Airbnb apartment booking service. Renting a home on Airbnb reviews

12.04.2022

My review of the website Airbnb.ru, where I often rent apartments when traveling. Learn about booking accommodation, getting discounts and taking precautions.

I travel 10-15 times a year and often book accommodation on Airbnb.ru. I like this service. In this review I will tell you how to use it safely and profitably. And using the link below, any new user can receive a discount on their first booking.

What is Airbnb

Airbnb is the world's largest private travel rental service. Service statistics: 800,000 accommodation options, 190 countries, 34,000 cities, over 17,000,000 guests who have booked accommodation in this service.

The service operates in many countries, there is a version in Russian: Airbnb.ru.

Through Airbnb you can rent apartments, houses, villas, rooms, rooms in guest houses, residential boats and bungalows, castles, tree houses, campers.

Our apartment is in an old half-timbered house in Rouen, France. It cost 28€ per day.

My review of Airbnb: pros and cons

I have been using this service for seven years now and have rented dozens of different properties around the world. In my collection: houses in the Azores, apartments in Prague, St. Petersburg, Tbilisi, The Hague, Paris, Rouen, Cane, rooms and guesthouses in Barcelona, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand.

Why I like Airbnb:

Interesting. A huge selection of accommodation, more interesting than simple hotels. I try to book authentic apartments with cool design and preferably in houses with history.
Inexpensive. Often renting an apartment on Airbnb.ru is cheaper than renting a hotel room. For example, in France we saved a lot by living in apartments for 28-50€ instead of hotels for 100€. For a family or group of at least 3-4 people, it is almost always more profitable to book accommodation rather than hotel rooms.
Practical. Living in an apartment with a kitchen is very convenient and profitable - you save on food.
Privacy. I’m an introvert, so I love privacy: in an apartment and house that is completely at your disposal, there is more of it than in hotels.
Excellent support in Russian: they work quickly, they always help.
Convenient system of reviews, ratings and filters allow you to choose best accommodation.
Simple and clear website design.
Safety. You pay by card on the service’s website; you don’t need to bring cash with you or settle financial matters with the owner.
Visa eligible. All consulates accept bookings from Airbnb without any problems, I received 4 or 5 Schengen for them.

I have never had a bad experience booking on Airbnb. I am completely satisfied with the service, I can only find fault with the little things.

What I do not like:

Service commission when renting housing - 10-15%. However, everything is fair, they must earn money.
There is a risk of bumping into a bad owner. But this is a human factor, the service is not to blame here. But there is a system of reviews of other tourists about Airbnb accommodation and a support service. Next, I will tell you how to choose a reliable host and good housing.

Our authentic apartment in an old house in the center of Tbilisi - for only 1,700 rubles per day.

Choose apartments with reviews and a high rating (4-5) - this is a guarantee that everything will be fine with the housing. Reviews on Airbnb cannot be faked, so all good hosts try to please their guests in order to get good ratings.

Read reviews - people can report important things: for example, the Internet or heating is not working well, noise from the street is disturbing at night, and so on.

Reliable owner:

has a verified profile,
a lot of positive reviews,
I registered for the service a long time ago.

In case of problems, always write or call support. Our apartment in France was once poorly cleaned and we had to sweep the floor ourselves. I thought it was fair to ask Airbnb to refund us the money for cleaning - they returned it the same day. If the housing does not correspond to what is stated in the description, complain and the service will either give you coupons for a discount of $50-100, or provide better and more expensive housing in the same city.

Our cozy apartment in Paris for 50 euros per night.

About prices

The cost of housing almost always depends on the season: in high season- high demand and prices are 2-3 times higher. I try to travel during the low season so as not to overpay.

Airbnb charges a service fee, the amount of which depends on the amount of the reservation - usually around 10-15%.

Hosts often include a separate cleaning fee in the bill, but you will see this amount before booking.

Sometimes municipal taxes from tourists are included in the bill (in Italy, for example).

In rare cases, the owner may take a deposit for the safety of property - this is typical for respectable apartments and apartments, where there is something to spoil, destroy and break. In my practice there was only one such example.

The amount you pay when booking is final. When you meet the owner, you will not need to pay anything else.

A house on the ocean is wonderful! My best accommodation, rented through Airbnb.ru. We lived with friends and paid 1,700 rubles per person. Flourish Island, Azores, Portugal.

How to book a place on Airbnb

Everything is very simple. Briefly, it looks like this: go to the Airbnb website, look at accommodation in the right city for the desired dates, you choose, contact the owner, book, come, live and enjoy. Now more details.

Stage 1. Registration

Fill out your profile: add a photo, link to your Facebook page and phone number, write a few lines about yourself - all this is necessary to confirm that you are a real person and give future landlords the opportunity to get to know you. It is advisable to upload a scan of your document to confirm your account and make it reliable. This is for safety reasons.

After registration, you can invite your friends and receive a new bonus - $17 for each friend. Not a bad and nice discount!

Stage 2. Choosing housing

Now you can start looking for housing.

Airbnb is a convenient and simple service, you can easily figure it out. Enter the required information into the search box: destination, dates and number of guests. A page will open with the available options and their location on the map. There are search filters at the top. You can limit the price range, select the area, type of accommodation, and more.

Open the pages of the accommodation you like. Read the description, reviews, look at the photos. Compare and choose the best option.

Once you have chosen your accommodation, you can book it immediately or write to the owner first to ask any questions you may have. Do what is most convenient for you.

This is what the Airbnb.ru website looks like.

Stage 3. Payment

To book accommodation you will need bank card or PayPal. Payments are processed through a secure protocol. Recently, it became possible to pay half the amount, and the rest later, about a week before arrival. Please double check the dates and number of guests before paying.

Once you book an apartment on Airbnb, the host has 24 hours to approve your request. If he doesn't do this, the money will be immediately returned to your card. This happened to me once.

The service has accommodation marked “instant booking” - the reservation is made automatically, confirmation of the owner of the accommodation is not required.

On the Internet now, every travel site tells how to rent out your home on airbnb for the winter or vacation, but few people actually rent out theirs and know how everything really is. After reading such sites with advice: “How to rent out an apartment through airbnb,” I decided to write this article, based on own experience working with this system. Main points and pitfalls, whether or not to draw up an agreement, 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 number 1, as you know, for rental housing. When you register as an owner, you won't pay a commission on your first 5 bookings!

How to rent out an apartment using airbnb.

Everything is 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 via this link You will have access to not only registration for renting out an apartment on Airbnb, but also a housing bonus if you go on vacation yourself for 2100 rubles, or 25 euros.

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

The most important aspect of creating your rental listing will be the photos. And it doesn’t matter whether you do 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 items. This spoils the picture, and subsequently the guest can point out the discrepancy between the things stated in the ad. So, in one photo I had a MacBook on the table - and everyone asked if it would be available upon check-in.
Take photos of the cozy details, the place where people will sleep, the bathroom and toilet rooms. This is what people pay attention to first. All sorts of cute little things have a positive effect and attract careful tourists who value comfort.
Make a map of the area, describing all the delights of what can be found nearby: shops, transport stops and where you can take a walk before going to bed. If your apartment is in a residential area, this will be very useful and, perhaps, will become a decisive factor for the guest to choose your accommodation. You can just save the map image from Google and label where everything is.
Choose the most successful and cozy photo for the header. In the search, it is she who will “work” for you. Consider this the keyword that will get your ad clicked.

Apartment management: meeting and seeing off guests.

Airbnb has made everything easier for hosts and guests when it comes to search and financial matters. But nevertheless, you will still have to meet your guests. And here there are 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 to a third party? Aren't you afraid after some time to find your apartment in a ruined state?

Airbnb has an internal forum for renters. In the St. Petersburg thread, the issue with the management company is discussed and there are negative reviews. When Management Company, roughly speaking, squeezes all the juice out of the facility without carrying out repairs and other necessary things (changing worn-out linen, for example). By handing over a clean, renovated apartment to management, you can end up with a dead one. Approach the issue more carefully.

"Underwater rocks"

Despite the simplicity that airbnb came up with, making renting a home via the Internet as simple and convenient as possible, there are also some pitfalls in it. Therefore, I want to voice what I have already encountered myself.

Property insurance and collateral.

For residents of Russia, the 1 million landlord insurance declared in the airbnb system is not valid.

To protect yourself from possible problems with the tenant, Airbnb is advised to set a deposit. The minimum recommended amount is 75 euros and it is frozen on your guest's card. But I advise you to also conclude a lease agreement, an ordinary paper one, in which it is advisable to write down the passport details of your tenant, so that if something happens, 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 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 withdrawal of funds.

For each transaction on your card, when you want to withdraw earned dollars or euros, the bank will charge you its commission.

IN currently For euro payments, 12 euros are charged, even if you have a direct euro account. The commission is “bitten off” by the partner bank. So far, only Alfa Bank does not charge such a commission. To avoid unnecessary expenses, you can set a withdrawal limit, and then airbnb will send you not after each guest check-in, but when a certain threshold (any) is reached.

Payment currency.

You can only receive money in the currency in which you set the price for your apartment. Currently, when the exchange rate of the euro and dollar is rising 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 also be credited in rubles without any extra commission. By indicating the cost of renting an apartment or room in euros or dollars, they can only be withdrawn 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 property. If she is in a very tourist place, in the center, for example, then you can count on success with foreigners. If the apartment is a little out of the way, in a residential area even 20 minutes away by metro, then the flow of foreigners dries up, but our compatriots are still attracted to such apartments. Due to the growth of the exchange rate, as happened in last 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 holidays. The rest of the time, demand falls.

Cancel Reservation.

If for some reason you cancel your reservation, your plans change, for example, or you simply change your mind, the system will block these dates anyway and you will not be able to rent out the property again. 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 protect yourself from a situation where a guest cancels at the last minute, choosing another accommodation, for example. I know of a case where a reservation was canceled right before a holiday and the tenant was unable to rent out the apartment within a short period of time and lost money.

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

Good luck to you, interesting and careful guests!!

Important addition

By the way, if you don't already know! You can also rent out your accommodation through Booking.com!! Site number 1, as you know, for rental housing. When you register as an owner using this link, you will not pay a commission on your first 5 bookings!

Important addition

Daniel Yozhik
Daniel Yozhik
Daniel Yozhik
Evgeniya Melchenko
Mary
Ruslan
Daniel Yozhik
Evgeniy Pritula
- sestrik
  - Evgeniy Pritula
  - Daniel Yozhik
Anton
Andryusiks
Nadezhda
Nadezhda
Tatiana
Tatiana

I remember my first independent travel- straight up the Stone Age. It was necessary to check with the hotel or with partner companies, at the airport counter, or look for accommodation on the spot, because there was no convenient payment online. However, in those days everyone used paper air tickets, and electronic ones caused mistrust. It’s good that everything has changed, although some Southeast Asian countries, for example Myanmar, are still at this level.

What is Airbnb?

Features of AirBnB

6. Help from the owner

In my rental cases, all the apartment owners were very helpful. For example, in Turkey they painted landmarks and walking routes To see everything, they recommended inexpensive restaurants with vegetarian food and helped us book transfers. And all this without imposing services like “buy an excursion from me.” The owner of my apartment in Phuket meets guests at the airport and helps as much as possible. Check with the owners, clarify all the details: is it nearby, what infrastructure surrounds the house, how fast the Internet works. Live communication always helps. There are owners who mark recommended restaurants, attractions and entertainment on the map under the description of the accommodation. I would say that Airbnb hosts, in a sense, can replace your guide and help you navigate unfamiliar city and will tell you how to best spend your time. Hotel reception desks are mostly staffed by visiting people who have little interest in the tourist component and sometimes don’t even know the city’s transport patterns. So on Airbnb, a good host is a traveler's friend.

7. Long stay

Depending on the apartment, there are long-term stay options available on Airbnb. For example, renting a villa for two to three weeks will cost the same as for a month. Check with the hosts for details and ask for a discount for long-term stays.

8. Airbnb is ideal in big cities

Disadvantages of renting a home through Airbnb

1. This is not a hotel

Living conditions in a private apartment compared to a hotel room have their disadvantages. For some apartments and villas, cleaning is charged separately and is included in the final bill. In apartments, sometimes maid service is not included at all or is provided only once a week. You won't always be served breakfast. When moving into an apartment, check the serviceability of the air conditioner, TV, plumbing and integrity of the furniture. It happens that the previous tenant broke something, but the owner did not notice. In such cases, when leaving, it will be impossible to prove that it was not you who did this. In some cases, the owner takes a deposit for the safety of the property, which is blocked on your card and returned 48 hours after check-out. I would say that such a deposit is not a minus, since all the details are spelled out in the description of the property. Compare that some hotels also take a deposit, but do not write about it on booking sites. It’s better to know about the deposit in advance than to be notified about it upon arrival.

2. Response speed

Another difference from booking sites is the speed of confirmation. The owners usually respond within an hour or two, but sometimes I wait a day for messages from them. For urgent reservations, if you have already decided on accommodation, select the option " Instant confirmation"In other cases, you need to search and find out details in advance. Once I spent a whole week discussing the details of renting an apartment in Bali.

3. Internet users are uneducated

Sometimes the owner does not fully understand the functional part of the Airbnb system, and there will be serious errors on the apartment page. For example, the lack of written information about additional bills for electricity and water can become an unpleasant surprise upon arrival. Or the owner incorrectly filled out information about the cost of living for the second and subsequent guests. Check these details if you are going to rent an apartment in Thailand. Some hosts fill out information about housing in their native language, of course, the built-in translator will help translate, but in situations with Korean, Chinese and other Asian languages, it seems that something is missing.

4. Airbnb commission

7. Cancellation

In rare cases, the owner may cancel your reservation, although there is a penalty for doing so. You can see all the owner's cancellations in his profile. Please read the cancellation conditions on your part carefully. There are several of them, it all depends on the conditions and time of cancellation.

As you can see, the pros of renting a home through Airbnb outweigh the cons. It is worth noting that the system presents more than a million unique options - there is always a choice. In my opinion, the options for renting an apartment in Phuket are superior hotel rooms in terms of cost and comfort. Tell us about your experience of renting a home through Airbnb in the comments.

An alternative to hotels - renting apartments, apartments and houses - is becoming increasingly popular in the world.
When you come to a foreign city, you want to feel the comfort of home. Most hotel rooms, and you will agree with me, cannot replace the comfort of home with a kitchenette, hanging shelves filled with pots, drawers with spoons and forks, a sink and a stove.

For example, it’s more pleasant for me to sit in the kitchen than in the living room - everything is at hand: a refrigerator with a supply of drinks and food, a table where you can have intimate conversations or watch TV... They probably understood me.

Pros of living in an apartment

Especially apartment prices for those who come to relax on long term— I won’t hide the fact that it’s also cheaper, since the products in European supermarkets are much different in freshness and variety from those in Russia, and I think anyone can cook a steak from non-frozen meat or bake fresh fish.

Accordingly, we save on going to restaurants, absolutely freely pour ourselves wine and something stronger, and we are also not shy about smoking at the table.

In the world of travel, there is a need for apartments from owners, just as there is a need for owners to rent out these apartments.

How Airbnb works

What Airbnb has: a database of owners who offer their properties for short-term rental, has reviews from those who have already used their services, has an owner profile where he writes about himself, and has photographs of what the owner offers.

There is also a processing center that accepts money as a deposit, brings us together with the owner and, within the framework of the agreement between him and us, protects the rights of both, transferring financial relations into a contractual framework: when you book housing, you pay money, but the owner of the property will only receive it the next day after your check-in.

That is: if you don’t like something and the offer published on the Airbnb website by the owner is not true, you have the right to get your money back.

If the owner of the property violates the agreement and cancels your reservation, you get back the entire amount paid + bonus (Airbnb fines the owner and this fine is your bonus).

The process of searching and booking accommodation

You enter the place (This is a country, city or region) where you are looking for accommodation.
You enter the dates you are interested in.
Number of residents.
And you get search results - a photo of the proposed housing and the price.

There are filters: by housing cost limits; by type of housing: “house, apartment, bed”; for services: internet, washing machine, parking, etc., etc.

Did you choose your favorite based on the photo? Read the reviews of those who have already stayed there.
Read about the owner - there is his photo, what he writes about himself and what clients who have already stayed here write about him.

Well, if everything suits you: book! To do this, you naturally need a visa or mastercard credit or debit bank card.
The money will be debited from your card, but the owner of the property will receive it only on the second day of your stay in his apartment or house.

If you don’t like something, namely: if something is different from the offer that was on the Airbnb website, you can write to Airbnb support and they will return your money and select it for you Alternative option housing.

Airbnb Pitfalls and Cons

The ease with which any homeowner can become an Airbnb partner and get into their database is why large quantity outright swindlers and scoundrels in this database.
If Booking.com checks hotels and apartments included in the database since both of them must be legal entities (firms, LLCs, etc.), Airbnb does not do this check.

Difficulty contacting support.
I have many positive results of solving situations with Booking.com support service in Russian: .

It's no secret that anything can happen and no one is safe from mistakes. Booking.com handled all situations with honor: I received an alternative or a refund in situations that seemed hopeless at first glance.

Airbnb acted according to the scenario: we’ll wait, maybe everything will resolve itself.
I did not receive any help from Airbnb, for example, in a situation when, upon arriving at the host, I discovered that the previous residents had extended their stay.

That is, in essence, I found myself homeless in the evening in a foreign city. I had to, and naturally no one compensated me for the Airbnb mess.

It often happens that people who have booked a beautiful apartment (pictured) in fact receive an uncleaned shithole with hair on the bed linen with holes, an unwashed toilet and a sink that was clogged a year ago and smells like a morgue.

In addition, it is more convenient for me to book 1-2 days and change location often - I actively travel across countries. With the Airbnb system, this (being mobile) is impossible.

Hi all! In this post we will talk about how to use a website for renting housing abroad. And also about some interesting nuances that we recently encountered.

Surely many of you know about this resource, and perhaps you have already discovered it for yourself a long time ago and are traveling this way. Nikita and I first used airbnb services in the summer of 2014, after which we were absolutely delighted and since then we prefer to look for travel accommodation only there.

So, let's start in order. What is airbnb?

Airbnb stands for Air Bed and Breakfast. The name came about after two guys from San Francisco hosted guests at their home because they themselves needed money to pay for their rent. They had three air mattresses at home, which they offered to temporary residents. Every morning the guys prepared breakfast for the guests. After some time, these guys saw a great business idea in their actions and founded the Airbnb website.

The portal itself says the following about itself:

Airbnb began operating in August 2008 in San Francisco, California. Airbnb is a safe and secure place to rent, find, and book unique accommodations anywhere in the world, right on the website or via your mobile device.
Whether it's an apartment for a night, a castle for a week, or a villa for a month, Airbnb brings unique travel experiences to people at every price point in more than 34,000 cities and 190 countries. Add to that global customer support and a rapidly growing travel community. Airbnb is the easiest way for people to make money by renting out their spare space and offering it to millions of people.

In other words, on Airbnb you can find exactly the kind of accommodation that suits your level of comfort and price. The cheapest option is common room. You rent a bed or sofa in a room where someone else lives. At the same time, you naturally use the shower, kitchen, Internet and all the benefits of civilization that are present in the apartment.

The next option is separate room. An apartment may have several rooms; you rent one of them, but other travelers or apartment owners may live in adjacent rooms. This option is very good for those who have little money, but want some privacy. The advantages of the first and second options are that you can always communicate with the owner of the property, and he, as a local person, will tell you how best to get somewhere, where to go, etc.

And the last option for renting apartments on Airbnb is entire housing. This could be a separate apartment or even a house - it depends on your goals and financial capabilities.

Today, more than 25 million people around the world use Airbnb and more than one million apartments are available for rent. The choice is very large for any budget and for any expectations.

Is it safe to travel with Airbnb?

The answer is yes. The service pays great attention to security. If you are afraid of going to unknown people in an unknown apartment, then think about the fact that the owner allows people unknown to him into his apartment, full of his things. In theory, both are at risk, but in practice we have never heard or read about security problems.

The Airbnb community is built on trust. A verified profile is one of the necessary elements that allows guests and hosts to decide who they want to host and stay with.

Airbnb has provided several levels of verification and identity confirmation. When registering, the owner of the apartment attaches a scan of his documents and links his accounts to in social networks, the guests do the same.

There are two main rules that will help you ensure safety:

Please review carefully landlord profile. If your profile is missing any information or photos, write to the owner to update your profile. We always pay attention to the comments left previous occupants. If there are a lot of comments and they are positive, then the landlord is an active participant in Airbnb and can be trusted.
Pay for your reservation only through site payment system. Do not agree to transfer money to the owner’s personal account, because... In this case, Airbnb will not be able to help you if problems arise.

What's good about Airbnb?

Let's look at the undeniable advantages of renting housing through this site:

1. Cost. For those traveling alone, the cheapest accommodation option is either a hostel where you can rent a bed, or even free Couchsurfing. Both options are not very comfortable, noisy and not always pleasant. Especially if you are on a long journey and need to work.

For those traveling as a couple, like us, the hostel is not suitable at all. Because renting the two cheapest beds in a room with 16 beds costs more than renting one separate room in an apartment. This is true. Tested in all countries and cities we visited. Particularly noticeable in Scandinavia. But there is an exception - Riga, there are really very cheap hostels there!

Moreover, if you are traveling with a group of 15 people, I don’t even know what can save you except some camping and Airbnb.

2. Feeling of home. The idea behind the Aibnb community is the slogan “Welcome Home.” This is true. A hotel room is, of course, convenient and comfortable, but real housing, a blanket like at home, mugs with funny inscriptions, a guitar in the corner and morning coffee in the kitchen is completely different. Walking around the city, you feel not like a tourist, but a local, because after the walk you will not go to a room cleaned by the maid, but home.

3. Immersion in culture. Neither the longest excursion nor the most ancient monument and not even the most important one National Museum, will not help you understand as keenly and deeply the mentality of the country in which you find yourself as the unexpected everyday little things that you find at home. You will see the city and the country as they see it local residents. Because you will have the opportunity to become that local.

With Airbnb, you can stay in unique homes of real people - these can be ordinary houses and apartments, or even treehouses and igloos.

4. Comfort and coziness. The good thing about Airbnb is that it makes you feel free. You paid money for housing, they gave you the keys - that's it. You don’t have to hang out with the owner of the apartment, how nice it is on Couchsurfing, you don’t have to endure the snoring of your roommates in the hostel, your things are safe, you don’t have to leave them in the safe every time. You have full rights to the apartment for the rental period - do what you want. The accommodation is usually very cozy, comfortable and pleasant. Everyone, of course, has different concepts of what is convenient and pleasant; more on that a little later. But when traveling around Europe, you can be sure of the cleanliness and beauty of the rented apartments.

But a coin always has two sides, and a stick has two ends. During all our travels, we have more than once encountered various situations in the process of renting through Airbnb, which are better to know about in advance.

What to look for when renting on Airbnb?

1. The service takes a commission ranging from six to 12% of the booking amount. The larger the booking amount, the less Airbnb service fee. It would be hard to call this a minus, because... It is clear that the company's employees must receive a salary and have the means to develop this wonderful resource.

At the end of the booking, you will immediately see the full amount, which includes all fees and the commission of the portal itself. Example below.

2. Some owners, in addition to the rental price, set additional charges . Cleaning fees and damage deposits are common. The deposit for property damage will be taken from your card when you pay the rent and will be returned to your card 48 hours after check-out. If you damage the property, the deposit will not be returned.

As a rule, a deposit is set for those apartments that are quite expensive and have expensive furniture. If you rent cheap housing, most likely there will be no such deposit.

3. Default for people from Russia prices on the website are indicated in rubles. If desired, you can select a different currency in the settings. Given the unstable ruble exchange rate in Lately, the rental process sometimes turns into an attraction. Because the price of the apartment you choose may change within a few hours. Don't be surprised by this. It's not the owner of the apartment who's being naughty.

4. The cost of the same apartment may be different depending on the rental period. Often renting for a month is cheaper than to rent for two weeks, and then for another two weeks. Because the hosts offer discounts for long bookings. Therefore, if you want to spend 25 days in a certain city, consider whether it might be worth staying for 30 days and thus saving several thousand rubles.

5. The owner of the apartment is not always a virtuoso Internet user, so his profile may contain very serious mistakes. One of the situations that we recently encountered would have been completely unfunny if the owner had not eventually agreed to meet us.

The situation is as follows: the landlord indicated the price per day per person. However, he did not enter into the system the information that for each additional guest the same amount must be paid. Airbnb is a very well thought out system that automatically calculates the total payment amount based on the number of people, number of days, etc. But, of course, if the owner did not indicate some data, then this system does not work. For our part, we indicated that there would be two guests and paid the full rental amount from the card.

When we checked into the apartment, the owner asked us to pay in cash for the “second part of the rent,” which we did not know about. He explained this by saying that we paid with the card for only one tenant, and there were two of us. After much investigation, we explained to him his mistake, but it turned out that all the tenants had previously agreed to his conditions and paid for the accommodation of the second tenant in cash on the spot. Wow! Either he really wanted to deceive us, or he really wasn’t very smart.

The moral is: Airbnb charges you in full! You don't have to pay anyone anything extra! To avoid misunderstandings, before paying, talk to the owner of the apartment via correspondence on the website, discuss the final amount and talk again about how many people there will be. Discuss all the conditions with him and make sure that you understand each other.

6. Although the Airbnb name suggests that you are entitled to not only a bed but also breakfast, you can only count on breakfast if it is indicated in the description of the accommodation. Read the description very carefully! Not everyone has the Internet and a washing machine. To avoid disappointment with your apartment, simply consider your options carefully and don't be afraid to engage in correspondence with the owner.

7. Correspondence with the owner It’s better to only conduct on Airbnb. Because in case of any claims from one of the parties, it can be used as evidence.

8. When you move into an apartment, together with the owner, look at everything carefully and point out broken things, if there are any. Perhaps one of the previous tenants spoiled something, but the landlord did not notice and will blame you in the future. We also had a similar situation. It is almost impossible to prove that you didn’t break anything.

9. All apartments and all owners are completely different. It’s almost impossible to get a complete picture of the property from the profile on the website. For example, twice we unexpectedly found ourselves in the slums, although, of course, this was not written about in the profile.

Sometimes housing is very expensive, but on site you find a lot of dirt, dust, lack of towels and necessary utensils. The owner gives you the keys, and you don’t see him again until you leave, although according to Airbnb rules he must help you in every possible way if something breaks, etc.

And sometimes, you find the cheapest accommodation in the whole city, and the owner goes to meet you at the airport, prepared toiletries, fresh bathrobes for you, stocked the refrigerator with food and comes to cook dinners! All in all, price is not always an indicator of the quality of housing.

Three times already we have received a pleasant surprise. We usually book a private room because... This option suits us best in terms of price. But three times in a row, having paid only the cost of the room, we received the entire apartment at our disposal, because... either the owner of the apartment was away, or constantly spent the night with his girlfriend, or decided to live with his parents. There's always a little bit of uncertainty with Airbnb. 🙂

10. Airbnb is a large and busy resource. It's no surprise that glitches and errors sometimes happen. One day my card was charged twice for a month's rent. After contacting the support service, my money was returned and, as a gift, I was given a coupon for further bookings in the amount of four thousand rubles, valid for a year. For active travelers this is a very useful and pleasant bonus.

So if something goes wrong during the booking process, don't worry! The support service will definitely solve your problem.

11. It’s better to register your account on Airbnb at email you actively use. You won’t receive any unnecessary mailings, but you won’t miss any important emails from the service. For example, if you contact support, all responses will be sent by email, personal account you won't see them on the website.

Another nice functionality of the site is SMS sending. Your phone will receive replies from the hosts, even if you do not have access to the Internet. This is very convenient, so we recommend that you also include your real phone number.

12. Please note that some owners install minimum booking period, for example, three days. And also keep in mind that Airbnb provides an option to cancel a reservation, but each landlord chooses flexible, moderate or strict cancellation conditions.

13. This has not happened to us, but nevertheless, sometimes this happens - the owner himself can cancel reservation. The site provides fines for hosts, but force majeure events happen not only to guests, so you should treat such situations with understanding. As a rule, in the host’s profile there will be a note that he once canceled a paid reservation for someone.

14. Lastly, remember that renting on Airbnb is this is not the same as booking a room in a hotel or hostel. Some landlords do not respond immediately, the available dates may be incorrectly indicated in your profile, and in addition, you may be refused to rent if the owner does not like your profile, and this is his full right.

Therefore, it is better to look for accommodation on Airbnb in advance, have your profile filled out correctly, and also expect that during the “hot” seasons it can be very difficult to find an apartment. For example, during the carnival period in Rio, inexpensive housing on Airbnb was sold out in another two months.

25$

Friends, we hope this post was useful to you! We talked about all the nuances that we considered important and worthy of your attention. If you don't yet have an Airbnb account, we suggest you follow this link: www.airbnb.ru/c/ndatsko1?s=8 and register (copy and paste the link into the address bar). You'll immediately receive $25 that you can use on any booking. Well, we will also get $25. :)

If you have experience using Airbnb or you prefer another way of finding accommodation when traveling, write in the comments, we are interested to know how our friends and acquaintances travel. Also, if you have any questions about renting housing, we will be happy to answer them, write!