“Oh, airbnb, that’s the site where you stay with locals overseas… That’s not for us. I can’t have someone walking around or share a bathroom and kitchen with them. We'd prefer a hotel…
Besides, how can we tell if they’re good people there on airbnb??” said my friend Tamara when I offered her to check accommodation on airbnb before her trip to Berlin.
Her response didn’t surprise me, most of my friends preferred a hotel before realizing airbnb’s charm. 🙂
For the last two years I used airbnb plenty of times and enjoyed it very much. I’ve met great people, most of them travelers themselves, who understood well what I needed and helped me feel at home. In addition to meeting new friends, in some of the houses I enjoyed luxury conditions for a minimal fee.
For example, on our trip to the Black Forest we stayed at lavish house. Our room included a king sized bed, jacuzzi at the bathroom, big balcony with an open view of the country side, a garden with fruit trees (have your pick) and that’s not all… The kitchen looked like it had been taken from a cooking TV show, and the wonderful hosts endlessly indulged us with tasty home made cakes. How much do you think it cost us to stay at such a house? You won’t believe it – $32 a night. 🙂
With airbnb you can find all kinds of accommodation: from an inflating mattress, through a shared or private room, all the way to an entire flat or house. So actually it isn't necessary to share a bathroom and kitchen with anybody.
The site is very straightforward: write where you want to go, dates, number of travelers and see on a map the options available.
Then just filter results based on your budget and preferred sleeping arrangements:
Tick the checkbox next to entire place, private room or shared room.
Set the price range.
This way you’ll receive results better suited for you.
My friend Tamara found several hotels on booking.com. It was important to her to stay in a good but inexpensive hotel at the heart of Berlin..
The hotels that she found were listed at $1100 to $1400 a week for a couple.
I decided to surprise her and sent her a link to an apartment from airbnb: “Tamara, before you place the order on booking.com, please take a look at this apartment. It’s situated at the same street as your hotel, but will cost you just $470.” 🙂
When looking for accommodation on airbnb read the house rules and have a good look at all the details. Each host has a different cancellation policy: strict or flexible – explained here (in case of cancellation there is no refund of airbnb’s service fee).
Make sure the place has everything you need; internet connection, AC, TV, etc. Try to feel the place through the description given by the host.
Read reviews, but don’t reject automatically newly listed houses. People join airbnb all the time, offering wonderful places. Consider being their first guest, it could work out in your favor as they may offer low rates to attract travelers.
That’s how we got an entire floor in the house to ourselves in Prague for $17 a night!
I dared to stay there as a pioneer guest when there were no reviews.
How? I simply read the profile of the host – Anna. I could see she had verified her identity by submitting her ID documents to airbnb. I sent her a message and we chatted a little. I had an impression that our communication was excellent, so I felt comfortable enough to stay with her. And we had just the best week in Prague with her! 🙂
All of my bookings on airbnb start with a short chat with the host. It’s important for me to get the expectations right and make sure my children are welcomed, as not every host can accommodate kids and have them run around the place. Only after I’ve set things straight with them, I hit the "Request to book" button.
“The apartment you found looks very nice. You definitely surprised us!… Could you please order it for us?” replied Tamara to my email.
“Tamara, to make an order open a profile and contact the host directly. They need to know their guests before they accept the booking. That’s how airbnb works. 😉
Signup here and get a $35 coupon.
Have fun!” 🙂
