Feb up of Airbnb rip off pricing - help me find alternatives for UK s/c hols

[Montuaklighthouse]

As the title says, I am totally fed up of the rip off / random pricing of Airbnb, especially for UK short breaks / self-catering hols.

We typically go away 2-3 times a year in the UK, usually a week at Easter and the May or Oct half terms and sometimes in the summer and for years we’ve used Airbnb, but the last couple of years the extortionate ‘fees’ for Airbnb / cleaning etc have really put me off now.

I decided to start cross-checking Airbnb listings against the owner listings, when it was a company listing it and have realised there is sometimes a big difference in the price tag - one place was listed as £1,400 on Airbnb and then £960 via the cottage agency site! Obviously that’s a no brainer, but it got me wondering about which of these self-catering agencies are good / bad / known quantity.

Would like to hear any recommendations for alternatives to Airbnb, especially for coastal cottages around UK - Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, Norfolk, Suffolk are our usual haunts!

We've been happy with Vrbo, Sykes Cottages and Aspects Holidays (Cornwall only). AirB&B does seem to have increased pricing relative to all the others, maybe because they have the name brand?

I use Booking.com - you can select "whole homes" as an option. I agree with you re AirBNB - often I cross check Booking.com against them and they usually more expensive!

Hoseasons
You can book cottages through them
They often have deals or flash sales.
You can also use Tesco clubcard vouchers to buy Hoseasons vouchers which can bring the cost down too.

The cleaning fee is optional for hosts. Just choose an Airbnb that doesn’t have it.

We go with Cottages.com or HolidayCottages.co.uk also been with Sykes and Hoeseasons. All these are better, in our opinion, some do 3/4 or 7 nights. We booked a house in the New Forest and were the last guests before owners changed to AirB&B, it’s now £350 per night, plus £350 cleaning no matter how many nights you book it for, so now way over what we want to pay and looking at bookings, they are way down from when we went.

I use Booking.com. I often check against owner listing's too and it's usually the same.

I find thr app really easy to use and beciase I book far too many trips I get a discount for being a "genius" user, by using them wherever in the world I'm travelling too and for hotels for weekend breaks too.

The one time someone tried to scam me they were really helpful too.

I've only used AirBNB a couple of times when someone else booked and it's always felt unsatisfactory re the cleaning etc.

It's not always the way. Sometimes air bnb is cheaper. I found this recently.

Best to always Google property name for best deal

It really seems like a hidden price rise though. So you might filter due to price but then discover that it's £150 more due to cleaning which is a lot for say a two night trip. Especially when you also have to do a lot of the cleaning yourself.

@SpacehopI’m a host and don’t charge a cleaning fee. There are plenty of listings that don't have it so if you just click on price per night you can see the breakdown. I personally don’t like booking.com because hosts can choose a fee structure which enhances their reviews.

I often use Sweetcombe Cottages in East Devon. Small company, amazing customer service and really reasonable. (I don’t work for them!)

Yes, I get the Genius discount too (only level 1, hopefully going up to level 2 soon!) on booking.com. For our trip this summer I scoured both them and AirBnB, and booking.com was always cheaper- sometimes the same properties were listed on both sites.

I have had an attempted scam incident where booking.com weren't helpful, and it's taught me to double check that a property has plenty of reviews before I book it.

I'm slightly disappointed because AirBnB was often a good way to meet local people, if you just rented a room/ annexe in their homes. My assumption is that the company has been sold to someone who wants to maximise profits in the short term and doesn't care about the long term.

It's also not just the cleaning fee- there's AirBnB's service fee too.

Cross check with the Tourist board, I found exact same house with a small booking fee vs the Airbnb one

I use holidaycottages.co.uk
Good customer service

How so re the reviews and fees on booking.com? I book most of my hotel stays on there so would be good to know whether I’m being misled!!

Yes they were good

I might be wrong but I think the headline price, which you use for the initial search, doesn't show the cleaning/Air BnB cost. So it's only when you go to reserve somewhere you find the actual cost. This makes it very time consuming if you have to keep throwing out individual listings because of cost rather than filtering by cost.

What do you mean about enhanced reviews on Booking,com.

re: the enhanced reviews it is something I heard in the hosting community but I've searched and cannot find proper evidence of it so please ignore that.

re the Airbnb listing I am just doing a search myself. I've put in my criteria and am looking at each of the results. As I open each property it shows a full price breakdown of the costs. I don't need to reserve to find it out. I agree it would probably be more helpful though to show the headline price as all inclusive of fees.

Airbnb stopped advertising prices without cleaning fee ages ago. The nightly fee you see on the search includes the cleaning fee, if there is one.

Yes it does. They changed it a few years ago.

Ohh top tip!

I completely agree, it irks me that I am expected to (more or less) leave a place as I found it AND pay hundreds for cleaning. I'd rather just pay one bill too and not see this broken down as it just makes me feel like I am being taken advantage of, especially as we're all relying on good reviews.

Crumplehorn Cottages

These are run by someone I know - she is fabulous, so friendly and efficient, and the properties are based in Looe or Polperro and have the all essential parking. They have a website.

No way! I know this place as my relative's childhood friends used to run this place!

Small world! Lovely family.