Travel Addicts/Advice Thread

[superuberbob]

In my experience, it used to be more like flat-sharing early on but lately I’ve seen it be more business-like. Some parts of the world don’t allow for short-term letting of an entire flat. Somebody has to live in it.

It can also vary by location. For example, I’ve never had my own place in Italy (and a few other countries for that matter). But when I set up a visit to Slovakia for mid-April, I couldn’t find a private bedroom in someone’s place for that set of dates in that part of Slovakia.

As a solo traveller, I actually had some of my best travel experiences in a hosting situation rather than having a whole flat to myself. You also get to know a bit more about where you are through the host. In Florence, the homeowners had some family over for dinner and invited me to join them. Got to practice my terrible Italian and some other family members tried their terrible English. When I visited Sweden, I got invited to an island off the coast of Gothenburg along with a few other people for a meal on Easter. My host in Helsinki was a boxing fan and wanted to watch Anthony Joshua vs Wladimir Klitschko. I set up the feed through his TV and watched with some people he knew rather than yelling at a laptop screen.

The worst ones are the ones where a family owns a house and rents out every vacant bedroom individually in it. I always check to see what other properties the host has on AirBnB if they have any just in case this exists. Last thing you want is to basically find yourself in a guesthouse in a different form.

[pvn]

@MrWookie

I’ve been in a spare room in someone’s home, and, like, maybe a primary abode when they were out of it on vacation themselves, but never the primary abode of a homeowner while they moved to a lesser dwelling and without really moving out of their main abode. That’s pretty weird.

I had one in SF that was a junior tech bro’s studio apartment, I think he even mentioned he was at his girlfriend’s place down the street if I needed anything. But most of the time it’s been a dedicated space that is only used for airbnb. I do think they need a filter for this.

[Melkerson]

@CS04

Leaving clothing items, stuff in the fridge and family photos is pretty damn weird.

I can’t believe that anyone finds this annoying.

Especially the family photos. Who cares?

[LFS]

@CS04

It’s pretty common, but usually it’s much more professional. Leaving clothing items, stuff in the fridge and family photos is pretty damn weird. Normally the reviews would reflect that…

Reviews do not mention this AT ALL. Which is kind of why I’m asking - do I mention it in the review? I really don’t want to be the asshole here.

I should also note that while I chose this spot because of location, it was the least expensive place that fit my needs. I’m on a road trip visiting colleges with my kid and am in Chico, CA, a small town in Northern California.

[superuberbob]

No. It’s somebody’s home. You’re not paying for a hotel unless they say you’re paying for one in the description.

Though honestly if you want the hotel experience, you’re probably better off getting one.

[Melkerson]

@LFS

Reviews do not mention this AT ALL. Which is kind of why I’m asking - do I mention it in the review? I really don’t want to be the asshole here.

I guess it depends. Can you describe the inconvenience it caused you? I guess I don’t get it.

If the fridge and closets were so full that they couldn’t be used, that would be noteworthy. I can’t even imagine the family photo problem.

[superuberbob]

I agree. Like if the fridge smelled because the food in it was expired, then definitely mention it.

If the closets were full of dirty clothes that stunk up the place, then yeah that’s something to put in the review. Beyond that, no.

If the family photos were actually after photos of murder victims, then that’s probably grounds for calling the cops but beyond that, no.

[superuberbob]

@Surf

I forget how Airbnb ratings works but probably would be reasonable if possible just to say the facts without judgement (ie. There was food in fridge and closet full of clothes) then future travelers can decide if this is what they are looking for in an airbnb. It sounds like this review would have been appreciated by yourself and seems others weighing in would be neutral to it

Maybe so, but you know what you’re getting if you opt not to restrict your options to not having the entire flat to yourself.

Worst case, ask the host before putting in a reservation. Normally, the descriptions of the top hosts are very thorough and they’re good with answering questions.

[TheNewT50]

I’ve had this exact thing happen before—the host lives in the place and goes to his GF’s whenever there’s a guest.

My (minor) gripe was that the place wasn’t professionally cleaned beforehand, so it kinda had the normal grime from a person’s reasonably clean house, even though it had clean sheets and towels and stuff. Didn’t care about all the personal stuff around.

[Riverman]

The review thing gets strange fast. I have had multiple hosts refuse to book me because I haven’t left any reviews before, which I found super weird.

[Melkerson]

@Surf

I may have misread but my understanding is this was probably listed in the “whole place to self” category hence LFS surprise on the arrangement

It sounds like he did have the whole place to himself. Owner was in a separate unit (sounds like it was even a separate building).

[Melkerson]

@TheNewT50

My (minor) gripe was that the place wasn’t professionally cleaned beforehand

This is a legit complaint.

[Melkerson]

I rarely AIRBNB, so I have a question about how reviews work. I assume host and guest can’t see each other’s reviews until after they are submitted. Is it possible for them to change or add to review after they see the other one.

In other words, is it possible for host to leave nice review of guest, then sees that guest flames them, so host gets pissed off and changes initial review to make guest sound like an asshole who shouldn’t be believed (or deletes initial review).

[Melkerson]

@Surf

Right, but it’s extremely atypical

I’ll take your word for it, but I don’t understand why “extremely atypical” is noteworthy.

For example it would be extremely atypical for a unit to have a lava lamp, but I wouldn’t really think to comment on that either.

Although this may be extremely atypical, it is only really noteworthy if it is causing some sort of problem. Based on the responses so far, I am convinced that it must be. I just don’t really understand what that problem is.

[superuberbob]

@TheNewT50

My (minor) gripe was that the place wasn’t professionally cleaned beforehand

This can be a significant complaint. In the prices, hosts often include a separate cleaning fee and if that’s included, then I expect to enter a professionally cleaned place.

@Riverman

The review thing gets strange fast. I have had multiple hosts refuse to book me because I haven’t left any reviews before, which I found super weird.

Hosts can be overly suspicious about accounts with no reviews written, especially if they’ve been around a while. It’s kind of a throwback to the earlier days of AirBnB where it was expected to leave positive reviews for hosts (and hosts leave them for guests) if they were deserved so they could build their reputation for future trips.

But the days of it being a community are mostly over (which sucks). It’s a business. Now so many people only use AirBnB once or twice in their entire life that it’s kinda ridiculous to hold not reviewing against them.

@Surf

Right, but it’s extremely atypical in my experience for a “whole place” Airbnb to be essentially actively lived in with owners food in fridge/etc and the owner essentially just vacating when you arrive but leaving you their “lived in” residence. This is the sort of thing many people would like to have known in the reviews hence why I think it’s reasonable for LFS to write the review.

This beef must be a cultural thing. Most of my stays have been in a private bedroom with the host living in the flat. But the half dozen instances where I had the full flat, two were in the host’s bed where they would have otherwise stayed if they didn’t have a guest. Had no beef with it because I never saw the person. Place was great each time.

@Melkerson

In other words, is it possible for host to leave nice review of guest, then sees that guest flames them, so host gets pissed off and changes initial review to make guest sound like an asshole who shouldn’t be believed (or deletes initial review).

You can publicly respond to reviews of yourself and your properties. And as far as I know, submitted reviews cannot be changed. You can’t retroactively edit your review in response to a comment on it from the host or delete it after you get owned to make yourself look better.

[Fossilkid93]

@Melkerson

I rarely AIRBNB, so I have a question about how reviews work.

You don’t see the reviews until you either also submit one or the period to submit a review expires. Once they’re up, they can’t be changed, but you do have the option of posting a rebuttal, which appears directly under the review.

I have 75 reviews and all are positive except 1.

I visited Vienna with a platonic female friend and the owner complained in his review for me that he had to wash 2 sets of sheets (b/c we slept in separate rooms) and this was “deceptive” on my part. I had mentioned there would be 2 guests when I selected the place so I had done nothing wrong. He was also a douche b/c when we checked in to the apartment he addressed only me 95% of the time, the one time he addressed my friend was to explain how the washer worked.

I declined to leave a review (I do so only about 20% of the time, usually I can’t be arsed) b/c the place was otherwise fine, but I was pretty pissed about his review and was wishing I could go back and leave a review and blast him for being sexist, but alas, I suppose the policy exists for this reason.

[Fossilkid93]

I guess maybe this is a decent place to leave an AirBNB related story.

I was visiting Lille, France for only 2 days and beforehand I was working Tinder. I didn’t really connect with anyone interesting except a cute French/German blonde woman. Unfortunately she wasn’t able to meet until my last half day. I had a flight scheduled for like 5PM but we decided to meet at noon for a coffee anyway.

We hit it off and went for a quick walk afterwards where we started making out pretty heavily. Unfortunately, it was getting late, so I had to let her know that I needed to head back to my AirBNB to collect my stuff and head to the airport. She suggested that I could spend the week with her and catch a flight the following week. I pretty much snap accepted.

Luckily it worked out great. She was one of the coolest girls I’d met, a left-wing activist, and good in the sack. But there are numerous scenarios where it could’ve turned out to be a miserable time, or worse. I’ve always been pretty impulsive though, so didn’t put any thought into it before accepting.

Anyway, during the week, I pitched the idea of doing an overnight trip to nearby Brussels, and she agreed. We checked in to our AirBNB and wanted to have a quickie before heading out to explore the city. We weren’t even going at it that vigorously, but after only a minute or 2, the bed just collapsed. We were fine, but I was terrified that I’d get blasted in an AirBNB review, and be on the hook for a new bed frame.

So we informed the host, but as it turned out, he was more worried than us. He wanted to make sure that we were ok, was super apologetic, asked what he could do to help, etc. Probably a lot of damage control to make sure I didn’t leave a scathing review (I didn’t). As it turned out, the bed was just a super shitty construction. There were only 2 skinny pieces of wood supporting the whole mattress. So I can’t really give the credit to my thunderous thrusts. We ended up sleeping with the mattress on the floor, which was fine, not really much difference.

[LFS]

@Surf

@superuberbob

Maybe so, but you know what you’re getting if you opt not to restrict your options to not having the entire flat to yourself.

I may have misread but my understanding is this was probably listed in the “whole place to self” category hence LFS surprise on the arrangement

This is correct. We have the whole house. In the light of day the back house appears almost the same size FWIW.

I could hang my stuff in the closet but I would literally be hanging my shirts next to his. Would need to slide his over. Ditto with fridge - I did bring some food w me and did need to move his stuff to fit mine.

I don’t think the host has done anything wrong and I’m not outraged or anything. It’s just not what I expected.

[zikzak]

You can usually tell if a place is lived in from the photos. I study those like I’m investigating a murder. And if the place doesn’t match the photos there will almost always be a recent review pointing that out.

[Melkerson]

@zikzak

I study those like I’m investigating a murder.

I guess I must be the chillest AIRBNB renter there is. I barely look at them.