Hi
Since my last post have decided self-contained flats a lot easier for family with 3 kids than hostels (many won't accept, cheaper and more convenient with all of us). Have found plenty of options/websites for Paris but having difficulty finding reasonably priced places in Amsterdam so thought would try Haarlem but to little success. Any suggestions for websites?
Cheers
Here's a link to homeaway (fantastic site that we used for all our vacation rentals during our year-long RTW) with the North Holland listings - there's 451 properties but you can narrow it down by exact location, price range, number of bedrooms, etc:
http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rentals/netherlands/north-holland/r1619
Here's another site to consider not just for your trip to the Netherlands but for anywhere in the world.
Good luck on your search. I'm in the same boat as you looking for a place (house or apartment) for our trip in the summer to Scandinavia. It is so much easier and spacious to rent a place instead of taking the hostel/hotel route.
http://www.vrbo.com/vacation-rentals/europe/netherlands
I've had best luck with Homeaway for my searches so far...but I agree France is the easiest, endless selections.
Good luck on your search!
VRBO and Homeaway are owned by the same company and they're both great sites. Another sister site is http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/ - all have rentals by owner with no fees and lots of reviews. Very trustworthy and with wonderful properties.
There are different sites you can visit to find holiday apartments. Note that legislation in Amsterdam has changed and short stay apartments should require a minimum stay of seven nights. Only if owners have a hotel permit, are B&B's, or are temporarily out of the country, they are allowed to rent out their apartments for less than seven nights, although many of them still do.
Amsterdam apartment prices might be a bit more expensive than in other European cities, but compared with hotel prices they will be relatively cheap. Be carefull though, there are more and more scams on the internet, Craigslist offers apartments for allmost unbelievable prices as do a lot of scam websites, so if an apartment almost costs less than nothing, it cannot be true!
You can find hotel as well as shortstay apartments at http://luxury-apartments-amsterdam.com , which is a site run by a Amsterdam company, owned by two Amsterdam apartment owners, including myself. If you have any questions, you can ask them through our site.
With regards,
Dries