Matt Tracy, 45, a shoe retailer based in Portland, Maine, likes to cook. On a recent multigenerational trip to Tuscany, he and other members of the family cooked in a rented villa seven out of 10 nights, preparing dishes like wild boar ragù for 10 people, including his children, ages 6 and 9.
“We save a tremendous amount of money on cooking,” he said. “We like to eat out, but with two children and other guests it’s expensive.”
Whether you are attempting to accommodate allergies or other dietary needs, maintain family harmony, or stay inside a budget, cooking while on vacation is becoming increasingly popular amongst travelers selecting short-term rentals.
According to a Travel trend report 2023 Demand for “foodie menus” is increasing from vacation rental platform Vrbo. 65 percent of users surveyed said appliances like a grill, air fryer and luxury coffee maker were more necessary than destination. Almost half cook to chop costs.
On Airbnb, “kitchen” is the third most looked for rental property after pools and WiFi. With the introduction of assorted accommodation categories in May 2022, the rental platform made it easier to search out accommodation with “chef kitchens”.
“The kitchen is typically the heart and soul of vacation homes,” wrote Josh Viner, a regional operations manager for the holiday rental platform Vacasa, in an email. He notes that “guests come together in the kitchen to not only enjoy a delicious, home-cooked meal, but also to socialize and relax.”
Comfort and exploration
Travelers who cook achieve this for a lot of reasons: to explore a spot while purchasing for local ingredients; Save money; a family amenity; and more.
“A lot of customers like to have the opportunity to cook,” said Rob Stern, a travel agent based in Raleigh, North Carolina, who runs the corporate RobPlansYourTrip.comwith “families on a budget or those with picky eating habits” being particularly highlighted.
For others, preparing food brings them closer to their goal.
“When I’m trying to experience a place, one of my favorite things to do is visit a grocery store,” said Tanya Churchmuch, 53, who runs a public relations firm in New York City.
Preparing her own food also allows her to eat healthily. Even on trips as short as three days, she takes a mini espresso machine, oatmeal, and buys fruit locally to offer no less than one meal. She estimates she saves between $15 and $30 per couple in comparison with going out.
For Ashleigh Butler, creator of the cookbook “The little kitchen chef“, who spent years living in an RV in her native Australia and North America, allows one to visit local markets, “explore the culinary culture while supporting local farmers and producers.”
For frequent travelers, staying somewhere with a kitchen feels less lonely.
“There’s nothing harder than being in a regular hotel room, especially if you’re staying forever,” said Gary Durant, 49, a Toronto sports agent who travels 300 days a year, in an interview with a Level hotels & furnished suites Los Angeles location.
In the kitchen, he prepares simple dishes like eggs and pasta and treats customers to delivery meals that he can properly heat and serve. “A kitchen with amenities feels like a home away from home,” he said.
Renting an apartment with a fancy kitchen doesn’t have to cost more. While there have been plenty of chic rentals for $1,200 and up in the chef’s kitchen category for Chicago Airbnbs recently, there has also been a good selection under $200.
Controlling food costs
For gastronauts, visiting places famous for their food not only makes cooking exciting but also cheaper and easier.
“In Italy, you already start with high-quality ingredients, which makes cooking Italian dishes so much easier since you do not have to fret as much concerning the ingredients,” said Jeff Michaud, 46, a Philadelphia-based chef Osteria Restaurant. He also runs the travel company together together with his wife Claudia Day Via Gaiawhich brings small groups to Italy for cooking classes and visits with cheesemakers, truffle hunters and pasta masters.
He estimates that on average he spends about half to a third of what he would on equivalent ingredients at home, with a loaf of bread often costing less than a dollar. “In Italy, food prices are still affordable,” he said.
When she travels through Europe, Diane Morgan, 68, a food writer and cooking instructor from Portland, Oregon, scours rental listings for equipment like a grill to keep cleaning to a minimum.
Three stays in the southern French town of Sablet gave her the opportunity to visit local markets and bakeries. “It was really easy food,” she said, describing fresh salads for her lunch. “For me it wasn’t about baking cakes, but simply using local products and especially the cheese.”
Cooking skills are not always necessary to try local dishes in your rental kitchen.
“My hot French tip for travelers with cuisine: frozen food,” Gayle Keck, 62, a writer from California who recently moved to France, wrote in an email. She recommended the frozen food chain Picard as a time and money saver (four portions of salmon tartare cost 11.70 euros or about $12.85 US). It’s also a taste of how locals cheat with classics like duck confit and quiche Lorraine. “Picard is everyone’s little guilty secret.”
Packing salt, corkscrew and toothpicks
For chefs who travel a lot, sizing a rental apartment’s kitchen can be a hurdle, leading to unique packing lists.
Mr. Tracy, the wild boar ragù chef, travels with the Better Than Bouillon fried chicken base, toothpicks for spearing finger foods, and a chef’s knife and a paring knife, both wrapped in a towel and stored in checked luggage.
During the summers of 2020 and 2021, Ms. Churchmuch and her wife moved to Iceland to work remotely. “That’s when we started taking things like knives and a microplane,” she said. “Nobody has a grater in their house.”
On a recent trip to Philadelphia, Tara Crowley, 37, a chef from South Lake Tahoe, California, chose the extended-stay hotel Also known as a university town because the open kitchen allowed her to connect with friends and family while cooking.
“I always travel with a wine key and bring flaky Irish salt,” Ms. Crowley wrote in an email. “The salt enhances every dish.”
Eva Sobesky, a Los Angeles-based architect, tried to make it easier for tenants to navigate the kitchen of her four-bedroom home Holiday home on the coast of Manzanita, Oregon, which she rents from Vrbo. Open shelves allow guests to see where the dishes and glasses are. A large central work island allows others to gather around the chef. An induction hob is efficient and easy to clean.
“For me, the kitchen is the heart of the house,” Ms. Sobesky said.
RVs and rental vans challenge chefs with limited work and storage space. Vanlife Cookbook’s Ms Butler welcomed the size restrictions, which she said encouraged her to be “more creative and thoughtful” with her recipes, which include fried pizza and steamed cake.
Reducing food waste
When coronavirus restrictions limited her travel, Ms. Morgan organized a van trip to remote southeastern Oregon, planning meals like lamb curry in advance and washing vegetables in advance.
“ There was no food waste on this trip,” she said.
Whether at home or away, food waste is a danger when cooking. The United States Department of Agriculture estimates that 31 percent of the food produced nationwide each year comes from agriculture wasted at retail and consumer levels.
This number is likely to be higher for travelers. In preliminary results, the first phase of an Environmental Protection Agency study in Telluride, Colorado, over peak summer and winter periods found that 70 percent of the trash was recoverable, meaning it could be recycled or composted.
“Sometimes I go into an apartment and the amount of food people have left is unbelievable,” said Bob Garner, who rents short-term Holiday homes in Italy and started last year EnviroRental, a website for real estate landlords to learn how to operate more sustainably. “I could live on this for a week.”
Mr. Garner recommends guests spend half their stay shopping. “Buy less, don’t buy too much on the first day, then you’ll save money and not have to worry about food waste,” he said.
While reducing waste is the responsibility of the individual, the new organization Sustonica certifies short-term rentals based on sustainable practices, whose criteria include waste reduction. The requirements call for at least four recycling containers – glass, paper, plastic and organic – as well as the provision of reusable shopping bags. Sustonica wants to have 70,000 properties inspected by the end of the year.
Earlier this year, Diane Daniel, a short-term renter in Indian Rocks Beach, Florida, founded the nonprofit Holiday donations to help visitors and other property managers find ways to donate food and items such as books and beach toys.
In addition to shopping less, Ms. Daniel recommends travelers ask short-term renters if they have a system for donating food and other items.
“In my wildest dream, it will be part of what you expect from your rental properties and require you to keep things out of the bin,” she said.
