To Airbnb or Not to Airbnb

[Franky]

We parted ways a week ago from good friends with whom we had just shared a magnificent 8 day Viking cruise AMS-BSL. We came to Lake Garda for a week, and they went to London to an Airbnb apartment booked for them by their family. Apartment is near Elephant & Castle tube, and was up for $1800 for the week. Has been a disaster from day one, with a separate heater for the shower and the bath. The switch for the shower heater was combined with the light switch and from the beginning would not produce hot water, and despite numerous calls to both the agent and the owner daily with promises of calls being returned, or plumbers will be there in 4 hours, nothing happened. Eventually the light switch itself failed as well. The bath had a separate heater, but there was no plug available! After about day three this was overcome when he found some gaffer tape and taped up the plug hole, which worked although the water drained out quite slowly once in there. Clothes washer in the laundry was also u/s. Plumber arrived second last day and fixed the shower and light switch. They are both in their 70s and didn’t particularly like climbing out of a slippery bath. They checked out this morning, and I am waiting to see his scathing review soon. Reviews read were apparently not adverse, so I guess it’s a case of stuff happens sometimes.

 

[get me outta here]

That’s very tough. I have a week coming up in a central new apartment in an ADL AirBnB coming up (with a side visit to Kangaroo Island Food and Wine tour). I only ever pick a Superhost with a high feedback score. No issues as yet.

 

[Strategic Aviation]

Airbnb cleaning fees and other charges under fire from European Union - Traveller

 

[Forg]

We came to Lake Garda for a week, and they went to London to an Airbnb apartment booked for them by their family. Apartment is near Elephant & Castle tube, and was up for $1800 for the week. Has been a disaster from day one, with a separate heater for the shower and the bath. The switch for the shower heater was combined with the light switch and from the beginning would not produce hot water, and despite numerous calls to both the agent and the owner daily with promises of calls being returned, or plumbers will be there in 4 hours, nothing happened. Eventually the light switch itself failed as well. The bath had a separate heater, but there was no plug available! After about day three this was overcome when he found some gaffer tape and taped up the plug hole, which worked although the water drained out quite slowly once in there.

I don't know that it's any different regardless of the type of accommodation you book. We paid about the same for an apartment in London about 3 weeks back (*sigh* where did that holiday go?), it was about a 7 minute walk to The Shard / London Bridge station & 3 minutes from Borough Market (my reason for booking there frankly) ... and it couldn't have been better. My experiences with European (including the UK in that) bathrooms is that they're just generally terrible, but this place had a brand new bathroom.
Actually we had another AirBnB apartment in Inverness a few weeks earlier, it was also brilliant, newly renovated & one block back from the Ness in the middle of town.
I reckon you can get a dodgy apartment, hotel-room, whatever pretty easily. I also don't find reviews particularly helpful; I've had terrible experiences when the reviews have been great, and brilliant experiences when the reviews have been pretty luke-warm. It's not just about people making-up reviews as a marketing exercise, it's because some rooms are a billionty times better than others & also because some reviewers are downright rude & stupid.

 

[Muppet501st]

Airbnb rental laws, Sydney, New York, Venice, Japan: Is there a problem with Airbnb? - Traveller

Booked a house out for a week in Japan back in Feb for this coming December.
Received an email last week regarding recent introduction of shared accomodation needing to hold a licence. Where given a few options, wait to see if our host gains the licence and stay with them. 2nd option was to cancel the booking, receive a full refund, and receive a credit for the full amount of the initial booking to be used within 12months and also a $100 experience credit. So we cancelled our booking, made a new booking at a better location and property ! and instead of it costing $2500, its costing me $800. The refund has already credited back onto my card.

 

[get me outta here]

Anyone who has stayed for a month or so, what do you do about changing the sheets and bathroom etc?

 

[get me outta here]

That's certainly a win - more to spend at the destination.

Booked a house out for a week in Japan back in Feb for this coming December.
Received an email last week regarding recent introduction of shared accomodation needing to hold a licence. Where given a few options, wait to see if our host gains the licence and stay with them. 2nd option was to cancel the booking, receive a full refund, and receive a credit for the full amount of the initial booking to be used within 12months and also a $100 experience credit. So we cancelled our booking, made a new booking at a better location and property ! and instead of it costing $2500, its costing me $800. The refund has already credited back onto my card.

 

[Forg]

Anyone who has stayed for a month or so, what do you do about changing the sheets and bathroom etc?

I've never done that; but if the facilities were already there I'd be likely just to do it myself. I'd sorta want the towels done every week, for example.
If that weren't possible I'd negotiate something with the owner.

 

[get me outta here]

Therein lies the reason a hotel may be attractive. Twice a week is a good cleaning ration. Not so interested in cleaning whilst on hols.

 

[Denali]

I was wondering similar. We have a 9 night booking and I was wondering if my host will supply extra toiletries or do I have to get a small shampoo ect. No drama if I do but I was wondering.

 

[get me outta here]

I just did a week in ADL and I took little bottles and needed them. I also privately mentioned to the host that more TP would be in order for longer stays. Better be safe that sorry.

I was wondering similar. We have a 9 night booking and I was wondering if my host will supply extra toiletries or do I have to get a small shampoo ect. No drama if I do but I was wondering.

 

[dajop]

Anyone who has stayed for a month or so, what do you do about changing the sheets and bathroom etc?

It must depend on what the owner offers. Not that we are ever likely to get a month long rental, but for a 10 day rental we will organise cleaning and/or sheet change if the guests want - for a fee - at cost based on what we are charged by our cleaners.

Trouble is guests have to realise they are staying in an apartment or house - not a hotel - so there are some luxuries you need to do without. For I suspect the traditional "coastal" holiday home market accepts this well - forever it has been an understanding that for long stays in holiday homes your provide your own toiletries, toilet paper, cleaning etc (in our area BYO linen seems to be the norm as well, although to differentiate we always provided linen) , but the inner urban airbnb'ers now seem too want hotel rooms out of their airbnb stays, which begs the question, why not just stay in a hotel room?

Why don't people realise they are staying in non-professional accommodation and adjust their expectations accordingly, like having to provide their own toilet paper and toiletries?. Airbnb perhaps should come up with a "fully serviced" accommodation and "partially serviced" categories to cater for this.

 

[Forg]

The cleaning fee is usually quite high, too; you wouldn't want to pay another full cleaning fee every week if just doing the towels &/or the sheets, IMHO.
I can't recall; do you only know the overall price prior to booking (or just before you OK the booking), or do you get the breakdown? Because I imagine you could just pay another cleaning fee & get the apartment vacuumed / new sheets / new towels / etc. You'd just want to know what that would cost in order to compare to hotels.
I've just checked, it was $125 in London. OK that's a fair bit, but given that a load of washing at a laundrette was ~$30, then there's organising time etc, it's not horribly-terrible. But if you're in an apartment with a washing machine & somewhere to hang stuff, you might chuck the towels in the machine then run down to Borough Market for brekky then come back to hang the towels before you head off to spend a billion dollars on Regent Street. Actually, now I think about it most of the apartments had dryers too ... and I wouldn't bother ironing sheets in a short-term rental, regardless of what the owners do.

 

[Denali]

I just did a week in ADL and I took little bottles and needed them. I also privately mentioned to the host that more TP would be in order for longer stays. Better be safe that sorry.

Toilet paper! Didnt think of that for 9 nights - but was planning on buying paper towels for the kitchen so I have a back up for emergency

 

[get me outta here]

This prob why I don't stay in 'holiday houses'. If I'm in NYC for a month, there's no way I'm cleaning or employing someone else to do it. The reason to stay in an airbnb is pretty simple most of the time, that it is cheaper. The 'guests' have to make up their mind on what they are prepared to give up. However, I'm not carrying spare sheets when I go to NY. When I have been to airbnbs, I usually get enough TP. To not provide an extra roll or 2 would be petty.

It must depend on what the owner offers. Not that we are ever likely to get a month long rental, but for a 10 day rental we will organise cleaning and/or sheet change if the guests want - for a fee - at cost based on what we are charged by our cleaners.

Trouble is guests have to realise they are staying in an apartment or house - not a hotel - so there are some luxuries you need to do without. For I suspect the traditional "coastal" holiday home market accepts this well - forever it has been an understanding that for long stays in holiday homes your provide your own toiletries, toilet paper, cleaning etc (in our area BYO linen seems to be the norm as well, although to differentiate we always provided linen) , but the inner urban airbnb'ers now seem too want hotel rooms out of their airbnb stays, which begs the question, why not just stay in a hotel room?

Why don't people realise they are staying in non-professional accommodation and adjust their expectations accordingly, like having to provide their own toilet paper and toiletries?. Airbnb perhaps should come up with a "fully serviced" accommodation and "partially serviced" categories to cater for this.

 

[Forg]

The reason to stay in an airbnb is pretty simple most of the time, that it is cheaper. The 'guests' have to make up their mind on what they are prepared to give up. However, I'm not carrying spare sheets when I go to NY. When I have been to airbnbs, I usually get enough TP. To not provide an extra roll or 2 would be petty.

I agree that when AirBnB first set up, it was cheaper. These days I don't find it is, at least not for a place that's as well-kept as a hotel that you're not going to die of mould & bedbug poisoning. I've shrugged my shoulders & accepted that to keep going the owners couldn't keep renting out loft apartments in NYC for $12/day!

So my motivation, now, is mostly just to not have all those restrictions you have when staying in a hotel; eg. being stuck in a "hotel district", not having cooking/prep facilities, not having a decent sized 'fridge, having little space, not having the ability to clean/iron your own clothes if you need to. As a not-that-frequent traveller I was a tad surprised on our recent trip that not all hotels offer a service where they'll just clean your clothes, it's dry-clean at $X/item (and I had a bunch of new shirts & fancy-pants jeans that I didn't want destroyed by dry-cleaning) or when you're in a city you don't know you have to go out & find a place that'll wash and dry & then have time to do any ironing you deem necessary ... an apartment with a washer (and even dryer!) seemed to make holiday logistics a little easier, and I can't see staying somewhere for a few weeks for work-purposes being any different on that score.

*edit*
I guess I should say that I now consider AirBnB an engine for booking accommodation rather than an engine for booking BnB's. I find BnB's a little uncomfortable ... I don't feel like talking to people I don't know over brekky yet I feel uncomfortable sitting in silence, I'd like to sit in the lounge room before bed in my PJ's, that sort of thing.

 

[get me outta here]

I'd say a wad/box of tissues cos you can actually also blow your nose on those, but paper towels are also useful in the kitchen. The host guy in ADL left me with a tissue box that was 95% empty. If asked, I'd say that he had needed more attention to detail, but I still said that overall he's still a super host with a near new v clean apt in a great location.

Toilet paper! Didnt think of that for 9 nights - but was planning on buying paper towels for the kitchen so I have a back up for emergency

 

[Denali]

So how do hosts feel about guests leaving stuff?

When we were on Isle of Skye, we left behind a full box of laundry tabs (didnt know the host would provide), unopened long life soy milk and roll of paper towels . I guess the cleaning crew gets it if the hosts arent there.

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

We have never stayed in an airbnb but we regularly stay in serviced apartments. On those trips I usually take laundry detergent pods in a zip lock bag, facial tissues in a soft pack, a couple of chux wipes, hand cream from a hotel/airline - all just in case they arnt provided.

 

[RB]

We have had many apartment stays. Provisions supplied by the owners vary widely and we have found many very generous offerings ( home baked apple pies & the like were often left at our door when staying in the Dolomites & the owners were living nearby).
We put a washing machine in as a search filter if we are staying for ore than a couple of days.
Cost is not the only reason we enjoy independent stays. I find it quite interesting to visit supermarkets/shops/bottle shops etc when staying away away/overseas.
I am never in that big of a hurry when I am holidays so finding time to wash or shop is not a challenge