9 Practical Airbnb Tips Based on Real Experience
In the beginning of 2021, I mustered up the balls to leave home again and move to Oregon to start life anew. The plan then was to save up for a school bus conversion and enjoy some lovely natural scenery at the same time. I had just graduated from college and successfully waited out the initial blow of the pandemic. I thought to myself, “Okay, now is the time to get back out there and make those dreams come to fruition!”
Just saving up for the move and getting my ass out there in the first place was a proud accomplishment that I still hold near and dear to my heart, but unfortunately the rest of my plans were thwarted shortly after arrival and wouldn’t resume until almost a year later. Long story short (and perhaps to be elaborated on elsewhere), the first place I landed in Oregon turned out to be a nightmare of a living situation and before I knew it, the three months of savings I’d put together just to get settled in were out the window and I felt forced to leave so soon after making it there.
The silver lining at the time was meeting my partner, Sam. We started out as roommates and began dating in the midst of that clusterfuck, so when the time came to bounce I wasn’t alone. We attempted searching for other housing in the area and followed a few promising leads, including one that went as far as being finalized on paper, only to have the homeowner completely drop out at the last minute. We were left with only a few days to find another living arrangement before essentially facing homelessness.
We’d talked of travel and wanting to see the country, and at this time the idea came to us: What if we didn’t find another place to live and just jumped right into it? Traveling the country with no solid plans and no determined end date? It sounded adventurous and exciting enough that that’s exactly what we did.
We spent the summer traveling all around the United States, starting on one coast and eventually reaching the other. We completed a massive loop around the country that included stops in 16 states. The trip was life-changing in more ways than I could have anticipated at the time, and almost two years later we still talk of that experience regularly.
I share this story with you because it describes our circumstances around the time we decided to travel. We didn’t have gobs of money saved up to do this and we went into it with minimal planning. (We wouldn’t necessarily recommend doing it this way, but at the same time our experience shows that you can.) At one point during our trip, while in Virginia, we decided whether we wanted to head north toward Maine or south toward Florida. That’s how loose our travel trajectory was.
The way we were able to afford this massive cross-country road trip was primarily through booking Airbnbs, with visits to friends and family sprinkled in here and there to save on accommodation costs. We were so pleased with our experience with Airbnb that I will likely never book a hotel room again in my life (fingers crossed). Every one of our Airbnbs cost less than the average hotel room per night (less than $100). We tried a variety of stays from having an entire house to ourselves to renting out a single room in a shared house, and more often than not we were pleasantly surprised with the quality of service we received.
I’d like to take the time to share what we learned during that trip and leave some additional tips that haven’t already been covered by the travel videos already present on YouTube. Surprisingly, there are no financial affiliations behind writing this article. I would have liked to link a referral code for aspiring Airbnb users, but that program is now discontinued. Sigh.
I’ve ordered these tips chronologically in the process you would normally use to secure an Airbnb. Whether or not you would consider these beginner or expert tips is not for me to say. All of this comes from our own experience and is a mixture of tips we found online and tested in-person and lessons we discovered on our own.
So here we go.
1. Seek the less popular travel destinations and travel times.
You’ve probably heard this one before, and that’s okay. I’m going to reiterate it because we found it to be very helpful in keeping our travel costs low.
Hotels and Airbnbs will cost more in metropolitan cities than rural areas, though sometimes you can get lucky and score a cheaper Airbnb in a city — especially if you opt to rent a room in a shared space rather than an entire dwelling. The best deals for Airbnbs that we found were in smaller rural towns.
Additionally, you will generally find cheaper prices during the off-season than in the middle of the busiest time of year for tourists. That one is kind of a no-brainer, but hey, it’s still worth mentioning. There’s a feature on Airbnb where you can switch the date range to being flexible and see if there is availability during a different time period that meets your budget (see below).
When we were traveling, our itinerary was so loose that we searched the country and formed our plans around the Airbnbs we booked, instead of the other way around. We didn’t mind driving out of our way because there was no set destination, so it technically wasn’t out of our way at all.
It may sound a bit crazy to pass up a popular vacation spot for something deemed a bit less desirable, but I’d encourage you not to see it that way. The path less traveled is often filled with more adventure, and that’s what we found as we embarked on our trip. Not only that, but we ended up experiencing more while spending less.
For instance, we knew we were heading toward the east coast, so from our stop in Minneapolis we searched for any Airbnbs within the general vicinity of that direction. We found this steal in Glen Haven, Wisconsin, where we booked an entire two-bedroom house for $90 a night.
That’s insane compared to booking a hotel. Our own bathroom, stylish living room, walls and doors between the bedrooms, a functional full-sized kitchen. Why would you ever pay $100 for a single hotel room ever again?
We found another golden opportunity in West Virginia as we approached the east coast. For only $75 that night we got to crash in a second-story apartment overlooking the main street in a small town called Hinton. The town was charming and quaint, and we learned during our stay that the movie Lassie was filmed there.
Is this way of traveling the most predictable? Not really. But is it fun? We think so.
2. Use the search filters to narrow down your search (and ensure you get what you want).
This one is pretty self-explanatory. If you need high-speed internet, like we did while on the road, checking that box will only show you the listings that have high-speed internet included. There are filters for types of rentals, appliances and features, and price. The filter system (unlike the one on Google Maps) returns very accurate results.
3. Aim for longer stays for maximum discounts.
We saw this trip as a step toward nomadic living, so this tip may be more helpful for those who enjoy the thought of taking longer trips versus the average weekend or week-long vacation. This tip also isn’t exclusive to this article as others have covered it, but I’ll include it because it’s valuable.
There are different tiers of discounts you can discover on Airbnb depending on how long you’d like to stay. When you book for 7 nights or more, a weekly discount may be applied to your total. If you book for 28 nights or more, a monthly discount may be applied instead. Sometimes the weekly or monthly discount that is applied is worth booking a couple extra days because it can drastically bring the price down. See an example below:
So if your initial plans dictated a 5 or even 6 day stay, you may want to consider adding on an extra day (if possible) and see if the discount is worth the adjustment in travel arrangements.
We took advantage of the monthly discount on Airbnb when we went south to Satsuma, Florida, where we booked a nautical tiny home for a month for $930. The monthly rate was comparable to a month of rent, which was justified for us because we didn’t have a rental arrangement of our own to return to after our trip. The nightly rate broke down to about $33 a night.
This Airbnb ended up being the most enjoyable for us, partially because we were able to spend more time in the area and get to know the local scenery more intimately before taking off to our next stop. This is another reason why I would recommend booking longer stays.
4. Click to see the final amount before reserving the Airbnb.
I’m sure if you’ve navigated the app enough you’ve had that wondrous moment of, “Holy shit! Only $20 a night for this place?” and then found that the number magically changed to over $100 a night by some ungodly turn of events when you tried to book it.
The prices displayed on the map are the rental amount before taxes, cleaning and service fees. So the first number you see is much less than what you will actually get charged.
To see the real amount you would need to pay to book the Airbnb, you need to keep clicking until you see the total price for the rental, including taxes and additional fees. Then you can make your decision fully-informed.
What’s interesting about the pricing on Airbnb is that I believe the hosts are able to alter their service and cleaning fees depending on what they want or need to charge. So some of those numbers will not add up as much as others, and it’s a good idea to click to the end to see what the final amount will be before booking. Sometimes the total is an exorbitant amount higher than what you expected and other times the final price is relatively close to the original value that drew you to the listing. Just keep this in mind when you’re searching for your next booking.
5. Read the Reviews
I feel like this tip is more common sense, but it makes a huge difference in preventing those undesirable travel mishaps from occurring, so it’s here.
It’s a good idea to read the reviews for the listing just to perform an overall vibe check and suss out any potential issues the space may have. For us, high-speed internet was a priority because I worked remotely. We could search the reviews for any mention of slow or glitchy WiFi, or glowing comments about fast service, and act accordingly. There’s a search feature within the review section of the site and app that makes it possible to find specific keywords.
The nice thing about Airbnb is that reviews are left for the rental spaces, and for the people who rent on Airbnb. Every Airbnb user has a public profile where you can read the reviews left for them by hosts or read the user’s other reviews. You can see whether someone’s bad review is accurate or just a reflection of their nit-picky personality. All are things to keep in mind when determining whether a booking is right for what you want.
6. Message the Host
When we were traveling, I would always message the host of the Airbnb to introduce ourselves. I mentioned our names, that we were traveling cross-country, and that we were passing through their town during our travels. If I had any relevant questions, like specifics about checking in or any other concerns, I would bring it up then and wait for a response before booking to see if it was a dealbreaker to us staying there. Otherwise I would do that just to make conversation with the host. When you’re trying to book something last-minute, messaging the host can help break down that awkward ice and make them feel more inclined to accept the booking, if they aren’t as enthusiastic about renting on shorter notice.
Most Airbnb hosts were very responsive and we had no issues communicating with them. I think opening that line of communication also helps to secure a good review for you once you leave, because again, the awesome part about Airbnb is that you rate them and they rate you, too.
“Why is this a good thing?” You ask.
Airbnb reviews are kind of an underrated source of external reference. Good ratings for a user on Airbnb can be used in other ways, such as establishing credibility as a house-sitter and demonstrating good character for moving into a new place (especially as a nomad).
When we started house-sitting on Trusted Housesitters, we had an option to link our Airbnb profile. Since we were just starting out with no house-sitting reviews, linking our Airbnb profile to our listing made a difference in securing our first sits. Our Airbnb profile says to the homeowner, “Hey, we’re not psychos who will trash your place while we’re here. We’re responsible and well-meaning individuals.” At least that’s the gist of our profile. I don’t know what yours would say, but I imagine that it would be similar to ours provided you use good common sense and courtesy when interacting with your host.
Also, since we were immersing ourselves into that nomadic lifestyle, we knew that if we ever wanted to lease an apartment in the future, we would need to establish some references and rental history. Our Airbnb profile gives us some kind of formal documentation that says where we were and when, and that somebody in a somewhat professional context can attest that we were decent tenants, though only for a short while. It’s certainly better than nothing.
7. Make a note of important information BEFORE you get to your destination.
Preferably, do it as soon as you can, or at least the day before you leave to go to your next Airbnb. What is considered important information? The address, any codes to get in (if applicable), the host’s contact information, and the WiFi network and password. Basically anything you need access to in order to be able to enter and utilize the Airbnb.
Our first Airbnb on our massive country-wide road trip was in that small town in Wisconsin, Glen Haven. Everything was absolutely golden up until we arrived at our destination, when we realized that this little town had absolutely zero cell reception or data (at least for our phones/carriers). That meant I couldn’t access the Airbnb app to get the passcode for the door to get into the house. The house had WiFi, but I couldn’t access the Airbnb app to get the password for that, either. I couldn’t contact the host through the app. On top of that, my cell phone battery percentage was in the single digits and fading fast. Fuck.
Luckily we only sunk into a pit of deep despair for a minute or so before making a game plan to walk around the town to explore our surroundings, and during that time I had a wink of cell service and used it to retrieve the door code and the WiFi password. Crisis averted.
Our situation could have been much worse, and from that point on we made it a solid habit to take a screenshot on our phones of the address of our Airbnb as well as any other relevant information and send them to each other to make sure we both had a copy of it in case anything like that ever happened again. We felt confident in being able to access our phones most of the time, but writing it down on paper would’ve been even more fool-proof preparation. I’d recommend that y’all do the same.
8. Let the host know right away if something is off.
Time is of the essence when you have so little of it. In this case, every minute perceived to be wasted on a vacation feels like an hour, because you only have that small window to relax, unwind, and have some unorthodox fun.
If something is wrong with the Airbnb listing — the bedding hasn’t been changed (happened to us), an essential item is missing, an appliance is broken — let the host know as soon as possible. In most cases the host can easily resolve the issue, but otherwise it makes for an easier refund or change of accommodation if it can’t be fixed. You’d be surprised how many people won’t say anything about it and continue on with their stay, only to complain and grumble about the issue the whole time and leave a negative review for a problem that could have been fixed on the first day. Or worse, the stay becomes more of a nightmare because they choose to wait too long to address it and void the chance of getting a full refund. Anyway, you get what I’m saying. The early bird catches the worm here.
9. Leave a Review
One of the reasons we enjoyed booking Airbnbs was because we ran across many hosts who operated their listings like serious small businesses, and it showed. The décor was top-notch, we felt we were getting great deals on our stays, and it was cool to get to meet and support those people. You could tell that some of the hosts put a good amount of effort into making their Airbnbs comfortable for their guests.
Conversely, like any review system, leaving feedback can warn others not to waste their time and money if a listing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It is good to leave constructive criticism for hosts to address important issues should they arise. We’re the kind of people who struggle to leave negative reviews because we don’t necessarily want to rock the boat, but focusing on honesty seems to help us keep that balance.
It’s also cool to look back every once in a while and reflect upon those trips. You can see what you wrote about your experience and hopefully you recall the good memories you made. I know we do.
Bam! That’s a wrap, folks. Thank you for reading my piece on Airbnbs. I wrote this article because I wanted other people to know about the benefits of booking a rental on Airbnb, as well as how to navigate the app to make the most of those travel experiences. If you feel I’ve missed something or have anything else to add to the conversation, don’t be afraid to leave a comment and let me know. Until next time, take care!
