Airbnb: pros, cons, and naughty details. Airbnb Worldwide Rentals Worldwide Rentals

04.11.202127.05.2017

Today I will tell you about the service, which was created in 2008 and is gaining more and more popularity among travelers. Read also about ours in Bangkok.

You will learn how to register and book accommodation on Airbnb, how to get a coupon with a $ 25 discount, and also tell you why the service is interesting and profitable.

What is Airbnb and how does it work?

Many travelers are already accustomed to accommodation booking systems, such as Booking or where you can choose a hotel to your taste and wallet in almost any country in the world. But hotels are not always the best option for accommodation - sometimes it is more convenient to rent apartments and apartments. This is where Airbnb helps. We must admit that we have recently started booking accommodation through airbnb, and now we will help you figure it out too.

Airbnb is a worldwide rental business from apartment owners. Accommodation can be either separate rooms, houses, apartments, or interesting options, such as trailers, castles and islands. Now the system already has more than 34,000 cities in 190 countries of the world.

It turns out that Airbnb acts as an intermediary between those who want to rent out their apartment, house or room and those who want to rent this housing. Naturally, the service takes a commission for such a bridge. For this fee, Airbnb provides a financial guarantee against all sorts of troubles, when you can contact the 24/7 support center and get a refund or other issues if something goes wrong.

Why is Airbnb interesting and beneficial?

The service is especially relevant for expensive cities such as Singapore, Paris, other capitals and large cities, where hotel prices bite. But you can rent an apartment on Airbnb for $ 20-40, and a decent level. For that kind of money, in some cities only small rooms are offered in hotels.
The possibility of live communication over a cup of tea with the owner, a conversation with whom will help to get to know the country even deeper, to get interesting information.
It is especially beneficial to rent an apartment for a large company or a family with a child, when the presence of a kitchen and a separate space is very desirable. In terms of per person, it is often cheaper than a hotel, even very decent apartments, the analogues of which in hotels are very expensive.
Airbnb bookings are visa-friendly, meaning a printout of the booking can be submitted to the consulate
Interesting accommodation options, not the same type of chain hotels. For example, here.

How to sign up with Airbnb and get a $ 25 coupon

When you go you will receive from us $ 25 personal Airbnb coupon on your first booking (works if its cost exceeds $ 75). For example, if you rent an apartment for 3 days for $ 27 a day, then pay not $ 81, but only $ 56! This coupon is stored for a whole year, and even if you did not use it for the first time, you can do it later.

Airbnb coupon $ 25 from us!

2. Click on the button "get a discount"

3. Now you need to register. You can do this using your Facebook or Google+ accounts, or as usual via e-mail.

4. After registration, you need to confirm your profile - it is simple and will not take more than 3 minutes, follow the prompts of the service in your personal account.

Account verification methods

Account verification methods:

E-mail e-mail
Phone number
Your profile photo
Linking social networks to your account
Sending a scan of your passport / driver's license.

Why do I need a verified Airbnb profile?

By confirming your profile, both you and the owner prove that you really exist, thus increasing confidence. After all, Airbnb is not only a booking service, but also a travel community.

Often people choose to live with a confirmed owner of an apartment (a corresponding icon appears in front of him) and I advise you to do so. Also, confirmed guests are more valuable))

How Airbnb Rentals

Now is the time to book your accommodation on Airbnb. We go to the official site, and drive the city and dates we need into the search bar.

Find apartments around the world on Airbnb

All available options appear, and to the right of them is a map, along which it is very convenient to look around the areas by moving and moving.

Airbnb Bookings - Search Results with Filters & Map

Pay attention to filters - there are several of them. You can choose the type of accommodation, price range and others. More filters are available by clicking the "More Filters" button - you can clearly define your requirements for housing.

How to rent an apartment on Airbnb - choose options

We select the options we like and read about them carefully. There is a section "House Rules", there are different conditions: is it allowed to smoke, is it possible with pets, what kind of beds, internet, bathroom, etc.

Read the description and house rules

Pay attention to reviews and whether the host account has been verified. If not, then there is some risk, or maybe this is just a new member, and they did not have time to write reviews. When viewing photos, it is very good if the photo has a “Verified” icon in the upper right corner - this means that an Airbnb photographer has visited this place and the photos are true.

Reviews about the apartment on Airbnb

Landlord reviews and verified profile

Also pay attention to the conditions of booking cancellation, they are of several types: in some cases, you can return the entire amount minus the service commission, in some cases the money is partially returned or not returned at all. More details can be found at.

Cleaning fee. In some cases, cleaning fees are included and are quite high. Be careful.

In some variants, it is taken deposit for the safety of property. You will not be charged anything, and the host must send you a request for payment through Airbnb in the event of property damage after you check out.

The description says how many people the housing is designed for. In some cases, additional people are paid (the amount is indicated in the description), in some - for free.

We write off with the owner of the apartment, find out the details we are interested in and determine its adequacy, if required :-). If you don't know English, then fill in the Russian text into a google translator and copy it.

Owner contact button and booking button

Airbnb booking and payment

1. Next, we send a booking request. Here you will need to enter the details of your bank card or PayPal wallet. The billing address is your address, or rather the one that you indicated when you issued the bank card with which you pay for this accommodation. The host has 24 hours to confirm your request.

2. Instant Booking is available for some options. In this case, the reservation is made immediately, just like in Booking or other similar services.

3. After the owner has confirmed the request and the payment has passed, you will receive a receipt and detailed instructions by e-mail with the owner's contacts and the address of the accommodation. An SMS also comes to the phone. Your money remains in the system and is transferred to the host only after the first day of your stay.

A confirmation receipt appears in your account

If you signed up with and your booking is more than $ 75, you will receive an Airbnb coupon for $ 25. This amount is reflected after clicking the "Book instantly" or "Request a booking" in the "coupon" column, as in the screenshot.

Airbnb discount on first booking $ 25!

We will be very grateful if you register using our link - and you are good, and we will receive a small bonus from Airbnb. :-) Thank you!

That's all we wanted to tell you about how Airbnb rentals work. Soon we will make an article with answers to frequently asked questions. See you and good travel!

Traveling through different countries Most travelers stay in hotels, guesthouses or guesthouses. Since 2008, an excellent AirBNB service where you can book varied and inexpensive accommodation from private individuals instead of hotels. Moreover, the choice of housing on the site was more colorful, informative and around the world. Unfortunately, AirBNB has changed for the worse and negative reviews about Airbnb are coming across more and more. I was registered in this service almost from the very beginning and I have something to compare with.

For a long time I liked to rent apartments from private owners through AirBNB, so I always gladly recommended this service to my friends. But the further, the service becomes worse and more expensive.

Now AirBNB is not always profitable and convenient for travelers, and I don't want to recommend it anymore. I myself almost completely, tk. many options for apartments with Airbnb are now on Booking and they are cheaper. But what I will use tomorrow, I don’t know. I tried HomeAway and others - everything is not right, and most importantly, the choice is too small. I really like the idea of AirBNB, so I hope something similar will appear soon, but better, cheaper and without hidden fees - and I will definitely tell you about it (stay tuned on FB and VK).

Airbnb got us used to the idea that you can book cheap apartments only through them. Alas, this is no longer the case. Before you habitually book something on Airbnb, google and see the same option in other services - it will take a minute, and you can save almost twice (see example below).

Here's what has changed at Airbnb, and below you can read my old article about how it was once a really great service.

Important changes to Airbnb from 2018

What happened to Airbnb and why renting a place through them has become unprofitable and even risky:

Europe reservations are canceled at the last moment - there is a risk of being left without a reservation in the high season.
Since 2018, it has become risky to rent accommodation through AirBnb - more and more reviews that bookings were canceled at the last moment. This is due to the entry into force of new laws under which homeowners fall - this is mainly relevant for Europe and the United States. I have met most of the reviews about cancellation of bookings from the cities: Barcelona, Valencia, Lisbon, Amsterdam, NY, Singapore. However, Airbnb, instead of helping to resolve this situation, shifted the entire responsibility to customers - get out as you want.
It is better not to apply for a visa through AirBnb
In connection with the previous paragraph, they may refuse to receive or give for a shorter period - this has begun to happen more and more often.
AirBnb's support team is useless.
It used to be the best customer support I have come across. Now it is impossible to even find where to contact the support service on the Airbnb website, the e-mail and the support phone number are carefully hidden, and when it is possible to reach out not to automatic answers, but to a living person, they answer like robots and can do nothing to help.
Especially when your question is about Airbnb payment tricks - the support service starts to “turn on the fool” and pretend they don't understand at all what this is about. And the screenshots, they say, we don't understand where you got it from ...
Removed prices from the calendar.
Previously, you could look at the prices for each day in the calendar and select those days when they are cheaper, now this option has been removed.
Hide the final price.
The price you see on the main page may differ from the final one by 1.5 times! Guess in whose favor?
Moreover, this is not an Airbnb scam, either. in the rules all this is somewhere and not to dig. We just learned to hide the final price so cleverly.
For example, we want to rent an apartment in Milan for 3 days (see the picture below) - on the Airbnb home page the price is 53 euros per day:
Now watch your hands carefully: on the next page they already write that 50 euros is super! But commissions are added, a total of 205. I wonder where the price of 53 on the main one came from?
At Step 3, the price for some reason turns into 206.36 and they write that this is a conversion commission. What kind of conversion? Euro to Euro?
And finally, in the end, we are converted into rubles and the total price becomes 213 euros in 3 days (for this day, the Central Bank rate is 1 EUR = 73.90 RUB). How much did it end up in a day? (The answer is under the picture.)

Airbnb pricing trick - follow the steps
We calculate: magically 53 euros turns into 71 euros per day! By the way, it is not clear where 53 came from? In general, if you look at the screenshot, there are many more questions for Airbnb ...

Therefore, do not rush to book, first go to the checkout page and compare this price with the price on other services - always compare the final price, not the intermediate one! You will be greatly surprised.
More expensive and hidden Airbnb fees.
Commissions have grown: Airbnb now charges 3% per owner and 15% per guest, according to their website. In addition, many do not notice, but Airbnb does forced currency conversion not in favor of the client, and this adds up to 3% more already at the final step of the payment. Total 21% - this is overkill! Therefore, I switched to Booking, where the commission is lower, and the price for the traveler is indicated as final and there are no hidden fees - the client is immediately on the first page.
Why Booking? Yes, because it is there that the same apartments with Airbnb are now presented, but for more favorable price... It seems that Airbnb has become unprofitable for apartment owners. even the starting price of apartments has become higher than, for example, on Booking.
For example, here is the same apartment in Lisbon, which is listed on Airbnb and Booking (the links can easily compare from the photo that this is the same apartment). Let's compare prices for the same dates:
Total: 372 euros on Airbnb (no conversion fees, the exact price will be at the last step) versus 233 euros on Booking (final price).
If you pay with a ruble card, your Airbnb account will end up at RUB 28,449.04. with the Central Bank rate 1 EUR = 73.90 RUB. That is, the final price is 385 euros !!!

That is, the euro rate in Airbnb turns out to be 76.47 rubles, which means that the markup is the same + 3% for conversion.
It would seem that for payment it is better to leave an account in the host's currency, but no - Airbnb forcibly converts into the currency of your country, which you specified during registration, even if you pay with a card in euros, and you will only find out after payment (wrote about this in their support with all screenshots at every step of the booking process, because at every step the price changed, it seemed strange and decided to take screenshots, but they replied that he himself was a fool and chose the wrong currency, and the screenshots are unlikely where I got them ...). I wonder if the owner's currency is "tugriks" (for example, in Thailand), will there be a double conversion? I didn't check it. Well, Airbnb has found a great way to make money!
Airbnb absolutely don't give a damn about loyal users.
If they offer newcomers promotions and discounts, then those who have been using the service for a long time only increase their commissions every year. I think many people remember the 12% commission.

Why did Airbnb start to "spit" on their customers? Maybe Airbnb will come to their senses and turn back to us, customers? After all, there was a great service and you can still occasionally find interesting options on Airbnb, but, alas, less and less ...

How AirBnb used to work

(Everything below was written in 2010 and is no longer relevant - I will leave it for history)
My acquaintance with AirBNB happened by chance. In March, while planning a trip to, I could not book an inexpensive hotel there. Prices started at $ 100 and went into space. As a result, on the advice of a friend, I found myself through AirBNB an apartment on the 28th floor in the Bukit Batok metro area. For only $ 80, with a great view and a great pool. Although the owner of the apartment was nominally present, I practically did not intersect with him. For the first experience I was more than satisfied - I managed and well imagined “how I would live here” :)

Don't confuse AirBNB rental with couchsurfing. Couchsurfing “subscriptions” are free, but provide neither privacy nor comfort. On the other hand, hotels offer comfort, but at a high price. By the way, there are not as many hotels in some cities as you want. So rental housing through AirBNB this is something in between - more comfortable than "vpiski", but cheaper than hotels.

How do I like booking accommodation with AirBNB?

In the photo: a fully furnished apartment in Prague, for example, can be rented on AirBNB for 29 euros / day

1. Savings

AirBNB offers pleasant and comfortable accommodation cheaper than hotels. This is especially true for fashionable, expensive and tourist cities such as Nice, Barcelona or. Reservation of accommodation via AirBNB on holidays, when the cost of all hotels skyrockets.

2. Hotels are not everywhere

In the photo: when traveling, you can choose completely different and unusual types of housing

You can live in various areas of cities where there is simply no. By booking through AirBNB, the traveler can test a variety of housing formats: apartments in skyscrapers, standard apartments, detached villas, romantic attics and even yachts :) Moreover, there are options to get both a room in an apartment and rent the entire housing.

3. New impressions and interesting experiences

To live a couple of days “like a local”, something like a “demo version” is a valuable experience and broadening of horizons. A great way to appreciate the peculiarities of housing and the quality of local life, to feel like “Barcelona” or “Singaporean”. Especially useful if you are thinking of going to this country :)

4. Chatting with new people

If you rent a room in an apartment, it is quite possible to improve your knowledge of a foreign language by communicating with the landlords. For example, learn something about the locals, about the real prices and the rules of life of this country and its inhabitants.

How to book accommodation with AirBNB

Sign up for AirBNB, fill in the contact details in your profile. To book good accommodations through AirBNB, you need to “like” potential hosts. Submit your friendliest photo, write what you are a “white and fluffy” traveler and landlords will reach out to you :) By the way, landlords and tenants have their own personal ratings on AirBNB. The more often you rent accommodation through AirBNB, the more recommendations you will have. This will facilitate subsequent check-ins.

What to look for when looking for accommodation on the AirBNB website

In the photo: first of all, we check the calendar and prices for the required days

First of all, check the calendar for free dates and prices for these days. Prices may change on different days of the week.

Having picked up an interesting housing option, we study the final price, living conditions and reviews from other guests.

In the photo: note - added cleaning and collection fees for AirBNB

By renting a house through AirBNB you pay the actual price of the accommodation + site commission + cleaning fee + guarantee amount (blocked / refunded)

In the photo: it is important to read all the living conditions

We study all the conditions for renting housing on AirBNB

Usually the landlord states the following:

1. Type of accommodation: apartment (house) or just a room
2. The number of guests (in this example 4). If there are more guests, an additional fee will be applied for each additional guest.
3. The amount of the security deposit (it is not always the case). This amount is blocked by AirBNB from your card in case of damage (in this example 150 euros)
4. House cleaning fee. Sometimes the landlord writes more money for cleaning, thereby lowering the site commission for you (a percentage of the daily price of the apartment)
5. Cancellation penalties (flexible, moderate, severe) - be sure to read these conditions when booking.
6. We study in the description what is in the apartment: parking, internet, washing machine, TV, etc.

If everything suits you, write a request to the landlord or just press the red “Book” button. Then wait for a response. Most landlords respond and approve your request fairly quickly. Sometimes, however, it happens and they refuse.

If you see a lightning bolt, then the apartment can be rented automatically, without waiting for the owner's confirmation. So convenient.

On the Internet, now every travel site tells how to rent out their accommodation on airbnb for the winter or vacation, but few people actually rent their own and know how everything is in reality. After reading such sites with tips: "How to rent an apartment through airbnb" I decided to write this article based on my own experience with this system. Highlights and pitfalls, whether or not it is necessary to draw up a contract, how to withdraw money, and so on.

By the way, if you don't already know! You can also rent out your accommodation through Booking.com !! Site # 1, as you know, for renting housing. When registering as an owner, you will not be charged any commission on the first 5 bookings!

How to rent an apartment using airbnb.

It's simple, there is nothing complicated in the process. If you are already registered in this system as a guest, then you do not need to register separately as a landlord. You need to log into your account and add your ad. If you are not registered, then by this link you will have access not only to registration for renting an apartment on airbnb, but also a bonus on housing if you yourself go to rest in 2100 rubles, or 25 euros.

Creating an advertisement for renting an apartment: what you should pay attention to.

The most important thing to consider when creating your rental ad will be your photographs. It doesn't matter if you make them yourself or invite a photographer from airbnb, which, by the way, is free. Here are just a few tips:

If you rent out your apartment in which you live yourself, like me, then try to remove all unnecessary personal belongings. This spoils the picture and subsequently the guest can indicate the discrepancy with the things declared in the ad. So, in one photo I had a MacBook on the table - and everyone asked if it would be on arrival.
Take pictures of the details of the comfort, the place where people will sleep, the bathroom and toilet rooms. This is what they pay attention to first. All sorts of cute things have a positive effect and attract neat tourists who appreciate comfort.
Make a map of the area, describing all the delights of what you can find nearby: shops, transport stops and where you can take a walk before bed. If your apartment is in a residential area, this will be very useful and, perhaps, will be a decisive factor for the guest to choose exactly your accommodation. You can just save the map picture from google and sign where it is.
Choose the best and coziest photo for your headline. In the search, it is she who will "work" for you. Think of it as a keyword that will be clicked on for your ad.

Apartment management: meeting and seeing off the guest.

Airbnb has made it easy for both host and guest to find and financially. But nevertheless, you still have to meet your guests. And here you have two options: either you yourself (your friends or relatives) or a hired manager. Are you tempted to use the second option? However, there are some nuances here. Are you ready to issue a power of attorney for the management of an apartment by an outside organization? Aren't you afraid after some time to find your apartment in a murdered state?

Airbnb has an internal forum for landlords. In the thread in St. Petersburg, the issue with the management company is being discussed and there are negative reviews. When the management company, roughly speaking, squeezes out all the juices from the facility without carrying out repairs and other necessary things (change of worn-out linen, for example). When you take a clean, renovated apartment into the office, you can get killed in itong. Take a closer look at the question.

"Underwater rocks"

Despite the simplicity that airbnb came up with, making it as simple and convenient as possible to rent a home via the Internet, it also has its own underwater ones. Therefore, I want to voice what I have already encountered myself.

Property insurance and collateral.

For residents of Russia, there is no insurance for the lessor of 1 million, declared in the airbnb system.

To insure yourself against possible problems with the tenant, airbnb is advised to establish a deposit. The minimum recommended amount is 75 euros and it is frozen on your guest's card. But I advise you to conclude a lease agreement, the usual paper one, in which it is advisable to register the passport details of your tenant, so that in case of anything you have something to go to court with. There is no need to be afraid to invite guests to sign such an agreement; it is advisable to even mention it in the correspondence in advance. In Spain, when renting a house in Sitges, the owner offered us to sign such an agreement, and there is no crime in this.

Bank commission for withdrawing funds.

With each transaction to your card, when you want to withdraw the earned dollars or euros, the bank will deduct its commission from you.

At the moment, EUR 12 is withdrawn for payments, even if you have a direct EUR account. The commission is "bite off" by the partner bank. So far, only Alfa-Bank does not take such a commission. To avoid unnecessary spending, you can set a withdrawal limit, and then airbnb will send you not after every guest check-in, but upon reaching a certain threshold (any).

Payment currency.

You can receive money only in the currency in which you set the price for your apartment. Nowadays, when the euro and the dollar exchange rate is growing and falling, there is a reason to fix it in rubles, if you still rely not only on foreign tenants. And in this case, the money will be credited in the same way in rubles without any extra commission. Having indicated the cost of renting an apartment or room in euros or dollars, they can be withdrawn only to a euro or dollar account.

Why get rent in rubles nowadays if you can get euros? It's simple. It all depends solely on your rental object. If it is located in a very touristy place, in the center, for example, then you can count on success with foreigners. If the apartment is a little to the side, in a residential area, even a 20-minute metro ride away, then the flow of foreigners is already drying up, but our compatriots are still attracted by such apartments. Due to the rise in the exchange rate, as has happened in recent years, at a rate of 50 euros per night, for Russian tourist the price jumped from 2 thousand to 5! Of course, you can recalculate the rate every day, taking into account the exchange rate. It is also worth understanding that the tourist flow in each city is different. In St. Petersburg, the influx of tourists begins in May and ends in September. Well, the holidays. The rest of the time, demand falls.

Cancel Reservation.

If for some reason you canceled your reservation, changed your plans, for example, or you simply changed your mind, the system will block these dates anyway and you will not be able to re-rent the accommodation. You will also have an automatic negative review that will be linked to your account even if you delete this ad and add a new one.

You can set a cancellation policy for your guests and thereby insure yourself against such a situation when a guest refuses at the last moment, choosing another accommodation, for example. I know of a case when a reservation was canceled right on the eve of a holiday and the tenant could not rent the apartment in a short time and lost money.

A couple of tips on how to make your life easier as a rentier

Good, interesting and tidy guests !!

Important addition

By the way, if you don't already know! You can also rent out your accommodation through Booking.com !! Site # 1, as you know, for renting housing. When registering as an owner using this link, you will not be charged any commission on the first 5 bookings!

Important addition

Daniel Yozhik
Daniel Yozhik
Daniel Yozhik
Evgeniya Melchenko
Mary
Ruslan
Daniel Yozhik
Evgeny Pritula
- sestrik
  - Evgeny Pritula
  - Daniel Yozhik
Anton
Andryusiks
Nadezhda
Nadezhda
Tatyana
Tatyana

Updated 01.10.

The history of my relationship with Airbnb: 10 countries and 15 cities, 23 apartments and rooms for several days and 2 houses for a month. What have I learned for myself in 4 years and will I continue?

To be honest, I have never had any serious problems with airbnb.ru, and I am 99.9% satisfied with it. Stop, where did one hundredth go?

What accommodations can I find on Airbnb?

Almost anything - rooms, apartments, bungalows, villas and even tree houses! It usually takes from 30 minutes to an hour to search for an accommodation option in one city - I look at photos of apartments, read reviews of “former” ones (I also translate foreign languages). I also compare prices with RoomGuru - it happens that the good old number in 3 stars also wins.

My feedback on Airbnb

Our apartment for 4 people in Jerusalem - $ 100 / night

Note: and if not the first, then here's a life hack - register a mom / dad / friend (remember that the bonus is not entered, but is automatically credited when you click on the link), and the discount coupon will work again. 🙂

Step 2. Let's go further - search for accommodation for travel. Apartment reservations are available in almost any city in the world. To do this, set the parameters you need on Airbnb:

town
dates (from 2019 the numbers drop out along with the cost - convenient)
and the number of people by clicking "apply" and then "housing"

and here they are - all rental options for your dates, from a luxury townhouse in the center to a bum-style tent by the lake (I told you, for any wallet? 🙂).

What filters are there?

Accommodation type(whole housing, separate or common room) - I usually do not choose anything here, I am guided immediately by the ads. You can slap, for example, the first option, and the house / apartment will be completely in your - temporary - possession
Price- you can choose the border amount that you are ready to shell out per day (from 0 to 50,000+ rubles)
Book instantly- see one step below
Trip type(for families / business trips) - in my opinion, not a very relevant filter, because a more interesting and cheaper option can be found just in the tape
Other- if necessary, indicate the number of bedrooms, amenities, area or tick the box "unique housing" (a hut in the woods, a yacht or a houseboat? 🙂)

Step 3. We study housing - a short algorithm is as follows:

look at prices
we determine the location on the map on the right (when you hover over the ad, its price tag is highlighted on the map)
we open several apartments we liked
read reviews

When you click on a property, you can see detailed information about the rules / conditions of residence, photos of rooms, reviews from travelers and the owner. I advise you to CAREFULLY go through literally each letter. The site works in Russian, so there is also a magic button "translate". Pay attention to the "Amenities" section. It happens that the owners also include breakfasts - they are quite simple, but still nice 🙂 Plus, it saves both time and money.

Our apartment in New York (Brooklyn) for $ 67 / night for two - it has a robot, a fireplace and even a cinema (more details wrote in the telegram @howtrip)

My advice on how not to fly over and overpay:

1️⃣ I never choose apartments about which no reviews or a small number of them (2-4). Although I admit that everyone starts with something, and that cool loft with zero responses in a month or two will become a super-sellable offer. But I’m probably going to step aside.

UPD: I changed my mind and now I am looking at the "new items". And all because they sometimes offer a 20% discount to the first 3 guests. I have already booked this twice, and successfully!

2️⃣ Of the whole bunch of rave reviews, I mark those that are automatically generated by the service itself "The host canceled this reservation ..."... This means that the owner canceled the reservation so many days before the arrival of the traveler - if there are 3 or more of them, I pass by.

3️⃣ An important factor is frequency and response time host (can be found below reviews). They demonstrate the attitude of a person to Airbnb - scores or is really responsible.

4️⃣ Above the red button "Request a booking" there are several lines that add up to the final cost, but these are not always the case:

Cleaning fee- I do not see the need if I am going for 3-5 days or even a week. In principle, it is not large - up to 2,000 rubles for all accommodation
Discount per week / monthly- this is your favorite 🙂 If you book an apartment for 7 days or more, then some hosts discard 10-15% of the price, and if for 3-4 weeks, then the discount can go up to 30-40%! That is why Bali cost me 400 rubles per night.

5️⃣ And someone enters and security deposit... You can find out about this in the "House Rules" section, expanding them completely. I wonder what he not written off and is not frozen on the card when booking (and even more so, it is not given to the owner in cash). If the owner complains about the damage after the checkout, Airbnb reviews the claim (of course, with your participation) and issues a verdict - pay the amount or forgive. I haven’t had any experience with collaterals yet.

6️⃣ Do not click on "Request a booking" At once. First, write to the landlord (in the “Host name” section, the “Contact” button): ask something about the apartment or just mention how you liked the option. But be sure to clarify, whether the desired dates are free - the calendar can and junk. Plus, it saves you money from sneaky instant bookings.

7️⃣ What is instant booking? The host has set up an automatic booking confirmation, not a manual one. Accordingly, the money on the card is frozen right there, without waiting for the final word from the owner. In fact, this is a convenient option, and overlays (cancellations) are extremely rare 🙂 The red "Request booking" button is normal, and the "Reservation" button is instant.

8️⃣ Browse cancellation policy... Flexible, moderate, strict - they determine the amount that will be returned to the card if you decide to cancel the apartment.

Step 4. The host has 24 hours after your request to accept or decline your reservation. If the outcome is positive, payment is made, and airbnb.ru opens access to all information about the accommodation - the exact address, telephone for communication.

What to consider in terms of finance (how is payment made):

Airbnb takes commission from 10 to 15%, the value of which depends on the cost of the reservation
Payment is always in rubles, not in dollars and not in euros, even if the cost is indicated in those currencies. And it is better to use a ruble card, in order to avoid frantic conversion

If you select "Share payment with friends" - your friend will not be able to pay with bonuses. They can only be used by those who book accommodation.

Step 5. Wait for the trip and contact the host the day before to clarify the details.

For the first time we decided to try expensive housing on Airbnb - an apartment with a view of Manhattan cost 20,000 rubles / night for two (they took it for 2 nights)

How do I contact Airbnb?

Before booking for all questions write to support www.airbnb.ru/help. Unfortunately, it will not work to make a call, they simply do not have such an opportunity.

If you made a reservation, and there was a need to contact, find the letter in the mail "Your booking is confirmed". At the very bottom there is a red button, go to the Help Center, flesh out the problem. You will be offered to write or call their Russian-speaking support service (the number is free). Note: this very Russian-speaking support is often busy, there are few operators, so they throw it on the English-speaking one.

I recently discovered their Vkontakte page - vk.com/airbnbhelp, there is also a good connection there.

What happens if a booking is canceled?

Canceled by host: Full refund or bank transfer to another booking. If you canceled: full / partial refund (subject to conditions).

If you choose accommodation with flexible cancellation, then there will be no problem. Always pay attention to this. In January 2018, we canceled our booking in Thailand - the money was returned to the card within 2 days! 🙂 Important: the refund is made to the card that was indicated at the time of booking.

By the way, if you are traveling only to one country for a week or 10 days, then I advise you to look at the cost of tours, it often happens that they are more profitable than an independent trip (applies to countries such as Thailand, Spain, Greece, Tunisia and other popular destinations):

What are the advantages of the Airbnb.ru website? Positive feedback from tourists

The apartment where we lived in Paris (August 2018) - 65 euros / day

The lowest prices for apartments around the world. And it is true! This is especially noticeable in large and expensive cities... As mentioned above, many offers have discounts when booked for a week or month. It is also profitable to rent an apartment by a company, when calculated per person it turns out to be more budgetary. You can find cool offers for quite reasonable money. So, in Phuket I rented an apartment for 600 rubles a day with a swimming pool and a gym. Not bad, huh? And in Barcelona - a room for 600 euros for a whole month.
Simple and straightforward site. This, of course, is not a very tangible plus, but many services have big problems with this.
All sorts of options - you can find luxury apartments with a view of the entire city, a small and cozy apartment in a residential area with locals. In general, the choice and prices for every taste.
By renting a place to live on Airbnb, you get to know the locals, you feel the culture of the country. Which is quite difficult to grasp if you check into a hotel and talk to a receptionist programmed to smile.
The service has solved one of the main problems for many - full payment - and now it is not necessary to give the full amount when booking. It can be divided into two parts, and the second one should be spent ≈2 weeks before the trip. Condition: total amount - from $ 250, date of travel - no earlier than 4 weeks later.

What are the disadvantages of the site? Negative reviews

Our accommodation for a day in Moscow on Bolshaya Sadovaya - 4200 rubles / day for three

First, I’ll say a few words. Here I read the messages, and I think if everything were as bad as some describe, so Airbnb would have been blown away for a long time. Well, and through one, of course, the fault is the user's inattention.

If you have been advised of a specific accommodation - for example, Michael's cozy apartment in NusaDua - you won't be able to find it by name. This has become a very uncomfortable moment for me more than once.
Payment upon booking. Now it is already possible to divide the amount into two stages, but back in 2017 this was not the case, which did not suit me wildly. Money, in fact, is in a "suspended" state for several months, and maybe quite a large amount. Airbnb finally went to meet customers. I know you will say that the hotel can be bought without paying at all. But here, when canceling a reservation, ordinary people incur significant losses, for whom this is not something that would be profitable. And this is offset by cheaper prices than hotels. On the other hand, you can always cancel your reservation (at a certain time before arrival) and the service will return the full amount based on the conditions that were specified in the apartment's profile.
If any problems arise, the support service takes a very long time to respond to letters. And it's okay that problems rarely arise, but they do happen. The last time I had a question was about a refund. Surprisingly, the money was returned faster than the employee answered - 2 days vs. 5 days 🙂
Negative reviews about Airbnb abound in the following: caught by a scammer who tricked me into slipping a bad apartment or canceled a reservation a week before check-in. But just for such a case, responses about accommodation, host ratings and the ability to contact before booking are introduced. Always carefully read each comment, see the date of registration of the profile and photos of the accommodation. If you have any questions, be sure to write to the landlord - this is the difference between Airbnb and a hotel search engine, that he is - about communication and waiting... In addition, the service is really customer-oriented - any cancellation is accompanied by a discount coupon, and money is returned for non-compliance with the conditions (after the proceedings). But this does not eliminate the need to look for new housing and unpleasant emotions. This is where one missing hundredth is hidden.
Speed - people are not always online and after booking you need to wait for the owner's confirmation. Therefore, if you book accommodation in the morning and plan to check in in the afternoon, it is better to look for hotels through Roomguru or.

Is Airbnb eligible for a visa?

Embassies accept airbnb reservations for visa. For example, we made the Spanish Schengen and attached several confirmations from this site. You can do it without any problems for a visa to the Czech Republic, France and other countries.

Click on "View Trip Plan" and print the detailed receipt. Names and dates are displayed there.

What other features does Airbnb offer?

With a discount, accommodation for 7 days will cost less than 6 or 5. And rent for a month will be more profitable than for 3-3.5 weeks. It happens that the monthly discount starts from 27-28 days.

2️⃣ Why not take a chance and look for new offers (special icon next to it)? Some hosts offer a discount on the first 3 bookings, and it can go up to 30-40% of the initial cost.

3️⃣ Some apartment owners add a fixed cleaning fee. It is a tangible amount (who will determine how), especially if the booking is 3-5 days. So try to find accommodation without cleaning. You can write to the host and ask - what if I clean it myself? :) Sometimes they go to a meeting and the price goes down. But if you are against, you should not insist.

4️⃣ Naturally, a life hack that many people know about is a coupon of 2100 rubles. Choose dates and compare prices

All over the world from Russian-speaking residents

We are looking for a tour with a discount.

This is a site that allows you to rent housing from local residents of the city you are planning to visit. You can rent a common or private room, apartment, house or a whole cottage - in general, any place where you can come, leave things and spend the night. To do this, you just need to enter the destination, arrival and departure dates into the search.

How is Airbnb different from a hotel and hostel?

A hotel is expensive. At the same time, the price does not always guarantee quality. And even if you decide not to save money on vacation, it is hardly worth giving most of your money for a room where you will show up just to sleep.

Hostels are at the other extreme: they are affordable, but you can forget about privacy. For one decent hostel, there are a dozen with terrible conditions in which you definitely won't feel at home.

Let's dwell on the main advantages of booking through Airbnb:

The service allows you to rent a house at a price that suits you.
From the photographs, you can study the situation in the apartment and understand whether it will be convenient for you there.
Hospitable owners (they are also called hosts) will not only show you the apartment, but can also advise interesting places in the city, meet at the airport, explain how to use local public transport.
You can rent an apartment for any period of time: for a weekend in a neighboring city, for a week on vacation, and even for a month or more to live in another country.
Payments go through Airbnb, which acts as an intermediary. This means that in controversial situations you will be able to get your money back.
You can rent a house right away for a group of friends or the whole family. It will not come out so expensive.

All this is great, but there are also disadvantages. You can rent housing located in an inconvenient area. Or face scammers who post apartments on the website with fake reviews and photos that do not correspond to reality.

So that you can avoid such troubles, we have prepared a list of recommendations, following which you will find a suitable option for yourself.

1. Complete the profile

To book a place on Airbnb, you must first apply. Confirmation from the owner is required: until this moment, funds from your card are not debited.

Some hosts provide an instant booking service so that an apartment can be booked without waiting for confirmation. Such announcements are marked with a special lightning bolt symbol.

Sometimes hosts refuse to confirm a booking. No, not because they don't need money. Imagine yourself in the place of landlords: they trust their apartment completely to a stranger... A half-empty Airbnb profile with no photo or personal information will not help you connect with the host.

Therefore, add your photo (it is desirable that you look friendly on it) and write a short story about yourself, indicate your age and occupation. If you've already rented apartments through Airbnb, and have positive reviews from previous hosts, then this will be a big plus.

If you get bounced back often rather than positive feedback, it's most likely your profile. Give the host a little more information about yourself and try to give the impression of someone not going to destroy their house. :)

2. Explore the area

If you are traveling to an unfamiliar city in a country that you have never been before, search the Internet for information on areas. And be sure to check the location of the apartment on the map.

Usually people look at beautiful pictures of an apartment and completely forget to check the surrounding area. This is fraught with consequences: you can rent an apartment with a delightful renovation in a dilapidated building located in an area where trash is never cleaned up and suspicious individuals roam.

Therefore, check: go to Google Maps and turn on the Google Street View function: look at the photos of the building and “walk” around the area. It's good if there is a stop nearby public transport, cafes where you can eat and drink coffee, supermarkets.

If you are going to a new place as a quality, do not rent an apartment two hours from the center: all the most interesting sights are usually located there. Is it worth wasting precious time getting there and back every day?

3. Take advantage of discounts and promotional codes

If you are not registered on the site yet, ask a friend who already rented an apartment through Airbnb to send you an invitation. So you will have a discount of 1,500 rubles on your first trip, and your friend will receive a reward from the service.

Many Airbnb hosts offer weekly or monthly discounts. They usually range from 3 to 50% (depending on the location of the apartment, season, host popularity). The discount offered is usually listed immediately after the price.

But this discount does not in any way affect the service fees, which are not negotiable.

Some hosts simply don’t know that discounts can be set, or don’t do it for no reason. Therefore, do not hesitate to ask the owner a question about directly, even if on the site itself this field is zero.

4. Compare your needs and the host's offerings

I understand all this charm with the beautiful photographs of the apartment. But you need to ask yourself not only how awesome the place is, but also if it is right for you.

To answer this question, you must be clear about what you are looking for. So take a piece of paper and a pen and write down your most important needs. If you need an apartment not just for one night, but to live there for a while, decide what amenities you need.

Do you mind living with a neighbor or don't want to face strangers in the kitchen every day? Do you smoke? Do you want to invite guests? Do you need internet? Are you going to cook yourself or are you going to have breakfast in a cafe?

An apartment differs from a hotel in that it makes it possible to feel a little local. Therefore, I want to see in it the same as at home: good internet, a kitchen with a stove, or at least a refrigerator and a coffee maker. The presence of a washing machine is not a prerequisite, but all other things being equal, I will give preference to an apartment with it.
Elena Khrupina, Airbnb user

Compare your needs with the host's list of amenities. Read the list carefully and do not rush to ask questions. The hosts don't really like answering questions, the answers to which are already in the ad text.

Please be aware that Airbnb's fee is non-refundable for any booking cancellations.

9. Leave feedback

Remember to rate and write an honest review after each trip. Describe your impressions of the apartment and the owner, cleanliness, renovation, location. Write about the pros and cons. This will help not only the following travelers, but also you.

The more reviews a host has, the more confidence potential guests have in it. The more positive reviews you have, the less likely you will be denied a booking.