AirBnB is the hottest way of booking travel accommodation. It seems that everybody in the travel blogging world is raving about it. Renting out a part of somebody’s house for a fraction of the cost of a hotel, it’s ingenious. It seems I’m the only travel blogger who has never tried AirBnB. Not for much longer, I’m determined to try AirBnB and learn exactly how to use it.

Traditional Travel Accommodation Booking

In the past most of our family travel bookings have been through either Agoda.com or Booking.com. Occasionally we use Trivago.com, Hotels.com or Expedia.com, but Agoda and Booking are my go-to sites. Here’s the pro’s and con’s of these sites in my opinion.

Agoda

• Good because you can build up credits and cash them in on a free night accommodation.
• Good because they have mobile deals where you get special discounts offered only to mobile customers. We have found some amazing deals this way, especially for 5 star accommodation.
• Good because we have found incredible discounts using Agoda over the years. Especially on 5 Star hotel with huge discounts.
• I’ve been burnt with being charged high cancellation rates. To be fair this is mostly my fault for not taking the time to read the booking conditions, aka the fine print.

Booking.com

• Good because they also have amazing discounts.
• After you’ve been with Booking.com a while you get a flat 10% discount for being a “Genius”.
• On the desktop version you can easily search by an interactive map. This is quite common now but Booking.com has the most user-friendly map I’ve come across. The map will automatically update all offers as you pan around. This allows you to go a bit wide of your original search to secure an extra special deal. AirBnB also does this, but Booking.com does it best.
• Good because cancellations are mostly free prior to a few days out. I prefer Booking.com if I may have cause to change or cancel.
• I’ve used a few site comparison sites like Trivago.com, and Booking.com consistently comes up with lowest or near lowest rates.

Budget for Travel Accommodation

Our target budget is normally about US $40-80 per night for a 3-4 star hotel. Keep in mind that most of our travel has been in South East Asia where you can get lovely 3 star hotels for US $30-40 per night. $100 should elevate you to high-end luxury if you do a little bit of research. Our criteria is to read lots of user reviews to gauge overall satisfaction. Especially check that it has no bed bugs reported. Also cleanliness is a super high priority for us. Third priority is convenience to public transport and convenience stores.

Our First AirBnB

Our test case is a two-week Californian road trip in mid 2017. Our plan is to hire a car from LA airport and do the coastal road trip to San Fransisco. Along the way we plan to take a detour to Sierra Nevada mountains. We’re super keen to see Yosemite especially, but also King’s Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. A perfect opportunity to test out how practical AirBnB is for this, our typical family holiday!

How Does Airbnb Work?

Getting onto AirBnB is easy enough, you just download the app on your iPad then create an account. Log in using your Facebook logon if you like. The desktop version is more feature packed and fairly similar to Booking.com. There is an interactive map so you can easily search outside your original search area.

First stop – Santa Barbara – 2 nights

The trip from South East Asia to LA is gruelling. Our top priority for the first two days is not sightseeing. It is not shopping or cooking. It is not being sociable. It is resting and adjusting to the new time zone. A nice bed, easy breakfast and a pool would be perfect. Booking.com for US$107 per night for a 3 star hotel with 8.0 user review rating. AirBnB is not really suitable for these type of requirements. I’ve even heard where customers are waiting at the front door for a long time for the AirBnB host to come home to let them in. Not this time.

Second stop – Morro Bay – 1 night

Wow this area is so expensive! We found a 2 star hotel on Booking.com for US$139. AirBnB had a few for less than this however they all seemed to have dogs/cats or no parking. Suitable AirBnB’s were all over US$150 so hotel was the cheaper option.

Third stop – Monterey – 2 nights

Monterey is another expensive coastal town. US$200-250 seems to be the entry rate for average 3 star hotel rooms. We did find several great looking family friendly AirBnB’s for under $200 per night and secured one for AUD $185 per night. Note we were later contacted by the host to say we’d made a mistake booking 1 person not 3. This jacked the price up an extra US $40 per night, putting it about the same as typical hotels. However, we’re looking forward on a much nicer experience in an AirBnB.

Fourth Stop – Yosemite National Park – 1 night

This was booked through the Yosemite Park. No AirBnB’s available inside the National Park. We did want to stay 2 or 3 nights however booking 2 months out they were nearly fully booked out.

Fifth Stop – Kings Canyon / Sequoia NP – 3 nights

We really wanted to stay inside the national parks, but these were fully booked. Booking.com located some outstanding hotels for around US $80 per night, but driving time would be 2-3 hours per day return trip from the park entrances. The close to the National Parks, the higher the Booking.com prices. All hotels near the parks were fully booked. This is where AirBnB was most useful, we found two awesome options in perfect locations between the two national parks to minimise driving times. We went for a private caravan behind somebody’s house in the mountains for US $70 per night. Reviews say there is deer and other wildlife to be seen from the caravan. The first place to come near our budget, and a unique experience to boot. Good win for AirBnB

Sixth stop – San Fransisco – 5 nights

San Fransisco makes Monterey seem like a cheap trailer park. Man is this place expensive! US $200 per night is quite a cheap rate for a standard hotel/villa. On AirBnB we found loads of places below that, but finding a place with free secure parking was much more of a challenge. We did find a place for around US $110 per night with parking which seemed very reasonable. Great reviews, cozy house, Air BnB wins hands down.

Results With AirBnB

So AirBnB proved superior in 2 out of 6 of our bookings, and equal in a third. It could not compete in the remaining 3. As far as we can see there are quite a few positives to using AirBnB.

Pro’s to using AirBnB

Experiences

You can stay in a unique lodging. With a bigger budget the options are mind-boggling, from chalets to castles to mansions. But on our meagre budget a caravan in the Sierra Nevada foot hills is about a unique as we were able to find.

Local knowledge

Some of the accommodation promotes that the owner has lived in the area for decades and has intimate knowledge of the area. So you have open access to vast local knowledge, tips and an insight to the area from a local. It’s always great to meet the real locals.

Cooking

Many user reviews state ‘the owner cooked us a lovely breakfast’. Or ‘the owner left delicious snacks out for us’. I’ve read hosts saying that if you get them on the right night they are happy to cook you a meal. Not only does this save on meals, you might get some insights to local cooking.

Kitchen

Hotel kitchens are usually quite ordinary at best. Even apartment or villa kitchens usually have generic and basic cooking items/cutlery. It sounds nice to have a fully stocked home kitchen.

Cons to using AirBnB

Pets

We are not exactly pet lovers and have good medical reason to avoid pet hair. However it seems quite common to have to deal with the owner’s dogs or cats. If you have kids who are not used to pets this could also present a problem. Kids have the uncanny ability to push placid dogs beyond their patience limit. On a positive note, it is clear on the website if pets will be on the property.

Parking

In cities it seems quite rare to find a place offering free parking. This presents a problem if you are driving. In comparison, hotels normally come with a complimentary car parking space.

Cleaning fees

There is always a cleaning charge on top of the nightly rate on AirBnB. Whilst normally US $20-$40, one of our cleaning fees is US$90. This elevates the overall price. On a positive note it good that you can be confident the room is clean.

High fees

I was told by one owner that AirBnB charge a 28% fee which raises the prices substantially. The owners are not getting as much profit as you might think. To me this seems rather too high.

Cost

You get what you pay for. There are some great bargains to be found on AirBnB. You might find that it’s in somebody’s run-down 30-year-old trailer. Or an old back room of somebody’s house. Be very wary of the bargains and read ALL reviews.

Adjustments

I found it confusing when the owner had to make adjustments to a reservation. This happened in 2 out of 3 of my bookings, where it was more than a simple reservation. With Booking.com it is so simple, you just reserve a room and pay normally when you get there. Sometimes you simply pay the full amount up-front via credit card. AirBnB was a whole lot trickier and confusing.

Hotel confusion

I read user reviews where hotels are listing as AirBnB in Bangkok leading to confusion at the front check in counter, where the staff are not aware of AirBnB. The result can only be a less than pleasurable experience, especially when you throw in a language barrier.

Facebook sign in

I made the mistake of signing in and booking using Facebook. Whilst this is easy enough to do, it is painful that every time I want to open a link on an AirBnB email, I have to re-enter my Facebook password. There seems to be no way for iPhones to solve this frustrating issue. I did create a direct AirBnB login, but that presents another issue where bookings are split between the Facebook login and the AirBnB going, there seems to be no way to merge the two accounts.

Clunky app

Overall the app is quite basic and clunky compared to the bigger hotel booking sites. Booking.com wins the app review hands down in my opinion, it is a sleek user-friendly experience from start to finish. I often book hotels on my iPhone in about 3 minutes on Booking.com, in hotels that I am familiar with.

Verdict on AirBnB

AirBnB is definitely competitive with hotel booking sites and in some cases cheaper. It seems you need to spend quite a lot more time doing your research than you do on Agoda.com or Booking.com. We found two bargains out of six which is fair. The variety is far greater on AirBnB and we will get to meet some locals up close and personal. I’m excited to see how it goes!

Stay tuned for a wrap-up review of our first experiences using AirBnB!

Note: This page does include affiliate links to Agoda.com and Booking.com. Whilst you will pay no extra for using these links, we do receive a commission if you do make a purchase.

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