To think most people only look on Air BnB for self catering couples mini breaks these days?

[Movinghouseatlast]

I have a holiday cottage business. It is my only income and I live in the same village as my cottage.

We have a new glamping property, built in our field (with planning permission).

I'm thinking of using Air BnB. It is for couples only, and mainly for short breaks. I get the impression that unless you are looking in a specific area/ have loyalty to a particular cottage company most people nowadays only look on Air BnB for this sort of thing?

I'm not talking about a week long family holiday, more a 3 or 4 night break.

What do you think? Thanks.

No. I look at all options, not just airbnb.

We found a self catering apartment (Bristol) on booking.com recently so I now look there too.

We use air B and B, I think you are right it’s the main place we would look. I do book with booking.com if I want something urban too.

I use booking.com for those sort of trips, have only ever used air B and B once, not a fan.

I would use booking.com or Airbnb, I wouldn’t really know where to start looking on other platforms I suppose - not sure I would try.

I prefer booking.com because Airbnb frequently adds on a cleaning or admin fee. With booking.com the price you see is what you pay.

I don't AirBNB at all as it contributes to the housing crisis in my city. But from what colleagues say, I think people use it for families as much as they do for couples.

Not true, we use AirBNB for family breaks for the 4 of us and for group family holidays.
As a couple we look at hotels or similar because we can afford that for the 2 of us.
We go AirBNB for grp stuff as it makes it cheaper as a family.

No I'd look on other sites as well as Airbnb for this sort of thing ( have just booked a 3 night couples break, not through Airbnb).

I know lots of people who have had Air B&Bs cancelled at the last minute, so I never the site.

I go on Trivago, or booking.com directly.

Most the families we know also ho AirBNB but do non-AirBNB city breaks as a couple I would say. I love AirBNB over other cottage booking places because I they’re trustworthy. We had a place book when lock down happened and they contacted us with full refunds and gave the owner their fees etc back, no quibbles.

I never use Air BnB.

I’ve never considered booking.com for glamping type stays. I think Airbnb and good social media & online presence would be your best bet. Bookings are a bit hit and miss at the moment tho.

I look on air b&b along side lots of different sites to get information about a place as different sites tend to have different photos or show the location better etc but I almost always if it's an option book through the company's own website especially if it's a well run site as that makes me feel like the people take their business seriously and staying with them will likely go well. I like it when owners encourage booking directly with them as neither of us get stuck using a "middleman" and so some of them offer a small discount or a bottle of bubbles if you book with them because they aren't losing fees from the 3rd party.

I don't actually trust air b&b all that much.

In the past, I’ve only used Airbnb to book properties for me to stay in as a single Person when travelling for normally a week. It was a nice alternative to hotels and allowed me the flexibility to self cater.
However, these days I won’t use them at all because I have some real issues with both their customer service being seriously lacking and the huge damage that their business model has had on places I love.

Interesting! But just to clarify, Air BnB didn't give the owners their fees back during lockdown. On some bookings owners were given 12.5% of what they would have got, and this was only applied for April and May. The owners lost a huge amount of money due to cancelled bookings.

I definitely look to AirBnB when I’m looking for a big place for lots of friends.
If it’s just DP and I I prefer to use Booking.com as we’d rather stay in a nice hotel than self catering

We use HomeAway a lot for self catering places.

I've never used Air B and B.

I find booking.com easier to use than Air B&B.

I’ve finally received a refund from air bnb a couple of days ago from a booking from July, minus the fees. I’ll NEVER use them again. Booking.com and other similar sites (can’t remember the names right now!) from now on.
This has been the first and last time I’ve used air bnb

I've never used AirB&B, have heard lots of rubbish stories.

I use Booking.com, Expedia, Sykes Cottages,

Another booking . Com user here, I don’t like air b n b

I've never used Air BnB. I usually start with Booking.com then go on from there to Sykes and others like that.

Quite a number of people don't use AirBNB. I don't like the way some people talk about it as if it's the norm. A lot of the sort of professional couples looking for a short break are likely to be boycotting them. There are various reasons including putting pressure on local housing, customer service issues, safety, and so on. Personally as a customer I don't like the way we're supposed to set up a profile and give details about ourselves etc. I also know of some flats in an area nearby that keep being advertised for parties, so disturbing all the local residents, complaints been going on for ages yet AirBNB refuse to take the listings down.

So if you only advertise on AirBNB you'll be losing more customers than you might realise, but also potentially excluding entire demographics of people who'd prefer to book through a "normal" website.