Board 8 > going overseas this spring, tips for airbnb?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Hey everyone!

I've done a lot of domestic travel and visited Canada and Mexico, but I have not yet made it to Euope.

I'm doing a trip to the UK in May with a stopover in Iceland. I've got a good idea on my UK lodging plans but Iceland has been a little trickier. Most hotels are more expensive than I'm used to paying, and a friend recommended I use airbnb, which I have never used before.

Any tips for using the site? There are a lot of options, but it seems like a bit of a crapshoot. Is there anything else to rely on other than pictures and reviews? Every place I look at seems to get 4-5 stars so it's hard for me to tell if a place is good for the price relative to others.

Any other travel/lodging ideas or tips are appreciated. I'm traveling with my spouse and she prefers private accommodations.
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Number of reviews is a pretty good metric. Filter for "whole apartment" instead of "private room" if you want more privacy.
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i think getting a camping van is the best option for iceland
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Yeah definitely go for a whole apartment/house if you care about privacy. Never go with the cheapest options--the difference between a $100/night place and $120/night is usually enormous.

I've also always prioritized location since you're not really going to spend much time in the room.
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Not Dave posted...

i think getting a camping van is the best option for iceland

I would consider that if I was seeing more of the island but I'm only doing 2 nights and will be centered in the city.

Location is definitely a big factor. Reykjavik looks pretty walkable so I want to avoid having to hike or take a cab into the city center
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Nelson_Mandela posted...

Yeah definitely go for a whole apartment/house if you care about privacy. Never go with the cheapest options--the difference between a $100/night place and $120/night is usually enormous.

I've also always prioritized location since you're not really going to spend much time in the room.

Yeah - you get what you pay for. If you think you've found a "great deal" there's probably a catch.
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The catch is probably not a big deal since you will likely only use the room for sleeping so just go for the cheapest
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There is one that has darth vader and batman masks hanging on the wall.
Go with that one, it can't be bad.
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foolm0r0n posted...

The catch is probably not a big deal since you will likely only use the room for sleeping so just go for the cheapest

The catch for me has sometimes been a place that is so bad that it makes sleeping impossible.
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Privacy is usually the catch, in some form or another, and if his wife highly values that, he's probably better off just going with a hotel.
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A lot of (whole apartment) airbnbs feel wayyy more private than hotels imo. No housekeeping or any of that crap.
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Hotels are often in garbage locations too. The big hotel areas of Paris for example were completely removed from everything other than the luxury shopping areas and major tourist traps.
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Don't know if smuffin has actually researched Reykjavik, but the cheapest hotels there are $150+ per night during travel season. If you're looking for comfort accommodations, that's $300+ per night. And these hotels are not in prime locations, either.

Anyway, thanks for the tips, guys. I think I have found a few desirable apartments in the city for a decent price. Just have to get the wife to sign off on one.
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Nelson_Mandela posted...

The catch for me has sometimes been a place that is so bad that it makes sleeping impossible.

I'm curious

tell me your horror stories
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Gatarix posted...

Nelson_Mandela posted...

The catch for me has sometimes been a place that is so bad that it makes sleeping impossible.

I'm curious

tell me your horror stories

Stayed in a place that was cheaper than everything around it in Florence, but was in a prime location. First night there I plugged my phone into the outlet and it shorted the power of the entire building, which did not get fixed for the entire evening. I've also stayed in a budget place in Bologna (great location, again) that supplied one TINY pillow, a mattress with no box spring or anything, and a fan that barely worked despite it being 90 degrees there.

It was a good lesson to learn.
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None of that sounds unsleepable except for the heat (which 90 isn't too crazy). But yeah if the weather isn't great you should be more careful cuz that can really ruin it.

If they have a lot of reviews AND they're cheap then you're fine on that front.
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90 isn't too crazy? I have trouble sleeping when it's 80
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foolm0r0n posted...

None of that sounds unsleepable except for the heat (which 90 isn't too crazy). But yeah if the weather isn't great you should be more careful cuz that can really ruin it.

If they have a lot of reviews AND they're cheap then you're fine on that front.

Not having the ability to charge your phone overnight when you need it during the day kind of sucked
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KingButz posted...

Don't know if smuffin has actually researched Reykjavik, but the cheapest hotels there are $150+ per night during travel season. If you're looking for comfort accommodations, that's $300+ per night. And these hotels are not in prime locations, either.

Anyway, thanks for the tips, guys. I think I have found a few desirable apartments in the city for a decent price. Just have to get the wife to sign off on one.

Why do you expect to be able to get something just as good for half the price?

If you can't answer the question of "WHY is this place so much cheaper than a hotel?" then you're setting yourself up for failure.
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Airbnbs are generally cheaper than hotels because there is no staff to pay. Capitalism!
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Nelson_Mandela posted...

Airbnbs are generally cheaper than hotels because there is no staff to pay. Capitalism!

Not really. Staff make minimum wage or less and scale like hell. Hotels are really lean and efficient in general.
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SmartMuffin posted...

Nelson_Mandela posted...

Airbnbs are generally cheaper than hotels because there is no staff to pay. Capitalism!

Not really. Staff make minimum wage or less and scale like hell. Hotels are really lean and efficient in general.

Do you really not understand how a hotel costs more than an airbnb of similar quality or are you just being contrarian?
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Do you not understand how economics works?

Cost is basically irrelevant. Willingness to pay is.

If an AirBNB can provide an equal quality experience, they'd charge just as much as the hotel. If they're charging less, it's because people desire what they have to offer less.

Some of that is things directly related to staff/service. But certainly not all.
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Nelson_Mandela posted...

Not having the ability to charge your phone overnight when you need it during the day kind of sucked

Portable battery son. A big one for each person if overseas for sure.
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Yeah try to get my grandma to stay at an airbnb

They are not the same product as a hotel
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SmartMuffin posted...

If an AirBNB can provide an equal quality experience, they'd charge just as much as the hotel. If they're charging less, it's because people desire what they have to offer less.

They often charge a far superior experience (to me) than a hotel. The main reason they charge less is because it's pure opportunity profit. They are paying for the room anyways, whatever they can rent it for it is just free money. All they have to do is convince people to rent theirs instead of some other airbnb, typically with lower prices.

That's ignoring the pseudo-hotel businesses that actively buy places and rent them on airbnb though...
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Friends and I used airbnb to rent an entire house a few years ago.
The area I slept in smelled like dog urine, I felt so unclean those 2 nights.
I forget what the rates were as we split the bill several ways.

The only other time in my life I've rented a condo from a non-hotel was in Myrtle Beach. That place was immaculate, but also it was not cheap at all. We splurged a little for it lol. Better then a hotel of similar price though.
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They often charge a far superior experience (to me) than a hotel.

To you yeah, but your preferences may not be universal.

AirBnB has two real value propositions, both of which tend to be at the extremes of quality of accommodation. There's the "crash on the couch for no money" end of things, for people who are super value conscious and have no real concerns about quality (or privacy). And there's also the "rent out a big place for a party" end of things where it probably is cheaper than a hotel, because hotels are not really optimized for "multi-room" units.

But if you're looking for a completely private room to yourself of reasonable quality at a good location, that's already the exact problem hotels are solving for and, as I said, that market is unbelievably efficient. Some random Joe is unlikely to be better at providing that particular service than Hilton is...

The main reason they charge less is because it's pure opportunity profit. They are paying for the room anyways, whatever they can rent it for it is just free money.

Uh, this is also totally true of hotel rooms. Hotel rooms are perishable goods. Any night they go unoccupied, the hotel is earning no money. They are totally incentivized to price such that most rooms are occupied on most nights.
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SmartMuffin posted...

But if you're looking for a completely private room to yourself of reasonable quality at a good location, that's already the exact problem hotels are solving for

But they are clearly not. The vast majority of hotel rooms (motels) are very shitty "crash on the couch" kinda spots. And the big chains are designed to be of mediocre quality in a mediocre location for a mediocre number of people (4). None of that is optimized AT ALL for many common use cases. The refinement is merely the average of all the common use cases.

The "average" locations alone, which we were just talking about, is enough of a dealbreaker.

This is the same problem that big chains like McDonald's have. It's impossible for them to optimize because their whole business model is breadth of service. Airbnb is a deeply personalized service, so even if 99.99% of people don't like a certain room, those 0.001% will like it way better than any hotel. Just like that inefficient local taco shop on the corner will serve you better than the hyper-refined McD. Walmart vs craigslist is another example.

The efficiency of the market isn't in homogenizing services to the mean (though it can do that, but others can do it better, e.g. government). It's in providing huge variety in service that a huge variety in customers can all be satisfied.

That being said, if you love being 2.5 miles out of the city in a room designed for 4 people on the 16th floor of a former prison covered with tacky carpets and chandeliers, then mega hotels have got you covered.
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SmartMuffin posted...

Uh, this is also totally true of hotel rooms. Hotel rooms are perishable goods. Any night they go unoccupied, the hotel is earning no money. They are totally incentivized to price such that most rooms are occupied on most nights.

Right, what I'm saying is that airbnbs are NOT perishable in that way. The opportunity cost near 0 because they already paid for the whole place without expecting extra rent money. (Again, this is assuming they didn't buy the place specifically for renting it out.)

I guess an example would be a hotel that is at 80% capacity of whatever it was designed to be "break even" at. Any room after that is just gravy, so they can price competitively. BUT, they can't price the room down too much, because that ruins their own market for rooms the next day and the next day and so on. They are pretty closely tethered to their average price and will often leave rooms empty in that case. Of course this is just about their advertised price - hotels will often give massive discounts in secret because THEN it's just gravy without the marketing damage.

Airbnbs are left empty not because they can't find customers, but because they don't care that much about the gravy to constantly optimize their price each day. It's not like they're afraid that selling their place for $30 one night will lose them the $150 sale the next day, because that's not how those rooms are advertised. This applies even to airbnb-as-a-business places.
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Look in to hostels. I've traveled in Europe and Japan staying in hostels and always loved it. Real cheap option and a great way to meet cool people. Some of the cooler hostels have bars and will have events and stuff. You can also get real cheap private rooms in hostels if that's your thing. RegardlessI can't recommend hostels enough. Have met some amazing people and had awesome times thanks to them.
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Hostels are definitely optimized for "crash on couch for cheap". Definitely good times.
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foolm0r0n posted...

That being said, if you love being 2.5 miles out of the city in a room designed for 4 people on the 16th floor of a former prison covered with tacky carpets and chandeliers, then mega hotels have got you covered.

Ha, this is literally a hotel I stayed in in Helsinki. Former prison and all.
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I stayed at a super nice and reasonably priced hotel in Helsinki right in the middle of everything. Walking distance to all the cool stuff. Was the best hotel of my entire trip!
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You'll have to tell us (read: me) about Iceland when you get back. I've never had occasion to go, but people seem to love it.

Ended up finding a place that was pretty affordable. It seems like a nice compromise between price, space, and location. It's a detached guest space so private entrance and everything

Thanks again for all the tips!
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