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- Airbnb is one of the most popular ways to see the world, but there are lots of details to consider before booking with the site.
- These tips can help you avoid a mediocre experience with Airbnb so you can achieve true vacation nirvana.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
I use Airbnb all the time when I travel or go on vacation.
Hotel rooms can be convenient and reliable, but I often find that booking a vacation home through Airbnb is cheaper, offers you more space, and is a little more fun to boot. You often get a better feel for the local flavor by choosing to live in a home in the area, rather than a standardized hotel room.
I just got back from my honeymoon this past week. We were gone for two weeks, and visited four different cities in Europe, staying in accommodations exclusively through Airbnb. Some of the Airbnbs were better than anything we could’ve gotten in a hotel; others fell short of our expectations. But there was a lot that I learned through this experience and others, that I will definitely consider for the next time I use Airbnb.
Here are my 11 top tips and tricks for using Airbnb.
Book in advance.
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Booking earlier means you’ll have more options in any given location you choose to visit, and prices are usually lower than when you book closer to the date.
This is especially true of popular cities and locations.
When my wife and I booked our trip Venice as part of our honeymoon, for instance, we were looking at significantly more expensive options because we only booked about a month in advance. Thankfully, we found a cheaper option, which leads me to my next tip.
Sometimes, it’s worth taking a chance on a newbie.
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People like booking places that have been heavily reviewed by other people. It means that other people came to this Airbnb and didn’t die, which is a good thing!
Still, you might be surprised if you ignore the number of reviews attached to any given listing, and take a chance on a newbie based on their photos and listed accommodations.
Back to my Venice story: Since we were only booking a month in advance, and during the start of the city’s busy season, we felt like we were only seeing expensive options. But we kept looking and found a brand-new apartment that no one had stayed in yet. The photos looked beautiful, and we would get 20% off for being one of the first to book, so we took a leap of faith.
It ended up being a great decision: This apartment was easily the best one we stayed in during our whole honeymoon.
The term "Superhost" can be deceiving, and doesn’t guarantee a quality experience.
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We stayed in Modena, Italy, as part of our honeymoon, and chose to stay with a "Superhost."
Airbnb picks "Superhosts" based on just four criteria: They need to have had at least 10 people stay in their place over the past year, they need a 4.8 rating or higher from at least 50% of the people who stay in their place, they need zero cancellations over the last year, and they need to respond to 90% of new messages within 24 hours.
In other words, being a Superhost doesn’t speak to the quality of the apartment. Our Modena apartment was easily our least favorite accommodation during our honeymoon: It was more flights of stairs than advertised, the apartment wasn’t very clean, had no soap, shampoo, or cleaning tools like paper towels, and the apartment smelled like sulfur at times (more on that later).
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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Source: Business Insider – dsmith@businessinsider.com (Dave Smith)