To not get the appeal of airbnbs

[cadburyegg]

I've stayed in a couple with a friend and she's always booked it, so I'm not familiar with the requirements/setup.

I just can't get comfortable with staying in someone's home 🙈 i just felt like the owner could reappear at any moment! I would much rather stay in a hotel/travelodge even if it means just a bedroom without any kitchen facilities.

With one we stayed in lately, we were kept waiting about 10 mins outside for the owner to get the keys, which wasn't a big deal, but it got me thinking, what would happen if the person just didn't turn up?

Also, my friend insisted we had to leave the place absolutely spotless because otherwise her ratings would suffer. But we paid a hefty cleaning fee...

Am I missing the appeal?

We allow pets at ours. A lot of hotels don't.

We rent a whole 3 bedroom house with a pool, I can't imagine a family getting that at a hotel.
You've to share the facilities at the hotel. House is all yours. You can cook nice dinners for the family. Can't do that at the hotel.

We never leave personal items out and generally make it appear as no one lives there.

We stay in them all the time. We have young kids so a proper home environment is much better than a hotel where we would be shut in the room with them from 7pm.

we only stay with super hosts who rent it out exclusively to others so it is not a case of them vacating or sharing their own property.

as for the cleaning- you don’t have to scrub the place- just have dishes washed etc (usually dishwasher supplied) and of course you have the option to eat out for every meal (like you would in a hotel) and avoid that.

Some people advertise holiday cottages on Air BnB, or their own flat after they move in with a partner. They often aren't someone's home.
But I prefer to self cater rather than stop in a hotel. Far more flexible and much easier for catering.

We stay in them for most holidays.

increasingly there’s a lot of professionally run holiday lets listed so it’s no different to going through a traditional self catering / cottage provide, but AirBnB generally allows more booking flexibility than the traditional Saturday-Saturday model.

But you can still find lots of unique and interesting places to stay - the best I’ve stayed have been people’s own houses (while they have been away) and they have been utterly brilliant. some of my best holiday memories are from Airbnbs. I also prefer that as a more ethical approach to holidaying - a lot of cities and popular holiday destinations have really suffered from people buying up properties as holiday lets, pricing locals out of the market. If you stay somewhere that is someone else’s day-to-day home you’re just making efficient use of the property.

Thinking back where we have stayed recently, it’s included:
-a treehouse
-a houseboat
-a tipi
-a tiny lodge in the middle of a forest
-a house with a crystal clear natural swimming pool that was shared with fish
-a mountain hut

I don't like staying in hotels so usually book a house or apartment. Often the same places appear on both Airbnb and Booking.Com so I choose Booking.Com. There are fewer rules and regulations. The sites have a different 'culture'. Airbnb started off as a place to let out a spare room in your home so is more personal. Booking.Com is more business like, which I prefer.

I don't mind wiping a kitchen and making sure everything is binned before I leave, nor doing my washing up, but I don't want to be hoovering and mopping at the end of my holiday. That is a business cost for the owner.

Your point doesnt really make sense as an Airbnb isn't a thing its a portal to book accomodation

Fair enough to not like staying in someone house while they are there but that's peesonal preferamce, how could that be unreasonable?

We've stayed in some very odd places . A remote mill in France was the worst. The family had literally moved out a few hours before we got there. So many personal items ...but the worst was, opening the full freezer to find it full of whole Carp ...just staring at me 🤷. We've recently booked another apartment through Airbnb but this is solely used for holiday let's, not someone's home .

I’ve stayed in 2, one here and one abroad. Both were great.
Abroad: whole flat for a couple of nights. Stopping on a journey to Strasbourg. Easy train access to other places, lots of space to eat and relax. Streamed TV and table football were the cinching points for us.
Home: part of someone’s house. Two bedrooms and a sitting area. Both bedrooms had en-suite. Just 5 minutes off the motorway, but felt miles away- small town facilities. Cost of two rooms was the same as one in a travelodge (yes, including cleaning). It was self-contained and included a basic breakfast.
I booked them as we wanted 2 rooms, DS is 17 and we don’t want to share a room unless we really have to. Everyone slept better. Much nicer all round. Travelling as a couple, I’d probably stay in a hotel.

But I don’t want to cook nice dinners for my family on holiday, I do that 350+ other days of the year.
Surely going on holiday is about having a rest from the daily chores?

I use them a fair amount. In the early days we stayed in spare rooms but now we usually go for either proper holiday lets which are just marketed on there, self contained units within the owner's house (e.g. a whole floor to ourselves with a locking door) or a cabin in the garden.

I find that it's sometimes more flexible than traditional agencies and when I'm travelling abroad I can just look on Airbnb rather than working out what the local accomodation websites are although I usually do try to check a couple of sites and then book the one that works best for us which is often the airbnb. Sometimes it lets us find something in non touristy areas or when there's an event on and traditional accomodation is already booked up. I wouldn't book anything without reviews/a good rating.

I can understand booking a £50 room for a night as it would be unlikely one could find a hotel room at that cost but I have no understanding of staying at someone else's home for a comparable cost to a hotel.

We've used airbnb twice. Both times we booked an entire property and both have been great. We only book with super owners or whatever they are called and it's been no different to our usual holiday let's through a cottage rental site.

I feel like people are saying 'airbnb' when they really mean 'self catering'. We always want to be self catering because we have little children that I want to have their own sleeping space and that I want to be able to feed without having three meals out a day. We sometimes book that through Airbnb, sometimes not - we look around for good prices and the dates we want. It's just a booking portal.

I am starting to prefer them to hotels as I am not paying for facilities like bars and gyms I don't use. I usually eat out but there's the option of a takeaway or cooking a meal. I only book separate apartments and have never had a bad experience. All the hosts have been lovely.

But you don’t have to “get” Airbnb. I don’t get pot-holing or paragliding, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t deserve to exist.

With Airbnb you should get a clean and comfortable room, a private experience even in a home shared with the owner and you miss out on the noise of the 100+ other hotel guests.

I’ve spent nights in £200 a night hotels and been disturbed by the fire door directly outside my room door that went bang every time some walked passed my room, by heating on all night and windows that don’t open more than a centimetre, by parties/discos below or in a marquee that disturb everyone until 2am, by fire alarms ringing when there’s no fire.

I run a very successful Airbnb room from my home. Everyone gives me top rating and everyone tells me how comfortable the room is. Private bedroom with their own bath and shower, fluffy bathrobes, duck down duvet, high quality cotton sheets, top quality towels, a selection of coffees, full English breakfast and change from £40 a night.

I guarantee my room is better than most hotels. So what’s not “to get”

Why are so many people “cleaning” Air B&Bs when they leave? I’ve stayed in probably 20 and never cleaned once, just left tidyish as I would with a hotel or any other holiday let. My rating is perfect.

Agree. Give me a hotel any day.

I love them and always get good ratings back.

A few highlights (although I do my research and have never booked a bad one and always exclusively used as a holiday let not in the owners home) have been...

A fisherman's cottage in Scarborough which had three bedrooms and worked out 60 each for the weekend (3 occupants). Beautifully decorated and modern, just behind the seafront and a little terrace to enjoy the sun.

A giant 4 bed converted barn with piano, hot tub, swimming pool, log burner, field of donkeys to pet and feed, ducks. Huge hamper of goodies to arrive to and every kitchen item you could ever imagine including a washer and dryer (who wouldn't like to not go home with a load of dirty clothes!)

We've stayed in loads of good ones, I just research in advance and read lots of reviews. I still love hotels but I don't want to spend a week in a single room with my kids sleeping on a sofa bed. We like space.

I was an Airbnb host for 10 years, and will be one again when I buy another property. The place was my home as well initially and then was exclusively a holiday let. I never once asked a guest to do anything other than put the keys in a certain place when they left. General tidying up and not leaving a complete tip is I think fair enough but never cleaning, that's what the cleaning fee is for! I did make sure that the cleaning fee slightly more than covered the actual cost in case more work was required. But it was still reasonable (I'm talking £5 extra)

For me, it's the same as booking a holiday cottage, only easier because there's generally more detail about the property. I've used them loads - we tend to self cater because some of us are coeliac and eating out can be problematic.

That’s very lovely that you can afford it and I would love a complete break from cooking and cleaning up too but the reality is that many people (including us and I would say we are relatively financially comfortable) can afford to take their family on a holiday but can’t stretch to eating out for every single meal. For us as a family of 5 it would add on enough for a weeks holiday (even if we only spent £15 per head on lunch and dinner it’s £1050 compared to a £200 food shop) to make it unaffordable.

Its the quirkiness that appeals to me....I've stayed in a 3rd floor tenement flat in Glasgow..... a converted methodist Chapel in north wales, with crisp white bedding and welsh tapestry bedspreads.....a beautiful town house conversion apartment near portobello Road....a converted barn in Tenby, with a huge conservatory with a pool table and table tennis table opening onto a big field.....and some lovely rural one bed cottages with log burners in peak district...North Yorkshire, Wales and the lakes....not forgetting a very cute shepherds hut with log burner where the owner brought a cooked breakfast in the morning from the farm .....I have never been disappointed and they have always been great value for money..... and I was almost forgetting a brilliant 4 storey stone town house in Keswick over 4 floors .....for me, DH, my mum my 3 DC and their families....all the furniture was mid century so think g plan, ercol , Nathan....stunning property.....with the exception of the London one, we have taken our dog to them all which is always a big part of the appeal

Meant to say I never cleaned a single airbnb over the years....left them today, stripped the beds and put the rubbish out...but thats it....my feedback is all good

Tidy

I've never used it. Mainly because I so rarely go away that I love a place where we can go and get a drink and food and we get breakfast made, and washed up! It makes it a holiday.