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Octy posted:I'm looking forward to using AirBnB when I leave for Europe in two weeks. Apart from a couple of actual BnBs, I'm either renting an apartment or a room in every city. I don't much see the point of travelling without it in future. I find it kind of stressful if I'm only going to be somewhere one day, or if I'm somewhere for work, but yeah, for stays longer than 3 days or so I don't know why anyone in their right mind would go to a hotel, unless it's an all-inclusive resort or something. I'm listed on CouchSurfing, but 90% of the people who have contacted us have either been (A) creepy North Africans or (B) flaky as hell. We've been contacted maybe 12 times in the past year, confirmed 4 people, had 1 actually show up. Seems to be a pretty average experience. (Responders from Group (A) disappeared after we changed the account name from my girlfriend's to mine.) Been considering switching to AirBnB—not for the money, but just for the better average users.
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Nov 12, 2013 12:31
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Dead Pressed posted:
Yeah, we'll probably do this. I live in Lausanne in case anyone wants to hit me up before I get around to adding it on AirBnB. We can host 2 people, or 3 if someone is very small or doesn't mind sleeping curled up on a love seat.
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Nov 19, 2013 15:49
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Dead Pressed posted:The Swiss LOVE apple butter. I bought a jar of this from Williams Sonoma like 3 years ago and it's been sitting in my cabinet (in Switzerland) ever since, unopened. I'll have to try this out...
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Dec 2, 2013 10:26
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jvick posted:Thanks for the info. I agree with what you're saying. The problem is that it is a 30+ year old cabin that has had a hodgepodge of decor thrown at it over the years. Right now the unit is breakeven, if I can convince my father to be serious about making this a cash flowing unit then we'll invest the money. I do like what you're saying about the price. The $200 cleaning fee I have to charge - HOA rules unless I want to eat that cost myself. Your comments weren't harsh - that's what I was looking for by posting it. I think too that I'll apply for the professional AirBNB photographer to come shoot it for free. The rent at $500/night is insane anyway. Unless you're way overpaying I imagine you'd break well over even if you rented it for even a few days a month. I rented in Tahoe a few years ago and we had a place that at least looked nicer than yours (though didn't have the view) for a 4 br 2 ba and it was like $2000 for the week. [Edit: Now I see it's $400, which is getting towards a more reasonable $300; not sure if you changed it or if the above person misquoted the price]. I can't say 100% for sure how people use AirBnB, but in my understanding, it's for people who want to spend more than couchsurfing, but less than a more 'official' rental site like VRBO. I can't imagine anyone on AirBnB would want to chuck out $400 a night--it's just not the right clientele for that kind of thing. YMMV and all. Also it's not really clear whether the tennis courts etc are free or whether you can "book" them and then have to pay an extra amount. Also you don't mention if you have tennis equipment etc for people to just use, or if they'd have to bring their own somehow. Take a look at what you're up against, e.g. http://www.vrbo.com/121909 http://www.vrbo.com/55053 http://www.vrbo.com/136165 It might just be your pictures don't do it justice-- it says 4 br 3 ba, but you only show pictures of a living/dining room, and two of the bedrooms. Saladman fucked around with this message at 00:03 on Feb 3, 2014 |
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Feb 2, 2014 23:52
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jvick posted:I did lower the price on AirBnB after the last suggestion to help get inquiries, and in turn, reviews. Thanks for the feedback regarding the tennis stuff. I'll work on revising that. The pictures are dated and are stock from the property management's website. I just checked their VRBO listing for the unit and they finally updated those pictures, so I'll steal them for AirBnB until I can get their own photographer in there. Yeah, wow, that looks so much better. Looks solid for $375/night. Those pictures make it look about 10x bigger than the previous photos made it look (and more representative to boot). From the previous photos I thought it was like a small maybe 800 sq ft condo.
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Feb 4, 2014 20:18
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spoof posted:I'm mostly along the east coast and through the Midwest in the US and Canada. I don't know that it would be an effective way to save money though, because you're paying a premium for a short stay. I'm probably paying about between double and triple what it would cost for the space on a one-year lease. You would need quite a few down days to make up for that. Your best bet to save money may be to go the other way, get a 2- or 3-bedroom flat, keep a flatmate and airbnb-out the other room to collect the short-term stay premium. Do your research and see which parts of London get a lot of airbnb traffic, and which get none. You could probably do this, but it'd be a huge pain in the rear end as you'd have to deal with people and coming all the time, arrange your schedule around them, make your roommate cool with it (many would not be), etc. The best option is definitely just to get normal roommates, although then of course you have no way to get them to pay for you, like AirBnB could theoretically do. Also AirBnB is technically illegal to do in some places (e.g. Paris, not that it's enforced very well), and technically against the lease in most apartments. Most AirBnB hosts are people who happen to have an extra room / apartment and don't want to sell it but instead rent it out. I doubt more than a tiny fraction of people on the site specifically get an extra room with the intention of putting it on AirBnB / CouchSurfing.
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Feb 12, 2014 17:08
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Frost000 posted:In other news, I finally got my first two references on AirBnB. If I haven't used the service yet and have no reviews (didn't leave any yet either, obviously), do hosts usually look at references? I would guess so, but I'm just making sure before I ask for more references... Maybe if you're trying to stay somewhere long-term, but normally no. I guess it might be more difficult if you have 0, but if you have a reasonably complete profile and don't seem like a Nigerian 419er then you should manage.
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Feb 14, 2014 09:26
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Dead Pressed posted:My wife and I are planning a trip to the EU in which we're fortunate enough to piggyback off of a work trip's plane ticket. We're looking to go to Munich, then Zurich, and finally Milan. In comparing prices, it looks like hotels are actually going to be the best options, at least in Munich. Kind of disappointed in that realization. Exchange rates are calculated on the fly on AirBNB and the like, but keep in mind that while the US dollar has gained like 20% against the Euro over the past few months, so has the Swiss Franc, so the US$<->CHF has stayed pretty stable at ~1:1. The US$ has gained massively over pretty much every currency in Europe besides the CHF in the past 4 months though, so that's nice for everywhere else (at least in your direction). If you're spending 3+ days in any single location, going AirBnB and renting a full apartment is probably the best money for your experience. Less than 3 days is a hassle on AirBnB, and a lot of hosts simply won't allow it, and many who do charge pretty high "cleaning fees" (~$50-$100) which are fine if you're there a week, not so much if you're there 2 days. If you do for a hotel, my personal favorite in Zurich is the Swissôtel Zürich in Oerlikon, and I stay there every time I'm up there for work now. The quality is great for the price (nb: by Swiss standards, anyway) and it's only like a 15 minute tram ride from the Zurich main station. But also keep in mind that everything in Switzerland, especially in Zurich and Geneva, are hilariously expensive considering what you get. Saladman fucked around with this message at 14:39 on Apr 6, 2015 |
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Apr 6, 2015 14:36
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Rurutia posted:I think someone's is phishing using the emails in this OP. I got a very convincing looking email about a reservation request that I verified wasn't from AirBnB by logging in separately to AirBnB and not seeing a request. It was addressed to my sa email from this thread which is not the same email I use for my AirBnB. You're the only person (at least in the first page) who lists an email address. A bizarrely-specific phishing attempt...are you like a political figure or something?
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Jun 25, 2015 18:37
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monster on a stick posted:Yeah, well I don't want mouse poop in my suitcase, I think that is a reasonable request? You'll probably get hantavirus. But not really, don't worry about it. Just close your suitcase, mice can't unzip a zipper. They're not going to go in there anyway unless you have/had food in it. It's annoying but not any different from finding a roach or a big spider or whatever.
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Jul 23, 2015 16:06
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