Airbnb - reviews on the use of the service, personal experience, useful recommendations for finding accommodation in airbnb and a $32 bonus. Airbnb: the pros, cons and juicy details of an Rnb apartment

AirBnb is the best rental service that makes it easy and safe to rent apartments and houses in many countries around the world. On the site, homeowners place ads for renting housing, and those people who need it rent it. Everything is simple. All ads are placed with descriptions, photographs, a list of what is and what is not in the apartment. Moreover, Airbnb is not limited to renting apartments, on the service you can find excellent houses on the ocean, rooms, yachts, and even medieval castles.

Renting a home on Airbnb goes through several stages:

  1. Direct housing search
  2. Correspondence with the owner, in which you can find out everything to the smallest detail
  3. Payment
  4. Arrival and check-in
  5. After your stay, you can leave a review about the accommodation (this is optional)

Renting an apartment on Airbnb is no different than renting a house, a private room, or a yacht. The process is the same. The service itself has proven itself with positive side, has been working all over the world for many years and its popularity is growing every year, which is worth only numerous, in addition, it is fully translated into Russian, so knowledge of a foreign language is not necessary. Compared to hotels, booking airbnb apartments is on average 2-3 times cheaper than a room in a three-star hotel. And if you are traveling with family or friends, then Airbnb is what you need, because hotel rooms are usually designed for 2 people, and you have to book several rooms at once to fit everyone (especially for groups of friends of 4-8 people). ), and renting an apartment on Airbnb, you can accommodate all together.

Why you need to rent a place on AirBnb:

  • You will see the real state of housing in numerous photographs
  • You are guaranteed the security of the lease, i.e. You will not be “thrown”, all homeowners are checked by the service.
  • You can find out reliable information about accommodation from reviews that are written by people who have already lived there.
  • Each ad contains a list of available devices (Wi-Fi, washing machine, TV, air conditioning, etc.).
  • You can set your own filters by price, type of accommodation, amenities, and more, allowing you to find exactly the accommodation you want.
  • The site is very easy to use, it is translated into Russian.
  • The site has received thousands of positive reviews from travelers around the world.

How to choose the right accommodation on Airbnb

Knowing some features of the service, you can find airbnb apartments according to the most low prices and with a high level of comfort. Often beginners do not know these “rules of a good search” and find not the most comfortable accommodation. Especially for such newcomers, here are tips for booking airbnb apartments.

  • Read property reviews carefully. Reviews were written by those who have already lived in this apartment / house / room, so they reflect the real situation. Choose accommodation with more than 5 positive reviews.
  • Prioritize properties with verified photos. Photos of some apartments are labeled "Verified Photos". This means that the host provided comprehensive information, professional Airbnb photographers came to him and personally photographed the rooms.
  • Ask your landlord for details. Do not be shy if you want to know what speed Wi-Fi has, how long to walk to the city center, whether the windows face the sunny side, what pattern the rug is in front of the entrance - feel free to write to the owner, he will be happy to answer all questions.
  • It is better to book accommodation with a host with a verified profile. Each host has their own Airbnb profile, check it before booking, if the profile is not verified, it is better to find another accommodation option.

Comparison of Airbnb and hotels

Is Airbnb safe?

Don't worry, renting an apartment abroad on airbnb is absolutely safe. The service is the guarantor of the lease. When you have found a suitable accommodation option, then transfer money to the airbnb service, and not to the owner, as payment, which excludes the possibility of the owner “disappearing” after the transfer of money (and this happens on some foreign services). Only after you check in, Airbnb transfers money to the host, and you can relax and enjoy life.

But not without a fly in the ointment in a barrel of honey. The service is safe and in case of problems it is a guarantee that you will not be left in trouble without help, but some hosts can be cunning and provide false information about their accommodation. But such hosts can be quite simply identified and not booked with them. Be sure to read the article about that, and then you will be protected to the maximum.

Airbnb and visa confirmation

Booking on Airbnb is suitable for proof of residence, which is required when applying for a visa. You will just need to print the payment receipt from the site. There is no difference between confirming with and with Airbnb, all embassies accept both.

If you are not eating alone / alone, then when booking accommodation on Airbnb.ru, enter the names of all the people who are going to live with you in this apartment and they will also be indicated on the receipt. If suddenly you did not do this at the time of booking, then contact the support service, write the names and surnames (as in passports) of all guests, and then the service staff will correct the receipt and send the corrected version to your mail.

Some embassies also require a copy of the landlord's passport: a page with his photo and a page with his signature. You can find out exactly whether these additional documents are required or not for your visa only at your embassy (call them or write to the mail). If copies are still needed, then simply send a letter to the owner with a request (if you do not own English language, then you can translate the letter in an online translator) send copies of the pages and within a few hours or days (whenever) you will receive them. For almost never need to get a copy of the passport of the owner of the apartment.

Instruction

Understanding how to use the AirBnb site is easy enough, but, knowing a few tricks, you can find very good and cheap accommodation.

AirBnb is the best travel rental site. Travel and enjoy life! All the best!

Today's tourists are breaking stereotypes perfect holiday that have existed for decades. They prefer rented inexpensive apartments or even rooms to luxury hotels. What caused such a shift in priorities?

  • The availability of communication between people, which appeared thanks to the Internet.
  • Understanding that it is better to travel around the world often and economically than luxuriously but rarely.
  • The fact that hotel prices are often difficult to reconcile with the concept.
  • And, finally, the emergence of a unique service that made the dreams of many fans of traveling abroad come true.

No suitable housing? No problem. You can rent an apartment in a suitable location on long term, pay monthly, and rent foreign tourists sublease by the day. Or agree with the owner that you, for a certain percentage, will look for guests for him. Why not a ready-made business model? In the West, this has been practiced for a long time, it is called "property management".

All you need to start earning is as a landlord, add a description and photo of the property for rent, and host guests. A little advertising in social networks and specialized forums - and the first guests will not keep you waiting.

One of the defining moments of any trip lasting more than a day is the choice of a place to stay for the night. Portal "ZagraNitsa" decided to acquaint readers with the best rental services in Europe. Tiny rooms and inedible breakfasts in the first available hotels are canceled!

Pre-booking accommodation (subject to a scrupulous choice) makes traveling, whether it be a vacation or a business trip, more comfortable and safer. So-called "mashups" (aggregator sites) will help you find suitable options, through which you can rent hotel rooms, apartments or villas around the world. International services allow you to compare offers from several booking systems and rent a room, room or other accommodation for a specific date. Vivid examples of such sites are Booking and Hotels.com: there is an impressive database of objects of various price categories and locations.


Photo: preferredhotels.com

"Booking" and "Hotels" are convenient for instant confirmation of the reservation. But as practice shows, you should not flatter yourself and it is better to play it safe. Reservations through online services - due to technical failures or for some other unknown reason - are sometimes not confirmed at the hotel. It's good if there are free rooms, because otherwise you will be left without a place to sleep.

The cost of a room in the same hotel on different aggregators may differ and be higher than the price on the official website of the hotel. If you want to save money, it's always a good idea to surf the different platforms looking for the best deal.


Photo: hotel-madison.com

Healthy alternative to hotels - rent from locals

An excellent option for lovers of diversity and authenticity would be to rent a house from local residents. You can chat with a foreign host and plunge into the atmosphere of the country. Living in a standard hotel, you will not get such pleasure.

On many sites, you can leave comments and participate in the rating of hotels, homeowners and the apartments themselves. Feedback from ex-clients will help you make a choice. These comments are especially valuable when the service is not responsible for the accuracy of the information.

The most popular hosted rental services in Europe are Airbnb, Homeaway and Wimdu. They offer a wide range of both simply cozy apartments and more exotic options. You can find a chalet in the mountains, a villa on a picturesque seashore or a small family castle.

Home Exchange - exchange vacation

You can stop for a couple of days in a foreign city or country without money. Participation in the Home Exchange program will help you find a room, an apartment and even a house for free living with the owners or during their absence. So the trip will cost at least half the price.


Photo: solotravelerblog.com

The practice of exchanging vacation homes originated in Europe and the United States over 50 years ago and is gaining popularity every year. No wonder, because this is one of the easiest and most affordable ways to join the daily life of a foreign country, make new friends and exchange cultural values ​​with them, see the most interesting sights. To join the club, you need to pay an annual membership fee. The number of trips is not limited.

Hospitality sites are a kind social networks, where participants are ready to give strangers a roof over their heads or just keep them company for a walk around the city. To become a host, you need to have your own housing (confirmation will be required) put up for exchange.

Europeans are mostly friendly, but not ready for a journey into the unknown. They want to clearly understand who they are visiting, and are not averse to conducting reconnaissance. To do this, they communicate online for a long time (six months to a year): they correspond or conduct “live” conversations via Skype.

It is better to find out all the details with a preliminary acquaintance. Share photos (personal and home) and detailed description apartments/houses. Ask any questions that will help you get comfortable in a foreign city. By the way, residents of the United States and Europe often plan vacations in advance, so you rarely see last-minute options for an exchange vacation.

On the Internet, now every travel site tells how to rent out your accommodation on airbnb for the winter or vacation, but few people actually rent out theirs and know how things really are. After reading such sites with advice: “How to rent an apartment through airbnb”, I decided to write this article based on my own experience with this system. The main points and pitfalls, whether or not you need to draw up an agreement, how to withdraw money, and so on.

By the way, if you don't already know! You can also rent accommodation through Booking.com!! Site number 1, as you know, for rental housing. When you register as an owner, you will not pay commission on your first 5 bookings!

How to rent an apartment with airbnb.

Everything is simple, there is nothing complicated in the process. If you are already registered in this system as a guest, then you do not need to register separately as a landlord. You must log into your account and add your ad. If you are not registered, then by this link you will have access not only to registering for renting an apartment on Airbnb, but also a bonus on housing if you yourself go on vacation at 2,100 rubles, or 25 euros.

Creating an ad for renting an apartment: what you should pay attention to.

The most important thing in creating your rental ad will be the photos. And it doesn’t matter if you make them yourself or invite an airbnb photographer, which, by the way, is free. Here are just a few tips:

  • If you are renting out your own apartment, like me, then try to remove all unnecessary personal items. This spoils the picture, and subsequently the guest may point out a discrepancy with the things stated in the ad. So, in one photo I had a MacBook on the table - and everyone asked if it would be there when I checked in.
  • Photograph the details of comfort, the place where people will sleep, the bathroom and toilet room. This is what they pay attention to in the first place. All sorts of cute little things give a positive effect and attract neat tourists who appreciate comfort.
  • Make a map of the area, listing all the delights of what can be found nearby: shops, transport stops and where you can take a walk before going to bed. If your apartment is residential area, it will be very useful and, perhaps, will become a decisive factor for the guest to choose your accommodation. You can just save a picture of a map from Google and sign where everything is.
  • Choose the most successful and cozy photo for the header. In the search, it is she who will “work” for you. Think of it as a keyword that will click on your ad.

Apartment management: meeting and seeing off the guest.

Airbnb has made it easy for both host and guest to find and finance. But still, you still have to meet your guests. And here there are two options: either you yourself (your friends or relatives) or a hired manager. Is it tempting to use the second option? However, there are some nuances here. Are you ready to issue a power of attorney to manage the apartment of an outside organization? Are you afraid after some time to find your apartment in a dead state?

Airbnb has an internal forum for landlords. In the St. Petersburg branch, the issue is being discussed with the management company and there are negative reviews. When the management company, roughly speaking, squeezes all the juice out of the object without carrying out repairs and other necessary things (changing worn-out linen, for example). By handing over a clean, renovated apartment to management, you can get killed in itong. Approach the issue more carefully.

"Underwater rocks"

Despite the simplicity that airbnb came up with, making renting a home via the Internet as simple and convenient as possible, there are underwater ones in it too. Therefore, I want to voice what I have already encountered myself.

Property insurance and collateral.

For residents of Russia, insurance for the landlord in the amount of 1 million, declared in the airbnb system, is not valid.

To insure yourself against possible problems with the tenant, Airbnb is advised to set a deposit. The minimum recommended amount is 75 euros and it is frozen on your guest's card. But I advise you to conclude a lease agreement, an ordinary paper one, in which it is advisable to write down the passport details of your tenant, so that in which case there is something to go to court with. There is no need to be afraid to invite guests to sign such an agreement, it is advisable to even mention it in correspondence in advance. We in Spain, when renting a house in Sitges, the owner offered to sign such an agreement, and there is no crime in this.

Bank commission for withdrawal of funds.

With each transaction on your card, when you want to withdraw the earned dollars or euros, the bank will charge you its commission.

Currently, EUR 12 is charged for EUR payments, even if you have a direct EUR account. The commission is “bited off” by the partner bank. So far, only Alfa-Bank does not take such a commission. To avoid unnecessary spending, you can set a withdrawal limit, and then airbnb will send you not after each guest check-in, but when a certain threshold (any) is reached.

Payment currency.

You can only receive money in the currency in which you set the price for your apartment. At present, when the exchange rate of the euro and the dollar is either rising or falling, there is a reason to fix it in rubles, if you are still counting not only on foreign tenants. And in this case, the money will also be credited in rubles without an extra commission. By specifying the cost of renting an apartment or a room in euros or dollars, they can only be withdrawn to a euro or dollar account.

Why get rent in rubles nowadays if you can get euros? Everything is simple. It all depends solely on your rental property. If she is in a very tourist place, in the center, for example, then you can count on success with foreigners. If the apartment is a little to the side, in a residential area, even 20 minutes away by metro, then the flow of foreigners dries up here, but such apartments still attract our compatriots. Due to the growth of the exchange rate, as happened in recent years, at a rate of 50 euros per night, for Russian tourist the price jumped from 2 thousand to 5! Of course, you can recalculate the rate every day, taking into account the exchange rate. It is also worth understanding that the tourist flow in each city is different. In St. Petersburg, the influx of tourists begins in May and ends in September. Well holidays. The rest of the time, demand falls.

Cancel Reservation.

If for some reason you canceled your booking, changed your plans, for example, or you just changed your mind, the system will block these dates anyway and you will not be able to re-rent the accommodation. You will also have an automatic negative review that will be linked to your account even if you delete this ad and add a new one.

You can set a cancellation policy for your guests and thus insure yourself against a situation where a guest cancels at the last moment by choosing another accommodation, for example. I know a case when a reservation was canceled right on the eve of a holiday and the tenant could no longer rent an apartment in a short time and lost money.

A couple of tips on how to make life easier for yourself as a rentier


Good to you, interesting and accurate guests!!

Important addition

By the way, if you don't already know! You can also rent accommodation through Booking.com!! Site number 1, as you know, for rental housing. When registering as an owner using this link, you will not pay commission on your first 5 bookings!

Important addition

By the way, if you don't already know! You can also rent accommodation through Booking.com!! Site number 1, as you know, for rental housing. When registering as an owner using this link, you will not pay commission on your first 5 bookings!

  1. Daniel Yozhik
  2. Daniel Yozhik
  3. Daniel Yozhik
  4. Evgeniya Melchenko
  5. Mary
  6. Ruslan
  7. Daniel Yozhik
  8. Eugene Prytula
  9. Anton
  10. Andriusiks
  11. Nadezhda
  12. Nadezhda
  13. Tatiana
  14. Tatiana

Among all Internet resources offering travelers intermediary services for finding an apartment or house in the private sector abroad, Airbnb booking website is one of the most popular and competes with hotel booking services. Its functionality is quite simple, but a little briefing for those who for the first time decided to independently pick up a roof over their heads in a foreign voyage will be useful.

Several useful tips About, how airbnb works backed up with illustrations, so it won’t be difficult for you to do everything exactly as it should be and go to (or somewhere else) already knowing exactly what will be where to lay your head. To do this, you just need to go to the site and fill out the search form.

1. Registration

If you want to rent an apartment on Airbnb, then they must go through the registration procedure on this Internet resource. Many are not too fond of showing their contact details to the whole world. In the case of Airbnb, the bitter pill is sweetened with a bonus: $25 gift upon registration . It can only be spent on, more precisely in 190 countries of the world. Based on the average offered prices for accommodation, they are enough to spend the night in a comfortable apartment once.


2. Search for housing

Further apartment rentals in Airbnb begins with a procedure quite common for the World Wide Web - filling out a search form. You will be required to provide your destination, estimated date of arrival and departure. Be sure to indicate how many people are traveling. Then press the red button "To start searching" and find yourself on the page of preliminary results.

3. Weeding out unnecessary housing

What you see may not seem very attractive to you, because the most expensive offers will go first on the list. To rent a place on Airbnb on your terms, use additional filters. The main one is the expected price range. By moving the right slider to the left, you can stop at the most reasonable prices. The left one is needed in order to weed out options that are very budgetary, obviously unsuitable for the comfort offered.


4. Useful filters

Once you've settled on a price, move on to the amenities, location, and other options. To do this, click the button "More filters". Airbnb will prompt you to choose the number of bathrooms and toilets, the presence or absence of the Internet (more about), a washing machine. Seeing this wealth, try to be practical. If you are traveling on business, you cannot do without the Internet. Living for more than three days without a kitchen may seem unnecessarily extreme. But the presence of a pool is a pleasant, but very expensive and not quite appropriate bonus.


You can always expand the range of Airbnb accommodation comfort options offered by clicking on the triangular icon to the right of the main set. For example, in the graph "Facilities" first you will be shown only "Internet" "TV" and "kitchen". By clicking on the triangular icon on the right, you will see the options "intercom", "fireplace" and others. By putting checkmarks in front of the desired options in all boxes, you will reduce the number of offers. The rest will be exactly what you would like to receive. Using all kinds of filters, you will see that airbnb prices quite accessible to most travelers.


5. Selection of offers on the map

Now you can deal with offers “personally” by seeing their photo (on the right side of the Airbnb page) and location (on the map on the left). The scale of the map can be changed in the same way as in the Yandex service. If you are interested in a particular area, click on it and get the ultimate set of rental housing options. There is a button at the bottom of the map "Language and currency". By clicking on it, you will be able to choose both in the ruble price format and in the local currency.


6. Detailed view

You can get acquainted in detail with each Airbnb accommodation option you like twice: both with the house itself and with its owner. By clicking on the preview of the house, you will be redirected to the page with its full description and a small photo gallery. Guest reviews about its owner can be read by clicking on the avatar below the thumbnail. If the information is submitted to and you are at a loss with the translation, find the red inscription "Translate to Russian", Airbnb service will translate everything for you. Remember: any inscription that is highlighted in red hides Additional information. Do not be too lazy to click on it so that there are no surprises when moving in.


7. Final moment

Once you have decided on the final housing option, start booking apartments on Airbnb. The procedure is also simple, but you must follow the algorithm.

  1. If you still hesitate, but do not want to lose sight of the option you like, then add it to the list of acceptable ones by clicking the button "Save to Wish List".
  2. If there is no information that only the owner of the house can provide, click on the button "Contact the owner." Be prepared for the fact that he can or another language you understand.
  3. When all doubts are overcome, press the button "Request a booking". In the window that opens, fill in the fields containing information about you and your bank card. There you can once again ask the owner about something.
  4. Having indicated all the personal and banking data, put a "tick" in the box opposite the inscription "Agree with all terms", after which the button "Proceed" will become active. Click it and wait for the response of the landlord.

An Airbnb rental deal will be considered closed if the host responds within 24 hours. Approximate waiting time can be found in the reviews about it. The money will be debited from your account only after the final consent of the landlord.


Possibility to rent Accommodation around the world on Airbnb imposes certain obligations on the borrower. The community principle that unites the members of this resource states that "Anonymity harms trust." Therefore, on your profile page, follow the link "Trust and Confirmations" and then press the red button "Verify my profile". After that follow step by step instructions. Those who have passed the verification procedure can count on a quick and objective resolution of disputes.

You can read reviews about Airbnb in the comments, and don't be lazy and add your own :)