Better Than Hotels

[mountaintosea]

Hi all,

Just found this site. What a great alternative to the usual hotels etc. Found it on NY Times Twitter feed. I've been browsing through it for the last hour, really interesting.

Vacation rentals, private rooms, sublets by the night - Accommodations on Airbnb

 

[bbbamI]

Thanks........maybe I can find a place away from this heat.

 

[mountaintosea]

Interesting mix, I've found places as cheap as $20 to well over a $1000.

 

[SecondCor521]

mts, perfect timing, thank you!!!

I am taking a trip to San Diego with my kids soon, and was dismayed at the choices available via HotWire, Travelocity, etc.

I punched in my travel dates, my location, and up pops a place that will save me a total of $125 over the cheapest hotel I could find. Sweet!!!

2Cor521

 

[mountaintosea]

You are welcome. I think it is a brilliant site. I like the reviews. And the street view and the calendar. I'm not traveling soon but in the future will definitely go to this site.

 

[donheff]

Interesting alternative to VRBO. I like meeting new people and could enjoy something like this.

 

[audreyh1]

Oh! I thought you were talking about RVs!

Audrey

 

[walkinwood]

Another option for a couch to crash on .. check out couchsurfing.org
I haven't used it, but read about it on the Frugal Traveler at NYTimes.com

 

[TromboneAl]

Check this out:

CouchSurfing - Participate in Creating a Better World, One Couch At A Time

 

[Bestwifeever]

We were overseas last week and met a Marine stationed as a US Embassy guard in Vienna who was using the website Al mentions to crash on a young woman's couch for the weekend in Budapest. He said he travels all the time that way. Very cool idea--but I don't think I would ever have had the nerve to try it myself.

 

[walkinwood]

Very timely article in the NY Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/travel/18couch.html

 

[mountaintosea]

Couch surfing is interesting but don't know if I would use it.

 

[Gone4Good]

Airbnb isn't exactly couch surfing. It's more like going to an amateur Bed and Breakfast. Depending on the situation, you could find yourself completely alone in an apartment or house for the duration of your stay.

I like the idea of these kinds of things (house swaps and apartment rentals, included). Hotels cost way too much. For the perpetual traveler, I calculated that a $100 per night room costs as much as the mortgage (including property taxes) on a $600,000 home. I didn't own a $600,000 home when I was working. Why the hell would I want to pay the equivalent now, but only for a small room with no kitchen?

I'll be looking into doing this whenever we want to stay in a city (as opposed to a neighboring campground) and report back on my experience.

 

[walkinwood]

We have used vrbo.com to rent apartments before, and are doing it again late this summer. Our experiences have all been positive.

DW isn't ready for house-swapping yet, but when we downsize to a condo, she may be more willing.

 

[Gone4Good]

DW isn't ready for house-swapping yet, but when we downsize to a condo, she may be more willing.

Our apartment is right across the river from NYC so we always assumed we'd be able to find swaps outside other great cities. House swapping also opened the possibility that we could find another cat owner to swap houses with. So they'd look after ours while we looked after theirs. That way we could spend a month or so in Paris, or wherever, for zero incremental housing costs and get a free live in "baby" sitter. We never did it, but it always sounded like a really good option.

That was before we bought an RV and sold all of our furniture.

 

[FUEGO]

Just for kicks I checked out accomodations for Paris. $260 for a 2 BR 2 BA apartment in central paris for 1 person, or $390 for 4 people. For a week. Niiice...

I'm curious about how reliable landlords are though. What is to keep the nice young lady renting out her flat from reneging on the deal once me and my family show up on the doorstep? Or, say, she just took some photos of a random dwelling and doesn't really own it. Prices this cheap have me wondering if there is a scam involved somehow. But looks promising if it is legit. This could definitely take some pain out of travel budgets. Especially in places where $100 a night may not get you much of a hotel in a decent place.

 

[Keim]

We've rented our guestroom out for weekends through a local service that is like this-moscowpullmanbedfinders.com. Easy money and it can be fun.

 

[Gone4Good]

I'm curious about how reliable landlords are though. What is to keep the nice young lady renting out her flat from reneging on the deal once me and my family show up on the doorstep?

All of these places work differently and so I assume some handle this better than others. I know one provides the tenant a code and money isn't released to the landlord until they have the code. That way if you show up and are unhappy, the landlord is the one who gets jacked.

Also, these things tend to work on word of mouth which is pretty powerful on the internet. Ebay seems to work pretty well that way.

 

[FUEGO]

All of these places work differently and so I assume some handle this better than others. I know one provides the tenant a code and money isn't released to the landlord until they have the code. That way if you show up and are unhappy, the landlord is the one who gets jacked.

Also, these things tend to work on word of mouth which is pretty powerful on the internet. Ebay seems to work pretty well that way.

I saw the airbnb had a number of reviews for some houses/apartments. Others didn't have any. I guess it could be a case of going with a known factor with solid reviews (and paying a little more) versus risking getting scammed (just like Ebay).

I skimmed airbnb's terms of service, and they basically say "we don't touch the money - that is a contract between you and the landlord - we just extract a small fee from them any time someone rents". In other words, it is similar to ebay (without the Buyer Protection and/or Paypal Dispute Resolution or whatever). Ultimately you will face varying degrees of counterparty risk.

Neat concept though, and it could make for some interesting travels and unique places to stay, plus possibly a local point of contact if you haven't any otherwise.

 

[Gone4Good]

I skimmed airbnb's terms of service, and they basically say "we don't touch the money - that is a contract between you and the landlord - we just extract a small fee from them any time someone rents".

It was istopover that uses the code system.

 

[walkinwood]

I'm curious about how reliable landlords are though.

You do need to do some checking, but obviously, there is always a risk.

I usually try to speak to the owner and use my intuition. Online searches can reveal the name of the home owner or use a reverse address/phone search. User comments help, but not all properties have them. Google street view can verify that there is a matching property at that address as well as give you a feel for the neighborhood. The cheap Paris apartment may be in a rough neighborhood - look for garbage, boarded up windows, graffiti etc. vrbo.com urges you to use paypal.com or a credit card so you have some recourse in case things don't work out. They also suggest you use a written contract.

 

[FUEGO]

You do need to do some checking, but obviously, there is always a risk.

I usually try to speak to the owner and use my intuition. Online searches can reveal the name of the home owner or use a reverse address/phone search. User comments help, but not all properties have them. Google street view can verify that there is a matching property at that address as well as give you a feel for the neighborhood. The cheap Paris apartment may be in a rough neighborhood - look for garbage, boarded up windows, graffiti etc. vrbo.com urges you to use paypal.com or a credit card so you have some recourse in case things don't work out. They also suggest you use a written contract.

I don't know enough about Paris to know if it is rough. It looked ok to me. It was in Chinatown near the Choisy subway stop IIRC. Didn't see any trash or boarded up windows. Lots of Chinese writing and Asian people.

I guess I could call up the owner, but language barriers may prevent my intuition from picking up on scams.

Anyway it looks like a neat way to get a taste of local living at a very cheap price with a little risk.