments that were my top choices, but since I contacted roughly a dozen I still had many others that came back and offered a booking.
Sources 3rd Party Sellers
When it comes time to book, you may be a bit surprised when your intended host sends you to a 3rd party booking page on their own website, asks you to book via PayPal, or does some other booking method outside of the FlipKey system- although many use that, too.
It takes some getting used to, but this odd booking setup allows FlipKey to list many apartment websites that may otherwise not highlight their services on a 3rd party site. Of course, this presents a few issues as company to company variations in how they operate can be present (as highlighted in the previous section).
In my particular booking, as I chose two different apartments, I had two different payment systems. The first apartment required 50% to be paid via PayPal and the remaining balance to be paid in cash upon arrival, and the second required payment in advance via the FlipKey payment system as well as a roughly 100% security deposit to be returned after the stay.
Although this is a bit chaotic knowing that every booking will be different, there is a secondary perk to it all. When I was directed to the local sites where the apartments were listed by the owners, I found even more beautiful apartments that were not listed in the FlipKey system that I could choose from (and to be honest I have no idea why they were not listed to begin with).
Even with the subtle issues, the variety of choices made me quite excited during the booking process.
Overall We'll Be Using The Site Again
Compared to other apartment booking engines, FlipKey takes some getting used to. Rather than being an inclusive apartment booking website like Airbnb, the service seems to be more of an aggregate like HotelsCombined is for hotels.
During your search you will find yourself being routed to many 3rd party apartment sites, which also toss around various unique rules as they all operate independently with no direct oversight.
My only true complaint is that not all apartment sites play by the rules and you'll likely face some that have incorrect prices and minimum stay limits that you just have to deal with in the quest to find an amazing accommodation.
But for a unique variety of apartments that you may not otherwise find, FlipKey is worth checking out and the service is one we'll definitely be sourcing in our future travels.
We'd like to thank our friends at FlipKey for providing us with a credit to try out their services during our stay in Paris. As always, all opinions are our own.
