What is Air bnb? I cant find a holiday rental in Cornwall for my dates but can find accommodation on this site?

[ukgirlatheart]

Cant for the love or money find a place for our dates, but can find lots of houses for rent for a week on this site??

It's a site to let out your house or rooms in your house. Friends have used before and it's been great.

really, gosh! Ive found an entire house for rent in August smack bang in the village we want for £800.

ummm Im sending a message to the owner and it's asked me to upload a photo before I can proceed

That's normal - it's so owners can see who you are. They'll also want to verify your identity through facebook or similar.

It's a pretty good site - we had a bit of a nightmare last year with a host cancelling on us last minute where there wasn't anything of similar value available, and AirBNB made up the difference.

They hold your money until you stay, so you don't have to worry re host running off with it.

That's a security thing on Airbnb, the host might have specified that he/she only wants guests who do put up a photo. If you're new to the site you won't have any reviews so they have no way of checking you out. Not sure why the photo but it is Airbnb's system rather than the host being fussy. I am an Airbnb host and have been an Airbnb guest and think it's a great system.

airbandb started off as a site where people could advertise a spare room in their house, a granny annex that sort of thing. it has now just another website with all the pitfalls of holiday accommodation websites. if something looks too cheap to be true then it usually is. Make sure that you are getting the whole house not sharing as you could end up in a couple of bedrooms and sharing facilities with the family! we went to Sardinia in October and I found what I thought was perfect on airbandb. just about to book when I realised I hadn't ticked the whole house button at the top and that this place was a twin room for myself and my daughter in someones house sharing bathroom, kitchen etc. not what we wanted at all.

also airbandb don't check out the standard of what you are getting. we always try and go through the local tourist board so we don't end up in somewhere that is filthy or dangerous.

I would use airbandb again but would ask a lot more questions about what we were getting and want more photos etc.

and read the reviews mummymeister - you'll find that people will give a description of their time there which might be more enlightening than the owners description.

leotardo you have to take reviews with a pinch of salt I am afraid. they can so easily be written by family and friends its scary. I try and go on my gut instinct when asking the questions. I am not really a fan of reviews tbh.