Perhaps not the thread to ask this, but I ask genuinely because I really don’t know … I’ve read lots of references to ‘booking an airbandb’ in this thread, either at the start of, the end of, of in the middle of two back to back sits.
Is airbandb used routinely as an alternative to a hotel / B and B?
I sound naiive but honestly, I really don’t know!
1 Like
This is a great question @LTD and I have moved it away from the Christmas Poll just so it can get engagement in it’s own right, while keeping the Christmas poll as on thread as possible. Do feel free to change the title to something of your choice.
We use Airbnb a lot between sits all over the world, and this year for short holidays too. We’ve just had our 6th stay of the year in France and often find great deals on longer stays, even a week of longer gets a better deal. I love to cook at home so we always look for stays in entire homes. Like house sits I do research them thoroughly and read the reviews, and mostly have 5* experiences 
3 Likes
I think it depends on where you will be in between sits. In some areas you can find a nice motel for less than an airbnb. I look for motels with a mini fridge and a microwave and compare them with the available airbnbs…with the cleaning fee and the airbnb fee, an affordable place suddenly becomes quite pricey…
3 Likes
We have used Airbnb for years and prior to finding THS were living full time in Airbnb accommodation as an experiment to see if it could be done! There is always a huge variety of accommodation on offer and almost always includes a kitchen ( or use of one if renting just a room) Discounts are often available for 7 days or more - it’s always worth asking if none appear automatically. We normally book last minute and always ask for a discount - some hosts hate you asking but mostly they are happy to do so
7 Likes
Everyone will have their own take. Personally I don’t do an airbnb for less than a week. I think all the extra charges plus the time for check-in makes it not worth it. So for shorter periods I’ll just stay in hotels. But for longer periods I 100% prefer an airbnb over a hotel as I like privacy and the ability to cook.
5 Likes
Well I’m amazed! I’m glad I asked now!
This could be v v useful for me next summer as I have 14 days in between two sits in Florida.
The cost of a hotel for two weeks has me reaching for the oxygen, but if AirBandBs are more convenient and cheaper then that’s what I’ll do!
2 Likes
We frequently use Airbnb and Booking.com, but I always compare the prices with other rental websites. When we rented a house in Portugal last May, a French website offered the same property at a significantly lower price than the one listed on Airbnb.
In Switzerland, the best rates in mountain resorts are often through local websites.
2 Likes
That’s the bit that worries me, as I’m fastidiously clean any way and I clean as I go, as it were.
1 Like
Yes do some comparative shopping and don’t shy from messaging and asking for a better rate.
1 Like
Airbnb and booking.com are great for nights between sits. It may be slightly more expensive than a hotel room but if you book the whole place you get cooking facilities, fridge, freezer, washing machine. Save money by doing all your meals in the apartment.
And if you do it last minute there are fantastic bargains.
My problem is I always clean an Airbnb to the standard of leaving a house sit 
- we’ve got loads of reviews and they all mention how clean the property was at the end … like it’s a surprise
We just booked another airbnb for end of November and interestingly this one charged nothing for cleaning but asked that it be cleaned to same standard you arrived to, or a charge would be made of 15 euros. I quite liked that there was an option and wonder if that’s something new Airbnb are trying.
3 Likes
We had a very bad experience with Airbnb this summer.
Booked and prepaid for accommodation for a few days between house sits weeks in advance. Three days before we were to check-in received the Pack your Bags note from Airbnb. The next day they sent an email saying our stay had been refunded with no explanation. Home Owner received a note too but had not canceled and was happy to host. Airbnb told them it was because of a quality assurance issue. We had prepaid and have excellent reviews over many years.
While we tried to resolve someone else was able to book on the site as it now was showing as available.
This was peak school holiday time in the UK with lots of additional demand because Covid restrictions had been lifted.
So accommodation was very scarce and very expensive.
Airbnb customer service was terrible, all off-shore call center staff generally with very poor English who would not explain how this happened or help us to find another rental. Repeatedly told us they would call back or provide assistance but never did.
We ended up paying significantly more through another site and being 40 minutes from our desired location.
After many calls to customer service, they refused to tell us why this occurred and offered us $27 in compensation. Our costs were of course significantly higher.
Prior to this, we have used them for years with no problems but we will use alternative sites for our future plans. Had this been a booking for a longer period it would have been very problematic and costly.
We have never experienced such bad customer service and were shocked that Airbnb canceled our booking and refused to help.
Airbnb does not seem to care about its customers and does not empower its employees.
I suspect there has been a decline in customer service as there are many complaints online.
Vanessa, if you ever want to visit Bournemouth book ours. What a pleasure a guest who cleans. Yes, there seems to be a trend to self cleaning. My problem would be would it be up to my standards? Like you, I’m a compulsive cleaner no matter where I am. I drive my family crazy when I stay with them.
1 Like
The customer service hit rock bottom last summer for both guests and hosts. That’s why most of my guests are now from booking.com. I have an issue from July that is still not resolved. As a host, we try to make the place and experience perfect for the guest but when things go wrong there is no back up and it reflects on the host very badly.
1 Like
Most definitely will! We did a house sit in Bournemouth and I discovered Brownsea Island but we’ve lots more to explore! Is it quite unusual for guests to leave the place in a mess at the end?
Oh yes. I have actually banned two parties ever booking our place ever again. Their review said we had not enough crockery and cutlery for 6 people. Maybe if they washed it up there would have been enough. There was a trail of dirty dishes around the apartment. There were piles of sand IN the beds. My beautiful picture in the kitchen had hand prints and tomato sauce all over it.
Most are great. We don’t want the apartment left pristine just reasonable with dirty dishes washed and put away.
@LTD I sometimes search on Trivago as it does a price comparison of many well-known sites. Often it shows that the price for the same place varies considerably from site to site.
1 Like
A good tip for finding cheap hotels is to search google maps then click on ‘hotels’
Next, filter a low price and it will show you the current price of all hotels in that area
3 Likes
I used airbnb a lot before starting with TH in summer 2019. Probably 70 stays going back to my first in Paris in 2012.
I do have a place of my own but occasionally need a night or 2 between sits. Been using free nights on points that I accumulated with hotel chains when working.
I’ve had a few airbnb experiences that were not the best, but they have always made things right. But my last experience was April 2020 when I had to cancel because of COVID and got a full refund.
I don’t have much to add from what other people have said. We used Airbnb a lot early on but now find that many people also list their accommodation on booking.com as well. Like someone said, Booking tends to have better cancellation policies but you still have to watch because they vary. We use both sites (as well as VRBO sometimes) because we want a suite with full kitchen rather than a hotel room.
Another thing I do is if I find a nice B&B on one of these websites, I search to see if they have a direct website. Usually they have the same prices but sometimes it’s cheaper to book directly. We also sometimes email and ask if they would like to book it offsite to save them the fees they pay, and give us a bit of a discount.
ETA: We’ve made 25 bookings on Airbnb since 2014 and 96 bookings on booking.com since 2013.
4 Likes