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.

I use Airbnb for almost every holiday me and DH have. In the UK and abroad, short trips and long.

If I really can't find anything I will look at booking.com but as I almost always do find something it's not often I use booking.com

Never had a problem with airbnb. Always choose "whole property" and have stayed in some really great houses and apartments and all much cheaper than staying in a hotel even budget ones like Travelodge.

We mainly use air bnb for our family holidays. I wouldn’t really look at other sites unless I wanted a hotel.

I never look on Air BNB & probably never will

No it's just one of the places I'd look. I'm not keen on it, I'd rather book directly given the choice. Having said that I have found places an airbnb then booked direct so it definitely has merit.

I usually start with booking.com but wouldn't expect to find many glamping places there. I'd just do a general Google search for "glamping " for that
Never used Airbnb myself.

@Ginfordinner

I have booked through Booking.com and had refunds when things went pear shaped. I understand that this doesn't always happen with airbnb.

Ditto. Had issues twice with the places and booking.com always sorted it out and we got our money back

I like that you can often book without paying to hold a place for quite a while ( though it is often cheaper if you pay the deposit)

Airbnb is always my first port of call for weekend breaks.

I use a mix, depending on where I'm going and what's available there.

We’ve used air bnb as we like to stay in self catering abroad with children, especially on city breaks. I have never ever had a problem.

I've never used Airbnb - too many stories of cancellations and poor customer service, much prefer booking.com, however we don't go away that often

Never use AirBnb and very unlikely to.

Until coronavirus we did use airbnb just as you described but since failing to get money back plus their poor attitude we'll be keeping clear from now on. We use booking.com now, wysiwyg.

@Swooningmonkey

I’m a little bemused, do people realise that booking.com et al, provide the exact same service that they’re attempting to boycott at Airbnb? I’m totally indifferent to them and I don’t support their business model btw.

Can't speak for the others who say they boycott airbnb but I don't rent properties on booking.com either, no.

We go through trivago, unless it's a regular trip we make where we have a loyalty membership.

Doesn't anyone else just google what they want, and then see what comes up?

@Ginfordinner

Doesn't anyone else just google what they want, and then see what comes up?

Ye that's one of the ways I look and if something I'm interested comes up il also check trip advisor or booking or air b&b or local interest and tourism sites or trivago etc for it.

to be honest it really depends on the type of place. An unusual lodge etc or a local budget ibis need completely different levels of research.

We only use cottage holiday companies. We've heard too many negative tales about Airbnb .
For shorter stays we use booking.com.

Thanks for your responses!

Based on what you all say I think I'm going to go for Cool Camping instead.

I think I have got lazy as I tend to just look on Air BnB these days. Booking.com for work though, as I'm looking at hotels.

We just google holiday cottages in x location. Never use Air B and B. Usually something like Sykes comes up.

I don't use airb&b either. Tried to use it once, and every ad just came across as a scam waiting to happen. Didn't dare use it because of that, can't afford to have my money stolen. Use booking too or places like welcome cottages or whatever.

Airbnb have a pretty horrid reputation ethically.

For that reason I tend to use different sites like HoneAway, booking.com. For the type of thing you’re describing we usually use canopyandstars

The only two bookings i've ever made through Air bnb were for family holidays - a three bedroom apartment in a European capital and a large detached property near a UK seaside resort.

Good experiences both times, especially in the apartment as it was the owner's own home which she let while she was on holiday.

I always look on cottage rental websites but I've only ever ended up booking through Airbnb or booking.com.

The search facility on other websites isn't as good and I end up being shown stuff not available or not meeting my criteria. That or they're much less flexible and require e.g: full week stays or Fri - Mon weekends. I get why they do it, but it isn't always what I need.

@KeepingPlain its a multi billion dollar company, very unlikely every property would be a scam?!

Someone else said that hosts are allowed to cancel. They aren't at all. If you cancel you are fined and punished, if you do it again they remove you from the site.

We are probably your target demographic, we use booking.com, Airbnb or look for bed and breakfast properties or hotels. When it's just us rather than a group I probably wouldn't bother with cottages.com, Sykes etc as we value flexibility and Airbnb properties are often more flexible with minimum stay, arrival and departure dates etc.