Airbnb is a service that lets people rent out their homes to travellers for short periods of time. It has a wide range of places to stay for people who don’t want to stay in hotels.
Whether you’re planning your next trip or looking to make money on Airbnb, there are a few things you should think about to help you decide if it’s a good fit for you. Here’s how Airbnb works and what its pros and cons are so you can decide if you want to use it.
What’s Airbnb?
Airbnb has been around since 2007. When Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia couldn’t pay their rent, they came up with the idea. They decided to rent out their apartment to people who needed a place to stay but couldn’t find one. Since then, Airbnb has grown a lot, and both guests and hosts now get a lot out of it.
Airbnb has about 6 million places to stay around the world. On the Airbnb website, you can choose from a wide range of properties, such as single rooms, apartments, houseboats, cabins, and moored yachts, among others. All of these listings are made to meet the needs of travellers.
How do you use Airbnb?
Airbnb is an online service that connects people who want to rent out their homes with people who need a place to stay. Guests usually pay less than they would at a hotel. Guests can look at the Airbnb website to see what options are available where they are going.
How Guests Can Use It
As a guest, you can use filters to narrow down your search options. You can find the perfect match based on price, location, amenities, and the type of property. You can also use keywords to make your search even more specific.
It’s important to remember that hosts have rules for their spaces. For example, some hosts will let you bring your pet with you, while others have a strict “no pets” policy. Once you find a place that works for you, you can book it and talk to the host through the site.
How Hosts Can Use It
You can make extra money on the side by renting out a property or extra space you own. All you have to do is make a profile on Airbnb and go through a series of steps to prove your identity. Once you’ve been accepted, you can put your property up for sale. But before you do that, it’s important to find out if it’s legal in your area to list a rental.
As a host, Airbnb lets you decide how much you want to charge your guests. Airbnb can suggest a price for your space if you don’t know what to charge, but it’s up to you to set the price.
How to Decide Between a Hotel and an Airbnb
Since both hotels and Airbnb are in the hospitality business, their services are similar. Depending on the level of luxury, Airbnb prices tend to be lower and more flexible than hotel prices that are set.
Airbnb also lets you choose a place that fits your needs as a guest, which makes your stay more unique. But there are a few things you might want to think about to help you decide whether to stay in an Airbnb or a hotel:
Amenities
Hotels have a wide range of amenities, like rooftop pools and lively bars, for their guests. Also, hotel rooms usually come with room service, which is not guaranteed with Airbnb. Some hosts even charge an extra fee for cleaning.
Experiences that are real
Airbnb is a better choice for people who want to visit a place and have authentic experiences hosted by locals. There are some things you can only do in a city if you stay in an Airbnb and not a high-priced hotel. Also, hosts give personalised recommendations for some of the best places to go and things to do.
Taking kids on a trip
Hotels might be a better choice for people travelling with kids because they have a lot of safety features and things to do to keep kids busy. If you are travelling with kids, it might be safer and more fun to stay in a hotel.
Be safe and sound
It makes sense to be cautious about staying at someone’s place. But Airbnb has gone above and beyond to make sure that both guests and hosts are safe by adding a long verification process when people sign up.
Airbnb also gives hosts a guarantee of up to $1 million in case a guest causes damage. But this only works in countries that are eligible.
Airbnb’s Good Points
Over the past ten years, Airbnb has grown a lot, and it’s easy to see why. Airbnb has become more popular because it helps travellers find cheap places to stay. Here are a few reasons why many travellers like Airbnb.
Lots of different homes
Airbnb has a wide range of places to stay, such as studios, apartments, condos, whole houses, houseboats, yachts that are moored, and even castles. You can be sure that you’ll find what you need, whether you want to go on vacation, a business trip, or a road trip.
Prices are set by the hosts.
As an Airbnb host, you can set the price you charge your guests however you want. Compared to hotels, this gives you a lot more freedom. Since you set the prices, there will be competition because you set the prices. So, hosts try to make their properties as cheap as possible, which is good for their guests.
Free Listings
Airbnb is different from many other online platforms in that hosts don’t have to pay a fee to list their property. After giving all the information about the property and a little bit about themselves, hosts can list their property for free. This makes the business even more appealing because it will make a lot of money.
Individualized searches
Because there are so many listings, guests can use different filters to find the right Airbnb based on location, size, price, and other factors.
Disadvantages of Airbnb
Like anything else, there are some bad things about Airbnb.
Not making sure of quality
When you stay in a hotel, you can usually be sure that you’ll get what you paid for because the rooms are usually how they are described. Since hosts can make their own Airbnb listings, there is room for them to be dishonest and exaggerate. So, before you book an Airbnb, you should check out what other people have said about the property and the host in reviews.
Extra Charges
Airbnb charges a service fee that is usually about 14% of the total cost of the booking. On the other hand, hosts are usually charged 3% of the subtotal as a service fee.
Damage to property
There is a chance that hosts’ things will get broken. Most hosts say that their guests don’t cause any trouble, but some wild partygoers and guests have caused damage to the property. Airbnb provides a damage protection programme for hosts, which is reassuring, but it only covers specific types of damage and is unavailable in some countries.
Taxes
Even though Airbnb rentals don’t have to follow the same rules as hotels, hosts still have to pay occupancy taxes. Value-added tax and rental income tax are two other types of taxes that can be charged. Most of the time, these taxes depend on where you live and may be different from place to place. Both hosts and guests should know about the tax rules that apply to their situation.
Takeaway
Airbnb is a great choice if you want to find a place to stay for less money. You can choose the best property for you from the Airbnb website based on your needs. Also, if you have extra space in your home or a property you’re not using, you can make some extra money by letting people stay there.
