rnb service. Criteria for choosing accommodation on Airbnb
Today I’ll tell you about the service, which was created in 2008 and is increasingly gaining popularity among travelers. Read also about ours in Bangkok.
You will learn how to register and book accommodation on Airbnb, how to get a $25 discount coupon, 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 suit your taste and budget in almost any country in the world. But hotels are not always the best option accommodation - sometimes it is more convenient to rent apartments. This is what Airbnb helps with. We must admit, we just recently started booking accommodation through Airbnb, and now we will help you figure it out too.
Airbnb is rental housing around the world from apartment owners. Housing can be either individual rooms, houses, apartments, or interesting options such as trailers, castles and islands. Now the system already includes more than 34,000 cities in 190 countries.
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 home. 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 a 24-hour support center and get a refund or resolve 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 major cities, where hotel prices are steep. But you can rent an apartment in Airbnb for 20-40 dollars, and at a decent level. For that kind of money, in some cities hotels only offer small rooms.
- The possibility of live communication over a cup of tea with the owner, a conversation with whom will help you get to know the country even more deeply and get interesting information.
- It is especially beneficial to rent an apartment for a large group or a family with a child, when the presence of a kitchen and separate space is very desirable. Per person, it is often cheaper than a hotel, even very decent apartments, the equivalents of which in hotels are very expensive.
- An Airbnb reservation is visa-compliant, meaning a printout of the reservation can be provided to the consulate
- Interesting accommodation options, not the same type of chain hotels. For example, here.
How to register with Airbnb and get a $25 coupon
Upon transition you will receive from us personal Airbnb coupon for $25 for your first booking (works if its value exceeds $75). For example, if you rent an apartment for 3 days for $27 per day, then you will pay not $81, but only $56! This coupon is stored for a whole year, and even if you didn’t use it the first time, you can do so later.
$25 Airbnb coupon from us!
2. Click on the “get discount” button
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’s simple and won’t take more than 3 minutes, follow the service prompts in your personal account.
Account verification methods
Account verification methods:
- Phone number
- Your profile photo
- Linking social networks to your account
- Sending a scan of your passport/driver's license.
Why do you need a verified Airbnb profile?
By confirming your profile, both you and the owner prove that you really exist, thus increasing trust. After all, Airbnb is not only a booking service, but also a community of travelers.
Often people choose to live with a confirmed owner of the apartment (the corresponding icon appears opposite him) and I advise you to do so. Also, confirmed guests are more highly valued))
How to rent a home on Airbnb
Now is the time to book your accommodation on Airbnb. We go to the official website and enter the city and dates we need into the search bar.
Search for apartments around the world on Airbnb
All available options appear, and to the right of them is a map, which is very convenient to look at by area, moving and moving.
Booking on Airbnb - search results with filters and map
Pay attention to the filters - there are several of them. You can select the type of accommodation, price range and others. More filters are available by clicking the “More filters” button - you can clearly define your housing requirements.
How to rent an apartment on Airbnb - choosing options
We choose the options we like and read about them carefully. There is a section “House Rules”, there are various conditions: is it possible to smoke, is it possible to have pets, what kind of beds, internet, bathroom, etc.
Read the description and house rules
Pay attention to reviews and whether the owner's account is verified. If not, then there is some risk, and perhaps this is just a new participant, 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 visited this place and the photos correspond to reality.
Reviews of the apartment on Airbnb
Reviews of the property owner and his verified profile
Also pay attention to the cancellation conditions, there are 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. You can read more at.
Cleaning fee. In some cases, a cleaning fee is included and is quite large. Be careful.
In some variants it is taken deposit for the safety of property. Nothing is debited from you; in case of property damage, the host must send you a request for payment through Airbnb 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 cases it is free.
We contact the owner of the apartment, find out the details that interest us and determine its adequacy, if required :-). If you don’t know English, then enter the Russian text into Google Translator and copy it.
Button to contact the property owner and booking button
Airbnb accommodation reservation and payment
1. Next, send a reservation request. Here you will need to enter data bank card or PayPal wallet. The billing address is your address, more precisely 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 occurs immediately, just like in Booking or other similar services.
3. After the owner has confirmed the request and the payment has gone through, you will receive a receipt by e-mail and detailed instructions with the owner’s contacts and housing address. An SMS is also sent to your phone. Your money remains in the system and is transferred to the owner only after the first day of your stay.
A confirmation receipt appears in your personal account
If you registered using , and your booking is more than $75, then you will receive an Airbnb coupon worth $25. This amount is reflected after clicking the “Book instantly” or “Request booking” button in the “coupon” column, as in the screenshot.
Airbnb $25 discount on first booking!
We will be very grateful if you register using our link - you will feel good, and we will receive a small bonus from Airbnb. :-) Thank you!
That's all we wanted to tell you about how to rent a home on Airbnb. We will soon publish an article with answers to frequently asked questions. See you and happy travels!
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 greatly facilitate the choice of housing: Internet, parking, the possibility of holding events, smoking - this is not a complete list of criteria by which you can select 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.
Services for home swapping and cohabitation appeared during the crisis in 2008, when people lost their jobs, company incomes fell, but the desire to live as before remained, and the ability to pay high price for “as before” - no. The startups Couchsourfing and Airbnb are believed to have originated from there.
Home sharing has become a prime example of the sharing economy, where one of the main principles is access to use rather than ownership: housing is used as a tool and an opportunity to travel for free.
Of course, everyone has heard about the Airbnb website, which offers profitable rental housing around the world from owners. But this resource is far from the only one of its kind; we have selected ten reliable sites where you can rent an apartment when traveling anywhere on the planet.
Homestay
Homestay.com is a huge site that helps those who want to not only rent, for example, a room, but also get “guides” into the local life of the country. Here in the database, 50,000 families from more than 150 countries are registered, and you can find a suitable housing option depending on your hobbies! Yes, yes, the site analyzes your interests and the interests of the hosts and, based on this analysis, offers homestay accommodation options.Couchsurfing 
Сouchsurfing.com was launched in 2004 and in a few years has grown into a huge multi-million community of people. On this moment 12 million people from more than 200,000 cities are registered in the system. Those who offer their housing on this site do so for free. Yes, you can actually write to someone, for example, from Paris, and when you arrive in France you can stay in your new friend’s house for free. Couchsurfing is an exchange of information to some extent, the one you come to is interested in your life in your country, and you study his life from the inside. Yes, of course, sometimes you have to endure some inconveniences, for example, you may not have a room at your disposal, but just a sofa, but it’s free.
Lovehomeswap.com is also a site for finding free housing, or rather for exchanging housing. The resource has been operating since 2011, and now offers 75,000 real estate properties in more than 160 countries. Having found a suitable villa or apartment in the system, you make a “swap” through the site, so during your trip you will exchange your own property, for example, for a villa in Tuscany. However, membership to the site costs from £144 for an unlimited number of swaps for a year. But, there is also a free demo version for 14 days.
This is perhaps one of the oldest sites - it began its work back in 1992, and not from a site on the Internet, but from a printed book in which the addresses of people ready to welcome guests from all over the world were printed. Today, it is a full-fledged resource with more than 65,000 real estate properties and impressive million-dollar exchanges around the world. Here on homeexchange.com people communicate with each other, look for like-minded people and company for travel and, of course, find each other in order to be at home in any country!
Вedycasa.com
Initially, it was the personal blog of a French woman, Magali Boisseau Beerrill, who wanted to show travelers that you can see the world without spending a lot of money on accommodation. But suddenly the blog grew into a website that now has over 260,000 members. It offers rentals not only of rooms, apartments and houses, but also rooms in host families, hostels, places on farms, riads in Morocco, minshuku and ryokan in Japan, as well as casas rurales in Portugal and Spain.
Airbnb.com
Of course, we could not bypass the now widely known Airbnb resource. It was created back in 2008. And now the site has more than 60 million registered users. Here you can rent out your own home and book online real estate around the world.
Culture Go Go
Сulturegogo.com was founded by travelers and educators in English Francesca Luca and Tim Arnaudi from the UK. Their site connects people who want to learn the culture of the state from the inside, and also practice their language knowledge. Anyone receives a free room in a host family and food. As well as a large cultural exchange, travel to the sights of the country and that same language practice. In return, the guest usually helps the hosts in everyday household matters. However, membership to the site costs from 3 to 12 pounds sterling per month, depending on how long you want to stay on the site.
Wwoof - housing on a farm in exchange for help with housework
This is an opportunity to learn more about organic farms, how they function, how the work is structured and what is grown on them. With an annual donation of £20 at wwoofinternational.org you won't have to pay anything else. You can choose the place you want to go to - it could be a vineyard, brewery, land, community, forestry and much more. Wwoof members - farmers and organic farm owners - provide free food, accommodation and knowledge, and in return receive help with everyday activities.
Homestayin.com - how Asia is conquering the West
This site launched in 2012 in Seoul (South Korea) and now helps travelers find and rent rooms in more than 1,200 cities in 85 countries. Most owners offering housing for rent live in England, the USA, Canada, Australia and other English-speaking countries, while guests, as you might guess, travel to these countries mainly from Asia, as a rule. South Korea, Japan and China.
Casaparticularcuba.org - live in Cuba
Surprisingly, Cuba started renting out beds, rooms, apartments and houses long before the advent of many sites like Airbnb. The reason for this is poverty, and renting out your own property is not a bad help for any Cuban family. It got to the point that the state government officially allowed residents to rent out their homes in 1997. Now everyone can find “their” family in Cuba and be completely immersed in the atmosphere of this country. And this is perhaps the most cheap way travel here!
Based on sources
In this article, you will learn about the Airbnb website, which allows you to rent accommodation in other countries! As a bonus we'll give you 2100 rubles to live in any country in the world. The coupon is valid for a year.
What is Airbnb
Let's start with the basics. Airbnb is a special site where you can negotiate with the owner of a home to rent it. This is ideal both for tourists traveling in a crowd (it’s cheaper to rent an apartment and fit everyone in than to pay for a bed in a hotel), and for those who are tired of classic sleekness. Do you want to feel the flavor of everyday life in a new city? Then you definitely have a direct route to this site.
Get 2100 rubles on AirBnb
How Airbnb works
You enter the city of residence and the number of people into the search. After which you are given a list of suitable places indicating the cost. Then you can filter the results in various ways.
After you choose a few for yourself suitable options, it’s time to write a request to the owner of the apartment. In this letter you should introduce yourself, indicate your desired dates of placement and ask questions that haunt you. It is also reasonable to provide links to your profiles in in social networks so that the owner of the apartment forms an adequate opinion about you as a person.
The situation is almost the same as with . Based on one letter, a person should decide to let you into the apartment and leave you unattended for several days. You must relieve his possible anxiety.
Once you have received answers to all your questions, click the “Book” button. In the next 24 hours, the owner of the premises will have to decide whether to let you in or not. If his answer is positive, the required amount will be debited from your card. After payment, the contact details of the apartment owner and the exact address.
Safety
First, let's talk about safety. Discuss all important booking details and all financial issues only through the website. This way there will be an opportunity to appeal to this in case of conflict situations. Do not go to third-party negotiation sites.
If you are not sure about your plans, then choose those offers that provide flexible conditions for canceling your reservation. Discuss all financial issues before payment. You should have an idea of how much money will be spent on the deposit and how much on payment.
In case of trouble, try to notify the company about it. To do this, you can use the help center on the website. There is support in Russian.
Good to know
There are verified photographs of places that can be rented on the site. These photos were taken by a representative of the service and have the Airbnb logo in the top corner. This sign indicates that this illustration can be trusted.
If there are not many of you, and apartment prices are steep, try renting a room. Of course, living with the owners of the apartment may not be so fun. On the other hand, they will tell you what to see, what transport to use and where to buy food.
Pay attention to the “Response Frequency” indicator in the profile of a potential host. This figure indicates how often this person responds to requests. You should not write to those who have this indicator low. They may not have visited the site for a long time.
If for some reason you want to rent an apartment right now, then look for options with the “Instant booking” option. They can be booked without the owner's consent.
Read reviews and take them objectively. The very fact of a positive/negative review does not mean anything. What matters is what is written in the comment. Is the problem really objective and will it bother you?
If you check the “Social networks” box in your search, you can see where your friends have stayed.
Pros of Airbnb
- A large number of proposals (from panel high-rise buildings to old lighthouses);
- Convenient to travel with a group or family. It's also cheaper;
- Colorful. You can feel like a real resident of this city;
- Cashless payments. All financial transactions pass through the website and are recorded there. As a bonus, you don’t have to carry extra cash with you.
- Printing out your Airbnb reservation works for most consulates. So this will make the visa process easier for you.
Cons of Airbnb
- The owner of the apartment is better protected by the rules of the system than the traveler. He can easily cancel your reservation a few days before arrival and you will urgently have to look for a backup option;
- One day before arrival, your card is blocked deposit amount, which will be returned to you after leaving the apartment. But only if the owner does not report any violations on your part. At the same time, how you can build your justificatory rhetoric and protect yourself from unfounded claims is not very clear;
- The entire amount is blocked on the card at the time of booking. If you are planning your trip much in advance, then be prepared to freeze some of your funds;
- Cancellation conditions for the traveler. Here everything is stricter than for the owner and depends on the type of transaction. There are also those in which cancellation of a reservation less than a week in advance entails a complete loss of the paid funds. Read the booking conditions carefully;
Scheme of work of these apartment rental sites around the world is very simple: the owner of a home (apartment, apartment, house) from anywhere in the world creates an account, posts photos and short description object (apartments, apartments) that he wants to rent out, indicates the price for renting housing per day and waits for the advertisement to find its client. A tenant from anywhere in the world, having selected a suitable option for himself in the city he needs and on the right dates, can ask questions to the owner of the apartment through the page interface (i.e. directly on the website for renting apartments around the world). At this stage, the contact details of the guest and the host (the owner of the apartment) are not disclosed, and if you try to write a phone number or email address in a message, it is blocked. Next, the tenant reserves the selected housing (apartment, apartment), and the site blocks it credit card the amount required for payment. Only after this the parties (apartment owner and guest) receive each other’s contact information. Now they can agree on details (for example, how the key will be transferred) and get to know each other better. After the reservation is confirmed by the owner of the apartment, the required amount is debited from the guest’s bank account and remains with the site until 24 hours have passed since the guest’s arrival at the owner’s apartment. If during this time neither of the parties raised any objections (say, you were promised one apartment with a beautiful view, but in fact you arrived at another apartment with a bad view), i.e. if there are no complaints, then the money, minus the commission, is transferred to the account of the owner of the apartment, apartment.
If, having arrived to another point in the world, the guest did not find what the owner of the apartment promised him, he can refuse to settle, and the service will find him similar options nearby. That is: if you don’t like something and the housing (apartment, house, apartments) does not correspond to reality, you have the right to receive Alternative option housing or your money back. To do this, you need to contact the special support service on the website (available in Russian) on which you booked the apartment rental. But the probability of deception is small: because the company sends its agents to the addresses of the apartments, takes photographs and checks the housing for compliance with the stated conditions. And if the owner of the apartment violates the agreement and cancels your reservation, you get back the entire amount paid + bonus (the site fines the owner of the apartment and this fine is your bonus).
Simplicity, convenience and rating system- the main reasons for the growing popularity of these services for renting housing, apartments, apartments around the world. There is no need to meet with a travel agency agent, enter into an agreement, go and look at or show the apartment. The service guarantees the apartment owner that the money will be paid to him, and the tenant knows that he will not be required to make additional payments that were not agreed upon, because the payment is made through the site. The service charges a fee for its services only when a transaction is completed - as a rule, this is 3% of the total amount from the owner of the property (apartment, apartment, house) and about 6-12% from the guest, which is often cheaper than the services of a travel agency, i.e. .e. if you rent an apartment for $100 for a week, the owner will receive $97, and you will pay the service for renting apartments around the world $106.
The main tool that ensures the safety of users of apartment rental sites around the world is the rating system: based on the reviews of other people, it is easier to understand who you are dealing with. Some apartment booking sites around the world have integration with social media accounts Facebook and LinkedIn. The rating system works like this: when the guest has checked out, he must leave a comment on the personal page of the apartment owner, telling what he liked and what he didn’t; The owner of the apartment, in turn, writes a few words on the page of the apartment guest. Based on these reviews, apartment owners are ranked, and the search results for an apartment in this part of the world are displayed in accordance with this rating. To be among the first in the list of housing found by request, you need to have good feedback. Apartment guests who leave reviews are also rewarded with discounts for the apartment booking service next time. Sometimes the profiles of the owners of housing and apartments are confirmed by a set of documents identifying the owner of the apartment and the right to own the property (for example, a utility bill). Apartment rental sites around the world always provide the opportunity for private messaging between the apartment owner and the potential guest before making a reservation.
When booking an apartment on a worldwide rental website, pay attention to "Conditions for canceling a reservation". They come in several types:
flexible - you get a full refund if you cancel your reservation at least one day before check-in;
moderate - all money can be returned if you cancel your reservation at least 5 days in advance;
strict - only half of the rental price is refunded if you cancel your reservation at least 7 days before arrival;
super strict - also 50% of the amount, but only if the trip is canceled 30 days in advance.
Some useful tips for this service:
Please read the owner's page carefully. Read reviews about it. Check everything and ask. Before booking accommodation, be sure to ask the owner about all sorts of household details: bed linen, towels, dishes, Internet, TV, parking near the house, apartment cleaning, breakfast.
You can bargain with the owner of the apartment before booking. Sometimes, the price of an apartment per day indicated on the website is not the final price.
A printed housing reservation, through an apartment rental service around the world, is suitable for border guards and consulates for obtaining a visa. If you need a special document with seals and signatures, then the website for renting apartments around the world easily sends such a document, it can be printed and shown where needed.
After(!) everything has been booked and paid for through the site, you will be sent the contact details of the apartment owner - be sure to check these contacts. Call the owner on the phone or send an SMS and ask for an answer. So that in some unforeseen event, you can always be in touch with the owner of the apartment.
On accommodation booking sites around the world you can find not only standard accommodation options (rooms, apartments, houses, apartments), but also unusual ones - accommodation on a boat, on an airplane, on a tree, or in a villa, in an old castle, on the roof of a penthouse .
TO shortcomings This means that in order to book the accommodation you like, you need to wait for a confirmation response from the owner of the apartment, and sometimes you have to wait a very long time for it and you can lose some other profitable accommodation options. But there are also apartment options that can be booked instantly without having to wait for a response from the apartment owner. Links:
