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my darling feet posted:Has anybody had any bad experiences with ABnB, the California Squatters case aside? A long sequence of ABnB guests stayed in my office/spare room. Most of these were academics there to work at Princeton, so they were trivial to vet in academic circles, and nobody wants to party in Princeton. I only had one negative experience in that time. An Indian couple came for a week and a half to visit their son, who was a student at Princeton. When they asked if they could use my kitchen, I didn't think anything of it. What I didn't realize was that it meant the mother would be cooking huge elaborate meals for the three of them from 6 AM to 9 PM, every single day. I had to get special permission to use my own microwave for two minutes. Kind of bullshit. Oh, and some idiot cooked a fish filet in my microwave directly on the rotating plate, not in a dish or anything, then forgot about it and left it there. I discovered it days later. That's about all, though...
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Aug 5, 2014 19:09
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my darling feet posted:Has anybody had any bad experiences with ABnB, the California Squatters case aside? I just gave my first bad review to a guest - the Korean family that I mentioned earlier. They stayed for a week. There were several factors: 1 - They moved the furniture around in the flat and left it in a completely different layout to how it was when they arrived. Annoying, but by itself not worthy of a complaint. 2 - Despite me taking the father to where the rubbish (trash) goes (like, downstairs, outside to an outhouse to which he has the key) they left their rubbish in the kitchen overflowing the bin. Again, not particularly annoying but shows a lack of care. 3 - They left all the windows wide open when they left, including some french window style windows that someone could easily fit through. This is for a flat in central London, on the 1st floor of a building so all it would have taken for someone to get in would be to climb a 1-storey wall. This is not really forgivable, and I was busy for a few days after they left and so didn't get round to checking up on the flat until 5 days afterwards. 4 - They left the toilet seats covered with urine and a rag with what looked like blood on the floor. Pretty disgusting. 5 - Food stains over all the tables. Not a problem, but along with the other issues... 6 - Asking me to not only book a cab for them to go to the airport (not a big deal) but also to book them a cab for the next time they are in the UK. Most of these by themselves are not issues I would normally kick up a fuss about, but all of them together just made me wonder what the gently caress they thought they were doing. I think that because they were renting a whole flat, they didn't really understand that it's still someone's property and not a hotel complete with concierge service and cleaner. Basically I got the impression that they didn't give a poo poo.
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Aug 5, 2014 20:22
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Wow. That's pretty rough, glad you reviewed negatively. The way the review system doesn't show your review to them until they review you should help weed those people out more effectively, now.
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Aug 6, 2014 00:06
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oops.
Dead Pressed fucked around with this message at 22:15 on Aug 10, 2014 |
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Aug 10, 2014 19:43
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So how does check in work? You just kind of call the owner on the day of arrival and pick up your keys? And when you check out you hand the keys to the guy? As a tourist, does that mean on average you lose an hour or two to sort everything out? I actually wanted to stay in AirBnB Amsterdam but prices weren't really that much cheaper and quite a few places were more of a renting room kind of thing. tentish klown posted:I just gave my first bad review to a guest - the Korean family that I mentioned earlier. Ugh, families are the worst kind of travelers. They can't afford a hotel, yet trash other people's places. They probably think that the cleaning fee is all encompassing and give no shits. Then as the host you have to deal with shitbag attitudes/habits from all over the world. Either they don't flush the toilet properly, or get drunk/smoke/stink up the place. caberham fucked around with this message at 09:42 on Aug 21, 2014 |
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Aug 21, 2014 09:39
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caberham posted:So how does check in work? You just kind of call the owner on the day of arrival and pick up your keys? And when you check out you hand the keys to the guy? As a tourist, does that mean on average you lose an hour or two to sort everything out? My mom contested paying the cleaning fee for an apartment because some of the grout in the shower was black/moldy. It was just a small corner (about two or three inches long). Don't rent to anyone older than 40 because these are the people you will have to deal with.
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Aug 21, 2014 16:51
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caberham posted:So how does check in work? You just kind of call the owner on the day of arrival and pick up your keys? And when you check out you hand the keys to the guy? As a tourist, does that mean on average you lose an hour or two to sort everything out? You typically schedule it beforehand, as possible. E.g., I have a hidden combo lock with key to let people in if they arrive while we're gone. Otherwise, my wife is home most of the time. I've had hosts get friends to meet us, their mom, etc. Things typically have a way of working out, one way or another, as long as you communicate with the other party up front.
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Aug 22, 2014 01:48
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I've had to meet the person to give keys, combo for a lockbox, meet a friend, pick up the keys during the day at their work/in the city, find them under a pot plant, walk straight in cause its a place where the door is always open or the easiest one is just when they are always home. When leaving I would say that most times I just leave the keys in the home and lock the door on my way out. Or you leave it back in the lockbox.
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Aug 23, 2014 07:53
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I'm new to travelling in general but I do have a slim budget, so a bunch of questions: How safe is Airbnb for a group of girls planning to travel to Japan? What should I be looking for to find trustworthy hosts? If anyone has any recommendations for Tokyo that would also be a great help!
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Aug 26, 2014 10:20
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basch posted:I'm new to travelling in general but I do have a slim budget, so a bunch of questions: How safe is Airbnb for a group of girls planning to travel to Japan? What should I be looking for to find trustworthy hosts? Its Japan. Its probably the safest country you can go to as a group of girls. If you stay in your own place then there won't be anything to worry about. How big is your group as Japan will probably have small rooms with a bunch of futons to sleep on assuming its not too big.?
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Aug 27, 2014 11:21
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'Own place' meaning no host staying with us? Because I assume it'd be nice to have someone local showing us the sights  4 people, so I think it won't be too hard to find a place.
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Aug 28, 2014 15:27
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basch posted:'Own place' meaning no host staying with us? Because I assume it'd be nice to have someone local showing us the sights Yeh there are three types of accommodation. Entire Home/Apartment means you get a whole property to yourself Private Room means you get a room in someones house and live with them (like flatmates) Shared room is less common but you wouldn't have total privacy when sleeping. Seeing as Japan has tiny homes its more likely you would get the first. Private Rooms tend to be only for 2 people max (as its just one bedroom) but you might find a place with a couple of bedrooms. I've stayed in all and they all have pro's and con's. Obviously it gets more expensive/cheaper depending on which way you go. Sometimes you like having your own place and sometimes I love having someone around (especially if its not a big city).
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Aug 29, 2014 10:24
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Personally, as long as you're not in a big group, I prefer the personal rooms. Best of both worlds, really, if you need to ask someone for help, etc. Obviously, whole place is ideal for larger groups. One of my recurring customers rents her whole place out for like 50 bucks a head and stays with us when it's booked. Not a bad deal for either of us when you think about it.
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Aug 29, 2014 19:35
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Le sigh. This thread has not taken off as I had hoped in the time since I first posted it. May just give up the ghost.  Anyways, last week started my 2nd long term rental. Student intern for the local children's hospital is here until early December. Will be a nice break for a couple of months; however, we expect to slide slightly from our #1 result ranking in Knoxville due to it, as we won't have any reviews for the next couple of months. Oh well. As an aside, we received over 50 unique reviews in about a year, netting us about $7000 before taxes. This cash is being used to most recently upgrade our living room furniture :headshot:
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Oct 8, 2014 02:33
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I can report back once I stay at a place I found in Chicago. I researched this site for the marathon weekend and it was significantly cheaper than a hotel. She responded back very clearly and timely about getting there with public transit. More places have opened closer to the start line at similar prices since I booked, but I appreciated her quick response times and low room rate, making it reluctant to cancel. There was only one review for this place but at this point I wasn't picky and they seem like really cool people.
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Oct 8, 2014 05:22
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I'm cross posting from the NYC thread: So a friend from Europe wanted to fly to NYC from 12/28 to 1/8 and found a cheap flight. Except now she's looking at sleeping costs and can only find 80EUR/night Airbnbs which is surprising to her cause well she's European and is used to max like 20EUR/night even in Paris. Are these prices pretty much gonna be the best thing she can do during those dates?
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Oct 11, 2014 17:50
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Boris Galerkin posted:I'm cross posting from the NYC thread: Yeah. What's listed is pretty much what people are going to ask... You've also got to take into consideration this is going to be Christmas/New year's eve time, and NYC is like....the most popular new year's eve destination in the States.  A lot of people aren't too keen on renting out a 1) shared room, or 2) shared residence during this time due to the holidays & the associated family visits. Whole residences are still a likely go-to, but those are going to be more expensive anyways for obvious reasons.Since it is an extended stay, I'd contact the hosts and see if they'd do a reduced rate if she'd guarantee a 2 week stay. You'd be surprised how much you can haggle if you guarantee a stay, tell them no breakfast will not be needed, and have good prior reviews. Also, Paris is discounted because it smells and the people are mean.
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Oct 12, 2014 16:12
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Also cheap places book up faster. Two months out may be fine for a normal AirBnB but maybe not for a highly sought after date. New York is a big place too...if she's only looking in Manhattan that is going to be pricey all the time.
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Oct 12, 2014 18:51
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Just had my first Airbnb experience staying in Brooklyn in September for 5 days. Everything went smoothly. My only caveat would be that the floor plan of the apartment was such that you had to go through one of the bedrooms to get to the bathroom. Maybe floor plans should be required to be one of the pictures? Maybe it is and I just didn't notice because I'm a noob. I'm definitely going to look into using Airbnb in the future. I like to go on 1 week long charter holidays in southern Europe. These are package deals (flight+hotel) and I am in a position to buy them at the last minute which makes them super cheap. Airbnb would therefore probably be more expensive than staying in a hotel, but I just think it would be a far better experience to stay in a private house. Luckily the charter holiday companies do offer flights only deals.
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Oct 13, 2014 10:27
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We just used a couple of whole-house AirBnBs in Portland and Seattle. The Portland one was like a typical vacation rental, with an eco twist. All wood cottage in someone's backyard, only a couple of years old. Very cool. The Seattle one was kind of weird. It was like the women renting it had just walked out of the place five minutes before we arrived. Mostly full fridge and all her personal poo poo everywhere. Like it was clean, but we had a foot of closet space, beside her clothes. And the mirror in the bedroom had a hospital bracelet hanging on it. Just like, super personal. OTOH, a fully stocked kitchen is nice. For the purposes of this thread, we picked them because they had a couple dozen good ratings, and were described as being close to public transit and walkable to restaurants and such. Just call it a few blocks, and people will think it's a short walk, even if no one there ever walks and it's pretty far. Also, I strongly suggest not using the Private Feedback field in the review to say anything negative if you are the host. It might feel good to complain but it will just kill your chance of getting a referral.
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Oct 14, 2014 15:23
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A group of friends and I will be staying at an airbnb in Istanbul next month. I'll report back on how things went when I return. Hoping this thread stays alive 
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Oct 14, 2014 22:59
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I stayed at an AirBnB in Portland for several months. Place was clean, didn't have any privacy issues. Wasn't in the greatest part of town, but I never had any trouble. It was a pretty unremarkable experience - compared to renting, I'd say you're paying a premium for no lease and basically no questions. If I had a reason to stay medium-term in a city that I didn't know, I'd use it again.
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Oct 15, 2014 06:32
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Christ, the market in London is really screwed up. I've seen hotels near Paddington that were cheaper than literal garden sheds in the outskirts of London.
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Oct 15, 2014 07:44
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Had a great stay in Chicago with a couple from the south side. Price was right at $57/night with only two reviews posted. She responded quickly to my inquiries leading into the trip, directions to their place when I landed in Chicago, and woke up early Sunday to help with preparing my breakfast for the marathon. She said a lot of people were asking to stay this weekend but she picked me for some odd reason. They left me a great review on airbnb as well. This site is so resourceful and I'll definitely use it again.
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Oct 16, 2014 06:01
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On my 8th loving try, I finally found a place to stay in DC. Have any of you had to go through so much hassle? It's been: 1. Your reservation has been placed but not approved! 2. Your order has been temporarily placed on your credit card. 3. I'm sorry, <insert residence here> has rejected your request. 4. Your credit card payment has been revoked/declined. A lot of the reasons I got were because people were looking for long-term rentals (as in, months). I'm a single guy, looking to stay for only 4 days but drat it took me about a week just to find a place. I have prior reviews on AirBnb too. Weaponized Autism fucked around with this message at 02:00 on Oct 18, 2014 |
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Oct 18, 2014 01:58
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qutius posted:A group of friends and I will be staying at an airbnb in Istanbul next month. I'll report back on how things went when I return. Erdi has moved from when I was in Istanbul, but he's a great host: https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/521307
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Oct 18, 2014 07:23
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Tailored Sauce posted:On my 8th loving try, I finally found a place to stay in DC. Have any of you had to go through so much hassle? It's been: You can send a message instead of just trying to book. Say their place looks good, you'd love to stay there, etc. Then you can do this with a few places at the same time, but aren't locked in to any like you normally are. One or more of the hosts can pre-approve you for booking, and then you just pay then. It puts the power much more on the side of the renter, in my opinion. You aren't stuck waiting 24 hours for some flaky person to not check their email.
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Oct 19, 2014 02:47
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Tailored Sauce posted:On my 8th loving try, I finally found a place to stay in DC. Have any of you had to go through so much hassle? It's been: I've stayed at airbnb's about 8 times and never had any hassle except for DC where it took me several days and about 10 attempts to find a place.
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Oct 21, 2014 07:58
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Literally fuming at a guest for asking for a 460 euro refund on a stay I received £830 for, because of limescale, a greasy cooker-hood (because a cooker-hood traps grease), a couple of stains on the sofa, and a dusty lamp. I even got an extra 3-hour cleaning service for the guy, on a Saturday, when he complained to me on Friday night at 8:30pm. There's no pleasing some people.
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Oct 30, 2014 12:27
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Tell him to go gently caress himself. AirBnB is pretty solid when it comes to bullshit claims like that.
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Oct 30, 2014 13:23
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Has he already reviewed you or is he hanging this over your head prior to review?
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Oct 30, 2014 21:35
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Dead Pressed posted:Has he already reviewed you or is he hanging this over your head prior to review? He hasn't reviewed me yet. I've agreed to get the airbnb resolutions team involved, and told them that I'll refund 50E if he agrees that neither of us review the other.
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Oct 30, 2014 22:03
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tentish klown posted:Literally fuming at a guest for asking for a 460 euro refund on a stay I received £830 for, because of limescale, a greasy cooker-hood (because a cooker-hood traps grease), a couple of stains on the sofa, and a dusty lamp. Is "it was dirty" even a valid reason to contest charges? I always figured Airbnb was an "as-is" rental.
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Oct 30, 2014 22:29
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Does the guest have any bad reviews?
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Oct 30, 2014 22:31
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Juanito posted:Does the guest have any bad reviews? He doesn't have any reviews, no. Apparently it's legit if you argue your case - this guy literally took photos of everything he could possibly moan about - a dusty lamp, lime scale on the taps etc. The airbnb team try to keep both sides happy if possible. The negotiator asked me if I would settle for a 150E refund (the guy wants 460E), I said absolutely not. I hate being held to ransom by people trying their luck.
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Oct 30, 2014 23:03
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So what's wrong with a bad review? If he has no reviews except a single bad one from you, and you have a few good ones plus his bad one seems like it will hurt him more?
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Oct 31, 2014 00:14
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Arakan posted:So what's wrong with a bad review? If he has no reviews except a single bad one from you, and you have a few good ones plus his bad one seems like it will hurt him more? As a host, a single bad review can wreck you if you don't have a ton of positive reviews. The upper tiers of listing are highly competitive, and people want to be one of the first hits in an area. As for the bad guest, He could theoretically make a new account...
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Oct 31, 2014 00:34
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On a side note, my wife and I have our place effectively booked through July with long term guests. Once our current intern leaves in December, an out of Towner who owns businesses locally will stay during tax season through April. Our next guest, a medical intern, wraps up in July. drat! $750 a month. Woot. Paired with uber, we're making a killing with our share economy side hustles.
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Oct 31, 2014 02:11
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Had our first Air BNB experience last week and it was mostly great! Stayed in a super nice in-law unit in Philly and an ok apartment in DC. I feel a lot more comfortable using Air BNB for travel now - we always bring our dog with us and it's great peace of mind knowing that he has somewhere safe to hang out while we get dinner or go somewhere without him for a couple of hours.
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Nov 6, 2014 20:09
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Anyone have advice about seeking out a long term Air BNB in another country? I'm going to be in Brazil from February 2015 to December 2015 on a Fulbright program and am responsible for figuring out my own housing situation. Are hosts generally amenable to long-term guests? Any particular issues or road bumps I should look out for?
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Nov 8, 2014 18:26
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