Instructions:
- Watch video.
- Then read text below it.
- Listen and read at the same time. Repeat.
- Watch video again without text
Okay, now that you know what AirBNB is and how it works which you totally do, because you just watched my AirBNB 101 video, then let’s talk about how to find the perfect AirBNB and how to book it. And make sure you watch the end of the video, because I have a discount for you for your first booking.
Finding yourself an AirBNB is not that much different than finding yourself a hotel to stay in, but there are a few things to know. You start off by going to the Airbnb homepage and to your destination, your travel dates and how many people you’re traveling with. You’ll then get directed to a listings page, which can be a little bit overwhelming, so let’s go through this together.
First you’ll want to indicate what type of property you’re trying to look for. Do you want to rent just a bed, which is usually the cheapest option? Or do you want a private room in someone’s home, or the entire home or apartment to yourself?
Then adjust the price. What’s the most that you’re willing to pay for your place per night? If you still have lots of options to go through once you refined those, then let’s go through the filters to narrow it down more. Just go through and check or uncheck everything as you need. Think about things that you’d like to have like a hair dryer, wifi, an outdoor space, heating, a pet-friendly place, things like that. Also, what language do they need to speak to be able to communicate with you? And if you’re looking at a big city, you can refine by neighborhood. If you have an idea of where you want to stay, then you can only be shown places in that neighborhood. Or you can use the map to the right of the screen if you just know you want to be by water, or you want to be by a certain area.
Okay, once you’ve narrowed it down to like to, at the most, 25 listings, let’s actually go through them and see what looks good. So, some key things to look at when you’re looking at actual listings: of course, you have to start with the photos. Always remember that photos can be photoshopped (changed with the photoshop software), so take everything with a grain of salt. Also, sometimes people just take really bad photos, and it actually makes the place not look as great as it could.
Location – The importance of the location is going to be completely dependent on you, but if it’s quite important to you, then it’s going to be one of the first things you want to look at in the listing. If you’re not familiar with the neighborhood that a certain listing is in, AirBNB usually has a little neighborhood guide you can look at.
The Reviews – I find the reviews on AirBNB to be really good. People who use AirBNB and leave reviews usually only leave bad ones if it is really warranted. So, I think you should pay really close attention to the most recent ones from, like, the past six months or so. What you’ll want to look for is things that you can’t see in photos or in the listing, like how noisy is the apartment, what’s the location like, is it actually as close to the transportation links as advertised, how responsive the host was if something’s gone wrong, and what the check-in and check-out process was like.
Also, look at the star ratings. You can see what people have rated it for cleanliness, friendliness, things like that.
And finally, the FINE PRINT – If you find a listing that looks really good so far, then you’re going to want to make sure you read through all the fine print (conditions of rental) to make sure, because all the info is really important. For example, what are the check-in and check-out times, and do they coincide with your travel schedule? Are you going to have to pay a deposit when you arrive? Is there a curfew for the place? Are there going to be pets in the home that maybe you’re not going to be quite fond of? And, of course, the most important one is the cancellation policy.
Okay, so as you’re going through these listings, and you find ones that you think could be a good fit, add them to your wish list. What’s cool about AirBNB’s wish list is it’s not just a list of the properties you’ve seen, but you can actually enter your travel dates into the wish list, so if you come back to the list a week later, you’ll only see the properties that are still available.
If you find a property that doesn’t have any reviews yet, it’s up to you whether you think you want to take the risk of being the first person to stay there. If it seems like the property could be a really good fit, why not reach out to the host and ask if there is any leeway in the price. They’ll probably be willing to give you a little bit of a discount, because they’re going to want to start to rack up those reviews. And the worst that could happen is they’ll say no.
Once you’ve gone through all these properties, you have your wish list and you have about three properties that you think would be perfect, you’re going to want to send the host any additional questions that you have that haven’t been answered through the listing. So, think about all aspects of your trip. For example, how much is it going to cost for you to park your car nearby? What happens if your plane is delayed, and you miss the check-in time?
Once you have all your questions answered, for all the properties, choose one that you like the best, and click the “Request to Book” button. Make sure you only do this for one property, because even though it’s only a request to book, the host will have 24 hours to approve or deny you. But once you’re approved your credit card will be charged, and that’s it, you’re booked. So, request to book one, see if you got approved, and if not then move on to the next one.
In order to make sure you get approved as much as possible, make sure you have your AirBNB profile filled out with your photo, information about you, where you’re from, what you do. It helps a host to decide whether you’re going to be a good fit to stay in their home.
Awesome! So, hopefully you’ve booked your first AirBNB. If you haven’t already, make sure you click the link down in the description box, because that will give you $31 off of your first AirBNB booking, and you can see what you think. Let me know how it goes. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I do.
For more travel tips like this every Thursday, make sure you subscribe to my channel, and I will see you next week.
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