Vacation rentals home impressions and airbnb locations. Renting a home with Airbnb: pros and cons, my reviews and a $32 discount code for your trip

Despite the fact that the Airbnb housing search service is very popular all over the world, not everyone knows it in Russia. Many continue to use familiar
agoda.com or booking.com.

We will tell you how to register, quickly find good and inexpensive accommodation (for example, accommodation with a pool, gym, jacuzzi and waterfall for $11 per night),
get a discount coupon
$25, what you should pay attention to and what are the pros and cons of Airbnb.

What is Airbnb

Airbnb is a site where owners of private houses, cottages, apartments and even castles rent out their living space to travelers for long and short periods. In addition to a roof over your head, you get the feeling of being at home on the other side of the earth, communicating with local residents, advice on which attractions are worth visiting and which are tourist scams, valuable recommendations on the best cafes and convenient types transport. In general, along with your accommodation you get a lot of goodies that you can’t get out of the well-trained hotel staff.

The essence of the Airbnb service is that ordinary residents of cities and resorts in more than 190 countries around the world post photos and descriptions of their houses, apartments, and rooms on the site. Some people rent out housing for vacations, some rent out spare rooms in their house, and for others it’s a mini-business.

Airbnb is very developed in the US and Europe, but you can also find many offers in Asia. Here are the proposals for 2015:

• Apartment in Thailand for $37 per day.

• Two-room apartment on the beach in Vietnam for $35 per day.

• House with a pool in Bali for $47 per day.

You can rent housing for both short and long periods.

How to register and get a $25 discount

Step 1

If you have not registered yet, then go to
this link. This will give you $25 off your first booking if your total booking is over $75.

Example: you found a house in Sri Lanka for $40 per night, including commission. You want to rent it for 2 days. Accordingly, the cost of housing should cost $80. But now you have a discount and instead of $80 you will pay $60. Not bad, right?

If your first booking costs less than $75, you can still register using my link. After all, the discount will last for 1 year, and during the year you will probably want to rent a house or apartment through airbnb.

Step 2

And register in a way convenient for you: via Facebook, Google + or via email.

If you have an account on Facebook, then it is most convenient to use it. You only need to enter your login and password.

If you chose to register via mail, a letter will be sent to the email address you specified. Follow the link in the letter and registration is complete. As you can see, everything is very simple.

Step 3

Now all you have to do is fill out your Airbnb profile: upload a photo and write a short story about yourself. Why it's important: Airbnb is a service that emphasizes trust in the community, and your host will be happy to get to know you through your profile before inviting you into their home. If you are traveling abroad, it is better to write about yourself in English. If you do not know a foreign language, translate the text using Google Translator.

You don’t have to talk about yourself in detail, write what you think is necessary, there are no rules.

You can verify your profile and connect it to your facebook account. I did so. Thanks to this, home owners can be sure that I am a real person.

Step 4

We are looking for housing! We enter into the search the country or city where you are going to fly, the date of arrival and departure, and the number of guests.

A list of available accommodation for the dates you select appears. If you are interested in a specific city or even an area, zoom in on the map on the right and on the left only offers for the area you need will be shown.

Narrow your search:

• Select the type of accommodation: “Entire housing”, “Single room”, “Shared room”.
• Move the white price sliders left and right to increase or decrease prices.

If you absolutely need a kitchen, air conditioning, a swimming pool or something else, then click on “More filters” and select the items you need there.

We're going to be flying to Hong Kong for a few days in the coming months, so we compared prices on agoda.com, booking.com and airbnb. Hong Kong - expensive place for relaxation, the cost of not very scary hotels here starts from $30. Breakfast is not included, the rooms are tiny, you can barely turn around. Example:
Crystal
hostel for $39.

Therefore, it seems to me more logical to rent an apartment for the same money, where there is more space and a kitchen. Cooking yourself, you understand, is cheaper than eating in cafes and restaurants in Hong Kong.

Apartment in Hong Kong for $38.

For have a comfortable holiday for two people, for a family with children or for a group of friends with a budget of $50 per day, you can find excellent two-room apartments with a kitchen.

In general, Airbnb has options for every taste and budget. In expensive Hong Kong and Singapore, you can find inexpensive apartment options and not go broke on food by cooking your own meals. And at the resorts you can find accommodation for $10 on the very shore, while hotels with a less favorable location cost $12-15.

• You need to carefully read the description of the housing: is only a room or the whole house for rent, is there air conditioning, etc.
  moments that are important to you
• Keep in mind that in holidays (New Year, national holidays), prices may be inflated.
• Look at the prices for the week, month (if indicated). They are lower than daily rent.
• See the terms and conditions for canceling your reservation. If you are not sure that you will definitely go, choose apartments and houses on airbnb with
  flexible booking conditions.

• Some hosts charge a separate fee for cleaning. If you do not want to overpay, then you are looking for housing without such
  additional fees. In addition, some take a deposit for the safety of property. The deposit is taken from your card and
  is frozen, if no controversial issues arise during your vacation, the deposit is returned to your card. I
  I try to ignore such advertisements.
• If you are traveling in a large group, then pay attention to the “Additional payment for each additional guest” clause.
  Most often this column says “Free”, but there are exceptions.

• Study the map at the end of the ad. If the living space is located far from the center or the places you want
  visit a new city, find out how developed the urban transport system is.
• If you are traveling to mountainous areas, for example in Vietnamese Da Lat, then look for housing with a heater. Don't look at it
  that Vietnam is the tropics and it must be hot there. It's actually chilly in the mountains.
• Response frequency - if the profile indicates a frequency of 10%, do not waste time on this person, but the frequency is 90-100%,
  means that they will definitely answer you. If you are looking for accommodation for the next few days, then pay attention to the item
  "Response time."

Sending a request for rental housing

• Important point: send a request to only 1 person, do not send to others until the first one responds. Because the
  if he confirms the request, the money is automatically debited from the card. The owner must respond within 24
  hours.
• When the host confirms the reservation, a corresponding letter will be sent to your email.

• After this, you can also ask the host various questions you are interested in through messages in your Airbnb profile. AND,
  Of course, don’t forget to write to him what time you will arrive.

How to pay in installments

The cost of the reservation can be divided into 2 parts, paying half of the amount when choosing accommodation, and the other half - closer to the arrival date. This is a free feature.

• Installment plans are available when booking accommodation for an amount from and no less than 14 days before arrival.
• The date of the second payment, which is withdrawn automatically, is set individually.
• If the second payment cannot be debited, the reservation will be cancelled.
• There is no additional fee for using the “Pay less upfront” service.
• The service can be selected both on the Airbnb website and in applications on iOS and Android.

Pros and cons of renting a home through Airbnb

pros

• Price

Renting a room is cheaper than a hotel room. And here entire houses and even castles are rented out. Nobody wants to live in a castle, on a yacht or a tree house inexpensively?))

• Safety

The owner will receive the money only a day after you move in. Before that they are frozen. If the cancellation conditions were flexible and you cancel the trip, then the money will be returned to you.
.

• Compensation if something is wrong with the housing

If the home you arrive at does not match the photo and description, if it is not clean and is not in the area stated, if the host cancels the reservation less than 24 hours in advance, Airbnb will resolve these issues and refund your payment. cash.
.

Accommodation reservations are accepted at consulates and visa centers.

Minuses

• Speed

Only a small percentage of accommodations can be booked instantly, like on agoda.com or booking.com. In most cases, you need to wait for the owner's response. Let me remind you that he must respond within 24 hours.

If you see a green button like this, it means you don’t have to wait for a response and you will immediately receive a booking confirmation to your email. To see only such advertisements, select the “Instant booking” option in Filters.

• Airbnb commission

The fee amount is written in the line “Airbnb service fee”. It is charged, firstly, for the confidence that the owner will not wave his hand at you after receiving payment, secondly, for round-the-clock operational technical support, and thirdly, for assistance in resolving controversial issues. Each service for renting private housing takes a commission, most often it is already included in the rental price, but here it is stated separately.

Our experience

Malaysia (about Penang)

On the island of Penang, which in Malaysia always has a good choice housing. Choose what you like best: a room with a full-wall window with gorgeous view on the sea, a huge swimming pool, a gym, a basketball court and 2 tennis courts on the roof of the building, or do you prefer housing with a jacuzzi and a sauna instead of a tennis court? And I’ll also clarify that all this can be obtained for $11 per day.

Another option for renting a great condo on Penang Island in Malaysia is renting a room in

Sri Lanka (Hikkaduwa)

In Sri Lanka, we rented a room in a house right on the ocean for $10. In other Asian countries, you can find better options for this amount, but in Sri Lanka, unfortunately, the price tag for housing is too high. Therefore, we were glad to find such a cozy option, and also on best beach Hikkaduwa. You left the house, went into the jungle and after 30 seconds you are at the ocean, and there is no one around! Gorgeous.

The most trump card in this house, of course, is not the room or even the excellent owners. This is the location.

And now about our feelings: Pawithra, the sister of the owner of the house, explained over the phone to a tuk-tuk how to get home when I had a cold, actively treated my throat, rented us a full-fledged motorcycle for only $4 a day (there are no such prices in Hikkaduwa at all ), gave valuable advice on where it is more profitable to buy and where to go. Thanks to her, we chose an excellent area for a long and happy life in Hikkaduwa, renting a house for $220 a month. But I won’t recommend living with Pawithra, because there are a lot of similar offers in Hikkaduwa.

Sri Lanka (Kandy)

But I personally highly, highly recommend the next heroine of this post. Meet Sri Lankan Kalyani. Her husband rents out a room in their Kandy home with a private bathroom, fan, hot water and breakfast for $19 a night.

It’s not so easy to melt our hearts, we rarely make friends with locals, more often we only have business relations with them, but we became great friends with Kalyani. It's all about her sincere care and, probably, accumulated maternal love, or something. Her children live abroad and she misses them very much, so after talking with us, Kalyani said that we are like her children and we don’t owe her anything for her help.

At our first meeting, she met us in a car and drove us home, then drove us to bus stop, although this was not necessary, at the end of our stay she took us to the railway station, fed us fruits for slaughter, really for slaughter, made us the kind of breakfasts we like, sometimes cooked dinners, and included her husband if we needed somewhere -go and find out something about Kandy. In general, she surrounded us with such care that we really felt at home. At the same time, she was not intrusive and did not violate our personal space.

We chose this option because there is a desk and as many as 2 closets (and not hangers as usual among Sri Lankans). There is a fan, but we never even used it because the house is surrounded by shady trees. The house is not hot or stuffy.

The living room has a nice little balcony where we whiled away the evenings and listened to the sounds of the jungle.

View from the window. In the evenings, monkeys jump through the jungle.

The house is clean and surrounded by fresh and artificial flowers.

Very quiet area. The nearest stop is a 15-minute walk. The center is 30 minutes on foot, or by bus.

When you walk to the stop, there are great views.

There are a lot of similar accommodations on Airbnb, but if you want to stay with Kalyani, here is a link to her profile
husband. Say hello from Daria and Denis, I think she will be pleased. And if you register using this
link, you will be pleased, because you will receive a $25 gift for your reservation if its value exceeds $75.
So, if you rent housing from Kalyani (or from someone else, it doesn’t matter) for $19 per day for 4 days, then instead of $85 ($76 for housing + $9 percent airbnb) you will pay only $60.

Belarus (Brest)

In Brest we rented an excellent new two-room apartment in the very center for 40 BYN.

Clean, cozy, floor-to-ceiling windows - we loved it!

Georgia, Tbilisi)

In Tbilisi we rented an apartment for long term on . Be sure to mail it.

The apartment is great. Two-room apartment in the center for only $14 per day.

In Georgia, we also rented housing in Gori and Bakuriani.

We also rented housing in Russia (Chelyabinsk), Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand (Phuket and Bangkok), but we haven’t had time to write posts about it yet.

I hope you found this detailed article helpful. If you have any questions, ask them in the comments, like, and tell your friends about the article. Everyone have a great holiday and all sorts of bonuses while traveling!

The question that certainly worries us when paying for something via the Internet, when posting our personal data and when booking vacation rentals - is it safe, is it reliable, will I not run into scammers?

We will answer all these questions regarding the housing rental service in this article. By the way, if you still don’t know what kind of site this is, we advise you to read.

Describe what to pay for services or goods through the form secure payment- we will not use a proven method that is worth relying on. We won’t go on and on about how large companies don’t seem to skimp on their information security department. We will better tell you how to avoid becoming a victim of fraud, what to do if any conflict arises, and how and when to correctly pay for your accommodation booked through the site.

Firstly, all accommodation on the site is divided into those that are booked instantly as soon as you click the “Book” button, and do not require confirmation from the owner of the accommodation, and those where this confirmation is still needed. The second category is much larger, and it’s worth clarifying when to pay.

Now you have chosen the apartment/villa/hut that suits you and are ready to pay for the reservation. Do not hurry. Because some owners forget to update the calendar or for any other reason, the dates you need will be available on the website, but will not be available in the owner's mind. So it would be better to first write a personal message on the website to the owner of the apartment to clarify whether he agrees to your dates, conditions, etc. In addition, you can at the same time ask questions that interest you, for example, is there Wifi, how long is the walk to the beach, etc.

In principle, if you pay for the accommodation immediately, but the owner refuses to reserve your reservation, it’s okay, the money will be returned to you. True, in about a month - it all depends on how long your bank will do this.

Secondly, so that you don’t have problems with the site, you must remember one simple thing - payment is made only through the site!

Unfortunately, there are quite a few scammers in the world, and a small percentage of them are also directly related to the Airbnb service. Sometimes it happens that the owner of the apartment asks you to pay him a deposit for the safety of the property directly to his bank account or simply offers to bypass the site fee (it is charged to both the guest and the landlord), again paying the bill directly. Do not do this under any circumstances, no matter how much you would like to save an extra couple of thousand. In 99 percent, if you transfer money to the owner’s account, and not through the site, then you will not receive any apartment/villa/hut, and the “owner” will disappear from the radar.

Do all negotiations with landlords, all money transfers, everything that is in any way related to the Airbnb service through the website. Otherwise, if problems, misunderstandings or errors arise, the company will not be able to help. So, we advise you to “play by the rules” for the safety of your funds and save your nerves.

By the way, it also happens that after booking accommodation on the site, you receive a letter in the mail asking you to pay the bill. This is also the work of scammers, it is better to report this to Airbnb security by email [email protected], and delete/ignore/burn the letter. We remind you that payment is only through a secure payment form and nothing else!

If you did everything correctly, but when you arrived at the apartment or when paying or during your stay, or indeed at any time, problems arose - call the support service, where not only do they speak Russian, but they will also promptly solve all your problems questions and misunderstandings. Free international support number - 8 800 301 71 04. We hope you don't need it!

In addition, on the official website, in the support section, in the “Trust and Security” tab, you can find answers to the most popular questions that users have.

About how I make choices best hotels and what services I use for this, I already talked about this in my article, today I will talk about my experience in renting private housing through the website Airbnb.com

This is exactly how I stayed in Rome in Italy, in Avignon and in Apt (Provence) in France. The bonus in this article will be a $32 discount on your first trip to Russia and the world through this site. But first, here are the details about this service and my reviews on the Airbnb website.

The official website Airbnb.com is the largest site for booking private apartments or guesthouses around the world. This is the easiest way to rent an entire villa or room, or even just a bed in an aboriginal apartment. The only question is your desires and capabilities.

For me, when traveling, to feel the real “living” atmosphere of a particular place, to live a different life - perhaps the most important thing is why I go somewhere at all.

Therefore, choosing a place where I want to stay during my trip is not so much a desire for me to find a temporary roof over my head for minimal money, but rather another way to enjoy my trip.

Do you want to live in the center of Paris, but are you even willing to “tighten up” a little so that you are ready to live in the same apartment with the owners, just to pay a little money for your trip?

Or maybe, on the contrary, you are looking for a large luxury villa by the sea with a swimming pool to go there with the whole family or even a large group.

Then Airbnb might be the site for you. in the best possible way find what you are looking for. In addition, this is the easiest way to make friends with the natives, who will tell you about their city better than any guides and may provide some assistance during the trip (but this is not necessary).

Yes, any country, any city has its own housing booking sites or real estate agencies offering their services, but Airbnb, in this regard, is a global platform and operates remotely around the globe.

If you want to search for local apartment rental sites and bother with “translation difficulties” when communicating with agents or homeowners, please do so. For the long term, this is generally the most profitable way to rent housing abroad.

For me, the Airbnb website and other booking sites still seem like some sort of protection against scammers.

Which generally manage to appear here, but I’ll talk about that below.

And so, who will you, for example, complain to if suddenly some problems arise with the housing that you rented yourself based on an advertisement? Will the owner demand additional payment for some unspecified services or will some things disappear from the apartment during your absence?

And the Airbnb website will still become the arbiter that will protect you from such troubles almost completely.

You can contact the support service if anything happens, and give a negative review if the situation is completely beyond the pale. Few homeowners would lose their positive reputation on the site for short-term gain; in this case, it is very important to them - it is the key to the success of their business.

Actually, this was the decisive moment for me why I started booking accommodation through the official Airbnb website. Because I want local exoticism, but not so much potential problems.

August 26, 2014 at 09:23

• Airbnb Blog

How to rent a house

A little secret for those looking for accommodation for two. Find an apartment/room for one person through the search, and then add a second guest in the selected option. Please note that rooms for two or three guests may be more profitable even than those listed in the category for singles.

Search filters make choosing housing much easier: Internet, parking, the possibility of holding events, smoking - this is not a complete list of criteria by which you can choose suitable options. In addition, the ability to search by keywords has been implemented, which allows you to find apartments with an office/workplace/near key locations. Convenient when you need housing solely for work or business negotiations; Choosing accommodation based on a map of the area will allow you to stay exactly next to the office of the desired company.

The issuance of housing in the search depends on many factors, including profile data and the specifics of the trip.

Verified photos

The photo in the ad can tell a lot about the rental location. The Airbnb sign in the top right corner of the photo means that the photos were uploaded to the site by the host. And the Verified Photo sign indicates that an Airbnb photographer was in this place and did a photo shoot. That is, the photo exactly corresponds to reality.

Don't be afraid to share a room

If you're not socially anxious, try renting a room rather than an apartment. Firstly, the room will cost you less. Secondly, communication with the owners of the apartment will solve many everyday issues: you will have someone to ask about the nearest pharmacy/ATM, and maybe you can have a drink together in a nearby bar. Carefully read apartment descriptions and user profiles - it usually indicates whether the owner wants to spend time with guests or not. To maintain your privacy, check whether the room is locked.

Response rate

Do you want the hosts to quickly answer any of your questions? Pay attention to the number that appears under the owner's photo in the ad. “Response rate” is an indicator that indicates how often the apartment owner responds to requests. Hosts with this indicator above 90% respond as quickly as possible.

If you need an apartment right away, look for options with an “Instant Booking” button, which allows you to make a reservation without waiting for confirmation from the owner.

Reviews

Read the reviews! Travelers who have lived in this place write honestly about their time there. However, the absence of any reviews is not a cause for concern. Just ask all the questions that matter most to you on the site so that you understand exactly where you will live. In addition, an apartment that currently has few reviews may cost less. Travelers also publish reviews about their hosts - you can find out in advance their character and manner of communicating with guests.

We monitor user behavior on the site and do not allow cheating positive feedback. For example, when a tenant and landlord repeatedly book a room with each other, the system may interpret this as an attempt to create a positive rating on the site.

Safety

Booking, payment, communication between the tenant and the landlord, reviews - this is the information that we carefully monitor. Airbnb's intelligence system takes into account many factors, based on patterns of potentially dangerous actions (much like what eBay has successfully implemented). Each property listed on the Airbnb platform is assigned “trust points.” Properties with a low score are automatically flagged for closer inspection, helping to track money laundering and other forms of fraud. The system works perfectly - for 6 million residents in 2013, conflict situations requiring payment of compensation from the company were reported only 700 times. And don’t forget that we always have hotline customer service, don't hesitate to complain.

Don’t forget to study your profile, this will allow you to avoid communicating with “random” people.

Communication with the owner

It is customary for us to communicate with the owners kindly. Discuss in advance the standard set of questions: how the keys will be handed over, whether there is Wi-Fi in the apartment, adapters for sockets, a hair dryer, pets, is it possible to use the kitchen, where is the nearest store/pharmacy, how quickly and what transport can you use to get there? to the city center and so on.

You can and should bargain with the owners for housing. You can convince the owner to change the rental price. When booking at the last minute, it may be more profitable for the host to accept you than to leave the apartment empty. Is it possible to significantly reduce the cost of an air mattress, folding bed or sofa? No. But if you move in with a family, you can rent really nice apartments for normal money.

Some owners are worried about their property and usually ask for a small security deposit. After you leave your place of residence, the deposit is returned to the card (provided that you left the apartment intact). The return period for the card is determined by your bank. To avoid controversial issues(in case the owner tries to accuse you of damaging property), when moving out of the apartment, it won’t hurt to invite the owner to make a walk-through or take a photograph of the premises yourself.

Of course, you can do just fine without all of the above. But you can get much more good impressions (or even get them at all), and in some cases save money, with the help of our advice. If you have any observations or questions that are not mentioned here, leave them in the comments.