Self-catering describes a holiday, or a place you stay on holiday, where there is a kitchen and you cook for yourself instead of being given meals. A self-catering apartment has a stove, a fridge and pans; a hotel room usually does not. You see it most as an adjective before a noun — self-catering accommodation, a self-catering cottage, a self-catering holiday — and also on its own after a verb: 'We're self-catering this year.' It can be a noun too, on booking websites: 'Self-catering from £60 a night.' This is very much British and Irish English, and it is the normal word in travel adverts, on booking sites, and in student housing there. Americans do not usually say it; they would say 'a place with a kitchen', 'a condo', or use the brand-shaped word 'an Airbnb'. The word carries a quiet extra meaning of cheaper and more independent — families with small children and people staying two weeks often choose self-catering for exactly that reason.