When you're planning a vacation with a big enough family or group that a single hotel room would be a tight fit, it's time to start thinking about whether or not you should book multiple hotel rooms or opt for a vacation rental. Hotels tend to provide a higher caliber of service: daily housekeeping, room service, a concierge, and front desk help only a phone call away. But compared with hotel rooms, vacation houses, cabin rentals, and weekly rentals provide three big advantages for larger groups like families:

• More space, more facilities, and more flexibility than a conventional hotel

• More privacy than a B&B or shared (room in a house) Airbnb

• Lower cost for comparable facilities than other options of equal grade or quality