Reno Hotel or Vacation Rental? How to Choose

Search for a stay in Reno and the first answers are casino hotels. That is a fair place to start, and for some trips it is the right place to finish. For others a whole house is the better booking. Here is how to tell which trip you are on.

The short answer

Book a hotel if you are one or two people for a night, if the casinos and nightlife are the point of the trip, or if you want a front desk and daily housekeeping. Book a whole home if you are a group or a family, if you are bringing a dog, if you are staying several nights, or if you want a kitchen, a washer, a garage and a quiet street. The rest of this page is the reasoning, so you can check it against your own dates.

When a whole house is the better booking

• A group or a family. A house is priced for the whole home, and everyone shares the living room instead of meeting in a hallway. 7 of our 20 Reno and Sparks homes sleep 8 or more, and the largest sleeps 11. See large-group stays in Reno.
• A dog. 16 of our 20 Reno and Sparks homes allow pets, and many have a yard. Each home page states its own pet rules. See pet-friendly stays in Reno.
• Several nights. After a few nights a kitchen and a washer stop being extras. You cook breakfast, wash the ski clothes or the sports kit, and unpack once.
• Parking and space. Most of our Reno homes are houses in ordinary neighborhoods, many with a garage. You are not circling a parking structure for a space or waiting on an elevator with the luggage.
• Quiet. A residential street at ten at night is a different sound from a casino resort. If someone in your party sleeps early or has small children, that matters more than the view.
• A hot tub. Some of our homes have one. See Reno stays with a hot tub.

When a hotel is the better booking

• One night. A house makes sense when you use it. For a single night you mostly pay for a cleaning and a key.
• The casinos are the trip. If you want to walk from the room to the tables or a show and back at any hour, stay where that is true. Our homes are in neighborhoods, so you would drive or take a ride.
• A late or odd arrival. Many hotels have a front desk staffed all night. A home has check-in and check-out times, which each home page lists, and arriving well outside them takes a plan.
• Daily housekeeping. In a home you keep house for yourself, apart from the clean between guests.
• No minimum stay, no cleaning fee. Homes can carry minimum stays on some dates, and they charge a cleaning fee. A hotel generally does not charge one in the same way, though it may have its own fees, so look at its total.

How to compare the real cost

Do not compare a headline nightly rate with a headline nightly rate. A hotel and a home both add charges after the first number you see: cleaning, fees and tax. Many hotels also add fees of their own, so ask each side for the total for your exact dates and the number of people in your party.

Then divide sensibly. A house shared by six is a different price per person from a room for two, and a room for two is often the better value for a couple. On duvoire.com each home page shows its open dates for the next 60 days and real prices for stays of a few nights and a week at its next open dates, with cleaning, fees and tax included. Booking direct shows the whole cost before a card is entered. For the details on deposits and cancellation, read our guide to booking costs, and if you are weighing us against a booking site, read what changes when you book direct.

Where the homes are

We manage 20 homes in Reno and Sparks and 6 around Lake Tahoe and Truckee. If your trip is the city, start with our Reno and Sparks homes. If you are heading for the lake, see Lake Tahoe and Truckee or Incline Village. For a wider look at how the two areas differ, read where to stay in Reno, Lake Tahoe and Truckee.

Frequently Asked Questions