Stuff AIRBNB hosts.

[Bangolads]

I used to love AIRBNB - it’s felt like the world was your oyster, you could stay in houses rather than sterile hotels and often the price was really reasonable. I loved the quirkiness.
Now the price is often extortionate, the place is run my professional hosts, it’s ruining communities and the rules and lists of things you can and can’t do feel as if hosts think they’re doing you a favour rather than offering a service for which you are paying. For the first time in years we stayed in a hotel on holiday - amazing! Airbnb is dead for me- AIBU?

I use it a lot, we always self-cater and much prefer the space of an apartment to hotels. I've had amazing experiences.

@midsomermurderess I do agree with your point but again it's the 'all'. Ours like many is in our garden and is an annexe that affects no one. Airbnbs are as individual as B and Bs or independent hotels shouldn't be lumped into one thing. Airbnb is simply a portal, not an owner of the whole experience.

I have an Airbnb , I don’t want people to strip the beds or hoover through , just a simple wipe of the surfaces and take the bin to the skip
We charge £5 cleaning fee , and don’t have too many rules and regulations , sleeps 4 no dogs allowed
TBH we’re also on booking dot com and get much more trade from them

Our place has back to back bookings so not everyone is dropping Airbnb.

Crazy prices is a generalisation. Our place costs £78/ night and sleeps 4 in beds plus a sofa bed for extra guests It's walking distance to forest walks, an award winning pub, restaurants etc and 30 min drive to 2 cities. We charge £40 cleaning fee which goes direct to our cleaner and we do not expect any cleaning to be done by our guests because of this.

We have generous check in and out times of 2pm and 11am , and we leave ingredients to make a basic cooked breakfast. We also make sure we leave plenty of all the essentials, including bubble bath, tonic for the gin, and logs for the woodburner.

Not all Airbnbs are bad, but you do need to carefully read the bumf and reviews when you book. The only poor one we've stayed in, we knew it would be bad as the reviews told us and we left booking accommodation to the last minute. It was a decision we made based on price for one night vs extortionate hotel that was a long distance from where we needed to be.

You know the cleaning fee is not actually for cleaning - it is just an extra amount that they host can charge that airbnb don't charge commission on. so all hosts add it but have no intention of using it for actual cleaning,

That's up to them but I've never been to one where we have to clean

I leave it in a clean state and take bins out but I'm not cleaning like at home, blow that

You could try Plum Guide - more expensive but great properties and all in prices; often hosts leave food & wine, nice toiletries, cleaning included.

Never been to one. Only ever stay in hotels.

Am probably old and set in my ways a slave to corporate comfort but there it is.

Have stayed in some beautiful/amazing ones all around the UK/Spain & Italy - with cleaning fees of around £50/£60 for 2/3 night stays

I also run an airbnb and don't have a "long list of rules" apart from being considerate of the neighbours. My guests are never asked to do anything - the housekeeper sorts the rubbish/bedding & cleaning.

I also leave a generous Welcome Pack & try & look after my guests as much or as little as required. The reviews are very good & the guests have been very happy

I haven't stayed in one after I was bitten to pieces in Bolton by bed bugs!!

From the other side... I'm not a fan of AirBnB and take relatively few bookings via this channel. The only really bad guests I've had in about a billion years of doing this have been via AirBnB, who do absolutely nothing about it unless you can absolutely prove that guests vomited all over the carpets (how do you know it was those guests? What's to say you didn't tip water over the carpet to make it look as if you'd had to clean it? And so on). Guests can cancel penalty-free, but owners get hammered if they cancel anything (which I have never, ever done - though guests have!) Booking.com are even worse.

There are very much better websites for owners and guests alike.

I am an air BnB host and rent out my spare room. I provide an iron, kettle, hairdryer, shower gel, shampoo etc, coffee and snacks. I have a washing basket in the room but only so they can dump wet towels in it. I do not expect them to strip the beds or clean. All of my guests leave the room as found albeit with used bedding and dirty mugs.

I do get fairly decent money per night however where I live has a shortage of hotels and the hotels that are here are extortionate. When I look at other air BnB rooms in my area going for the same price, I do think mine stands out as being one of the nicer ones and if I can help my guests in any way, I will always try my best.

I wouldn't use them on principle. I have friends that live in the Lake District and their adult children will never be able to afford a home there. Every time an (un)affordable property comes onto the market it's snapped up for a second home and it's on Airbnb website almost before the "Sale Agreed" sign is up.

I like the anonymity of hotel, I like not having to worry if I drop a cup of coffee on the floor, I like knowing if something is wrong I can swap rooms, I like room service, I like someone making my bed for me and as a single woman I like the security a hotel offers. I don't clean at home and I will be fucked if I'm doing it while I'm on holiday.

@HolidayLetter who else do you recommend?

We booked one recently with 4 bedrooms for 4 women to stay for a weekend away. Luckily one of us looked at the detailed T&C and they were only going to leave 2 bedrooms unlocked!

I appreciate they may have priced it a bit more competitively on this basis but was still quite expensive as min 4 night stay.

IMO it should have been really visible on the summary page.

They have sorted it out for us but makes you more aware of checking all the details!

We've had very successful Airbnb trips abroad - all excellent. We'll use the same places when we travel again in the autumn.

I wouldn't touch Airbnb in the UK now though. Extortionate charges, laughable cleaning requests accompanied by mad cleaning fees, late check in/early check out, etc etc.

After too many stressful experiences, we've gone back to hotels in the UK

@HolidayLetter I'm also interested in which other platforms you use.

We used to be Airbnb and cottages.com but the latter were dreadful to both hosts and guests during the pandemic so I extracted us.
I'd like to have something alongside Airbnb.

Love Airbnb. Used them several times over the last few years, and have never had a bad experience. The ones I’ve used have had more flexible check in and check out times than hotels and b&bs, who now have stupid checking in and check out times due to covid.

I've stayed in air bnbs with ridiculous check in and out times

Just book a holiday cottage through a company. It’s a bit more expensive, but you don’t have to do a full cleaning job before leaving (though stripping beds and leaving it in an acceptable tidy state is normal). And far less chance of last minute cancellation - that’s the thing that puts me off. Too many friends with too many ruined holidays.

We’ve used Airbnb a few times and love them we also stay in premier inns. We like Airbnb as we can take the dogs and eat in the place.

Air bnb is good if you are travelling as a family and can work out cheaper than paying for 2 hotel rooms, plus you can cook etc but I have had 2 very bad experiences which I would tell people to be aware of hidden cameras

Don't trust them. Would never use them. The idea was for renting out a spare room here and there and now it's just a holiday rental site with no guarantees.

I used to love them, but my last few experiences have involved long lists of cleaning requirements along with stupidly early checkout times*. We haven't even had time to have breakfast. And of course still had to pay the constantly increasing cleaning fees.
That and hearing stories of last minute cancellations has put me off entirely.

*one place didn't let us check in until 5pm, and we had to check out at 9 (after cleaning the place top to toe). So basically we paid for two days, but we weren't even there for most of a whole daytime.

Any reputable companies out there?

I'm in Australia and coming to the UK later this year, and while I'll stay with friends in part, I'd like a back up plan.

I've never stayed anywhere hotel/motel/holiday cabin/B&B in my life where I've been expected to clean or be out before 10.00. at the earliest. I leave them clean, BTW.