SUMMER ROADTRIP 2014: Our Experience with VRBO

So when trying to plan a trip for 6 to Yellowstone I quickly realized that lodging would cost an arm and a leg if we tried to stay in the park. (Not to mention the fact that most of the rooms were already booked at least a year out.)  So after doing some searching on the interwebs I decided we'd try VRBO.com, which is a website where you can rent other people's homes while on vacation.  We found a place in Cody, Wyoming that seemed perfect for our family - about an hour outside of the park, big enough to easily sleep all of us, included a washer and dryer, not scary looking, and - get this - only $95 a night.

I mean, seriously, $95 a night?  That's crazy good!  So we booked it.  I have to admit, even with all of my research online, I was still just slightly nervous about this whole thing.  Would the house be as advertised?  Would my kids behave in it or destroy everything?  What if the owner was a whacked out serial killer?

Turns out my fears were completely unfounded. (I know, crazy.) The house was great and just as advertised!

I never got a chance to take pictures of the house because we were always on the move or I was down at the local Wal-Mart picking up lunch for the next day.  I thought that I could just steal some images online, but it won't let me.  So here's the link to the house we stayed at, if you want to look at the pictures.  As you can see, very country-eclectic in decorating. (But who cares at $95 per night?!)

The only drawback to the whole experience was that the house didn't have AC, which I didn't realize until that night.  But that wasn't even that bad, since it cooled off a bit at night and there were lots of fans.  Spencer and Josh slept in a kind of added on living room which got really hot, but they didn't seem to really care.  Actually, Josh kinda slept everywhere in that house; I'm not sure why.  We were there three nights and each night he slept on a different lounger or couch.  Weirdo. Tess was very happy having her own room right next to ours, complete with daybed very similar to hers at home!

Cole, however, freaked out the first night. He could NOT figure out why were in this strange house and sleeping there!  He kept saying "No, NO!  We cannot stay here!  We don't belong here!"  We finally got him settled down and to sleep, and he eventually really liked the idea of having his own room.

So in the evenings I would go down to the local Wal-Mart and pick up stuff for lunch in the park for the next day.  In the mornings we would just eat breakfast at the house. (I served oatmeal one day, which was NOT well received.  We stuck to cold cereal after that.) And then for dinners we just went out to eat in Cody, since I was pooped from trekking around Yellowstone all day.

Apparently the owner just lives down in the basement and rents out the upstairs all year long.  Only while we were there he was at his other house "out on the lake", so we didn't see him at all.  On the last night we were there his dog was back home (not sure why), but this was sweetest, best behaved dog ever!  It was some sort of poodle mix, medium sized, and named Panda.  All she wanted was a little attention and a good belly rub.  I liked having the dog, but the kids freaked out over it a little bit.  It was kinda funny.

Would I stay in Cody again for a trip to Yellowstone?  Maaaybe.  It took us a good 2 hours to get to anywhere good in the park, and that's a lot of driving.  But Cody itself was fun and kind of charming in a touristy-Western way.  And I would totally recommend VRBO - it worked out great for us!