AirBnB, what do you look for

[FunnysInLaJardin]

Not really an AIBU, but we have stayed in many AirBnb's and have been discussing tonight what our must haves are.

For me it is a comfy bed, somewhere nice to sit down, a decent kitchen but most of all a personal touch from the owners.

So milk in the fridge, local produce, maybe a bottle of wine. I also like it if they have coffee and tea as standard and also toiletries for the bathroom.

Any who don't have the personal touches are mentally marked down in my mind

Do you mean once you’ve arrived, or when you’re still shopping around?

The comfiness of a bed is hard to determine from a screen…

I absolutely do not want or expect edible local
produce . I want a comfortable bed, clean home and good price.
It’s a bonus to have a few tea bags and sachets of coffee and uhd milk

Proper WiFi and a washing machine.

once you have arrived

WIFI goes without saying, not bothered about a washing machine

Do not use Airbnb

Use hotels, lodges? caravans, B&Bs or our camper van on camp sites

Location is the first priority

Clean and with enough towels. Why are there never enough towels?! A kitchen with utensils, saucepans etc, we once stayed in one where I had to buy a kitchen knife as there was only cutlery. Decent WiFi is a big one now we're travelling with kids who get up at 6.30am regardless. 😴

I don't expect local produce or toiletries as as take or buy our own but useful to have oil, salt & pepper in the kitchen and soap in the bathroom.

I think it depends on how much you're paying. I have an Air bnb and my margins definitely don't allow for local produce, bottles of wine and toiletries for the bathroom. We do have tea and coffee, hand soap, washing up liquid etc and condiments. If we were to leave all of the things you're looking for, I'd have to charge more per night. I also stay in Air bnbs and never expectthose things. I'm happy for a comfy bed, a quiet location and a nice pillow!

Re the towels comment - it costs a fortune to get laundry done. I pay £25 per load which works out to be at least £50 per stay for bed linen and towels which is probably why you don't get lots! I think it really does depend on what you're paying.

I read your header to mean what do I look for BEFORE booking a place on AirBNB.
-1 thing would be a King sized bed.
-Barely enough cooking utensils to make anything. No, sharp chopping knife, no chopping board, serving dish etc. I don't often cook when abroad, but if I do, I don't want just 1 butter knife and a tiny pot to make an entire meal
-No foil. If I use the grill, I normally line the grill tray so it doesn't get dirty. I've often purchased my own!
-Single sachet of washing up liquid for a weeks holiday!
-Single tea towel for the week!
-1 towel each for a week and 1 other small one. So its either a wet hand towel OR a wet floor towel! Often no means to dry it.
-1 toilet roll for the entire week for a 3 bed/person rental! 😡

Suitable parking, WiFi and a washing machine. Ground floor access and storage space if we're taking bikes. Walkable from the front door (I get stressed if I'm hemmed in by main roads). Priced within my budget. I'll look at the reviews too, and if there's a theme of "the cockroaches tap-dance all night" or "there's no hot water" repeated through them I might not choose that place.

Very clean is my number 1 requirement

A comfy sitting area and tea/coffee/milk. We don’t drink so not interested in wine and don’t expect local produce. What a waste of the guests don’t like/have allergies!

maybe I should have clarified. I only book with super hosts and price is not really a factor. They are always cheaper than a hotel for 4 of us

Convenience and price.

I would generally only book Air BnB if I needed to stay somewhere for one or two nights for something. All I want is somewhere to lay my head as the song goes and a kettle really. I'd rather not be paying extra £££ for stuff I don't really need. In some cases, parking is important.

My minimum requirement is a super king bed! Coffee making facilities and a decent sitting area with a smart tv (I’m surprised how many don’t have this!) as we have a toddler which means we’re in all evening, so good excuse to catch up on Netflix. Good reviews and clean goes without saying!

Central heating that I can control. We stayed in one last February that condescendingly said “heating is set at17 degrees which is warm enough. Do not attempt to change”. It had a wood burner where they had left two logs and a note saying they had left plenty and we shouldn’t use all of the logs. 🙄 So tight-fisted and ruined any of our goodwill towards them.

We were were only 39 miles from home, so popped back with an oil and a fan heater.

I've totally gone off AirB&Bs. They're generally not clean enough

I hate only having 1 towel for the duration of the stay..

I now book serviced apartments & hotels depending on the trip & location is the key for me.

I love a very central, clean old world hotel with a touch of luxury & a beautiful bar where I can sit with a glass of wine when I get in. I also enjoy having breakfast included & not having to walk out to find a coffee etc

We used apartments a lot when dc were younger but have far less interest in them.now & we travel a lot. I've been out of the country 6 times this year & I've stayed in hotels 5 times & an airb&b once & it was a spacious old historic building but it 100% could have been cleaner & the beds & (4 bedrooms) decor in each room was v variable - no consistency. It was only 3 nights so it was OK

We used to stay in air bnbs regularly, but we are fully back to hotels unless really necessary due to group size.

Far too many hosts hiding extra charges on top of already sizeable fees, and expecting us to spend the last hours cleaning before we go. No thanks.

Just for your information OP, you really shouldn't expect wine as it's illegal to supply it unless you have a licence. It's also a massive gamble if you do provide it, as what do you supply, white? Red? Rose? Dry? Medium? Sweet? French? German? Italian? etc., etc. the list goes on, and the chances are, that whatever you supply won't be right, so is a complete waste of time, effort, and money.

King size bed as minimum, NOT a fucking double. Parking, good shower, freezer, dishwasher with tablets, tea towels, oven gloves, bin bags. Don't want any food or wine left, apart from salt, pepper and perhaps cooking oil.

Just stayed in a super host Airbnb. The bed was the worst bed I'd slept in in my entire life, it was incredibly hard so that it was painful to lie on my side. I ended up having to take the sofa cushions off and put them on the bed so that I could sleep, but I never slept well the whole trip. Why they didn't put a topper on the bed I don't know.
I would also expect cotton bedding, not cheap polycotton with nylon fleece duvet cover.
Also I'd expect each bedroom to have a wastebin, not just one bin in the bathroom. A box of tissues and enough loo roll should be supplied as a basic.
The house should also not be stiflingly hot and necessitate having windows wide open all day and night, therefore wasting the owner's money unnecessarily spent on heating fuel.

Location is always number 1. I want to be near the sights, transport, restaurants (in a city this is) or with a lovely view/surroundings if countryside.

Quiet. Review comments about noise will put me right off as I’m a light sleeper.

Modernised kitchen and bathroom is a big plus.

Parking if we are driving.

King sized bed. Didn’t think I cared about this until I recently spent 2 weeks in a double with 6’3 bed hogging DH. It will now be crucial.

Comfortable king size bed

Good curtains, ideally blackout makes a massive difference in summer

Decent supply of toilet roll, tea and coffee, milk, basics like salt, pepper, oil, sugar. Ok soap and shower gel.

Enough laundry detergent if it's somewhere near a beach or pool where we will be washing stuff a lot. Cleaning stuff accessible if we need it.

When there aren't enough of these things it feels very stingy.

A bottle of wine, biscuits or whatever is nice to have but I'm not annoyed if there's nothing but the basics.

I prefer places which are actual people's homes rather than bland purely commercial properties but I'm sure many others feel the opposite.

When I put my place on Airbnb I wrote lots of instructions for appliances and a local guide with recommendations. And I just asked them to leave the place tidy and with everything switched off, no complicated leaving instructions!

I obviously work out location and amenities before booking any accommodation, but am very disappointed if basic tea, coffee, milk , condiments are not provided!
We stayed in a very upmarket accommodation in Vancouver and absolutely nothing there to welcome us after a long haul flight 😩