Finding the Perfect Airbnb
The logistics of travel planning take up more time than you would expect. On the one hand, the stakes for choosing your Airbnb as a perpetual nomad are low, because it's temporary and you’ll only be there for a few weeks to a couple of months. On the other hand, the stakes are high because this is where you’ll be living! When you're learning a new city, dealing with language and cultural barriers, finding new gyms, grocery stores, and more, you really want a place that is comfortable and well suited to your needs. So how do we choose a place to stay?
Read Blogs
For any city in the world, there are both bloggers who visit there and bloggers who live there that will write about their experiences and where they stayed. Often you can find descriptions of the various neighborhoods or districts of a city. For example, we generally try to avoid the tourist areas and stay someplace residential but with good public transportation.
Private vs Shared Accommodations
Be aware that Airbnb provides both completely private accommodations and varying degrees of shared accommodations. If you want something completely private to yourself, be sure to choose the filter for “Entire place”. You can also just rent a room in someone's house, meaning that you’re basically staying in a stranger's guest room. Some people love the opportunity to get to know a local that way and feel they get a more authentic local experience that way. If you’re really on a budget, you can even rent a bed in a shared room. Whatever your preference, be sure to filter the Airbnb search appropriately, so you aren’t surprised when you check in.
Superhosts
Hosts who meet certain criteria for service are designated as superhosts by Airbnb. Personally, I don’t put a lot of stock in the title, mainly because I feel that the criteria is too loose. For example, we once had a superhost cancel our reservation the day before we were to arrive over Thanksgiving weekend. But because the host had a cancelation rate of one percent (or less) for the past twelve months, they still qualified as a superhost.
Amenities
When filtering on amenities, keep the following notes in mind. If the description of the accommodation or the photos don’t clarify these, contact the host and ask before you book.
Kitchen: This can mean anything from a chef's quality kitchen to a toaster oven and a mini fridge. Airbnb doesn’t seem to enforce any minimum standards and it’s not unusual to see accommodations flagged as having a kitchen that are poorly equipped. You might be surprised how often accommodations have only a mini fridge or a hot plate.
Heating/air conditioning: It’s uncommon, for sure, but just because someplace has these amenities, that doesn’t mean that you have control over the temperature. Also, it’s not uncommon for AC to only be available in some rooms (for example, the bedroom but not the living areas).
Washer/dryer: This only indicates that a washer and/or dryer is available in the building somewhere. Often it's in the unit itself, but sometimes they’re in a common area for the whole building and may be coin operated.
Self check-in: This can be important if you expect to arrive late at night ot at odd hours. Without this amenity, the host may need to meet you there for check in. Some hosts will meet you anytime, others charge a fee outside of standard hours, and some won’t even let you check in outside of specific hours.
Free parking on premises: If you will have a car this can be very important. However, note that many listings have ample street parking and you’ll miss out on those if you select this. But also be aware that if parking isn’t included, it can be very expensive if there’s no free/street parking available (often $20/day).
Use the Map
After you conduct your search, switch Airbnb to map mode and pan/zoom the map to cover the neighborhood or area you're interested in. I always, always use the map view for my searches. You’d be surprised how often a search for a specific city might show you a result far outside that city.
Filter by Price
When you search Airbnb, there's a limit on the number of results you’ll be shown. If you don’t narrow down using the price range filter, you’ll almost certainly miss listings that meet your criteria. You’ll see results all over the price spectrum and the ones outside your price range are crowding out the some listing you’d like to see.
First, decide what your budget is. Then, set your price filter somewhere between 25-50 percent lower than that number in a relatively tight range. For example, if your budget is $100 per night, you might start searching in a price range of $60-70 per night. Once you’ve reviewed those results, update the range to $70-80 per night. If your search results in more than fifty or so listings, you should narrow the price range more to ensure that you see everything. Keep updating the price range, bit-by-bit, until you hit the top of your budget or you find your dream accommodation. By starting lower in price, you give yourself a good chance of finding a bargain that hits your key criteria.
Save Your Finds
When you find a listing that you think is a good fit, click the white/empty heart icon in the upper right and save it to a list for that particular trip. This will make it easier for you to review your “finalists” after you’re finished searching. You can also share this list with travel companions.
Read Every Review
Let’s face facts, most reviews are useless. Too many people just write a quick one sentence and too many people give five stars willy-nilly. You have to read every single review to detect any words of caution. As you read more reviews, you’ll start to recognize subtle patterns or phrases that clue you in on potential problems. You can also get a good sense of the neighborhood, the neighbors, quirks, etc from the reviews.
Spreadsheet It
This might be overkill for a short trip, but we usually make a spreadsheet where we have a column for each property on our list of finalists and each row represents some amenity or feature of the listing. This can be tedious but it’s the easiest and most reliable way to be confident that you're chossing the best accommodation. When you’re going to be there for a month or more, you want to choose well!
Contact the Host
Jim’s Standard Airbnb Host Questions
Can you tell me the size or dimensions of the bed?
Is it near a grocery store? A gym?
Is the kitchen fully equipped with multiple pots and pans, spatulas, cooking knife, cutting board, mixing bowls, etc?
How large is the refrigerator?
How many burners does the stove have? Is there an oven?
Can you tell me about the closet and dresser spaces we can store our clothes?
What is the nearest public transportation?
Is there a broom and dust pan? Vacuum cleaner? Mop and bucket?
Are there laundry facilities in the building or in the apartment? Does it have a drying machine or do you hang the clothes to dry?
Before you book, reach out to the host! It’s ok to ask them questions to clarify something. For example, we find that often in Europe and Asia a bed will be listed as a “double”. We don’t want anything less than a queen sized bed, so we will often ask exactly how big the bed is to be sure it isn’t a full. Jim has a whole list of other questions for the host. Depending on how detailed the listing is, many of those questions get dropped off the list when he emails the host.
This is also a great opportunity to ask about additional discounts. It’s not unusual for a host to extend a special discount just for asking. This is especially true if you have really good reviews yourself, or if you’re staying longer than a month. But it never hurts to drop something like “Are you able to offer any special discounts?” at the end of your message.
Screenshot the Listing
Right after you book something, take screenshots of the pictures, descriptions, etc. Since we're often staying for long periods of time, we tend to book pretty far in advance so we have the best selection of listings to pick from. Things can change a lot in six months though and it seems that if the host changes something in the listing, you’re not notified about the change.
We once had one airbnb list a TV but when we arrived it wasn’t there. When I looked at the listing again, after we checked in, the TV was no longer listed. When we asked the host, he said it had broken a while ago and they never replaced it. In that case it wadn’t a big deal, but if it had been something important, I would want some evidence when I went to Airbnb with my complaint.
Book Early?
Airbnb doesn’t have the kind of inventory that hotels do. So if you wait until the last minute, most of what will be available will either have poor reviews or be relatively new to Airbnb and therefore have few reviews. In either case you’re gambling a bit on what your experience will be. Although you can still often find great places to stay on relatively short notice, booking early gives you many more and better options.
For us, if we’re going to be somewhere for a month or more we will often try to book six to eight months in advance. Most vacationers book about four to six months in advance, so we’re trying to get a jump on them. If someone books a weekend getaway anytime during the times we’re planning, whatever they booked won’t show up in a search because it’s no longer available for the entire time. You can imagine that if you want to book one place for eight weeks, your choices will quickly narrow down to almost nothing as other people start booking. However, we’ve spoken to other digital nomads who only book at the last minute and are content to keep doing that!
But the earlier you’re booking, the more important it is for you to pay close attention to the cancelation policy. Almost universally, when you book for more than three weeks or so, the cancelation policy is such that you forfeit the first thirty days of payment if you cancel before you check in (if you leave early after checking in, you forfeit thirty days of payments after you leave). For stays less than three weeks, cancelation policies vary wildly, so pay close attention. Each host sets their own cancelation policy for each of their properties.
Long Term Stays are More Economical Than You Think
Not everyone has the ability to travel for a month or more. But if you have the time, you’d be surprised what it costs to book for a month or more. Most hosts offer a discount of 10-25 percent for stays of a week or more. But many hosts also increase their discount as high as fifty percent for month - long stays. Sometimes it’s actually cheaper to stay for a month than it is to stay for three weeks! In addition, it’s fairly common for a given location to have a number of listings with thirty day minimum stay requirements. So by staying longer it can actually offer you more choices in accommodation.
Scams and Other Problems
Like any online transaction, you do have to be a little conscious about possible scams. Although they’re rare, you should be a little educated about them so you know what to do. As a general rule, always click on the host's profile picture and read reviews for all of their properties. It’s also a good idea to only rent from people who have a long history of positive reviews. Most new hosts on Airbnb are honest and you can get great deals renting from them if you’re willing to take a small risk. It’s also a good idea always to do all payments and communications through Airbnb.
Write a Detailed Review
On behalf of all other regular Airbnb guests, please write detailed reviews of the places you stay. Don’t be afraid to be critical (but fair). Airbnb doesn’t allow the host to read your review until they've already submitted their review of you (yes, hosts review you and future hosts use these reviews to decide if they will accept your reservation). You also can’t read their review of you until you submit your accommodation review.
So you don’t need to worry about them writing a bad review of you in retaliation for being critical. The host also has the ability to write a publicly visible reply to your review, so if they feel you were unfair or have corrected an issue they have a way to communicate that to future guests. The review system is generally pretty fair and protects you and the host, so there’s no reason not to write an honest review, even if it is sharply critical. Just think of the headache you’ll be sparing future guests, if you’re uncomfortable writing something negative.