Firstly, renting an apartment while traveling is more profitable than renting a hotel room. And secondly, it’s much more interesting. Airbnb is one of the most popular services in this field. Read below about the secrets of his work and life hacks that allow you to rent an apartment inexpensively!
Life hack: verified photos
Most of the photos on the site are uploaded by users themselves, but in some countries Airbnb provides a free professional photography service. After this, a verification icon appears at the apartment. This way you can be sure that the photos are true.
Photo: airbnb.com 2 Life hack: host activity and instant booking
Airbnb is beneficial because it provides rental accommodation from the owner. However, when you choose an apartment or room, pay attention to the activity of the ad owner: how often he visits his profile and how quickly he responds to requests. Also, if you need to book your accommodation quickly, look for options marked with an "instant book" sign. This option does not require confirmation from the owner; you agree on the details after making the reservation.
Photo: airbnb.com 3 Life hack: other people’s “wish lists”
Instead of sifting through hundreds of advertisements yourself, take advantage of the work of other people. You can view the "wish lists" of your friends or just random strangers. To do this, enter “Airbnb wishlist” and the name of the locality where you are going to go into any search engine. There is a good chance that cheap apartment rentals or some very unusual offers await you there.
If you need inspiration or cool ideas for your next trip, be sure to check out the lists compiled by the Airbnb team (Airbnb Picks). For example, there are themed listings with lighthouses, windmills, watchtowers, boats, old school buildings, underground playgrounds, and even houses with their own Tesla electric vehicle chargers.
Photo: shutterstock 5 Life hack: business opportunities
If you and your colleagues often travel somewhere for work, Airbnb can be an excellent alternative to a hotel. On Airbnb for Business you can rent affordable housing for your entire team. Convenience lies not only in savings, but also in the availability of special business options such as Wi-Fi, 24-hour reception or a kitchen with a supply of necessary products.
Life hack: kindness
Being friendly when communicating with the owner of the apartment seems to be a self-evident truth, but we decided to remind you of it once again. This is not only a guarantee of your pleasant holiday, but also an opportunity to get information about local customs, attractions and entertainment, as well as increasing your chances of renting an apartment cheaply.
Photo: blog.airbnb.com Life hack: bargaining
Renting apartments inexpensively is often the result of not only a thorough search, but also good bargaining. So don't be afraid to bargain. After a short friendly correspondence (see the previous paragraph), tell us how delighted you are with the apartment and the upcoming trip, hint that it is a little expensive for your budget, but you really want to stay there. Well, then, a guest who pays less is better than nothing at all. The only thing is that this rule does not work during festivals, holidays and other popular events taking place during this period in the city.
Photo: weekendcheoks.com Today I’ll tell you about the service, which was created in 2008 and is increasingly gaining popularity among travelers. Read also about ours in Bangkok.
You will learn how to register and book accommodation on Airbnb, how to get a $25 discount coupon, and also tell you why the service is interesting and profitable.
What is Airbnb and how does it work?
Many travelers are already accustomed to accommodation booking systems, such as Booking or, where you can choose a hotel to suit your taste and budget in almost any country in the world. But hotels are not always the best option for accommodation - sometimes apartments and apartments are more convenient to rent. This is what Airbnb helps with. We must admit, we just recently started booking accommodation through Airbnb, and now we will help you figure it out too.
Airbnb is rental housing around the world from apartment owners. Housing can be either individual rooms, houses, apartments, or interesting options such as trailers, castles and islands. Now the system already includes more than 34,000 cities in 190 countries.
It turns out that Airbnb acts as an intermediary between those who want to rent out their apartment, house or room and those who want to rent this home. Naturally, the service takes a commission for such a bridge. For this fee, Airbnb provides a financial guarantee against all sorts of troubles, when you can contact a 24-hour support center and get a refund or resolve other issues if something goes wrong.
Why is Airbnb interesting and beneficial?
- The service is especially relevant for expensive cities such as Singapore, Paris, other capitals and large cities, where hotel prices are high. But you can rent an apartment in Airbnb for 20-40 dollars, and at a decent level. For that kind of money, in some cities hotels only offer small rooms.
- The possibility of live communication over a cup of tea with the owner, a conversation with whom will help you get to know the country even more deeply and get interesting information.
- It is especially beneficial to rent an apartment for a large group or a family with a child, when the presence of a kitchen and separate space is very desirable. Per person, it is often cheaper than a hotel, even very decent apartments, the equivalents of which in hotels are very expensive.
- An Airbnb reservation is visa-compliant, meaning a printout of the reservation can be provided to the consulate
- Interesting accommodation options, not the same type of chain hotels. For example, here.
How to register with Airbnb and get a $25 coupon
Upon transition you will receive from us personal Airbnb coupon for $25 for your first booking (works if its value exceeds $75). For example, if you rent an apartment for 3 days for $27 per day, then you will pay not $81, but only $56! This coupon is stored for a whole year, and even if you didn’t use it the first time, you can do so later.
$25 Airbnb coupon from us!
2. Click on the “get discount” button
3. Now you need to register. You can do this using your Facebook or Google+ accounts, or as usual via e-mail.
4. After registration, you need to confirm your profile - it’s simple and won’t take more than 3 minutes, follow the service prompts in your personal account.
Account verification methods
Account verification methods:
- Phone number
- Your profile photo
- Linking social networks to your account
- Sending a scan of your passport/driver's license.
Why do you need a verified Airbnb profile?
By confirming your profile, both you and the owner prove that you really exist, thus increasing trust. After all, Airbnb is not only a booking service, but also a community of travelers.
Often people choose to live with a confirmed owner of the apartment (the corresponding icon appears opposite him) and I advise you to do so. Also, confirmed guests are more highly valued))
How to rent a home on Airbnb
Now is the time to book your accommodation on Airbnb. We go to the official website and enter the city and dates we need into the search bar.
Search for apartments around the world on Airbnb
All available options appear, and to the right of them is a map, which is very convenient to look at by area, moving and moving.
Booking on Airbnb - search results with filters and map
Pay attention to the filters - there are several of them. You can select the type of accommodation, price range and others. More filters are available by clicking the “More filters” button - you can clearly define your housing requirements.
How to rent an apartment on Airbnb - choosing options
We choose the options we like and read about them carefully. There is a section “House Rules”, there are various conditions: is it possible to smoke, is it possible to have pets, what kind of beds, internet, bathroom, etc.
Read the description and house rules
Pay attention to reviews and whether the owner's account is verified. If not, then there is some risk, and perhaps this is just a new participant, and they did not have time to write reviews. When viewing photos, it is very good if the photo has a “Verified” icon in the upper right corner - this means that an Airbnb photographer visited this place and the photos correspond to reality.
Reviews of the apartment on Airbnb
Reviews of the property owner and his verified profile
Also pay attention to the cancellation conditions, there are several types: in some cases you can return the entire amount minus the service fee, in some cases the money is partially returned or not returned at all. You can read more at.
Cleaning fee. In some cases, a cleaning fee is included and is quite large. Be careful.
In some variants it is taken deposit for the safety of property. Nothing is debited from you; in case of property damage, the host must send you a request for payment through Airbnb after you check out.
The description says how many people the housing is designed for. In some cases, additional people are paid (the amount is indicated in the description), in some cases it is free.
We contact the owner of the apartment, find out the details that interest us and determine its adequacy, if required :-). If you don’t know English, then enter the Russian text into Google Translator and copy it.
Button to contact the property owner and booking button
Airbnb accommodation reservation and payment
1. Next, send a reservation request. Here you will need to enter your bank card or PayPal wallet details. The billing address is your address, more precisely the one that you indicated when you issued the bank card with which you pay for this accommodation. The host has 24 hours to confirm your request.
2. Instant Booking is available for some options. In this case, the reservation occurs immediately, just like in Booking or other similar services.
3. After the owner has confirmed the request and the payment has gone through, you will receive a receipt and detailed instructions with the owner’s contacts and the address of the property by e-mail. An SMS is also sent to your phone. Your money remains in the system and is transferred to the owner only after the first day of your stay.
A confirmation receipt appears in your personal account
If you registered using , and your booking is more than $75, then you will receive an Airbnb coupon worth $25. This amount is reflected after clicking the “Book instantly” or “Request booking” button in the “coupon” column, as in the screenshot.
Airbnb $25 discount on first booking!
We will be very grateful if you register using our link - you will feel good, and we will receive a small bonus from Airbnb. :-) Thank you!
That's all we wanted to tell you about how to rent a home on Airbnb. We will soon publish an article with answers to frequently asked questions. See you and happy travels!
I'll tell you how to find a good apartment and rent it without problems. Here are five tips to help you avoid screwing up your rent.
Sergey Korol
traveler
Usually, newcomers to Air BBC choose a city and date, and then admire the beautiful photos of apartments from the search. They imagine how they will lie on a luxurious bed and how they will have breakfast on the balcony overlooking the park. As a result, they choose housing with the cutest photos. Is it dangerous.
Perhaps, instead of a pleasant sleep in bed, you will have to get up early in the morning to catch the train to the center. And to have breakfast on the balcony, you will need to walk for an hour to buy groceries at the nearest supermarket.
We went to Helsinki for the festival and were impressed by the cute apartment with a sauna and grill on the balcony. It turned out that she was formally in another city, in Espoo. It's an hour's drive from Helsinki
To make your vacation enjoyable, look not only at the photographs, but also at the location of the apartments. Research where the nearest public transport stops are and how often they run. See what shops and cafes are nearby. If you're driving, find out where to park overnight.
For example, I want to rent an apartment in the city center, in the Punavuori area:
I find this place in Google Maps, and then “walk” along the neighboring streets in street view mode.
I’m looking for parking, looking at the signs, as if I’m driving a virtual car and thinking about where to park it.
Oh, you can park your car here from 9 am to 7 pm - this is written on the yellow sign on the wall of the building, above the Canon. But you won’t be able to park overnight - in the morning there will be a fine waiting under the windshield wiper
Sometimes they deliberately rent an apartment not in the center in order to save on rent. Before you do this, calculate how much an hour of your vacation costs. This way you will see that an expensive apartment in the center will be more profitable.
Cost of renting an apartment in Paris
Rent an apartment for 3200 RUR per day
More expensive and closer
Rent an apartment in the center for 4800 RUR per day
Spend 2 hours every day getting to the center and back - 800 RUR of your time and another 20 € for two for bus tickets (≈1400 RUR)
More expensive and closer
You walk around the city on foot and rarely spend money on transport. The apartment costs as much as you pay for rent
Total - 5400 RUR
More expensive and closer
Both the renter and the owner can cancel a reservation at Air BBC.
If you rent an apartment and then change your mind, the service may fine you. This is determined by the types of cancellations. There are six of them: from soft to hard.
With soft cancellation, you can cancel your rental even five minutes before check-in - you will receive a full refund. With hard cancellation, you will get a 50% refund of your stay if you cancel your reservation a month in advance.
Cancellation rules are listed in the "Prices" section
Sometimes it happens that the owner of the apartment cancels the reservation. Often, owners rent out their apartments while traveling, and plans may change. This is a fairly rare case; it happened to me once.
If the host cancels your reservation, you will receive an email letting you know. I advise you to look through your mailbox the night before your trip. By the way, if the owner cancels the reservation, Air BBC will give you a small consolation amount to your internal account.
Make lists directly on the site
Usually there are dozens and hundreds of apartment options at Air BBC. In order not to get confused in them and not to lose interesting ones, I advise you to keep a list.
The list is created directly on the website. Name it after the city you're going to.
Then add apartments to the list directly from the search - click on ❤:
So in half an hour you will have a dozen options to choose from. You can discuss them with family or friends. These apartments will no longer be lost in the search.
Check details in advance
Typically, apartment owners send guests detailed instructions: how to get from the airport, how to find an apartment. Guests close the Air BBC tab, thinking that everything is ok.
What to pay attention to
The owner writes that the easiest way to get from Berlin Tegel Airport is by taxi for 20 € (1534 RUR). But you do not fly to Tegel, but to Schönefeld. Find out how to get there by public transport from Schönefeld and how much it will cost.
The owner asks to pick up the keys from the neighbor. She lives opposite, in apartment 20B. Ask your neighbor for her phone number and ask her to give her your number. Warn that you will be there between 12 and 14 o'clock - let him be at home at this time.
The owner offers to meet you from the train and take you home by car. He asks for only 15 € (1150 RUR). Google transport: it turns out that you can get from the station to your house by tram for 4 € (306 RUR). Politely decline.
The owner complains that there is now an excavator in his parking space and it will not be possible to leave the car at the house. Find out where the nearest free parking is. If there isn’t one, ask him to negotiate with your neighbors so that you park in someone else’s place.
Usually before a trip I look at the route from the stop to the house on Street View. This way I find housing quickly and without errors.
This is our temporary home in Berlin. If you walk around Street View, you can see a huge park full of weed dealers
I also make sure to write down the owner’s phone number and take screenshots of Google Maps. I can use the screenshots to get to the place; if I get lost, in extreme cases, I’ll call you by phone.
You might think I'm paranoid. However, during all this time I have had almost no unpleasant moments with checking into Air BBC.
Include the skeptic
Usually people think the apartment is nice in advance. Beautiful photos, view outside the window. By default, I consider any housing suspicious.
When I look at an apartment, I always try to find a flaw in it. Why didn't you take a photo of the bathroom? Where will all the things go from the table and closet? Why does the baby's crib get wet in the rain on the balcony?
So I found a nice apartment in Riga:
But if you scroll down to the photo of the house itself, it becomes a little scary. Hut on chicken legs for 2600 RUR per day!
If you have any doubts about the apartment, it is better to clarify them with the owner in advance. If you can’t clarify, don’t shoot.
I avoid apartments that have too many household items. Typically, such apartments are found among those who are leaving for several weeks. You will be greeted by cabinets filled with things and a bathroom shelf where there is nowhere to even put toothpaste. It’s a strange feeling: you seem to have paid a lot of money, but it’s like you’re living as a guest.
This apartment in Rome is obviously residential. Everywhere there are paintings, books and things of the owners
Don't forget about cleaning. Typically, Air BBC shows the cost of a night's stay in the search. However, in addition to this amount, an additional cleaning fee will be charged. The money for cleaning goes to the owner of the apartment, so sometimes he cheats: he reduces the cost of rent, but charges a lot for cleaning. Look at this amount when choosing an apartment. The cost of cleaning should not exceed one night in the apartment.
For three nights in a Tokyo apartment, you expect to pay 9,600 RUR, but you will pay more than 12 thousand. They will additionally charge 2200 RUR for cleaning and another 1500 RUR for the Air BBC commission.
How to contact outside of Air BBC. The service stops all attempts to exchange contacts with the owners of apartments that you have not rented. You won’t be able to leave your phone number or a link to your social network account - Air BBC will hide this for the recipient of the message.
To contact the owner, some distort the words: Fαсၔbo0к or Inƽαrαm. Or they write numbers in letters: plus seven nine two five...
Please do not try to bypass Air BBC to rent an apartment. The owner will complain, you will be blocked, or something else will happen:
The more we travel around the world, the more questions we receive about how to book cheap flights, how to find cheap accommodation and how, in principle, to travel cheaply. Now, apparently, the moment has come when it’s time to stop answering every questioner in a personal manner and highlight all these pressing issues publicly, point by point and with feeling. Let's start, perhaps, with the most vital thing - finding a roof over your head. How can you quickly and easily, and without spending your entire family travel budget, find cheap housing in almost any corner of our planet?
1. Couchsurfing
An option for the most sociable and economical! Couchsurfing allows you to stay in apartments, houses, apartments, villas, hostels (the list is endless) of local residents, as well as host travelers from all over the world at home. At the same time, accommodation for guests is absolutely free - the only payment is communication and exchange of experiences and impressions.
The main sites developing the idea of couchsurfing:
- This option is suitable only for sociable people who, after a day full of fermentation and impressions, are ready to sit half the night in the kitchen, discussing with a new acquaintance their ascent to a volcano in Nicaragua or communication with local tribes in the Amazon jungle. Beeches and introverts may feel slightly uncomfortable;
- Couchsurfing assumes that, in addition to your native Russian, you speak at least English, fluent enough to talk about at least a tenth of your adventures around the world. The number of couchsurfers with knowledge of Russian in most countries of the world is confidently approaching zero;
- the listing of houses, apartments, and dorms at the very beginning was not accidental. The living conditions of different coaches can be completely different - from an empty apartment with all the amenities to a mattress on the floor side by side with four more similar adventurers;
- and finally, living in another person’s house, you will often have to adapt to his rules and routine - such as getting up early, staying late, ten cats and five hamsters, and so on and so forth.
If all of the above does not scare you at all and you are quite tolerant, flexible and extroverted, then most likely couchsurfing will help you save a lot on your trip, and will also bring you many new friends around the world and a lot of positive emotions!
2. Renting an apartment
This option is in many ways similar to the previous one - with one small but quite significant difference. Namely, in this case you will still have to pay for accommodation. But this minus of payment more than covers almost all the minuses of couchsurfing - you are not obliged to communicate with the owner more than you yourself want, you do not have to adapt to his rules and whims, and you have the right to choose the conditions and amenities of accommodation, on which the price of the one you choose will depend housing option. It can also be a separate house or apartment, or just a room in the owner’s house or even a bed in a common room. Still, the advantage is that you are not living in a faceless hotel with a reception and maids, but in a real home of a local resident with all its features and flavor.
Popular apartment rental sites around the world:
To be honest, for most Russian cities these sites work with difficulty. For our native spaces, sites like www.sutochno.ru and the like are much more meaningful.
3. Camping
This option is most likely suitable for people traveling on their own wheels - no matter four or two. And in general, it’s ideal if you have your own house - a tent, marquee or camper (mobile home). The main disadvantages of campsites are, of course, the lack of hotel comfort and amenities and, as a rule, the location on the outskirts, quite far from the city of interest to you. However, most often in campsites there are toilets, showers and even kitchens (and if we are talking about Europe, then all these amenities are provided at the European level), and the presence of your own wheels seems to hint that you don’t care about distances. But the undoubted advantages in this case are the price and location away from the bustle of the city among beautiful forests, fields, and rivers.
For some reason, sites for booking campsites as a selection do not look particularly attractive and readable, but if you look into it, there are a great many options.
Main sites for booking campsites:
On the last site, just click on the image of the European country you are interested in - and you will be immediately redirected to a separate site with campsites in this country.
4. Hostels
If, alas, you don’t have that much money, but you really want to travel, there is a great way to save on housing, which is often the main expense item for a traveler. To do this, it is enough to get acquainted with such a phenomenon as hostels. These are something like hostels with different levels of price, comfort and quality. Often, someone’s old large apartment with many rooms is turned into a hostel - hence the kitchen that is almost always present in this type of housing, as well as the need to share a shower and toilet with the residents of another two, three or four rooms. But there is a pleasant opportunity to prepare your own breakfasts, lunches and dinners, as well as a lot of communication with like-minded travelers in the same kitchen or in the public areas of the hostel, which are most often arranged in such a way as to facilitate this communication in every possible way (hammocks, sofas, board games And so on).
The type of accommodation in hostels can also be very different - from a single or double personal room, sometimes even with its own shower-toilet (which is sometimes in no way inferior to a hotel room) to a bed in a multi-bed room (dormitory), the number of places in which can vary from four to infinity. The choice again depends on the price you are willing to pay and the level of sociability you are willing to push yourself to.
Main sites for booking hostels:
5. Hotel booking systems
I repeat - there are a lot of booking systems at the moment. But at the same time, unfortunately, the option of finding your favorite and only one and using only her does not work. The fact is that the price of the same hotels in different systems can sometimes differ radically - moreover, some hotels may cost less on one site, while others on another. So until you go through the main booking systems, you will never guess where exactly the ideal offer will be found!
The largest hotel booking systems:
6. Hotel meta search engines
This method is perhaps the most comprehensive, economical in terms of effort and time, and often the most effective. As I said above, prices for the same hotel in different booking systems can often differ significantly. An option to solve the problem is to either go through different systems one by one, or use the help of meta-search engines. These sites are special search engines that do not have their own hotel database, and you cannot book anything directly from them - but they search through many available booking systems and provide a list of hotels with prices from different systems, which you can compare yourself and choose. It turns out to be a sort of Google-Yandex, tailored solely to finding the ideal home for you.
It is impossible to book a hotel directly from the meta-search engine website, but this is also not a problem. After you make your choice, you will be asked to go directly to the website of the reservation system offering the price you like, and there you can book your room at the same price. There are a lot of intermediaries, but they allow you to significantly save time and effort, as well as minimize the number of sites that you need to view and study.
Useful note for travelers who use the Airbnb service. Find at least some technical support contacts on the site Airbnb.com almost impossible. I don’t know if Airbnb purposely hid their phone number or if these are original usability features. But the fact is that there is no public support phone number anywhere on their website. But this is very important.
Airbnb phones in Russia
It’s strange, of course, that such a reputable company hides its contacts. If their phones are ringing off the hook, we should introduce a modern telephony system and increase the number of operators. Users overpay for service fees, and in the event of a refund or a technical error on the site, it is not very clear how to contact Airbnb in Russia.
There seems to be an Airbnb technical support service, but it doesn’t have a phone number or email. More precisely, there is a phone number, but to find it out, you need to ask in groups on social media. networks, then maybe one of the moderators will give you a phone number... This is such a confusing system.
So, here are the Airbnb phone numbers:
- +7-495-465-8090 (number for calls from Moscow)
- 8-800-301-7104 (toll-free)
Airbnb support numbers in other countries around the world
I managed to obtain these phones by cunning through the source code of one page of the official website: airbnb.ru/help/contact_us. That is, somehow, apparently, it is possible to get a list of these numbers, but logically I still did not understand how to do this. And a client who urgently needs an Airbnb support phone number certainly won’t figure it out. Next, see the list of phones in different countries. Please note that the language of communication on these numbers will be English.
Go to Airbnb and get a discount of 2100 rubles >>