The Croatian vacation rental market is over-saturated with private accommodation offers ranging from studio apartments and robinsonic tree houses to entire family houses and villas with swimming pools. While you can find them all listed on popular vacation rental booking channels such as Airbnb and Booking.com it is more affordable to book directly.

As you already know, all the channels charge significant provision for booking sometimes up to a whooping 20%. Airbnb distributes the provision burden on both hosts and guests (cca 5% and 10% respectively) while Booking.com charges only hosts sometimes up to 20%. Although reservation made through all these channels provide a certain benefit of security for both sides because you enter into a sort of a contractual agreement, this benefit can also be achieve by booking directly because most hosts have developed their own contracts in the shape of terms and conditions.

Booking Hacks

Google the property name

  • If you found a property on a official booking channel use the listed name of the property and enter it into a Google search – many owners now have private websites of their properties so you can reach them directly

Take the advantage of bureaucracy – Local Tourist Office

  • Ask for host contact in the local tourist office – they usually have address books of all local properties some of which are not even listed on booking channels or anywhere online because they might have cute old computer-illiterate owners

The legendary Zimmer Frei

  • The same type of owners can be found outside on streets physically holding the famous old fashioned ” Zimmer Frei” sign (meaning empty rooms in German and not necessarily meaning they offer only rooms but also apartments and houses). This type of ‘booking’ can also be a part of your local adventure because it represents a relic ad practice from the pre-internet era

Facebook groups kick booking channel’s ass

  • Use some of the Facebook pages such as APARTMANI HRVATSKA which covers the entire and post your inquiry like “I am looking for a 1BDR apartment in Senj in the period from March 1 until March 31”. You can also indicate desired price range per night or for a whole period or display your budget and you will be flooded with different offers. There are also local variants of this page such as ZAGREB APARTMENTS but feel free to explore. There might be a special page up and running soon dedicated for apartments adjusted for digital nomads…

Advantages Vs. Disadvantages & More Tips

Advantages of booking directly

  • Generally lower price but it does not have to be like that – use the price on a Booking channel Listing as a bargain argument to get lower price for booking directly
  • Thankful host and more freedom for negotiating – as mentioned hosts don’t pay percentage (but neither do you so don’t be too greedy)
  • Generally more safe from a bureaucratic standpoint – read the tip at the end

Downsides of booking directly

  • Inability to punish hosts with a public negative review if you are dissatisfied – unless they are listed on Google so you can threaten with Google review or report hosts to tourist office
  • Inability to reward hosts with a public review if you are pleased – again unless they are listed on Google which you can use to reward your hosts
  • Hosts might cancel your booking because they received a better offer in the meantime – there is no really help for that and it can suck big time!
  • Generally less safe from a bureaucratic standpoint – read the tip at the end

Important part about the safety

What we meant by “safe/unsafe from bureaucratic standpoint” is related to legality of the property and guest registration. Every property offered for vacation rental has to be registered for business as required by the law. If you happened to be in one of the illegal properties and tourist inspector appears for check up it is not just the owner who will earn a financial penalty but you might blamed as well. Fortunately it is very easy to know if you are dealing with a legal property since hosts will register your stay by asking your ID/Passport. You can read more about this in the article devoted to this topic.

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