Airbnb: Tips for Booking Your First Stay
Airbnb can be a little intimidating at first if you haven’t used it before, but it’s such a wonderful option for booking travel accommodations. It’s often the cheapest option, and it gives you so much more bang for your buck. Often I’ll book a whole home to myself on Airbnb, it seems to cost similar if not less than the worst hotels in that area. In Iceland, most of the Airbnbs we booked were the same cost for two people as staying in a 12-person bunk room in a hostel!
Not to mention, so many Airbnbs offer a sweet sense of home that you can’t get at a hotel. I once stayed in a lovely log cabin in Virginia where the host gave me a farm fresh breakfast in the morning. I also paid extra for a horseback-riding lesson from her daughter. My roommate Danielle stayed at an Airbnb in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia where the host provided a bottle of champagne, a customized breakfast, and so many other sweet things to make the stay a memorable one.
Here are some of my tips to help you book the right place on Airbnb:
1. Use Airbnb’s filters to narrow your search.
Airbnb has so many filters to help you on your search. In addition to the typical search criteria (dates, number of people, price), you can narrow your search down by home type (entire place, private room, hotel room) and with additional filters than can help you search for places that are family-friendly, by recognized hosts (see #4 below), or have that hot tub you’ve been dreaming about.
2. Don’t forget to check the map.
When searching on Airbnb, the listings automatically display in a list format, but you can click on a map icon at the bottom of the screen to show their locations. This is definitely one of the most useful tools to help find the perfect spot, especially if you’re traveling to a larger area or are traveling somewhere that might have safety issues in certain places.
3. Always read the reviews.
More so than when staying at a hotel, you’ll definitely want to check out the reviews for Airbnbs to make sure that the property is as described and that it suites what you’re looking for.
4. But if the host is a “Superhost,” you don’t need to worry as much about reading the reviews.
Airbnb periodically evaluates all of its hosts and calls them “Superhosts” if they have an average of 4.8 or higher rating, have hosted at least 10 stays, have not cancelled on any booked guests, and have a 90% response rate. When you see a host has been labeled as a “Superhost,” you know that you can trust them.
5. Be weary of private rooms, but don’t discount them entirely.
Usually when booking an Airbnb, I choose to book an entire home, but sometimes booking a private room is a nice option. For many of our Iceland bookings, we booked private rooms in homes with a few other rented rooms. We had our own room but shared a bathroom and kitchen with other guests. It was a great set up, and I liked it since we were just renting rooms in a home with other renters.
When booking a place like this, I would just be careful to stay away from something that might be too much interaction with a host or others. In Iceland my then boyfriend and I spent the night in a room rented out of a woman’s personal apartment. It was a small space, so it felt awkward using her bathroom and walking around outside of the room. We also didn’t stay out too late because we didn’t want to be disrespectful to our host. Experiences like those could be very cool (I did live
with a Spanish host family for four months after all.), but they might not be what you’re looking for depending on the situation.
6. When you do book, communicate with your host.
Be sure to communicate with your host about your arrival and check out. Some Airbnbs will have a self check-in/check-out process, but you’ll need to meet the host to check in or check out of some Airbnbs. Luckily, the Airbnb app does make it easy to communicate with hosts while en route.
So what are you waiting for? Book an Airbnb today. If you haven’t booked with Airbnb before, you can use this link to get $30 off your first stay (Note: If you book a stay, I’ll also get $30 to use Airbnb, but you know I wouldn’t recommend it if I didn’t believe in it!)
What are your tips for booking on Airbnb? Do you have any favorite stays? Share in the comments below!
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