Airbnb

Yes, but.....

Our first experience was in a cabin where there was no hot water (and it was not a rustic cabin). For three days, the host said she would get it fixed; but, still, no hot water. Fortunately, we had read the Airbnb guidelines for guests, and contacted Airbnb within the first 24 hours about the problem. Within the three days, they worked it out with host that we would get a full refund (minus the Airbnb fee). Without Airbnb, I wonder if she would have given us that refund....

Also, we had a host in NYC cancel our reservation a couple months before our trip; but, fortunately, Airbnb added to our acct. a $50 credit to use in case our replacement rental would cost more. But it didn't.

Stayed in LOVELY cottage in a major FL tourist area for the whole month of Jan. '14. Hosts were flexible, helpful, and our rent less than half the local market rate. We were so pleased that we have 3 more Airbnb reservations made for more upcoming travel. Am currently waiting to hear back from a host for a 4th booking we would like to make.
 
We used airbnb in New Orleans and Austin TX on our last road trip and were satisfied with the accommodations. A great site & service.
 
nycboy1950 said:
Great way to save money when traveling and to meet new people
Click to expand...


Have met wonderful singles and couples from all over the world never had a problem guests have been neat quiet and respectful of our home an interesting component is that once you become an older citizen in the US you do not make friends as easily as say when you are in your twenties or thirties but with some not all Airbnb guests I have formed friendships where we have stayed in touch and even had follow up visits and invites to their homes and countries for whatever reason since Airbnb is such a unique community of like minded fellow travelers it is easy to make fast friends and enrich your life by interacting with interesting cultured people from all over the world as opposed to sitting in front of the tube 24 7 griping about this or that Finally I can tell you all that we have made some very nice extra money and I am talking substantial dollars with very little effort other than being a friendly and gracious host here is the bottom financial line if you want to double your SS check or pension with no investment risk and without accepting some menial senior job then I would strongly recommend becoming an Airbnb host
 
We're spending 5 weeks in Canada this summer. We have booked a week or more in Montreal, Ottawa, and Quebec City using Airbnb. Each rental has been around $350-400 per week for a decent 1 or 2 bedroom apartment with a full kitchen and near the central part of town.

We're traveling with our 3 young kids, so an apartment will be way better than sharing a hotel room. More room to spread out and relax.

We're hoping it all works out since we have never actually stayed in a place rented through airbnb. One friend gave me pretty negative reviews of her experiences and her friends' experiences, but I think they were expecting 5 star luxury for bargain basement prices (that's how she rolls... :rolleyes: ).

We're expecting a reasonably clean place to sleep at nice and unwind and relax, and understand this is someone's home they rent out occasionally so it isn't going to be 5 star luxury (not at $400/wk anyway).

I google street-viewed the place we're staying in Ottawa and it honestly looks scary from the outside, but they did mention it was "recently remodeled" and we'll be staying on the inside of the place anyway. Perhaps the outside was redone since google's streetview car drove through the 'hood. Reviews indicate it's "clean and nice" inside. It might be a little rough in spots, but we'll just call it "rustic" and get over ourselves! After renting $5/nt hoteles de paso in Mexico, I think we can manage living in this rental and enjoy our time in Ottawa.

FYI, if you're booking on airbnb for the first time, there's a $25 off coupon code out there on the internets. I can give you mine if you can't find one. And a few times per year they offer $50-100 off a booking or rent 2 nights, get 1 free type deals. Haven't seen one like that since January though.

Other sites to check out (which we didn't use): flipkey, roomorama, 9flats, and vrbo. Outpost.travel was also neat - it's like a consolidator of the other "rent from owner" sites.

I liked Airbnb's site because we can filter for things like "2 Bedroom, whole house rental, price below $70/nt, for the dates 7/21/2014 to 7/28/2014, with air conditioning and parking". Instead of hundreds of rentals, we might see 10-20 in a given city and we can whittle them down geographically based on where they are and how nice they look or how many reviews the places have.
 
nycboy1950 said:
Have met wonderful singles and couples from all over the world never had a problem guests have been neat quiet and respectful of our home an interesting component is that once you become an older citizen in the US you do not make friends as easily as say when you are in your twenties or thirties but with some not all Airbnb guests I have formed friendships where we have stayed in touch and even had follow up visits and invites to their homes and countries...
Click to expand...

That's a neat part of Airbnb too. The owners I'm renting from seem to be open to chatting about their home city, pointing us in the right direction, and seem to be nice people. One family appears to have kids about the same age as my kids, so they may play together (they live next door to their airbnb rental - the one with the sketchy looking exterior I mentioned in my last post).
 
Interesting. I looked at some in areas that I'm familiar with having lived there for years and the prices are generally half or more what a hotel room would cost.

We don't travel much but I bookmarked the site.
 
We stayed at 3 different places last year on our FL trip and were very satisfied. Loved 1 of them where a deceased artist had lived. Beautiful paintings and artwork and they had kayaks we could use.
 
I noticed a few things that concerned me while looking at some properties on the Airbnb site:

1. One family had their house listed as wide open on the calendar for the dates I was looking at, but in the write up they mentioned that they were renting out their house and going on a vacation over dates that had already passed. In other words, it didn't look like the calendar feature screened dates, just showed all the properties in the area. Is this how Airbnb works?

2. Another property had a review in which the reviewer claimed their reservation had been cancelled three days before they were due to arrive. Assuming you paid for plane tickets and then the property owner pulled the rug out from under your feet, is there any recourse for the renter, or do you have to scramble and hope that you can find another place in the area as a substitute?
 
I have stayed at the same airbnb place twice. The rate was good and the hostess was wonderful !
 
Trying AirBnb for the first time in a couple of weeks for our CA vacation. Booked three different places over the two weeks.

I also see where some hosts have canceled the reservation a few days before arrival. I think you then have to find other accommodation. Reading the Airbnb faq, it appears they will assist in finding you another host if there is a short notice. I've keep a couple of other places favorited in case this happens.

I'll update on our experience when we return.
 
Haven't used AirBnb, but have been happy with House Trip and Wimdu.
 
We just used airbnb for one of the kids needing some temporary lodging before school starts, after reading about it here. I was looking for a cheaper alternative to a $100 a night hotel. It worked out well. I would book with them again.
 
Nemo2 said:
Haven't used AirBnb, but have been happy with House Trip and Wimdu.
Click to expand...

Just made an AirBnb booking in Portugal for next Spring.......so far, so good....
 
We've had very good luck with VRBO, all places in California. My sister and niece love AirBnb. Sometimes cleaning fees can be a bit steep, but you just have to keep looking. My favorite place was a cabin in the Sierras that had a fully refundable cleaning fee if you vaccumed, cleaned up the kitchen and bathrooms. And, bonus! The place had a hot tub-great for soaking after a long hike. I will never stay in a motel again!
 
Tried to use airbnb for an upcoming trip. Had some issues that the rate listed online was significantly less than the rate quoted when we contacted the host. Also found some weird behavior like pictures from the same apt were used in two different listings. Another potential host was just "busy" even though the calendar was marked as open.

Ultimately we ended up using priceline express deals. It was also less costly than the airbnb options we were considering.




Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum
 
We have used VRBO several times, in California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado. Some units are better than others, but all were at least Very Good and most were Excellent in our opinion. We have never had any problems. We are getting to the point where we really don't care to stay in hotels. VRBO units are almost always cheaper than hotels, and when you factor in not having to eat out all the time, it is MUCH cheaper. Never tried Airbnb.
 
We have used HomeAway and VRBO - happy with both services. No surprises on the rentals at all.

Also TripAdvisor now lists home rentals.
 
BellBarbara said:
Also TripAdvisor now lists home rentals.
Click to expand...

So they do. And it appears that although there are less properties than Airbnb, many of the prices appear competitive with Airbnb.

I wonder if people experience the problem with reservations being mysteriously cancelled before the trip like appears to happen quite a bit with Airbnb?

Thanks for the tip.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
Traveling with eBikes?
2
Replies
32
Views
2K
MichaelL
MichaelL
M
Snowbird destinations
Replies
11
Views
767
MarcJoli
M
S
Chelsea Flower Show?
Replies
2
Views
279
tmitchell
T
C
Great River Road Trip
Replies
17
Views
585
cathy63
C
T
NY & SF commutable areas?
Replies
17
Views
581
mystang52
M

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom