Our Favorite Hotel & Airbnb Gear

Rental cars and vacation houses have a way of exposing the one thing you forgot. We learned this the hard way at an airport counter, realizing the rental had no proper seat for our 8-year-old and the clock was ticking. Traveling with a big crew means the away-from-home gear matters just as much as what is in your living room.

The Chicco GoFit Plus backless booster became our go-to travel seat for exactly this reason. It is light, it packs down easily into the luggage pile, and the latch connectors clip it securely into a rental car in about a minute. The cup holders alone buy us some peace on a long drive to the vacation house, and it gives the middle kids the boost they need without hauling a bulky full seat across the country.

Next to the other travel boosters we weighed, the Chicco GoFit Plus won on being genuinely packable without feeling cheap. A couple of bulkier seats were safer feeling but a nightmare to fit around everything else, and a barebones backless option skipped the latch that makes us trust it in an unfamiliar car. This one travels light, installs fast in whatever rental we end up with, and holds up to being tossed in and out of trunks all week. For hotel and Airbnb trips, it is the gear that lets us actually relax once we arrive.