I'm going to be travelling cross-country very soon with two toddlers for the first time. I haven't had much time to plan this trip. The gear I will need will be two convertible car seats and two pack and play type cribs. My friend suggested I rent these at the destination. Has anyone done this? Can you tell me pros and cons? Is it easy to do? How does it work and are the items clean? I'm a germ freak, but I also want the easiest route for all things possible, so I'm really going to consider this since lugging my two car seats and two pack and plays through airports seems like a lot of hassle.
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I haven't tried renting car seats after a few friends had a bad experience. i.e. difficult installs, not clean, etc. We have the Cosco Scenera Next and love it, weighs something like 5 pounds, easy to get a belt install, might be cheaper than renting. But if you have no one to help out at the airport on either end, I can see that just getting the car rental company to carry the seats out to the rental car for you would be more feasible...
I have used pack n plays or other mini cribs made available by hotels and never had an issue there, it's always been clean and DS has slept in it as well as he does in his usual crib. In retrospect I didn't need to buy a travel crib at all, because hotels have them and when we've visited family, they've had or borrowed a pack n play for us...
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For car seats I've often just gotten them through the car rental. It can be more expensive than just buying a new seat though depending on the company, so I would definitely check. Lately, whenever possible, we've booked rental cars through SilverCar because you get free car seats and there's often discounts that bring the rental down to the same as the traditional rental companies. The car seats we've gotten have always seemed clean and safe.
For pack n plays, they've typically been able to provide them at any hotel we've stayed at, and at airbnb's we either look for one that specifically mentions it, or ask. A lot of times they work with a rental company for you and can make sure it's all set up when you arrive. I will say some of the pack n plays we've gotten have seen better days. I wouldn't say dirty, but clearly used. But I don't feel bad once I put my own linens on it.
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Due to some travel going haywire just this weekend, I rented a car seat from hertz and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by how clean the seats were (or at least appeared). They had Scenera Nexts and then five-point boosters available, each was packaged in plastic that certainly gave me the impression they were cleaned between uses, and generally seemed in very good shape. So I felt good about what I got. On the other hand, it was $12/day, so you would quickly get to the cost of a brand new Scenera Next of your own at that rate; just depends how long you're renting for and whether it's worth it to you not to have to carry your own seats around the airport, etc. If you're going for long enough you might even save money over renting buying a brand new one and shipping to your location.
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Are you traveling to visit family or friends? What I do is ask if they can see if they know someone who has extras that you can borrow. My mom has spare seats and a pack and play that she regularly loans out to her friends. If they can put out a call on Nextdoor or Facebook you probably will have success
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Just a word of caution if you’re planning on using a hotel provided pack n play, they have a limited number and even if you asked for one ahead of time it might not be available when you check in since they are provided on a first come first served basis. This happened to us even though I called about it a couple days before check in. It was a fiasco and the front desk manager’s solution was to tell me to sleep with my baby in my bed because that’s what she did 🙄
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Thanks for all of these thoughts.
We are planning to stay with family.
So maybe I will just travel with my own car seats (which I love and are so expensive and easy to install); travel with my own pack and play and maybe buy a cheap used one or something to ship out to our destination. I will also ask the family there to see about borrowing any of this. Great ideas.
Thank you all so much!
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Had the same experience as @LadyDi: and had to buy a pack and play an hour before a wedding we were attending. Will never travel without my own stuff again!
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@agold: If you are traveling to visit family, will they be picking you up? If so I would purchase basic seats and basic pnps from amazon or Walmart and have them shipped to family. They can bring the seats to pick you up at the airport. Renting for more than a day or two usually will end up costing as much or more than just buying new.
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I looked into renting a pack and play and it was cheaper to buy a basic one on amazon and have it shipped - but this was the basic type, no bassinet or anything. If you are staying with friends you could definitely ship it there ahead of time. Afterwards the friends we were visiting saved it for future guests to use, but you could also donate it.
I have heard more good stories than bad about car rental car seats, but the bad ones do scare me (one friend arrived with a 2 year old and was offered either an infant bucket seat or a high back booster seat). I haven’t needed to rent one yet though so no experience personally.
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I would ask call a couple baby boutiques at your destination and see if they rent any equipment (or are aware of anyone that does). I have a friend that owns a boutique in WA and I know she rents everything from car seats to strollers to PNPs. I would think you’d have better luck with a company like that vs a car rental! I think there are some chains that do this but any names of them are escaping me 🤦♀️
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I would not lug all that through an airport. When we visited family overseas they were able to borrow a pack n play from a friend. And rented car seats for us from a company they knew and trusted. The seats were perfectly clean. I would start by seeing what your family can do to help in this situation to avoid having to travel with so much stuff.
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I wouldn’t lug all that through the airport. If you are staying with family see if they can borrow these items from someone or pick them up cheap second hand. Then they can keep them for future visits or resell.
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I would try to ship ahead or borrow too! That cost is for your peace of mind. The only reason renting might be great is some places will meet you at the airport with the items if that’s not something your friends can do.
I think a major factor in car seat rental is the size of your destination airport and how much kid traffic they might see. I had a bad experience trying to rent at a small airport and they just didn’t have options so we got stuck scrambling ... but I’ve heard many positive stories too.
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Looks like you've gotten a bunch of good advise already so i'll just chime in with a few things we've done in the past.
When dd was younger and required the bigger car seat we rented it along with the rental car. It was fine. The seat appeared clean and DH easily installed it. Now that DD is older and only requires a booster we ordered a $20 one from amazon and had it shipped to our destination and then we actually left it in the rental car (as a donation
). For pack n play we've used the ones provided by hotels multiple times I just pack our own sheets to put on over the base portion and our own blankets.. kind of makes me not soo squimish about the germs etc. One time we were traveling near friends and I asked if they had one and they did so we used theirs.... and a time or two when a pack n play or crib was not available we just co slept....
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