14 pros and 9 minuses rental housing with airbnb

Room in New York, and in Manhattan for $ 50? Yes!

From this started our acquaintance with the site airbnb. It happened in January 2014, when at Andrews, as you could have guess, prepared for a trip to the dear New York. Were pleasantly surprised when Airbnb service helped find a good room in Manhattan, very close to Broadway… 50 dollars a day!

Since then, the site airbnb began to often replace our other search engines on trips, and the hotel rooms began to replace the rooms in homes and apartments.

What service / site / search engine such airbnb?

Airbnb (He is Airbnb, Eirbnb and Air B. & Bi) – Internet resource that helps rent housing from individuals worldwide. That is, people who have an excess living space and the desire to communicate with tourists are divided by all sorts of places for overnight stay and long-term residence. It can be the usual rooms, and simple apartments, and gorgeous apartments, and a breathtaking houses, right up to castles, and even tents and houses on wheels. So options will be available on any budget and preferences.

How to use airbnb sites?

1. Have repeatedly heard about this site, but not yet registered on it? Sign up according to our link for friends! Immediately get a gift for 2100 rubles for the first booking (provided that its total amount will be more than 4500 rubles). Trifle, but nice! The amount of remuneration changes constantly, by the way (in a week it can decrease).

There are three registration options: If you have a Facebook profile, you will need to just click the button «Sign up using FB», The same if there is a Google account. If all this is not good – Register via email. In this case, you need to fill the profile (nothing complicated). After registration, you will have to confirm your profile and fill it in order for the owners to see that they communicate with a real adequate person and did not worry. More about this here.

Registered, but do not imagine or worse – no idea how to use Eirbnb – I suggest read more, and after select housing options.

If you are not sure that you will find something interesting for yourself on the site and do not want to rush and immediately register, you can skip the first item and return to it only when you already look at various accommodation options and decide to press the button "Book". The main thing, do not forget about the gift coupon for 2100 rubles.

Immediately I note that all the most Popular tourist destinations (To search for housing in a specific country, use the place of interest in the search bar in the search bar):

(Thailand, Vietnam, Georgia, India) (France, Czech Republic, Italy, Turkey) (USA, Mexico, Canada) (Ecuador, Chile, Peru, Brazil)

At the bottom of the page you can choose language and currency. Then we enter the destination of the city in the search window, the dates of stay and the number of guests, click «To start searching». Site immediately gives many, many options. All of them can be sorted by using filters. We choose what interests: accommodation entirely, the hotel or the common room. Set the price range. If this is not enough, there are additional filters: amenities, the type of housing, the owner, etc. Housing options appear that satisfy our requests. You can skip the photos in the overall window to represent whether it makes sense to read about one or another version of Read more.

It is very convenient that the location of the objects is marked on the map, you can immediately see where the housing is – In the center or on the outskirts.

*Periodically, the site interface changes slightly, but the meaning remains the same.

3. Choose the option you like and go to his page. Here you carefully read everything that is written about the amenities, prices, description from the owner (it can be translated into Russian), get acquainted with the reviews of other guests that can be translated here.

About the host, too, do not forget to read (if you shoot a room in a house or apartment, pay attention to the presence of animals, small children and t.D., Suddenly you are allergic to the first, on the second or all together).

4. As soon as they realized that everything is completely satisfied with you, use the function «Contact the owner». And the site itself, and we recommend before making and paying for a booking, write the host. Why? To clarify whether housing is really free to your dates, is the price actual, whether the Internet works well (if needed) and t.D. The owners are always happy to answer all questions.

If there is no time or desire to communicate with the owner and expect confirmation from it, you can choose those housing offers for which the option is available "Instant booking" (To do this, select on the page "More filters" → Options → Instant booking). In this case, you just choose the dates and discuss with the owner of the details of your arrival (one of the conditions – Your profile should be with a photo). In this case, I recommend paying attention to the options with the icon Superhost (These are the most welcoming and responsible hosts for guest reviews, t.E. Whatever risks and problems with them are minimized).

5. As soon as they received the answer, and everything suits you, you can book accommodation. Here you will be asked to register if you did not do this at once (see. paragraph 1). If the owner also arranged everything, he will put you status «Pre-approved» (You can see next to the message in the mailbox on the site). In this case, boldly pay for the reservation. If not previously communicated and you requested a booking, then the money will be written off only after the owner approves your request.

Payment is made using a bank card or PayPal payment system when mediated by AirBNB. No cash and personal communication with the owner of the payment will not be (perhaps you want to stay for some time after the term of the rental period, then you can negotiate personally).

Money will go to the host card only in a day after your settlement. During this time you can refuse if you don’t like something. However, it must be borne in mind that the rules for canceling the armor and the return of money are different (this is all spelled out in conditions on a housing page). About cancellation and compensation can be read here.

6. Do not forget that AirBNB takes the commission for its services (about 11% of the amount of booking). Before payment you will be shown the final amount with the collection. Some owners add some amount at their discretion for cleaning the apartment after your departure, this figure you will see in the description of the apartment.

7. As soon as payment passed, status «Pre-approved» Changes on «Confirmed» And the email will come a mining receipt. It will include the following information: how to get to housing, booking code, the owner’s contact details, the amount paid. Everything! You can safely prepare for the trip.