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Rap Record Hoarder posted:Anyone have advice about seeking out a long term Air BNB in another country? I'm going to be in Brazil from February 2015 to December 2015 on a Fulbright program and am responsible for figuring out my own housing situation. Are hosts generally amenable to long-term guests? Any particular issues or road bumps I should look out for? For that long you might want to look elsewhere as you can probably find something cheaper.
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Nov 9, 2014 15:53
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Might take a look at VRBO too. They tend to have monthly rates posted.
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Nov 9, 2014 16:31
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Rap Record Hoarder posted:Anyone have advice about seeking out a long term Air BNB in another country? I'm going to be in Brazil from February 2015 to December 2015 on a Fulbright program and am responsible for figuring out my own housing situation. Are hosts generally amenable to long-term guests? Any particular issues or road bumps I should look out for? Hosts are hit and miss on long term. Some don't want the commitment, others love it. Personally, my wife and I love it---and we're booked until next August because of it! Omits-Bagels posted:For that long you might want to look elsewhere as you can probably find something cheaper. I disagree. Rule one on airbnb is to ALWAYS NEGOTIATE. Reach out and contact the host, let them know why you're coming, how long you'll be there, why you want to choose their place, and what price you can afford. Many hosts will cut their rates to guarantee a long term, easy guest. Heck, I do it all the time now---trimming my asking rate from $750 down to as low as $600 a night for a student intern, traveling business owner, etc. If our guests were better negotiators, I'd actually go at low as $500 a month for a few of them (even though we gross $800 a month with night to night rentals----long term guests are just easier). Leases with furnishing are usually much more expensive, and leases less than a year multiply that even more. Airbnb is almost certainly one of the best ways to go for a long "short term" rental like this. Don't hedge your bets on just one place---reach out to several hosts and see who will undercut others the most.
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Nov 9, 2014 16:37
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Anyone have advice about how to negotiate with a host? I've use airbnb multiple times before (always a guest) and I have great reviews. This is my first time trying to get an apartment for a longer stay (3 months) and the prices for Santiago, Chile in a decent neighborhood are super high. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like not that many people put lower rates for longer stays. I don't wanna seem like an rear end in a top hat but I definitely don't wanna over pay (specially when they are asking $1500 monthly for a tiny tiny studio, 10 blocks away from the subway in some cases). Can I get an apartment that is $1000 down to 800? 750? is that even realistically posible?
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Nov 28, 2014 17:40
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Souvlaki ss posted:Anyone have advice about how to negotiate with a host? I think it'll help you that the dollar is stronger right now. If you need help translating, drop me a PM and maybe I can help.
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Nov 28, 2014 17:56
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Juanito posted:I have yet to use airbnb in Chile, but I've noticed the crazy rates. I'd definitely reach out to people and negotiate. How's your Spanish? Because that could help. In my experience, Chileans like to go with a really high price (sometimes unrealistic) in the range of prices, but you can usually get it down. It can be tough though because with gringos, they see dollars. Thanks! Actually my first language is Spanish so no problem there. I'm just kinda paranoid about negotiating, specially with chileans, because every time I have tried in the past they stop replying instantly, even when I was being super nice and not asking for much at all
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Nov 28, 2014 18:22
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Souvlaki ss posted:Thanks! If someone tries to negotiate with me as an opening gambit for any stay shorter than three weeks I'm likely to tell them to piss off. Those people in my experience cause the most hassle. Longer stays, sure.
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Nov 28, 2014 19:19
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tentish klown posted:If someone tries to negotiate with me as an opening gambit for any stay shorter than three weeks I'm likely to tell them to piss off. Those people in my experience cause the most hassle. Longer stays, sure. It makes sense, I would do the same as a host. The stay was in fact 3 weeks 1/2 and I was asking if it was possible, for extra money of course, to add a Tv or computer monitor to the apartment because It would have made work way easier. It wasn't the first message or anything, but it was something important I had to ask before booking the place. Maybe it was too much to ask, dunno. That's why I wonder what is the best approach to negotiate a price, because I don't wanna offend the host
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Nov 28, 2014 20:14
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I often have a specific work budget when travelling and I usually tell them that I'd love to stay there but my work would only cover $X per night so if they were willing to drop it I would stay. It's usually between 10-20% im asking off. Especially now San Francisco has taxes added. Probably helps I have over 40 reviews as a guest and a host.
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Dec 6, 2014 13:47
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Where do you host? Taking my first weekend trip to Cincy. May have a recommendation to add to the list tomorrow.
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Dec 6, 2014 18:29
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In Australia but not currently. I just moved.
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Dec 7, 2014 04:09
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Hey I'm taking a summer-long trip to South America to study, and am wondering how far in advanced I should book if there is any sort of loose rule about it.
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Dec 21, 2014 00:20
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Earlier the better. I'd reach out to places of interest as soon as you know what your timetable and desired destinations are.
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Dec 21, 2014 03:37
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Okay sweet. I had already reached out to some. It was just one woman who said it was "too soon to think about renting" but I guess she is the exception and not the rule.
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Dec 23, 2014 10:11
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Organized people want to fill up their calendar as soon as possible. Disorganized people don't want to think about renting six months out.
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Dec 23, 2014 14:31
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Yeah. Those are my thoughts on that comment exactly. As a host I want to lock my stuff up asap. I'm actually booked through July of next year with long term guests. Someone not willing to even consider that option is probably a transient host or not looking to stick it out long term, either way you don't want to stay with them.
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Dec 24, 2014 00:23
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Okay I'm obviously missing something here but ... how do you even negotiate? When I click on 'book room' it goes to the screen where I would put in my CC info at the advertised rate per night x the length of my stay. I'm moving to San Fran and looking to live for at least a month, possibly two while I look for my own apartment.
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Dec 31, 2014 22:05
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Bicuspid posted:Okay I'm obviously missing something here but ... how do you even negotiate? When I click on 'book room' it goes to the screen where I would put in my CC info at the advertised rate per night x the length of my stay. I'm moving to San Fran and looking to live for at least a month, possibly two while I look for my own apartment. Try the Contact Host button. It used to be more prominent (just below Request to book) but they're demoted it. It just should just below About This Listing.
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Jan 1, 2015 01:35
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spoof posted:Try the Contact Host button. It used to be more prominent (just below Request to book) but they're demoted it. It just should just below About This Listing. so if i end up negotiating a different deal, they would specify that on their end?
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Jan 1, 2015 21:13
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Yeah. The host would send you what they call a special offer specific just to you and unadvertised.
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Jan 1, 2015 21:22
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Thanks everyone. I booked a place for January to stay in while I get set up with the new job. Hopefully I am not ax murdered.
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Jan 2, 2015 18:13
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My spouse and I just bought a 3 br 2 ba home in San Antonio. We of course use the master bedroom and one of the spares for our office, but that leaves the third bedroom unoccupied and the other bathroom basically unused. I have been wondering recently about renting the third room out maybe for weekend use. We are quiet people who mostly keep to ourselves. I'm not particularly interested in playing concierge to someone in the house. I understand that we would provide certain amenities (a guest basket with toiletries, we are thinking we could put our mini fridge in the room with sodas and snacks, in the mornings we could offer to make the guest coffee or we even have a cappuccino machine, etc) but I would hope the guest would not be relying on us to show them the town or have dinner/socialize excessively with them. Not saying it wouldn't ever happen, but I wouldn't want to feel obligated. Would Air BnB be a good route to go if we want to host only over weekends and don't have much intention of hanging out/socializing with our guest? We are not rude by any means and would be happy to answer questions about the area and maintain social niceties but we don't want to be obligated to be someone's BFF during the duration of their stay. Also, how important is it to grant a guest full kitchen access? I can't begin to even know how that works. You just let them raid your fridge/cook stuff? I'm not that keen on that. I would prefer the guest have full access to the bedroom, guest bath and living area only. We could provide an ensuite coffee maker or something, along with the sodas and snacks. One final question and it's perhaps an odd one. My spouse and I are a same-sex couple; not everyone is OK with that. Does anyone know how other gay/lesbian BnB hosters handle that? Like would they put a heads up in their profile or handle it via private messages?
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Jan 7, 2015 23:29
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Right before bed so I apologize for the brevity of my response. Same sex couples typically just introduce themselves and the partner as such in their bio. Have the profile picture be he two of you and that should be descriptive enough to inform anyone who many be uncomfortable with I for whatever stupid reason they have. One of the more popular homes in my area is same sex, and I'd assume a large city like San Antonio would be similar. As far as the kitchen goes, out of the many guests I've had I don't think one has encroached on any food not specifically offered to them. Everyone has been pretty good about cleaning their dishes, or at least putting them in the dishwasher, well enough for that to be a non issue. I understand your concern about it, but if you're limiting your hosting to weekends alone, most people will just eat out or bring their own small snacks for such a short stay. I wouldn't mention anything about the kitchen being off limits, and just seeing how it goes for the first few guests, but that's just me and my experiences. As far as stating singular, i haven't had a guest straight up expect me to show them around. I've offered for guests on site for several days and for whom I've taken a liking, but most single night travelers are going to be on their way quickly just traveling through or have a specific agenda planned. I wouldn't worry about getting burdened with responsibility. Dead Pressed fucked around with this message at 04:31 on Jan 8, 2015 |
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Jan 8, 2015 04:28
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That's good information, thanks for your reply! 
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Jan 9, 2015 05:20
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dreadspork posted:Would Air BnB be a good route to go if we want to host only over weekends and don't have much intention of hanging out/socializing with our guest? We are not rude by any means and would be happy to answer questions about the area and maintain social niceties but we don't want to be obligated to be someone's BFF during the duration of their stay. Being gay as hell yet single, I can't really help for the "same sex" part. I obviously wouldn't mind but the same can't be said of everyone. (gently caress all haters imo, if they hate the fact that you're a same sex couple then they can just rent elsewhere.  )But my limited AirBnB experience so far might be relevant -- three times I've had to stay in a new, unknown city and I explicitly chose to rent a room instead of a whole (private) apartment in order to have a host close by should I have any questions about the good hangouts and attractions. In 2 out of 3 cases, that plan fell short and the room hosts were actually out of town themselves while I rented. But they were nice enough to leave both personal recommendations and "official" tourist guides for their guests during that time. Since they made the effort to provide information regardless of their presence, in the end I didn't mind at all and gave them positive reviews. I guess for the very limited subsection of AirBnB users that actively seek out rooms and not apartments, this might get you some ratings. FWIW, the third aforementioned room did have the hosts present while I rented their room. They were busy with their own things but I got to chat them up briefly over 3 days. (Like 5 minutes of direct interaction at most.) That's pretty short, but in those few interactions they gave me some great, up to date ideas as to what to do and what to see which I might not have gotten from the tourist guides and flyers provided by the absent hosts. In the end, I was pretty chuffed about my AirBnB experience both from present and absent hosts. The present ones were discreet but had great pointers on what I could see and do, even given the little information I gave them about my interests. The absent ones couldn't know what I wanted to see and do but made sure I had plenty of information regardless. Personal experience bottom line, I guess, is that as long as you make minimal effort to keep your guests informed, they won't mind where that interaction came from.
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Jan 9, 2015 06:11
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dreadspork posted:My spouse and I just bought a 3 br 2 ba home in San Antonio. We of course use the master bedroom and one of the spares for our office, but that leaves the third bedroom unoccupied and the other bathroom basically unused. I have been wondering recently about renting the third room out maybe for weekend use. We are quiet people who mostly keep to ourselves. I'm not particularly interested in playing concierge to someone in the house. I understand that we would provide certain amenities (a guest basket with toiletries, we are thinking we could put our mini fridge in the room with sodas and snacks, in the mornings we could offer to make the guest coffee or we even have a cappuccino machine, etc) but I would hope the guest would not be relying on us to show them the town or have dinner/socialize excessively with them. Not saying it wouldn't ever happen, but I wouldn't want to feel obligated. To the first point you'll find that some guests are always out/wanting to do their own things that you will hardly see them. It's not a huge problem. Just be friendly and have all the answers they need/tips on things to do in their room and they will be able to handle most of it themselves. I've definitely had really long conversations with hosts over a beer or dinner but I've also had the other way where I never saw them. You'll be able to judge how much interaction they want pretty quickly and if its obvious you are going to/from work and just want to relax they will probably respect that. As someone who lives in Australia and has stayed in some very very gay friendly cities I would say a good chunk of my stays are with gay hosts. Culturally some people or places are less used to it but Airbnb definitely is a pretty gay friendly platform. You might need to just be more aware if you say had an old asian couple coming to stay. I don't think you need to tell the people straight up but its usually pretty easy to get from their user profile. And quite frankly its not something thats really will come up much. You could say the place is LGBT friendly on the listing page as some travellers would feel more comfortable staying there.
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Feb 19, 2015 07:08
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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.  I started looking at business hotels due to a Rick Steves recommendation, and expanded the search to nicer places after seeing how inexpensive that option was. I'd say it have something to do with the exchange rate changing so dramatically lately, but I would think airbnb would account for that in their calculations?
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Apr 6, 2015 14:02
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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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I've been doing the AirBnb hosting thing for a bit now, renting out my whole apartment whenever I work away for more than a couple of days and I've only had good experiences. However there's this french girl who's supposed to arrive today in about 12 hours and she's been giving me a really weird vibe. She's talked in all her messages of wanting to stay until tuesday which would be fine but she's only ordered a one night stay. WHenever I ask her about this (and only this in a message) she doesn't reply and then the next message she sends is about something completely different. Her English is near perfect so I know its not a language barrier, too. In addition, she keeps asking me where I work and if the ambulance station I work at is far from the apartment. I dunno. How screwed am I for the future if I cancel this late? Edit: of course, she has no host reviews either. just joined the site in April Edit: she just called me, and I guess I'm gonna risk it. apparantly she'd just been busy. I've asked my neighbour who's up all night to keep half an eye on the place just in case Nuclear War fucked around with this message at 07:58 on May 10, 2015 |
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May 10, 2015 07:41
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Interesting situation. So she's flippant about the checkout date, but doesn't sound nasty or like she's going to the destroy the place (from what I gather). Worst you're out is a couple of nights paid, I guess? Are you able to check her in, or will she be a 100% site unseen guest? If you can check her in, it would be great to bring the situation up then, obviously. If you can't, maybe that same neighbor could follow up the next day and try to get the keys from her (offer him a couple of bucks if you're uncomfortable just asking him to do that). As far as canceling goes, Airbnb does track it. You'll see a host designation "superhost". Essentially, a "superhost" has never cancelled, yadda yadda. Its great to have as you'll get bumped higher in the postings, but I've never skipped a place because they haven't been a superhost. Did she instant book, or did you manually accept her? If she instant booked, you need to qualify through the criteria that they have good reviews, as a minimum. If you accepted her, you should have had more thorough contact to vet her before accepting some rando. I've had a couple of weirdos who didn't seem to "get" how it was supposed to work (including a long term guest we've have 3 different times for over 4 months, who has problems every time she books), so I wouldn't fret about it to bad.
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May 10, 2015 13:12
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I decided to meet them as they came in, and it turns out the language barrier was just more extensive than I had thought, they must've had help writing the first few messages. Anyway, we talked, and they'd decided to only stay one day which is fair since that is what they paid for after all. It was too much of an effort to explain the lockbox for the key with handgestures, so I'll make sure to stop by on my lunchbreak tomorrow to check them out. I think it'll work out ok. I only do this when my work schedule makes it easier to just sleep on the station, to pay for costs like electricity and beer money but so far it's been great. People are weird about how they read the ads though. I haven't gotten any reviews yet, these are only my fifth or so guests and I didn't realize I had to review people to get reviews before it was too late, but I've still booked up all my open days through August. Maybe the market for whole apartments in Norway is just smaller and so people take what they can get. Also one guy didn't catch on to the fact it says like three different times on my page that I have a dog, and my profile picture is with a dog, and got a bit mad when mentioned in passing during one of our exchanges that the dog would be well out of the way before he and his kids arrived. Apparantly I'm irresponsible for exposing potential allergic guests to danger. edit: I realize I should vet my potential guests better as you say, I guess I was just naive/new at this and didn't think it through before I accepted. Lesson learned though Nuclear War fucked around with this message at 16:28 on May 10, 2015 |
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May 10, 2015 16:25
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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. Just giving everyone a heads up.
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Jun 25, 2015 18:07
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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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I've stayed in many an AirBnB with mostly positive results. I'm staying in one now, in a large city, and just saw a mouse  The host of the apartment was notified, the tenant came by to put in traps, but I've never had mice before and I'm not quite sure what to do. Good thing I washed my drinking glass last night.
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Jul 23, 2015 15:40
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monster on a stick posted:I've stayed in many an AirBnB with mostly positive results. I'm staying in one now, in a large city, and just saw a mouse It's just a mouse.
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Jul 23, 2015 15:41
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tentish klown posted:It's just a mouse. Yeah, well I don't want mouse poop in my suitcase, I think that is a reasonable request?
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Jul 23, 2015 15:44
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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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