Has anyone recently used AIRBNB.com for lodging?
 

I have read mixed reviews about this website. Can you please let me know your experience with them. Thanks!

There are several threads here on the subject already in which I've extolled the virtues of AirBnB. To be brief, I love the site, have been using it for 3 years. I've moved recently into a bigger house and will soon have a listing as well as booking with them.

I've rented rooms and apartments in California, Arizona, New Mexico and France and currently have a reservation with a friend for our visit to Portland, OR. Choose carefully, pay attention to photos and the information provided and I'm sure you'll be as happy as I've been.

Aloha from Kauai...i recently used the site while guiding a wonderful group around all the major Hawaiian islands. I have my home on Kauai, my dads on Oahu and dear friends on Maui yet no real simple places to stay on the Big Island. Found a perfect spot for one night in Hilo and another in Kona. The ease of booking, simple accommodations and inexpensive will always get my positive review! I can say for me, it worked last minute. I have heard from a few that there were controversies in what was presented versus what was true. mahalo

Airbnb threads are among the most controversial on Fodors these days. I notice you are a first time poster. Which is your real question:

1. Is Airb&B a good idea for lodgings?
2. I'd like to save some money on my trip to _______. Can people here help point me to some inexpensive lodgings?

For the second question, create a new post titled "Inexpensive Lodgings San Francisco" or wherever you're going. Note that as of May this year, a judge in New York has specifically ruled that airbnb is illegal there.

In answer to your first question, please read the links below. One of first threads, goes from 2009-2012 will lay out most of the arguments for/against airbnb:

http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...nd-lodging.cfm

The next two links from a "not a trip report" by StCirc, a regular on these boards, gives a great example of when an Airbnb visit isn't "horrible" but is still weird. When you open this link, wait a moment and it will scroll you to the correct comment on Oct. 24 and again on Oct. 28:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...omment-7905317

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...omment-7910676


Other hotbutton examples that have been discussed here, more concerns if you wish to be a host:

http://ejroundtheworld.blogspot.com/...-in-sight.html

http://gawker.com/5827043/sleazy-air...your-apartment

http://gizmodo.com/5934731/prostitut...t-into-brothel

5alive- Yes, I heard the same about Airbnb being illegal in NYC.

For my trips there, I have started to look into accommodations on www.LocalBigwig.com which lists vetted, legal professional housing providers. I still save money by avoiding exorbitant Manhattan hotel rates. I used to book on Airbnb but don't want to show up and risk not having accommodations.

It's all relative. You could book yourself into a 5* place and still have problems. I've used airbnb for the US only but not overseas as I prefer the local resources overseas.

That said, my experiences with airbnb in the US have all been positive ones, except for one, where the place was not quite as advertised.

There are certain things to do before booking.

After you have input your city and your dates, airbnb will then get to the second page where the properties are listed. However, before checking on the listed properties, do a few things.

1) To avoid what happened to St Cirq, look on the left side and there will be boxes, the boxes say "apartment" "private room" "shared room", just check the box that fits your needs.

2) Then you want to go further down along the left side and slide the arrow on the price bar to show what are the minimum and maximun prices you are willing to pay.

3) You can also indicate the neighborhood that you wish to look at.

4) Now go up to the top on the left and look at the map Click on the "renew" or "refresh" (forget what it really says) button. You can move the map around by clicking on the map and stay clicked on until you want to stop. You can also enlarge or shrink the area of the map with the + or - buttons.

You have now narrowed down your choices, so you're not looking at everything under the sun that's available for, say, London.

Now you can start looking at the properties.

a) If, for example, pricing is important, then obviously you would want to look at the least/most expensive ones first. As you are looking at whatever is the most important category for you, look to see how many reviews there are. The more reviews means the more people have stayed in this place.

b) Let say you clicked on a property with the most reviews. Read the reviews. This is very important. The reviews will give you a "feel" for the place. Also look at the reviewers summed star ratings. For me "cleanliness" is absolutely tops in consideration.

c) Let's say you've found a place that seems to meet all your criteria - private room with a private bath, close to public transportation, on the ground floor and not the 5th floor with no elevator, etc., now look at what is required of you. There will be a list right in the middle of the page. For me, the most important item is the "Cancellation" Policy. Read about the three different cancellation policies. Obviously the best is "Flexible". Also look at the other requirements: minimum nights of stay, security deposit, cleaning deposit, pets allowed? etc.

d) You may also want to look at "House Rules".

It's a bit of work, but you've narrowed everything down to that one property that meets all your needs, has a "flexible" cancellation policy, doesn't have too many other requirements that you can't meet, has mostly 5* ratings from quite a number of reviewers and photos give you a good idea of the place (Personally I'm interested in the bedroom, not in the backyard, if there are tons of photos on the backyard but only one photo of the bedroom, warning bells start ringing). All OK? Then book it!

PS: I sometimes also look at the reviewers. If a reviewer has reviewed a number of properties in different cities, then this is most likely a genuine reviewer. It's pretty hard to fake reviews in different cities, although anything is possible these days.

Just remember that airbnb is a fairly new business and that like any new business it is bound to have hiccups. I've found that their support staff is generally very helpful. Sometimes the problem is on my end for not really understanding. Courtesy goes a long way here as anywhere.

To date, we've stayed in a trailer, a tree house, several properties with gorgeous views, several properties with fantastic included-breakfasts. So, don't be afraid to try something new, just use a lot of the usual precautions. We've met some really wonderful and interesting people through airbnb. New York is the exception rather than the rule, so overall, whatever happens in NY is limited to its boundaries and shouldn't affect you elsewhere. Good luck!

Sorry for the long response - but you did ask! :)

We used it twice in April in California, just for a couple of nights in each place. We had no problems at all, and would use it again.

Thank you all for your replys. I am looking to use AIRBNB for a stay in NY which is now making me nervous because for the new ruling on 05/13/13. So I am thinking of just renting hotel room.

Even before the court case, AirBnB rentals were illegal in NYC, and they still are, though the illegality has now been upheld by a court. You should look for a cheaper hotel. There really is no such thing as a "legally vetted" apartment rental in NYC for less than 30 days. But there are some reasonably priced legitimate hotels that offer apartment-like units.

If you don't mind having to cross the river, try Jersey City on airbnb.

Find something that is near a PATH train station: Grove Street or, further away, Journal Square. Trains from these two stations run 24 hours and get you across to the World Trade Center, where you can then take the NY subway to other parts of Manhattan/NY. Here's a map of the PATH train stations:

http://www.panynj.gov/path/maps.html

I have not stayed in any property on the Jersey side, so can't tell you what it is like, but have been looking at the possibilities since this controversy over the NY airbnb rentals surfaced several years ago.

On the above link, right under the map, you'll also see the times when the other lines run and if you are not a night owl, you may have a greater choice.

Good luck! Half the fun of a trip is in its planning!

<1) To avoid what happened to St Cirq, look on the left side and there will be boxes, the boxes say "apartment" "private room" "shared room", just check the box that fits your needs.>

Easy,

I agree, the first problem StCirc had was that she ordered the wrong type of accommodation. But she approached it with the goodwill I have seen in her writing.

The second problem was the place was pretty unpleasant. I'm guessing she would have noticed if the write-up had mentioned a cat. Even better, did you read how no light bulbs were available to turn on in any public area? Runningtab had to feel his/her way along in the dark until finding the correct door. Is there a box for "Lighting only once in a while"?

These are the risks you take with airbnb. The issues that come up are different from hotels.

5alive: in no way was I implying any negative reflection on St Cirq, if that is how you are taking my paragraph. It was merely one of many suggestions on how one might use the airbnb website to one's advantage.

I found StCirq and runnngtab had wonderful writing styles.

As for the lighting issue, that's what the reviews are about. It would be strange if there had been a number of reviews and none would mention the lighting problem. Even if there were no reviews on the lighting issue, now that StCirq has run across it, she could certainly put that into her review of the hostess, if SC feels this is enough of an issue to warrant warning other guests about.

Personally I rely a great deal on the reviews as well as on the host/hostess's writeup. Most owners are very considerate and do put down that they have a pet and not leave finding out about the pet an unpleasant surprise for the guest on arrival.

Certainly there are risks with any kind of travel and unlikely or unexpected aspects may show up, but isn't that part of travel? Very sorry if you found some negative connotation in what I had written. Nothing like that was intended, I assure you.

The OP is free to use/not use airbnb. It's just one of several different types of lodging that is made available to the traveler. The OP asked and I tried to answer as best as possible.

Thanks for explaining, Easy. I do still think that there is a wildcard in airbnb that would not be acceptable in hotels and her report was an example of that--without being some extremist who had an axe to grind.

To the OP:

Sorry if I derailed your thread abit. I would like to point out though that another way to get an inexpensive room in Manhattan would be to do Priceline or hotwire's secret sales. I would suggest you spend a little while on betterbidding.com to find out how to use priceline and hotwire. We used it succesfully in other cities recently.

The one negative with priceline is that you can only be guaranteed sleeping quarters for two people, so if you are traveling with a larger party, you would need to use hotwire only.

The ruling is NOT new. This has been the law for years - it;s just that complaints from legitimate tenants are increasing, and the city is also cracking down on landlords trying ti increase profits by turning long-term housing (zoned, approved and given tax breaks on) into short-term (illegal and not zoned).

There is a campaign advising locals to call 311 (our non-emergency city complaint number) about this issue and I think there will be more and more problems with using illegal sublets.

Yes and they are connected with fraudulant people - the worst thing is that AirBNB takes a completely neutral stand and does not try to fix the problem. They think that neutrality serves their purpose...Try to book through sites that let you book through them directly.

Airbnb in my opinion and experience is a HORRIBLE choice. I made the mistake of booking with them. My experience: their customer service is arrogant and they are in my example untrustworthy. I was planning a South American vacation in June and heard about Airbnb. I went to their website and thought it was a cool concept. I could save money and try something new. What a mistake. After booking and paying for my room some 35 days in advance I thought everything was set and cool. At the last minute, practically on the eve of my departure, they suspended my account and canceled my paid reservation without explanation. I only found out through a private message from my chosen host as I was packing to leave. When I tried to correct Airbnb over the matter they demanded a copy of my passport, access to my Face Book and Google accounts and reconfirmation of my cell number. I didn't want a last-minute derailment of my plans so I unwisely complied. After all that, they wrote that my already 30 days ahead paid reservation was illegitimate and that my account was suspended. Attempts to receive a reason were ignored and I was repeatedly told that they didn't have to give an explanation and were not liable in any way for the mess. Subsequently I had to revoke their permissions, change passwords and accept their corporate hubris / insulting customer service as the "final word". I am now very committed to telling the world of my wretched experience in hopes of sparing other trusting travelers a similar big steaming pile or Airbnb treatment. The good news is, my money was refunded (they had no choice really), I didn't add to their profits and my host of choice understood and received me with a nice welcome. Beware of Airbnb. They might jerk you around as you're in departure as well. I am glad to say that already 4 other friends have now dumped their plans to use Airbnb and I will continue on a righteous mission to share my experience honestly as a cautionary tale regarding Airbnb. The exponential result should make it worthwhile. Choose wisely and seek accommodations elsewhere.

<B>Alamojo:</B> Pulling up EVERY airbnb thread and posting the same rant on each one will lose you any credibility . . .

That's true. It seem he only joined today to blast Airbnb. I'd like to hear the other side of the story, if there is one.

We have rented through realtors, vrbo, home away, weneedavacation.com, Paris Perfect and airbnb. The latter was a place in Tucson last winter which was fabulous. A great value, better than described, easy owners. We are returning there this winter for five weeks.

Home rentals vary,regardless of the source.

Airbnb may mean a room in someone's apartment with two roommates, a house like you would get through VRBO, a place that is a country inn or its city equivalent, or a meth lab.

It is not a generalizable experience.

I'd like to apologize for bombing in here and on numerous other treads. I should have just started my own. I also realized that I didn't do as good job of stating my case as I would have preferred. I'd like to close out with some clarification as follows below. Please note that there is no "other side" because Airbnb would and will not offer one. This is the main reason why I was so irate with Airbnb and hold them in contempt. Yes, I mainly joined this Forum and others to state my case against Airbnb and warn others. I will also use it as a general travel resource just as most do. I end it here with this:

Okay. I admit that I was venting (ranting). I further admit that I take the point that posting on several threads here was inappropriate. I thought I had already addressed this moving forward, but I see that as my error. I lead a busy life and don't actually spend much time on Forums, albeit good ones like this. This is an "anomaly" for me.

Every group has a culture and style which I did not take time to appreciate in this forum. I should have been more objective. Allow me to attempt to amend any misunderstanding. I mean no insult to anyone personally. I do mean to call Airbnb into question with the sincere hopes that no others experience a similar situation.

Please consider the facts I presented. I should have done a better job of it and not undermined my criticism of Airbnb with what is perceived as "weird" and emotional diatribe. I offer the following as an alternative submission in hopes that I can correct my presentation and more appropriately address my grievance against Airbnb.

I mistrust and disparage the use of Airbnb because:

1. In planing a trip to South America, I heard about Airbnb and thought on examination I'd give it a try. It seemed there were (and are) many happy customers. I did not do my due diligence and look for negatives. I simply whet to their site. This was my first mistake and a rookie one at that. My bad.

2. I opened an account and communicated with a host who appeared to be (and was) a good fit for my visit.

3. Over 30 days prior to my departure, everything was set and paid for. I had fulfilled all the requirements that Airbnb set forth. I was confirmed by my host, had paid the bill in full and as far as I was concerned, my booking to my new first time visit to the country in reference was as perfectly in place as a booking could be. At this juncture, all was okay and Airbnb was of value to me.

4. Roughly 24 hour prior to my departure, I was contacted by my host to inquire if I was still coming. It happened for reasons unknown to both the host and myself that Airbnb deemed my booking as illegitimate and canceled everything. I was both shocked and bewildered.

5. On learning of this I placed a call to Airbnb, but the operator informed me that the matter was handled by a separate department and could only be reached by email; a dead end.

6. On emailing Airbnb, I was the asked to prove that I was who I said I was. I was asked to send a copy of my passport, give them access to my Face Book and Gmail account and reconfirm my cell number. I did this because I was complaint and wanted to work the kink out. The various requirement were fulfilled but to no avail.

7. Airbnb still did not relent their decision to cancel and I was momentarily stressed out by this last minute derailment. I asked them to please explain their position to which I received the following reply.

"Please understand that we are not obligated to provide an explanation as to the action taken against your account. Furthermore, note that we are not liable to you in any way with respect to disabling or canceling your account. Airbnb reserves the right to make the final determination with respect to such matters, and this decision will not be reversed. Your payment method has been refunded in full and that should be reflected on your payment method by this time.

Moving forward, we will no longer be able to assist you with this or any other issues. Please see our Help Center for further information:

8. I found this reply to be corporate hubris and completely unacceptable. That's why I "ranted". I find this behavior unacceptable. If one is accused of doing something wrong or illegitimate, one should at least be told why in my opinion. This is why I could offer no relevant facts as to why Airbnb did what they did. They refused to offer any.

9. In researching this, I have found I am not the only one who has been treated in this manner. Perhaps I am spoil;ed as seasoned traveler, but honestly, I find Airbnb's attitude appalling and unacceptable.

10. I agree that there were no financial damages because my monies were refunded. Please note that because I had in fact done no "wrong" Airbnb had no defensible position to keep my payment. I was indeed lucky to have already established prior good communication with the host. Otherwise, I would have had to find accommodation in a major city during a major industry gathering in less than 24 hours. Airbnb's action would have in fact left me without any accommodation... or left me with no option but to pay top rack rates for a hotel costing me multiples of my budgeted amount for accommodations . It was at the least highly unpleasant and I remain of the opinion that Airbnb was unprofessional and unfair in this instance. Posting my experience is my only recourse apart from ignoring it which were I not currently in sabbatical, would be the case.

11. Therefore, anomaly or not, I deem Airbnb in this instance worthy of disapproval for their behavior and continue to recommend avoidance of them as a traveler's resource for good cause. Thus, it is a cautionary tale for any wishing to take it as such.

I hope this clarifies the matter somewhat... and some ruffled feathers are back in place. The onus should be on Airbnb and not me. I see that I should have presented it better.

There is simply no justification for Airbnb's position as they have obstinately refused to offer any. I am a good citizen and considered by major airlines and hotel chains to be a preferred valued frequent flyer and guest. Obviously, not by Airbnb. On the road of life they are a mere pebble that temporarily nested in one of my traveling shoes. It annoyed me greatly for a moment. I am done with it now on this forum.