How to rent an apartment in any city in the world through Airbnb

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Airbnb, unlike hotels and hostels, makes it possible to feel a little local in a new city or country. But in order to rent a good apartment, a novice traveler needs to know some subtleties.

is a site that allows you to rent housing from local residents of the city you are planning to visit. You can rent a common or private room, apartment, house or a whole cottage - in general, any place where you can come, leave things and spend the night. To do this, you just need to enter the destination, arrival and departure dates into the search.

How is Airbnb different from a hotel and hostel?

A hotel is expensive. At the same time, the price does not always guarantee quality. And even if you decide not to save on vacation, it is hardly worth giving most of your money for a room where you will show up just to sleep.

Hostels are at the other extreme: they are affordable, but you can forget about privacy. For one decent hostel, there are a dozen with terrible conditions in which you definitely won't feel at home.

Let's dwell on the main advantages of booking through Airbnb:

• The service allows you to rent a house at a price that suits you.
• From the photographs, you can study the situation in the apartment and understand whether it will be convenient for you there.
• Hospitable hosts (they are also called hosts) will not only show you the apartment, but can also advise you on interesting places in the city, meet you at the airport, explain how to use local public transport.
• You can rent an apartment for any period of time: for a weekend in a neighboring city, for a week on vacation, and even for a month or more to live in another country.
• Payments go through Airbnb, which acts as an intermediary. This means that in controversial situations you will be able to get your money back.
• You can rent a house right away for a group of friends or the whole family. It will not come out so expensive.

All this is great, but there are also disadvantages. You can rent housing located in an inconvenient area. Or face scammers who post apartments on the website with fake reviews and photos that do not correspond to reality.

So that you can avoid such troubles, we have prepared a list of recommendations, following which you will find a suitable option for yourself.

1. Complete the profile

To book a home through Airbnb, you must first apply. Confirmation from the owner is required: until this moment, funds from your card are not debited.

Some hosts provide an instant booking service so that an apartment can be booked without waiting for confirmation. Such announcements are marked with a special lightning bolt symbol.

Sometimes hosts refuse to confirm a booking. No, not because they don't need money. Imagine yourself in the shoes of landlords: they trust their apartment to a complete stranger. A half-empty Airbnb profile with no photo or personal information will not help you connect with the host.

Therefore, add your photo (it is desirable that you look friendly on it) and write a short story about yourself, indicate your age and occupation. If you've already rented apartments through Airbnb, and have positive reviews from previous hosts, then this will be a big plus.

If you're getting bounced back often rather than positive feedback, it's most likely your profile. Give the host a little more information about yourself and try to give the impression of someone who is not going to destroy his house.:)

2. Explore the area

If you are traveling to an unfamiliar city in a country that you have never been before, search the Internet for information on areas. And be sure to check the location of the apartment on the map.

Usually people look at beautiful pictures of an apartment and completely forget to check the surrounding area. This is fraught with consequences: you can rent an apartment with a delightful renovation in a dilapidated building located in an area where trash is never cleaned up and suspicious individuals roam.

Therefore, check: go to Google Maps and turn on the Google Street View function: look at the photos of the building and "walk" around the area. It is good if there is a public transport stop nearby, cafes where you can have a snack and drink coffee, supermarkets.

If you are traveling to a new place as a tourist, do not rent an apartment two hours from the center: all the most interesting sights are usually located there. Is it worth wasting precious time getting there and back every day?

3. Take advantage of discounts and promo codes

If you are not registered on the site yet, ask a friend who has rented an apartment through Airbnb to send you an invitation. So you will have a discount of 1,500 rubles on your first trip, and your friend will receive a reward from the service.

Many Airbnb hosts offer weekly or monthly discounts. They usually range from 3 to 50% (depending on the location of the apartment, the season, the popularity of the host). The discount offered is usually listed immediately after the price.

But this discount does not in any way affect the service fee, which is not negotiable.

Some hosts simply don’t know that discounts can be set, or don’t do it for no reason. Therefore, do not hesitate to ask the owner a question about the discount directly, even if on the site itself this field is zero.

4. Compare your needs and the host's offerings

I understand all this charm with the beautiful photographs of the apartment. But you need to ask yourself not only how awesome the place is, but also if it is right for you.

To answer this question, you must be clear about what you are looking for. So take a piece of paper and a pen and write down your most important needs. If you need an apartment not just for one night, but to live there for a while, decide what amenities you need.

Do you mind living with a neighbor or do you want to face strangers in the kitchen every day? Do you smoke? Do you want to invite guests? Do you need internet? Are you going to cook yourself or are you going to have breakfast in a cafe?

An apartment differs from a hotel in that it makes it possible to feel a little local. Therefore, I want to see in it the same as at home: good internet, a kitchen with a stove, or at least a refrigerator and a coffee maker. The presence of a washing machine is not a prerequisite, but other things being equal, I will give preference to an apartment with it. Elena Khrupina Airbnb user

Compare your needs with the host's list of amenities. Read the list carefully and do not rush to ask questions. The hosts don't really like answering questions, the answers to which are already in the ad text.

For example, on any trip I never connect to roaming and communicate with family and friends only via the Internet. Therefore, my main requirement is the presence of Wi-Fi in the apartment. If I need an apartment for a week or more, it is important that there are dishes, a kettle, a refrigerator and a washing machine. You may have your own wishes, so use the filters on the site to find the perfect apartment for you.

If you plan to visit several places at once, make a selection of apartments in different cities and compare them. You can create wish-lists directly on the website: click on the heart icon or the "Add to Wish List" button.

5. Check for offers from super hosts

Superhosts are experienced hosts who accept at least 10 guests a year, rarely cancel bookings, and respond quickly. In addition, they must have at least 80% of reviews with five stars. On the site, such hosts are marked with a special icon.

Airbnb re-rates hosts quite often, so when you book a superhost apartment, you are choosing accommodation that previous guests have enjoyed very much. This means that the likelihood of renting a good and clean apartment increases significantly. At the same time, the owner will constantly be in touch and will help you deal with all the questions.

Superhosts have clients all the time. Therefore, they are unlikely to be ready to provide housing for too long and at a large discount.

6. Write to the host before booking

The description of the apartment, with a nice photo and a title like "Nice apartment in a picturesque location" looks nice. But there are always things that you would like to know more about.

Study the landlord profile. If he has several apartments, most likely this is a realtor. And that's not too bad: Airbnb is a business for a rented landlord, and he is unlikely to want to take risks and get less than four-star reviews from you (it hurts rankings and visibility when searching). But negotiating a discount with such an owner is unlikely to work.

An apartment in Prague was rented by an agency. They provided all the paperwork for the visa, a map of the city, a brochure with a list of good restaurants and cafes near the apartment. The apartment fully corresponded to the photo and description, but was smaller than it seemed in the photo. There were problems with the internet, it was very slow and often it just wasn't there. Polina Ignatova Airbnb user

Among the hosts, there are many ordinary people who just want to rent out an apartment for a while and do not really understand the intricacies of renting. They are usually open to negotiations.

Feel free to ask questions. For example, if you need to know exactly how spacious an apartment is and how many people can comfortably fit in it, ask the owner about the footage.

You need to be prepared for the fact that not all rooms are like a hotel. Sometimes a person rents an apartment where he lives or often happens by himself, so there will be food in the refrigerator, clothes in the closets, and a bunch of cosmetic accessories in the bathroom. This is usually noticeable in the photographs, and you have the opportunity to decide if it is right for you. So that there are no unpleasant surprises, I thoroughly study the reviews and do not consider apartments about which no one has written anything yet. Elena Khrupina Airbnb user

When you have decided on an area, a specific place, a landlord and made sure that the apartment has everything you need, contact the landlord and write him a letter. You can stick to the following plan:

1. Who you are? Introduce yourself and write where you work. If you are not traveling alone, write a couple of sentences about your companions. Mention the purpose of your trip: you are a tourist, or traveling on business, or want to attend a music festival taking place in the city.
2. When? The host sees the date of arrival through the website, so let us know how long you are coming.
3. Why are you writing? You liked the apartment and would like to stay in it.

The letter helps to establish a trusting relationship with the owner and proves that you are a real person and not a bot.

7. Do not bypass Airbnb and beware of fraud

You can see tips for getting around Airbnb with a landlord. Then neither he nor you have to pay a commission to the service. Many take this risk for the sake of several hundred rubles. But do not forget that in a problem situation, it is Airbnb that acts as an intermediary and will help you get your money back.

For example, once I got into an unpleasant situation: I booked a room through Airbnb, and when I arrived, the owner advised me to cancel the booking, because the apartment is renovated, it is not ready, and so on. And he suggested looking at other options without Airbnb.

If the host refuses to book through Airbnb, asks you to pay using a different link, make a prepayment or leave a deposit, there is a 99% chance that you ran into a scammer.

What to do in a similar situation? Call support, of course. You can write to the official communities. And in any case, do not cancel the reservation yourself.

First, I phoned international support, where I explained the essence of the problem. Five minutes later, an employee from the Russian office called back: he canceled the reservation, sent an offer with a very nice apartment that could be instantly booked, and a discount code (the stay in the new apartment turned out to be free). The money for the booked apartment from the previous host was also returned to the card within a couple of days.

Hotline phone: 8-800-301-71-04. Links to communities in and "".

Most problems can be avoided by taking a closer look at the profiles.

1. Check photos. Some hosts rent a room from different angles, rearranging furniture: in the end, you can rent a room with an area of one meter by one meter. Or instead of photographs of the apartment itself, photos of nearby restaurants and attractions are added to grab your attention. Most likely, the housing itself will not be very attractive.
2. Read reviews. If your host rents several apartments, read the reviews for them as well. Pay special attention to negative reviews and complaints that are repeated over and over again. Very suspicious are the ads with five stars ratings, for which there are no comments. Or in the review about the apartment itself nothing is plainly said. Most likely, such reviews and ratings are fake.

8. Check the cancellation policy

Both the owner and you can cancel the reservation. There are several types of cancellations: flexible, moderate, strict. In the most severe case, you will not be refunded 50% of the paid funds.

If you are not sure if you are staying with a specific host or even going on a trip, it is better to either book nothing at all, or choose only apartments with flexible cancellation conditions. You can learn more about all the cancellation rules.

Please be aware that Airbnb's fee is non-refundable on any booking cancellation.

9. Leave feedback

Remember to rate and write an honest review after each trip. Describe your impressions of the apartment and the owner, cleanliness, renovation, location. Write about the pros and cons. This will help not only the following travelers, but also you.

The landlord will not be able to read a review of the apartment until he writes a review about you and what kind of tenant you turned out to be. You, too, will not be able to find out what the landlord wrote until you leave a response.

The more reviews a host has, the more trust potential guests have. The more positive reviews you have, the less likely you will be refused a booking.