How to bargain on Airbnb in any country and bring down the price by 2, 5 times

Why Airbnb Is Better Than Agencies And Private Traders

On the websites of agencies there are a lot of real announcements about renting apartments, which, unfortunately, refuse to rent for just a month, even with a premium from the starting price. The fact is that in Europe, agents for the most part work according to the law, that is, with contracts, taxes and insurance. Therefore, they will not bother with short-term delivery, or it will be very expensive.

On sites for renting from private traders, fakes and agents often come across (just like on my native "Cyan"), so Airbnb has become a salvation for me. There are enough offers of a variety of apartments that are rented for a short period of time and, alas, for a month are also very expensive. But it's not a problem. I'll tell you what to do for shy guys like me who want to lower the price of Airbnb.

How to bargain on Airbnb

Write to the owners of 30-40 apartments you like, regardless of the price and availability of housing (owners can cancel future reservations of other applicants for the apartment they like): “Hello, dear friend. I liked your apartment very much, I want to live in it for a month, but that's very expensive. What special price for a month will you give?"

There is a lot of response, and those who do it can reduce the price by up to 50%. You can say to these landlords: “My friend, great price, but now I have already been made several offers before (you can use the average monthly price for the corresponding class of apartments from any local agency aggregator site, for example www.immoweb.be) XXX euros. I will only choose from comparable prices. What can you offer in this range?"

To my surprise, here too many people immediately lowered the price to the requested XXX euros. With such owners, you can assign a viewing of the apartment (how can you not view it when you rent for a month). Airbnb erases all emails, phone numbers and addresses from messages so that users do not enter into deals bypassing the service. But if you write the phone number in letters, not in English, but in any other local language, for example in French, then everything will go.

On viewing, you can suggest the landlord to bypass Airbnb. Then he will not have to pay taxes and a commission to the service in the amount of 9-15%. Almost all the owners agree with this or even offer to pay off "under the counter" themselves.

It's important to remember that Airbnb plays the role of a pick and savior in the case of a scam landlord, such as finding an alternative hotel or refunding money. Therefore, you need to exclude the service from the game at your own peril and risk.

After that, the owners of all the apartments you like can be written that there are several of them, they all liked it, it is difficult to choose. Whoever offers the best price (already taking into account the first two discounts and Airbnb bypass) is great.

In Ghent, Belgium, following the advice in this article, I shot with floor-to-ceiling windows, central location and canal views at 2.5 times the original price.

Bonus life hacks

On Airbnb, you can see a calendar with busy dates, for example, a month in advance for any apartment. It can be used to assess how popular the apartment is and whether the owner will be ready to drop the price for a month of continuous rent.

Airbnb uses exchange rates for its calculations that differ from the rate of your bank or card system, plus charges an additional 3% for currency exchange. The source of Airbnb courses varies by region, but often www.oanda.com, which often contains irrelevant information. If you have a ruble card, and you need to pay, say, in euros, compare the rates of Airbnb and your bank and choose the best one.