Need web sites to search for apartment and holiday cottage rentals
 

I have been searching for apartment and holiday cottage rentals in Australia. I am using two search Web sites, but I could use a few more:

www.stayz.com.au
www.mynra.com.au

Are there other good search web sites to use (excluding last minute sites since I do not plan to book last minute). Any suggested Web sites in addition to above will be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,

Z

Hi Z,

There are generic sites like www.wotif.com.au and www.lastminute.com.au but there are also a lot of local sites related to individual areas. Are there specific areas you're targetting?

www.greatplacestostay.com.au

www.totaltravel.com.au

www.travelmate.com.au

www.cottages.com.au

www.uniqueplacestostay.com.au

www.takeabreak.com.au/

I also have a list of area specific links for lodging within Western Australia and Tasmania. If you need them, just post again.

Here's a few more:

www.holidayrentals.com.au/

www.rent-a-home.com.au/

http://www.villarenters.com/villas-t...ia/default.htm

http://www.homelidays.com/EN-Holiday...l/au/australia

Thanks for the list, this is great. I will be looking for places in Victoria, NSW and QLD.

Z

What I have always found to be the best way to get far more informative info Z [ away from the cities and wotif style sites] is to just put the location followed by accommodation into google and you'll more often than not have a host of commercial/accommodation sites covering the full range.
eg. for South Coast, you may want use Batemans Bay as a base for a few days and so, and amongst many links you'll get stuff like: http://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en...e-results&cd=1 or http://www.bayinfo.com.au/localdirec...mmodation.html
and many more singular sites.
Just stick a place name in and you'll get more general information.

Various accommodation options you may want to consider will not appear on a search, for instance our holiday caravan parks here [as against permanent accommodation trailer parks] often have on site vans and cabins for about $50 -$100 and usually in nice garden settings, and then there are many rural location older style hotels with double rooms about $50/n.

It comes down to what your budget is of course and another cheaper option is often a hostel, many having twin/double rooms and some lovely ones about the country, www.yha.com.au and www.bugaustralia.com having guides for those.

As I indicated in your touring thread, other than if you intend to be here at Easter, you do not really need to fuss yourself with a lot of pre-booking as you'll find ample accommodation and even be able to negotiate special door prices at some places or on a ring the same day.

Hi Z - here are a few more suggestions:

www.portstephens.org.au for Port Stephens on mid North Coast

www.visitnsw.com for general NSW

www.nationalparksaccom.com.au for accom. near National Parks

www.winecountry.com.au for Hunter Valley

Happy travels, Di

Bushranger,

I can't believe I'm reading this; so exciting!

"and then there are many rural location older style hotels with double rooms about $50/n."

Where, oh where? I must have posted half a dozen questions about such accommo over the years and also hunted the web with little success.

So if you know of some (NSW, QLD, VIC) please drip feed me a few, or as many as you care to share. I would be particularly interested in anything Bathhurst/Rylstone/Mudgee way for starters. Or Dungog/Stroud/Gloucester/Barrington Tops.

Z - sorry to tag on to your post but it seemed the most appropriate place!

Cheers.

I'm leaving for Australia in about a week. In our planning we were very successful in finding apartment/condo type lodging using www.takeabreak.com.au

Plus don't forget that most of the RV(caravan) parks have great cabins (we are staying for a number of nights at one in the Melbourne area).
www.big4.com.au and www.familyparks.com.au

Last time we were in Australia we tried self contained apartments, and holiday properties and we liked them much better than Hotel, Motel, and B&B. So this is the preferred option we will be using. In general we plan to pay in the $120 to $160 per night but if a great property at a great location etc. offers good value we don't mind paying up to $250 per night. It all boils down to the value offered for the comfort and experience. I went through most of the web sites above and some are very good for types of properties we are looking some have a very limited selection and information, but it will do the job. I found doing a Google search for accommodations by location is a mixed bag. It is a protracted and a painful process will limited success. I found at times it is more useful to get a list from one site and then do a Google search by property name and quite often you find good information.

I also found useful in the past to locate in towns with a supermarket (Woolworth or Coles)locations. I know this is not the primary criteria but a useful secondary factor for self contained properties. Also, the town with a supermarket tends to have more life and with a car one can drive on day trips to the rest of the locations.

Thanks for your suggestions,
Z

Google maps search for accommodations is interesting.

Afterall,

Re the country hotels, I've not travelled the Bathurst- Mudgee route or that area for quite a while and Gloncester up to Armidale last year but driving through with a campervan, so no advice on those areas particularly.

What I've done in past when wanting to book ahead is do my googling by towns [ that suits me to a tee in not looking for upmarket stuff and not being too fussy - you can be when travelling solo] and more often than not I've found a reference to hotels, quite often on one of the newspaper related sites "walkabout I think it may be, and I've done that for smaller towns on the Hume and Pacific Highways and places like Beechworth in northern Victoria and you do find some older ones with some historical value too, The Bushranger Hotel it may be at Collector between Goulburn and Canberra, and then there's The Surveyor General at Berrima.

When I've been travelling through down the Newell or around Northern Victoria or even closer to Melbourne, I've got hotels as low as $20 and usually a breakfast included too, rooms far from flash at that price but what I expect in a near 100 YO little frequented pub and if it's just a bed and a shower, a bar and counter tea you're after they're great, and at places like Yarrawonga, Shepparton, Yea, Healesville, Traralgon single rooms from $30 to $45 is about normal.

Often, you're likely to be the sole guest or I've rarely heard others and so you have the showering and all to yourself.

I've even been thinking there could be a niche market to do old country pubs tours as I'm sure I've just brushed the surface and you meet some interesting characters and can end up having some even more interesting conversations, aside from the fistory that oozes from some places.

If you ever get out Broken Hill way, head down to Menindee and the Maiden Hotel there had a room out back that one of Burke and Wills allefgedly stayed in, it being the kind of place where you have to stoop down to get in through the doorway.