Living in Airbnbs full time isn’t easy (2021)

The problem with the Airbnb review system is that very few people are willing to leave a candid review because (1) it seems like bad manners when renting from an individual (as opposed to a large corporation like Hilton), (2) future Airbnb hosts can see your reviews and they might decide that you're a troublemaker and not want to rent to you, (3) the host might leave a response to your review that makes you look petty, or demanding, or exaggerating, or just silly.

So what you get is a hundred 5-star reviews where "everything was lovely" and one 5-star review that sheepishly says that "everything was lovely though it was a little noisy at night but I brought my earplugs so it was no problem after all".

But as an upside, I think it's much harder to game or manipulate Airbnb reviews than Amazon reviews. It's just that hardly anyone will list all the negatives; every property has some negatives even if you loved your stay. Many negatives won't even matter to other renters: some might care about low ceilings, cluttered cabinets, low water pressure, or too few electrical outlets. Others couldn't care less. But at least you could make selections based on things that would matter to you.

I don't know what solution to propose. Maybe if Airbnb had unannounced professional reviewers stay a night at every property and do very comprehensive critiques? (I know, this would be costly.)

I've had maybe half a dozen friends do the part time AirBNB host thing and I've helped a few of them in managing their business.

You have a lot of leverage when booking month long stays, especially in off or shoulder seasons in highly seasonal towns. It's more work but there's a lot you can do to mitigate risk by doing appropriate due diligence.

I'd recommend at least hopping on a video call with the hosts and ask them basic things like how far away they live from the unit, who you should contact if there are issues, etc. It's pretty easy to tell from a 10m phone call who has a hospitality mindset or not. It's also possible to ask them for a video walkthrough of the apartment as it currently exists where you can inspect how close it is to the listed photos.

Especially for new hosts who desperately need credible reviews to increase their rankings, there's a lot they are willing to do for a reasonable guest, including substantial discounts on the list price. They're also desperate for feedback so tend to be fairly responsive to requests for missing things in the kitchen or upgrades to certain appliances as it's a fairly small investment that will payback over a long period of time.

Overall, people have forgotten how to bargain and negotiate as the platforms ostensibly provide a neutral layer that obviates all that but it's a very leaky abstraction and there's still just humans on both sides of the transaction.

We did this for a year or so just before Covid, through Europe with 3 kids, driving around and towing a trailer between locations. We stayed 2-6 weeks at a place, generally a house outside major metro areas. (for parking and price purposes)

My wife got really good at doing geoguessr to find out the exact location prior to booking. Between that and the review filtering, we never really had a bad stay. Though the one place in Spain halfway down a narrow 1 lane drive with a 12% grade, that one was tricky.

* I think we had one place with decent knives.

* Most places had enough pots and pans for basic cooking, never matched. Though, Matching isn't really an issue for me. The one place that advertised a gourmet kitchen was one of the least usable I've ever dealt with.

* Most places had a working corkscrew.

* One place had a still. (Small, tabletop distilling apparatus). That's the most unique. It was also wood heated, and we were there over Christmas/New Year's.

Since we had the trailer, we had boxes of our stuff -- the kitchen box, the electronics box, the linen box.

I've been living in Airbnbs in Latin America and Europe while working remotely. One of the major challenges is making sure the Airbnb has good wifi.

A lot of hosts won't know what mbps means or will say something like "I'm sure the wifi is good. We did a video call a couple of months ago with Aunt Sally in London ..." It's easy to eliminate these options, but you have to message them, etc.

The worst is when the host is living in another unit on another floor or next to you. They'll do a speedtest for their place and the speed will look great, but in reality, the Airbnb will have much worse internet (in one case it was about 100x difference than advertised). Sometimes, they won't even buy a separate router for the Airbnb and claim the speed in their apartment as the speed for the Airbnb.

I lived this lifestyle for about two years, and the biggest problem I ran into was that Airbnb has terrible, terrible customer service. If the property owner/manager fucks you over (I had many who demanded I sign additional agreements I had never seen or reviewed after paying and arriving at night to sleep), Airbnb generally won't do anything about it.

That and dirty, dusty, allergen-filled rentals. I never thought of myself as an especially clean or fussy person, but after those years I came to realize I am in the top 90-95% of people for cleanliness.

I am doing this currently and have been doing this for the past 2 years. It looks like the author is mostly in Europe/North America (judging from the youtube videos), whereas I'm mostly in Africa and parts of Asia.

> When you go with an Airbnb, you’re typically renting from another individual, not a professional business.

I try my absolute best to stay with individuals! They seem to care a lot more than agencies. I try to stay in places where the owner lives nearby, maybe they built another house on their land or split their apartment in 2 etc.

When I was traveling along the garden route in South Africa, the hosts would invite me over for a braai (BBQ) or have a beer together. When it's a real host/guest "relationship" people care more about their properties and the guest experience. When people outsource their management to an agency, it just becomes another investment and people are completely detached from it and the people that stay there.

On the topic of knives, I travel with my own. That's unavoidable in my opinion. I also travel with an electric grill (george foreman ripoff) because I _hate_ cooking meat on electric hobs (that aren't induction based).

> Of course, we’ve definitely learned a lot from our mistakes over the past couple years. As soon as we started traveling full time, we realized that our budget of $1,200 USD a month was way too low.

That's my upper budget, I try to stay closer to 1,000 USD.

Protip from my side if you're crashing Airbnbs full-time: bring a knife sharpener. I've yet to see the Airbnb that actually had a usable set of knives. Typically all dishes are whatever cheapest you can get at IKEA.

I’m currently living this lifestyle for the past 5 years and I can say I’m exhausted from it.

It’s fun and rewarding but it can also be very annoying and atrocious quick. Airbnb support was always good to me at getting refunds but nothing else.

I’ve had all levels of hosts and such. You really need To be ready to move with the punches and book farther ahead to get the best deals. Even a 2 week out reservation helps tons from filtering the last minute bad places that no one else wants.

Photography on Airbnb is everything. I’ve seen horrid pictures and the place was amazing and then it worked for me because of poor forecast I could book with the host cheaply, direct with no worry about guests booking.

I’ve also been fooled with amazing photos and “fantastic” reviews but the place was absolutely meh. The reviews on Airbnb are pretty worthless, people protect their rating at all cost and will not write bad things. I actually get better insight from new guests writing their first reviews vs “experienced” ones and fearfully I’ve just write reviews good and above - if I had a bad experience I won’t document it, the chilling effect is to strong and future hosts can see what reviews you leave.

I also use it as a host so that works a lot too - I’ve had many host say they had competing reservation requests and chose me because of more reviews and also being a “host.”

It is conflicting. But to reiterate it is exhausting - you do live out of a suitcase or two and that can be freeing or exhausting

AirBnb kitchens are the worst. The only real benefit to an abnb over a hotel is having a kitchen, but they are mostly useless. I've never been in one with decent knives. Typically they have cheap non-stick pots and pans that are badly scratched leaving you the option of eating PFAS or ordering in. One time I had to run around town looking for a can opener so I could feed a very hungry dog. Other times I've had to open cans with a knife -- which I guess explains why the knives are so bad.

Don't get me started about internet quality (poor to variable at best). Or how difficult it is to find a decent work area (hosts seem to put beds EVERYWHERE. I presume they think that upping the number of people who can sleep there justifies higher rents? A desk and chair would go a long way).

And every review is 5 stars, so completely useless. Unless you have the time to read every word carefully looking for a hint of something not working, there is no working reputation system at all.

This writer has an impossible combination of very high expectations and a pathetically low budget.

Upper middle class first world problems huh?

It's probably a lot easier than a lot of other living situations.

I've lived in Airbnbs on and off for the past few years and am currently 6 months in a row. Quality is really a roll of the dice.

I use a travel router which solves most internet problems that are fixable.

The biggest issue for me is that it's so much work due to a a lot of small things. You have to constantly learn where the light switches are, how to master the shower, etc... I rarely even bother hooking my chrome cast to the TV anymore. These seem small but they steal your time and cause mild frustration. It's worse because you know it's coming again. I'm hoping to get a real apartment soon.

I used AirBnB a few years ago, but eventually I stopped since the customer service was absolutely trash and I never felt as comfortable or well-accommodated as in actual hotels/hostels. People do all sorts of shit in their own homes and there are no standards of cleanliness. And vica-versa, maybe you and your friends destroy a hotel room after a night of drinking and debauchery--well, there are literally hundreds of other rooms in the building, and each room is designed to be as replaceable as parts in a factory line. AirBnB tries to mimic the "rustic" effect of what it used to be like back before industrial capitalism--you'd stay in a small guesthouse in someone's home, there was a personal touch, you'd be introduced to members of the local community. But no! All AirBnB gets you is an even deeper sense of alienation than staying at some 5-star hotel a five minute walk from a slum (something I've done myself, both in the "slum" and the hotel). Who were these people I was staying next to...was I allowed to talk to them? What was this neighborhood devoid of other tourists, what was I supposed to do here, what did it offer me other than a sense that I was in a place where I didn't belong and would never belong.

The beds are all terrible. Airbnb needs a bed system.

Everything else is just building a system around your needs.

Airbnb should tie up with an agency that verifies cleanliness and accuracy of listing. And split the charges to both guests and hosts.

Stayed in a really nice place many years ago. Went off the airbnb platform...harder to do now...bargained the rate and paid cash for a few months.

Never saw the owner except near the end when he was showing the place to prospective new tenants.

Prefer an anonymous hotel room with nice front desk people and a hotel manager who is ok with adjusting to a lower rate.

Honestly. I dont want to see the owner. They're amateurs.

At most hotels if something goes bad i can easily change rooms...usually an upgrade...