Holiday homes in Dubai: how renting one works

What a holiday home in Dubai is

A holiday home in Dubai is a furnished apartment or villa that is licensed for short stays. The licence comes from Dubai's Department of Economy and Tourism, the body that used to be called DTCM, and every licensed home has a permit number. The operator must register each guest with the department, in the same way a hotel does, and the home must meet the department's standards for furniture, safety and cleaning.

That licence is the difference between a holiday home and a flat someone has put on a listing site. Both may look the same in the photographs. Only one of them is allowed to host you, carries insurance for it, and answers to a regulator if something goes wrong. Ask for the permit number before you pay. A licensed operator will give it to you without a pause; by law it has to appear on every listing.

Holiday homes come in two grades, standard and deluxe, set by the department when the home is inspected. The grade changes the Tourism Dirham fee, which we explain below, and not much else that you would notice.

Holiday home or hotel

For two people staying three nights, a good hotel is often the simpler choice, and sometimes the cheaper one. The case for a holiday home gets stronger with every extra person and every extra night. A family of five needs two or three hotel rooms, or one four-bedroom home with a kitchen, a washing machine and a living room where the children can be children. A couple staying a month wants a table to work at and a fridge that is theirs.

• SpaceSeparate bedrooms, a living room, a balcony or garden. A hotel suite with the same space costs several times more
• A kitchenBreakfast at home, a late dinner in, and a saving that adds up over a week
• LaundryMost homes have a washing machine. On a long stay this matters more than any pool
• ServiceNo front desk, no daily housekeeping unless you ask for it. A number to call, and a person who answers
• LocationHomes are in residential towers and streets, among people who live there, rather than on a hotel strip

The honest trade is service. A hotel has a lobby, a concierge and someone at the door at three in the morning. A holiday home has a host. How good the host is decides how good the stay is, which is why we say so much about how we run ours.

What you pay, line by line

The nightly rate is the start of the price, not the end of it. A proper quote for a holiday home in Dubai has four or five lines, and a serious operator shows all of them before you commit.

• Nightly rateMoves with the season. Highest from December to March, lowest from June to August
• Tourism DirhamA city fee, charged per bedroom per night: AED 10 for a standard home, AED 15 for a deluxe one, for up to 30 nights
• VAT5% on the accommodation, as everywhere in the UAE
• CleaningOne fee for the stay, for the full clean and fresh linen when you leave
• DepositRefundable, agreed before you arrive, returned after the check-out inspection

Two things to watch. The Tourism Dirham is charged for each bedroom, so a four-bedroom home pays four times what a studio does, every night. And cleaning is a flat fee, so it weighs on a two-night stay and disappears into a two-week one. If an operator will not put the total in writing, with the dates, before you pay, choose another operator.

Which area, for which trip

Dubai is long and thin, and it runs along the coast. The areas most visitors stay in sit along one road, Sheikh Zayed Road, with about thirty minutes between the far ends. Choosing the area is the most important decision you make, and the one listing sites help with least.

• DowntownA first visit. The Burj Khalifa, the fountain and Dubai Mall on foot. Our home here is Burj Vista, four bedrooms facing the tower
• Dubai MarinaThe beach, a seven-kilometre promenade, restaurants at the door. Sulafa Tower is our two-bedroom home between the towers
• The Views and the GreensLow towers around lakes and a golf course, ten minutes from the Marina. Quiet, green, good for a working month. The Links East is our one-bedroom here
• The HillsAbove the Emirates Golf Club, with a pool deck over the fairways. Vida Residences, four bedrooms, is the family home
• Palm JumeirahVillas with the sea at the end of the garden. Further from everything, and quieter for it
• JumeirahThe low-rise beach road. Villas, gardens and free public beaches. The part of Dubai that feels most like a neighbourhood

We have written a guide to each of the areas we know well: Downtown and DIFC, Dubai Marina and Bluewaters, Palm Jumeirah and Jumeirah. Each one says where we would eat, how to get around, and what the area is like at different hours of the day.

When to come, and when to book

From November to March the weather is the reason people come: warm days, cool evenings, a sea you can swim in. Rates are at their highest from mid-December to early January and again in the European school holidays of February and Easter. October, November, April and early May are the quiet good months: the same homes, less competition for them, and lower rates.

Summer, from June to September, is hot in a way that changes how you spend the day. Many families still come, for the malls, the indoor attractions and prices that can be half of winter. If you want the big homes on the big dates, book two to four months ahead; they go first. For the quiet months, a few weeks is enough. Our month-by-month notes go through the year in detail, including Ramadan, when the city is calmer and some hours change.

Booking and arriving

With us it is a conversation, not a form. Send your dates, who is coming and the area you have in mind on WhatsApp. We reply the same day with two or three homes that fit, with the total for your dates written out, and we hold one for 24 hours while you decide. If none of them fits we say so.

Before you arrive we ask for a passport for every guest, or an Emirates ID for residents, because the department requires us to register you. We agree a check-in time, and someone meets you at the home with the keys, shows you the building and the parking, and makes sure the air conditioning is already on. From then on you have one number to call, from eight in the morning to eleven at night, and we answer it.

What is in the home when you open the door: linen and towels, a kitchen you can cook in, toiletries to start, the Wi-Fi password on the table, and a note on the building. We can arrange a driver from the airport, a cot, a high chair, a mid-stay clean or a stocked fridge if you ask when you book. The stay describes how we look after a home and the people in it.

Next in the journal

Dubai, month by month. When the weather is kind, when the city is busy and when prices drop, from the cool weeks of January to Ramadan and the summer.