What you get
A self-contained flat or cottage with its own kitchen, living space and usually a washing machine — booked for a minimum stay of a couple of nights in a city, often a full week in a popular countryside cottage during peak season.
Where the savings are real
The nightly rate looks higher than a hotel room on paper, but the per-person cost drops sharply once three or four people are sharing, and cooking even a couple of meals in offsets a meaningful chunk of the cost of eating out every night in an expensive city.
City flats vs countryside cottages
A city apartment booked through Airbnb or Vrbo works well for a group basing itself in one hub for several nights. A countryside cottage in the Cotswolds, the Lake District or the Scottish Highlands is a different proposition — most need a car or taxi to reach, so this only fits a train-only itinerary if the cottage is a genuine walk from a station.
What to check
Self-check-in via a keypad or lockbox is now standard, which is handy after a late train but means there's no staffed reception if something goes wrong overnight. Look closely at the total before booking — a separate cleaning fee is common and can add a noticeable amount to a short stay.
How to find one
Airbnb and Vrbo cover city apartments broadly and are the easiest starting point for a group basing itself in one hub. For rural cottages specifically, UK-focused agencies like Sykes Cottages and Cottages.com list a wider range of genuinely rural properties than general listing sites, usually with a more accurate sense of exactly how remote a place is — useful detail a generic city-apartment listing format often glosses over.