First time booking an AirBNB. What do I need to know?

Romanian My Escutcheon

I'm gonna be in Tacoma for a few days later this year, thought I'd go for an AirBNB rather than a hotel because it looks like that'd be way cheaper.

I've never booked with them before, is there anything I should know before putting money down on the room?

Rayze

Make sure they have the amenities you need, read the reviews, and look at their cancellation policy (some have a big window to cancel a booking, others a shorter one).

In my experience, the hosts will generally ask why you booked and it's a good time to ask for clarification on any questions you may have. I had to walk away from a potential booking after I found out that two beds was actually a bed and a cot (the pictures provided didn't make that clear) so if you have specific requirements, do you due diligence and ask.

AkimboEG

I've had numerous successes and failures with AirBNB.

Read user reviews. Make sure they are plentiful and positive, and that at least some are recent. Look for good feedback on host availability (in case any issues come up during your stay).

Make sure there are plenty of photos and that they are up to date.

Ask for precise locations, as some list general neighborhoods, and can be much farther than you are lead to believe.

Carpy

Not sure how deep you've looked into the booking but you're also going to have another $50-75 tacked on as fee's that aren't readily apparent from the search screen.

SatanIsMyMotor

Also, hope for the best and prepare for the worst. I had an AirBnB cancel on me the day before my vacation because he was "unsatisfied by the customer service provided to him as a home-owner by AirBnB" thus causing him to unlist his property which in turn left us in a lurch.

Now, he did offer to still honor the reservation should we pay cash but we said 'fuck that'.

Moral of the story being, these people aren't big corporations like Marriot and can do shitty things (not to say that the big companies can't also).

VishNub

I've had only good experiences.

Make sure the listing has good reviews and photos, check that it has the amenities you want. You can usually figure out the floorplan by looking through the photos for a while, and count bedrooms and such to make sure it's correct.

Check the cleaning fee, some of them are huge, and the cancellation policies.

Ketar

SatanIsMyMotor wrote: »

Also, hope for the best and prepare for the worst. I had an AirBnB cancel on me the day before my vacation because he was "unsatisfied by the customer service provided to him as a home-owner by AirBnB" thus causing him to unlist his property which in turn left us in a lurch.

Now, he did offer to still honor the reservation should we pay cash but we said 'fuck that'.

Moral of the story being, these people aren't big corporations like Marriot and can do shitty things (not to say that the big companies can't also).

My wife and I had a stay at an AirBnB condo that was totally fine, everything as expected, until three days before we were supposed to leave the property manager that was our contact told us that the actual owners of the condo we were staying in were coming to stay at their condo so we needed to pack everything up and move to a different unit that he had available. In a different building. Not a lot of fun with two small kids. He had their housekeeping service give us a small box of chocolate-covered macadamia nuts "for our trouble." :?

Just make sure to keep in mind that you are not renting from a professional establishment, and there can definitely be some quirks and wrinkles that you would not likely experience at a hotel. My other stays through AirBnB were both fine, but my preference would generally be for a hotel unless savings were very significant after our last experience.

VishNub

Check VRBO as well. It's basically the same thing, but a different set of listings.

chromdom

VishNub wrote: »

Check VRBO as well. It's basically the same thing, but a different set of listings.

Quite a few places will list on both AirBnB and VRBO; if you see one you like, check the other site and see if it is available and if there are pricing differences. You may be able to save a couple of dollars that way.

Darkewolfe

I have had AirBnB cancellations a few times. Once where we basically had nowhere to go and had a scramble. Once when we'd booked a few months out, but were cancelled on a week before traveling. That one was at a ski resort and it'd become obvious there was going to be good snow, so the owner quite clearly was bumping us so they could rent the apartment out at a double rate. We had to pay triple our planned price since we were now last minute booking. AirBnB threw some credit at us, but we still ended up paying a good bit more out of pocket.

So just bear in mind that AirBnB is pretty unregulated with super limited redress options for a consumer who gets fucked over.

I've also heard a few times that the less white your name sounds, the more likely you also might get an unexpected cancellation from your hosts.

Kyougu

So is there no penalty from Aibnb to discourage rentals cancelling at the last minute? Apart from bad reviews?

SatanIsMyMotor

They can be delisted but that's it.

Darkewolfe

They take a $50 penalty every time they do it more than once in a certain span, but it's an extremely common practice. And a $50 penalty is nothing when you can rebook a week long rental for $1k more. Technically they can't relist in that time span on AirBnB, but they just do it through one of the other service sites instead.

Julius

Darkewolfe wrote: »

They take a $50 penalty every time they do it more than once in a certain span, but it's an extremely common practice. And a $50 penalty is nothing when you can rebook a week long rental for $1k more. Technically they can't relist in that time span on AirBnB, but they just do it through one of the other service sites instead.

yeah that's why it's important to check the reviews. when a host cancels an automatic review saying they cancelled gets posted to their profile, so you can check to see if they have a repeated pattern of doing that.

Mugsley

This seems like as good a place as any to ask. My wife and I are currently planning a trip to Nashville during a major music festival, in 2018. We have the tickets and we've reserved a place via AirBNB. My concerns:

a) Should we expect the rate to increase, or some other shenanigans (i.e. canceling our reservation and forcing us to reserve at a higher rate)? Right now, the nightly rate is roughly 1/3 of what hotels are charging for the same period of time.

2) The location/owners have high ratings, so we are comfortable with the property; but is it at all worthwhile to try to organize some kind of "preliminary trip" to get an idea of the area and possibly meet with the owners? Does that even accomplish anything?


I was debating emailing the owners and explicitly pointing out that we are reserving during a major music festival. My thought is that the sooner I'm aware that I will need to look for a different property, the better. Considering the hotels in the area are roughly triple the rate we booked for the apartment, I'm mildly concerned. Even if this means we somehow get charged a higher rate (but not as high as a hotel proper), at least we have accommodations taken care of.

Eat it You Nasty Pig.

there's nothing you can ultimately do that'll prevent them from cancelling for whatever reason; if it's a place that doesn't have good reviews or doesn't seem like it's frequently rented (few reviews, seemingly non-professional listing) that would be a red flag for me.

I don't think airbnb has a mechanism for raising the rate once the reservation is made, but there again they can just cancel and relist somewhere else.

Grobian

Fwiw I only had good experiences with AirBnB and noone ever canceled on me. Sometimes we would email the owners beforehand with some questions and they were always friendly and helpful. So, sure, if it eases your mind, just email them with your concerns.

Eat it You Nasty Pig.

one thing you could ask for I suppose is first refusal, in the event they want to re-list at a higher price

that might just clue them in that they could ask for more money ofc, but at least you'd be able to secure a space during your event