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?

Really don't understand the issues

All the issues people have listed?

All the self-catering benefits you list are available with other companies. I much prefer aparthotels/self catering to hotels - I just wouldn't book with Airbnb in the UK again.

Airbnb is simply awful, you're really taking your life in your hands with every stay. Who knows who these unvetted hosts are. With keys to your room.

Airbnb host here. I have verified my ID and uploaded my photo on my profile. I’m a home host and I don’t think I’m being unreasonable to insist my guests do the same. If they won’t they don’t stay. None of them seem to have problems with the process.

This doesn’t mean that they (or a verified host) haven’t got a criminal record. However, I have a guest’s name from their booking., so I can Google it. Although there are usually multiple people with the same name in a search result, it’s easy to find most people in a minute. I discovered found one lady had a record for GBH so I asked Airbnb to cancel her booking.

By the way this is my home so the only doors that have locks on them, are the front and back doors, and the bathroom. I always tell guests that before I accept a booking, a few change their minds which is fair enough. I’ve never had anything stolen, nor have my guests!

I think the issue is that air bnb started out as one thing ( pay me to stay at my house when I’m not there or in my spare room) and has morphed into something completely different - essentially a holiday home rental platform with poor consumer protection.

The cleaning fee and then been told to clean has really put me off too.
Literally what is the cleaning fee for when you are instructed to strip beds, hoover and clean the bathroom and kitchen? And these instructions were not included in the advert only once booked.

Some of the rules are set by hosts and some by Airbnb. The uploading picture profile is an Airbnb rule and nothing to do with hosts. Hosts set cleaning fees and also requirements for how the place is left - don't tar everyone with the same brush, we have never expected anyone to clean before they leave or strip a bed. We haven't put our prices up in the last few years and don't charge anything like what some hosts charge. The way prices are displayed on the website are also entirely down to Airbnb so if the whole price isn't immediately obvious that's not down to hosts but there are also plenty of other booking sites where the full price isn't disclosed at the very initial enquiry point.

I've never been a fan because I don't want my trip cancelled and its never seemed that reasonably priced for the quality.

Friends do book them occasionally for me. We go next weekend and its costing me 80 quid to stay in a shit area I could get a hotel for similar in the city center. Dreading it tbh.

The price of a night in a hotel here is from around £100 a night. I charge £40 so with Airbnb fees so my guests pay about £47 a night.

I only take one guest at a time, women only. They get a big room with a king size bed, and their own bathroom. (Not en-suite) I will not let them use the kitchen and always make sure they understand that before I accept a booking. In their room they have tea and coffee, snacks, a mini-fridge and a kettle.

Cleaning is included in the price they pay. I do not ask my guests to strip the beds, although a few do.

Many local hosts are charging much more, using the price of energy as an excuse. I’m on a two year contract with British Gas so I’m still paying last year’s prices. This means that I and other hosts who are in the same position, can undercut everyone else, and we do.

I’ve got no free days until September.

@TheTeenageYears

Airbnb do not require guests to verify ID or post photos on profiles , it is a rule set by individual hosts.

www.airbnb.co.uk/resources/hosting-homes/a/airbnb-answers-guest-profile-photos-77

We used to use them a lot before DS started school, we would regularly fly to Europe for city breaks last minute, £30 return flights and cheap self catering apartments on airBnb.

Wouldn’t use them now, it’s just got horrifically expensive and bizarre accommodations plus random rules.

Post covid and now DS in school we can’t get the same deals as before so tend to stay in the uk for mini trips I couldn’t recommend hoseasons enough, stayed in a fantastic cottage for a week in summer last year, Scottish highlands £550!!!

Airbnb say that hosts can’t see guest photos until they’ve accepted a booking. I’ll be honest that there are ways around this. I use them simply to check a guest has a recognisable photo on their profile, so I haven’t got to chase for one once I’ve accepted a booking. I’ve never refused any woman because of her appearance or race.

@PlopPlop

The only rules I have are no smoking on my property, no one in the house except the named guest, and no kitchen use.

I’ve been known to come home roaring drunk at 3 or 4 in the morning, so fairness dictates that guests can too if they want to. All I ask is they are quiet.

Curious why no kitchen use?

AirBnB is an advertising portal for self-catering properties.

Just that. Nothing more, nothing less.

Yes they have their own t&cs but so do all of the other sites which advertise properties.

Owners wanting to maximise their exposure on-line will probably list with more than one portal.

We used to advertise with a number of companies (including AirBnB).

If somebody books a property through booking.com (other sites are available) it is highly likely that the same property will also be advertised on AirBnB.

It is the same property with the same amenities and the same owners.
If we took an AirBnB booking we didn't automatically rush into the property and remove some of the facilities!

The pricing may be slightly different on different sites, but the owner is probably making the same amount of money as they will just adjust their pricing to fit in with the t&cs and to account for whatever commission the particular site takes.

I've had good experiences with the ones I've used but I suppose it's like everything else where individuals have control over how they run their business.

I don't mind cleaning up when we go, I'd just prefer it if they left a later check out time to accommodate this. And provided cleaning products and plenty of cloths!

It depends on the circumstances. My extended family booked one to attend a family funeral.
Being the youngest and most active I realised on the morning we were leaving that I effectively was going to have to clean a 3000 sq foot home and strip 10 beds alongside sorting breakfast and emptying the fridge etc.
A hotel would have been more appropriate for us and by the time a team of very assertive cleaning ladies arrived at precisely 10.30 am I was exhausted.

@OriginalM

i used to allow guests in the kitchen but some of them behaved in such a dangerous way they terrified me. Others were really dirty.

I also don’t like other people in my kitchen.

I am very clear about this and make guests aware and agree to the restriction before I accept their booking. Kitchen use is not a right for Airbnb guests, it’s a concession that some hosts allow. They all charge a lot more than I do!

I’m in a popular seaside town so there are plenty of places to eat.

I live in Edinburgh and I'm sick about what airbnb has done to the city. I currently have an airbnb place above me, one below me, and one next door - used to be that I had neighbours and a little community.

So I don't use airbnb on principle! But I do prefer to stay in apartments when I travel abroad. I use booking.com - but not sure if that's part of the same problem. As someone mentioned, the same apartments get advertised on airbnb. With booking.com at least the consumer has some protection though.

Any other sites or companies that are doing this better?

I have a friend who has an air bnb and I’m often horrified at the state people leave the place…..crayon on the wall, fake tan staining the bedding, food smeared everywhere, curtains torn. When confronted they say that they left the place clean. I’ve always had good air bnb experiences and I don’t mind stripping the bed and putting dishes away, 5 minute job and good manners. I’ve never been asked to wash floors or do the ‘cleaning’. Also to say during the first lockdown air bnb refunded me within a week (unlike Expedia which took two years to get money for cancelled flights).

VRBO is the best 'big name' by miles (IME - which isn't to say that other owners and/or guests won't have had a bad experience with them). Tripadvisor is ok-ish. Smaller, local agents are good too. If I had a property which were dog friendly, I'd seek out agents who specialise in dog-friendly holidays; if I had one which were (eg) ideal for rock-climbers or hill walkers, I'd advertise on sites which specialise in accommodation for these particular pursuits. What pisses me off is people saying "oh, you've got some Airbnbs, haven't you". No I haven't! I run a business, and Air BnB is just one of many advertising platforms. It was probably a good idea when it was mostly just people letting out their spare rooms to bring in a bit of extra cash. It has now enabled pretty much any amateur with no business plan at all to think they can buy up properties and turn them into "airbnbs"...

It's more the principle for me. I'm sure there must be places where Airbnb has a positive contribution to the local economy. But there are plenty of places where it's pricing locals out of the housing market and damaging communities. Pubs and hospitality industry can't get staff as property is too expensive to buy or rent. These places need a balance of well run holiday lets and accommodation for locals.

I’ve got a few booked this summer. Two in a room in the host’s house and another in a self contained apartment. We’ve booked lots over the years and have had no bad experiences, only good ones!
I did notice that prices have gone up loads this year though and for the family trip it’s been cheaper to book budget hotels.

I have not used Airbnb and would not wish to, and I am amazed that people are willing to pay a 'cleaning fee' and then clean the place themselves! I would not be stripping beds or cleaning toilets etc, would leave it tidy of course, but what a bonkers idea when you're on holiday (nd have paid a lot of money for it). İf you are worried about bad feedback can't you just re-register as a new account if for some reason you want to continue using Airbnb?

I am a host advertising on Airbnb. I provide the whole flat with kitchen, bathroom and 2 bedrooms. It is always cleaned to a high standard, but I am really shocked and upset by the way some guests treat it. Ripped curtains, children drawing on walls and kitchen units. Sick all over beds and carpets, no washing up done, cigarette burns, make up on carpets, food and drink spilled all over soft furnishings. On the good side, people who appreciate the space treat it as they would their own home. I do not charge a cleaning fee. Change over day, mega hard work to clean for new people coming in at 2pm when I have to clean up sick, poo, dirty filthy kitchen area etc, to make it pristine and 5* quality.

We prefer now good quality self catering. Cottages, barns etc you can eat in or go out and its a home from home in great locations. Owners available if you need them but we never really need to meet them.