Air B&B

So I am planning a trip to the US west Coast later in the year and am busily booking accommodation. When I got to San Francisco I was in for a rude shock as the cost for reasonable accommodation is almost double to Las Vegas and Los Angeles. I happened on the Air B&B site and was pleasantly surprised by the prices. BUT I am a bit cautious about the whole business having heard some shocking tales (mostly Australian I think).

I've googled some horror stories, but there seem to be a lot more positive stories out there. Just wondering if anyone here has had experiences either good or bad with it?

TT

I haven't personally, but a lot of my colleagues swear by it. Only thing you need to look out for is to make sure its an entire property and they're not just renting out a room...

Vegas is always cheap as chips for accommodation as they expect to recoup the costs on the tables... they did off me that's for damn sure! Bloody american money all looks the same... you look in your wallet and think "Nah I haven't spent that much" till you realise all that's in there is $20 worth of $1 bills!

No experience in American AirBnB, but several in the UK & one in Melbourne, the experience was generally positive, and in a couple of cases, excellent. One in the UK was a bit ordinary, but I wouldn't say it was bad.

My neighbour was hosting for a while. We are going to tassie in february and booked some of them. Hope to spend the majority of our time in them. I suggest you read the reviews. The people who host and stay are like the general population. Most people are really good but there is always that few maybe 3% who stuff it for everyone.

My impression is airbnb themselves are like ebay, they say they will do something but don't. If it goes pear shaped plan to be on your own.

We stayed in a house whilst staying in the Samona Valley. It was booked on Airbnb however we had no real host as we had the whole house. The only negative I had was we had to thoroughly clean before we left e.g mop floors etc. this is not really what I want to do on holidays.


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The main thing, is do your research thoroughly. We have stayed in Airbnb in Namibia, South Africa, Canada and the US and several times in Aust. during the last few years and have had good to excellent stays always. My wife spends hours researching, especially the reviews and it has paid off.
Have heard some pretty awful stories as well so maybe we have had luck with us.
All the best and enjoy yourselves.
Cheers, Fred

If you stick with the heavily (positively) reviewed ones, you can't go far wrong. I travel around NSW a lot for work, and have used Airbnb almost exclusively for the past 18 months. I only resort to hotel/motel accommodation if there isn't an Airbnb available reasonably close to the work site. Unfailingly excellent experiences, but I generally go for places where I'm renting a room/rooms in a house where the owner is present - I don't need a whole house just for little old me. Met some really nice people along the way, and many are very flexible on providing meals if required.

AirBnb actually started in SF so you should be able to find something reasonable there. We used some places off AirBnb up the West Coast a couple of years ago, always choosing apartments or house, not rooms, and stays of at least a few days. All were good experiences, but we like to self cater so filtering for a good kitchen facility is our primary concern. In our experience a good kitchen means the rest is going to up to standard.

If you are just look for reasonable priced accommodation in SF perhaps look at this hotel. It's basic but we were very happy with their service. Our plane was delayed by a day and a half and they were very helpful when we contacted to let the know we were delayed and not no shows. Even though our travel insurance probably would have paid, the hotel didn't want to charge us for two nights booked accommodation that was not used.

Christmas 2015 used Air B&B in Paris and Bruges - booked by the DIL who’s in England. Paris was brilliant, Bruges was average - not suitable for the grandkids even though it was posted as such..

Daughter and boyfriend just got back from SF and echo exactly your problems. SF accomm is horrifically expensive. The hotel they booked turned out to be not quite as shown either. The room had blood spatter on the walls next to the bed and was always hot...like really hot.

When leaving one day they saw the room next door's door was open so they had a look as they walked by.

The two double bunks in the room had been converted to hydroponic setups with the bottom bunk holding the plants and the top bunk used to support the lights, hence the heat!


Unsure why they did not AirB&B the US trip, so far Korea, Japan, the UK and Singapore AirB&B experiences have been universally great for them. Japan was odd only so far as the english instructions for the Microwave were for another machine altogether.

Best thing since sliced bread. Do your research.

+1 to read reviews, do as much research as you can before booking and have your expectations in check.

Think of air bnb as this, imagine all the people you know having a spare house renting them out on short stays. Now imagine how many people will be good hosts and how many you wouldn't stay in even if you were paid to do so. Thats essentially airbnb in a nutshell.

I'm sure you'll hear as many horror stories with people with regular bed and breakfasts and "5 star" hotels.

The biggest difference between air bnb and hotels is regulations, which obviously adds to the cost of running a hotel. it also means there is a "standard" which you could expect at a hotel.

Also some Airbnb's are not someones spare house/holiday home so can be bit of an experience when you move in.

Thanks for all your replies gents. Very helpful. I think I’ll give it a go. What can go wrong:)

TT

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I generally go for places where I'm renting a room/rooms in a house where the owner is present

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I'd echo that advise. The only one I went to that wasn't too good was the one where the owner wasn't present.

If your visit is truly to San Francisco, my advice would be to stay in the East Bay that is convenient to BART. Bart will take you into downtown very easily. Parking in San Francisco is almost impossible and very expensive.

I've always felt more comfortable staying in a hotel rather than in someone's home, even that of a friend or co-worker.