If you are like me, you may not know much about Airbnb and assume it is just about bed and breakfast type accommodation. In fact Airbnb now does everything from a single room in a house to a city apartment or plush holiday villa. In January I tried Airbnb for the first time and this is my review of the experience and the accommodation itself.
In this post:
Airbnb – the basics
Airbnb began in 2008 when two designers who had space to share hosted three travellers looking for a place to stay. To use Airbnb you can either go to their website or download the app. You will then need to sign up for an account before you book anything. If you sign up using this referral link you can get £25 credit (1 year expiry) when you complete your first booking. Once you have set up your profile you will need to also verify it by uploading some ID such as a photo of your driving license. You only need to do this before you arrive for your booking.You can also get a £35 credit for signing up as a business customer too.
You search by location and then can narrow down your criteria to things such as a whole home or room and then features such as a pool or numbers of bedrooms etc. This is pretty standard as per a hotel booking site. I wanted a 2 bedroom London apartment close to Chelsea/Knightsbridge area. When I searched using my requested dates there was only a small selection. Some places do have a minimum stay requirement but these are generally much less restrictive than booking through a traditional rental company.
Booking
To book with Airbnb you have to pay a fee to Airbnb and also the cost to the host. Some places offer instant booking which is indicated on the listing and some you have to contact the host and wait for a response.
Hosts charge additional cleaning charges as well on top of the basic cost. I personally would rather see a final price when I initially look since the fees are not optional. What started as £250 a night on my booking ended up costing £339 per night when you added in the initial costs.
How do you choose your room or apartment?
One of the things I looked for when chosing was somewhere, was a proven track record and plenty of reviews. There were other places that looked better but with no reviews, it seemed pretty risky. Airbnb do have a guest refund policy so your money is pretty safe. However I would rather not risk it. The place I chose was hosted by Pam who had 2 Airbnb homes and was a Superhost. She was also fully verified which is worth looking for as well. Superhost status is a pretty good way to ensure that your stay will be what you expect. They have to :
- have completed at least 10 bookings,
- 80% of their reviews are 5 star or higher
- 90% response rate,
- rarely cancel bookings
Superhosts are checked 4 times a year.
Pam was very helpful in advance and you could tell she was checking us out as well by asking us what our plans were and who was in the group. When I contacted her to ask if they had a cocktail shaker in the flat, she kindly offered to buy one if I sent her the Amazon link. Sure enough when we arrived there was a brand new cocktail shaker.
How safe is your money?
To make sure your money is safe always use the Airbnb payment system and also only communicate through Airbnb. They will refund your money in the following types of circumstances in line with their guest refund policy:
- The host fails to provide reasonable access to the booked listing.
- The listing booked is misrepresented (ex: number of bedrooms, location, lacks promised amenities).
- The listing isn’t generally clean, is unsafe, or there’s an animal in the listing that wasn’t disclosed prior to booking.
Airbnb will either provide you with a refund or use reasonable efforts to find and book you at another comparable accommodation for any unused nights left in your reservation. The amount of any refund will depend on the nature of the travel issue suffered.
The apartment
We were given the address of the apartment as soon as we booked which meant we could work out the precise location. Prior to that the maps show roughly where the apartment is. The apartment had a great location about halfway between Sloane Street and Harrods. It was about a 5 minute walk to both Harrods and Knightsbridge Tube station. Nearby were plenty of food shops to get supplies including Waitrose and a Sainsburys local.
We were given details of how to get into the place using a key safe but in the end Pam was watching out for us and let us in with a quick tour. The apartment was pretty much as it appeared on the Airbnb app.
There was one very small bedroom with 120cm wide bed and tiny wet room. The second bedroom had a 150cm bed and a much larger and luxurious bathroom. We were provided with towels, bed linen, hairdryer, basic toiletries and essentials such as toilet paper, washing up liquid and dishwasher powder. The kitchen was tiny as we expected but was equipped with everything we needed with the exception of tumblers or long glasses. There were plenty of wine and champagne glasses though! Pam had even left us a bottle of wine. Everything was very clean and tidy although the sheets could have done with an iron.
The beds were not as comfortable as you would get in a luxury hotel but still as good as most 4* hotels I have stayed in.There were a few things missing though, that you would have had in a hotel. Although there was ample wardrobe space and drawers there was nowhere to hang anything long in the main bedroom. There were also no mirrors in the bedrooms outside the bathroom which made it difficult if you were trying to dry your hair.
The flat was a basement flat and although there was underfloor heating it could have been a little warmer but it was during the particularly cold spell.
I particularly liked the TV which was hidden behind a picture. The main issue we had was with the TV. Although it had Apple TV and Netflix it did not actually have any normal TV channels which was very odd and a bit irritating. Also you had to pay for all the Apple TV programs so that only really left Netflix for free. I think this could have been made clearer in the details.
Was it value for money?
- £250 × 2 nights £500
- Cleaning fees £95
- Airbnb service fee (including VAT) £83
- Total = £678
Would I use Airbnb again?
Overall although there were a couple of little niggles, that would be the same for any stay whether it is a hotel or Airbnb. I think I generally prefer staying in a hotel but if you want more space then Airbnb is perfect. I have, in fact, made another booking for a villa holiday through Airbnb. There is a great advantage to booking a villa through Airbnb. Prices are normally similar or cheaper but you don’t have as many restrictions such as 7 night minimum or having to check in on certain days like you do with holiday companies.
