Lessons Learned from 72 Airbnb stays

NOTE: As of February 22, 2025 when Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb and current board member of Airbnb joined the DOGE effort in support of fascist and authoritarian president Donald J. Trump, I no longer use or endorse Airbnb. Henceforth, I will use VRBO for short term rentals.

In our travels in the U.S. and abroad, John and I have stayed in 72 Airbnb properties in 15 states and 20 countries. We enjoy Airbnb stays because we value having a place with a kitchen where we can prepare simple meals on the road, a little more room to spread out than we find in hotels, and maybe even a clothes washer. Our Airbnb stays have been almost exclusively good experiences and we have learned a lot along the way.

Our first Airbnb stay

Our first Airbnb stay was in Austin, Texas in October 2016. At the time, I thought that Airbnb stays were a night or two spent in a spare bedroom in someone’s home, which was, after all, the way Airbnb originated. Neither of us was 100% comfortable with the idea of staying in the home of a stranger, but, we figured, it was only for one night and, who knows, we might make a great friend who would tell us about all of the cool places locals go in Austin.

We booked a stay at the home of Ann (not her real name), a thirty-something single woman who lives in an Austin suburb. Her house was a tidy ranch and our bedroom seemed clean and comfortable. We soon discovered, though, that Ann had three cats, not welcome news since John is allergic to cats. Nothing in her description noted these fur babies. The other surprise was that the bathroom we were to use was not ensuite, so we had to walk through Ann’s living room to get to the bathroom. This was not obvious from the pictures online, nor was it noted in the property description.

That evening before Ann arrived home, we sat on her patio to enjoy a glass of wine from a bottle we had brought with us. Right next to the patio chairs was a large bucket filled with sand and a gazillion cigarette butts. Yuck! We went back inside and, shortly thereafter, Ann arrived. She invited us into the living room to chat and told us she is from Chicago and had moved to Austin to escape the harsh winters up north. After a short visit, John excused himself to get ready for bed and it was then that Ann began to open up. Her job was not going well and she had just been through a bad breakup – she was going through a very tough time and had no problem sharing all of this with her somewhat captive audience. My sunny thoughts of getting to know a fun local evaporated and I eventually escaped to go to bed. The next morning was Saturday. John and I got up, packed, and left the house at around 9:30; Ann was not up and about to see us off.

Following that uncomfortable experience we have still made mistakes, to be sure, but over time we’ve become more Airbnb savvy. Here are some of the lessons we’ve learned:

Always book the entire place: The Airbnb platform has a filter feature which allows a user to easily choose a room, an entire place, or either. Never again do we want to share someone else’s space. We do sometimes book a place that is a garage apartment or mother-in-law suite, but we always book a private space with a separate entrance.

Learn to interpret Airbnb description words: We booked a place in Atlanta described as a “Cozy Studio.’ Let me tell you about ‘cozy’: John and I are average-sized people and we had to duck to walk into this little hobbit house and could not sit on the toilet without our knees bumping up against the wall. Similarly, ‘vibrant neighborhood’ can mean the property is situated above a bar and ‘unique’ will surely mean weird.

Always check the amenities and read the property description carefully: If you don’t, you might end up somewhere without heating, air conditioning, hot water, wi-fi, or even necessary features such as a bed, windows, or a private toilet. This happened to us in Sydney. We booked a beautiful house, very close to the harbor bridge, in a historic and sought-after part of town and at an affordable price. Sounds too good to be true, right? We realized after arriving that the place had no air conditioning. To make matters worse, a heat wave came through while we were there sending temps soaring above 100 degrees. We ended up leaving on our last night to find a hotel room with AC.

Notify the host if anything about the property is unclear:  In our first rental, Ann should have mentioned that she has cats, but people aren’t always completely forthcoming on these things. So, if you don’t want to climb three flights of stairs – or any stairs – let the host know and ask if there are stairs. There may be other important features for you, such as walkability of the area or traffic noise. Most hosts will be pretty forthcoming if you ask.

Never communicate with the host off-platform, unless you have stayed with that host before and know and trust her: This is a HUGE red flag for a scam. It’s a mistake that I haven’t made, but I know someone who did. He booked a place in New York to take his son and daughter-in-law for a weekend in the city. Right after booking, the host asked if it would be ok to communicate via private email for reasons of convenience, and this guest agreed to do so. When my friend arrived in New York, he found that the place he believed he had rented was actually not an Airbnb rental. Protect yourself and never communicate off-platform.

If you find a place you like and want to return to it or extend your stay, it’s fine to ask the host if you can go off-platform: This implies a host you know well enough to trust him. There have been a few times we have asked hosts to rent to us off-platform as an extension of a stay or as return guests and they have been happy to oblige. This is ‘legal’ in Airbnb world and can save money for the guest and the host. In Edinburgh, Scotland, we asked if we could extend our stay and our host trusted us enough to ask us to just leave the extra night’s payment, minus Airbnb fees, in the apartment in cash when we left.

Don’t necessarily believe Airbnb reviews: Airbnb reviews are subject to the Lake Woebegone effect wherein “all the children are above average.” Hosts will actively campaign and pressure guests to provide a perfect, five-star rating. For guests who are hard graders, there is a risk that the host will read a prospective guest’s reviews of other properties and blackball those they deem too negative. You will be given an opportunity to privately log any complaints or shortcomings of your stay with the host after your stay, which is what I do, and then write a review that focuses on the positive without making anything up.

Read the cancellation policy carefully: Unlike hotels, Airbnb cancellation policies vary a lot from property to property, and sometimes vary by length of stay (see below). But, don’t be surprised if you can cancel without penalty payable to the host but you are still required to pay the Airbnb service fee.

If you book a stay of a month or longer, the normal cancellation policy does not apply. If you book a place for 30 days or more and cancel, even if it’s the day after you booked, all you get back is a refund for any days over the first 30 days of your stay and the cleaning fee. So, if your stay IS for 30 days, you only get back the cleaning fee. It turns out that many hosts aren’t aware of this policy and, by the way, there will be nothing in the listing to tell you this until you lock in the dates.

If the listing fabricates features that you find a missing in the property, Airbnb Customer Service can help: I believe in reporting major discrepancies as a good citizen of the Airbnb community, so was surprised to find that this can result in lowered fees or a free night. The listing for a place we stayed in Chiang Mai, Thailand claimed that the condo had three bathrooms when it only had two and also claimed that the complex has a hot tub, which it does not. The host’s excuse? He doesn’t live in Thailand, he lives in China, so how is he supposed to know what the apartment does or does not have? Airbnb Customer Service made him provide a refund for one night of our stay.

Be very careful using the ‘change date’ function on the platform: Here is my story – a little long, but it may save you from making an expensive mistake: I booked a place in Roanoke, Virginia with Randall, who runs a corporate Airbnb business. When we found that our dates had to be adjusted a couple of weeks after we had booked, I used the date change feature on the platform, which allows a guest to request new dates, which the host must then approve. Randall came back and indicated that he would accept the change, but that the nightly price would QUADRUPLE because the new dates were on the weekend of the Roanoke Ironman Triathlon. I checked our calendar and selected a different set of potential dates and went to the date change page to enter them to replace the dates of the triathlon. And then, BAM! The Airbnb platform has a glitch that made it automatically accept my initial change request (you know, the one that quadrupled my original booking fee?) because the host had accepted it. Thus, I inadvertently accepted a rate four times higher than my initial booking, which I couldn’t cancel, because the cancellation fee was 50% of the total. I was stuck in a bad place. My advice is this – be very careful using the date change function.  If you need to make a date change, first check to be sure that your new dates are available, then message the host and make sure the rates are acceptable and that you and he agree on the terms of the date change. Only after doing so should you request the change. So, how did my sticky situation turn out? I spent a week continuing to request my new dates from Randall, which he ignored. I finally I wrote him an email accusing him of predatory behavior and threatening legal action, at which point he approved my dates and we had a nice stay at his property.

Don’t expect your Airbnb hosts to become your new best friends: We’ve seen pictures of travel bloggers with their hosts, going to farmer’s markets together, going for drinks at rooftop bars, and in general having a great time together. We’ve yet to have anything like this happen and we don’t expect it to, nor do we really want this. What most of us want are hosts who are welcoming, but also give us privacy, and a place that feels a little homey. Unfortunately, many Airbnb properties are now owned by a single entity or owner who owns and manages lots of Airbnb properties. These corporate-owned property hosts sometimes don’t live in the same city, state, or country as the property. They assign a co-host who will be your only contact as a guest and who will be too busy managing multiple rental units to take you shopping and sightseeing. Lately, more and more cities are taking steps to stop the practice of corporate owned rentals, as having an abundance of properties in the short-term rental business has a negative effect on neighborhoods and housing affordability – but these communities are the exception.

Our best Airbnb experiences have been all about the people who are hosting: In some cases, we never actually meet the host, because we are staying in their place while they are elsewhere. This was true for a place we stayed in Cambridge, England for three weeks, owned and hosted by Gunther, an academic who researches Bonobo monkeys and is a musician on the side. His communications and guidance were excellent because he lives in the apartment. It also just felt more homelike and less sterile than corporate rentals. In other cases, we have occupied a garage apartment or mother-in-law suite and a welcoming and helpful host lives onsite.

One last word in terms of things to watch out for: there have been recent news stories about the use of security cameras in indoor areas of Airbnb properties, excluding bedrooms and bathrooms. Recently, Airbnb changed their policy to disallow cameras in any indoor spaces. We have never encountered cameras in the units we have rented at all.

Have I convinced you never to rent on Airbnb? I hope not, because the issues I’ve described are rare. Most stays go completely without a hitch, and we have had some lovely and unforgettable experiences in really cool properties in places where you won’t find a traditional hotel. Some of our most memorable Airbnb stays are described below.

Some of our most memorable Airbnb stays:

• Tiny Home, Floyd, VA: As the name implies, this is a tiny house of only 168 square feet. Unbelievably, a family of four lived in the house for over four years. They now live in a larger home on the same property. These are generous hosts who shared eggs from their chickens and vegetables from their garden with us – and their story is fascinating. The Tiny Home has been named as the #1 Airbnb rental in Virginia. https://youandmeodyssey.com/2021/06/24/tiny-house-living-in-floyd-virginia/

• Retreat in the Sky, Bryson City, NC: We booked this beautiful cabin, perfectly situated on the top of a mountain just outside of Bryson City, for the month of August 2020 during the height of the pandemic. Our host, Sandy, was delightful and charming and we were in touch with her over the course of our stay, as she encouraged us to make ourselves at home – and water her plants! We loved the house and the access to Great Smoky Mountain National Park.   https://youandmeodyssey.com/2020/08/15/a-welcome-mid-pandemic-retreat-in-the-mountains-of-north-carolina/

• Entire Rental Unit in Cornwall, United Kingdom: The listing title is a bit uninspired but, WOW! Look at the photo, below! This is the only time I’ve ever decided on an Airbnb property based on a picture of an outside photo. The location is Cadgwith Cove on the Lizard Peninsula of Cornwall. It is one of the few small fishing villages left in Cornwall and the rental property is right next door to the town pub, which ended up being a good thing. This was truly a great property in a beautiful setting https://youandmeodyssey.com/2019/07/22/doc-martin-country-a-week-in-cornwall/

• Great Ocean Road, Cape Otway, Australia: This was definitely one of our most remote stays. We spent three nights here during a tour of Australia’s magnificent Great Ocean Road. The apartment is situated above the home of our gracious host, Geoffrey, and while there, we regularly saw kangaroos, wallabies and kookaburras! The only source of groceries within many miles was the small shop of a campground right next door, so when our supplies ran out, we were happy to buy pasta with store bought sauce for dinner, just to have the chance to be in this fascinating place. https://youandmeodyssey.com/2020/01/27/australias-great-ocean-road/

• Romantic, central situated 75m2 flat, Salzburg, Austria: The name of this property misses its most interesting point: It is situated on the first floor of a house that was built in the 15th century and the back walls of the apartment are the exposed rock of the mountain it is carved into. It is also on a historic street in Salzburg, none of which I realized when I booked it. Bonus points for being, literally, a one-minute walk from one of the most charming restaurants I’ve ever known.   https://youandmeodyssey.com/2019/08/29/the-hills-are-alive/

• 959 Streamline 39 min to Zion NP Heated Adventure, Virgin, Utah: This Airbnb is a silver bullet camper, similar to Airstream, but is a vintage, 1959 Streamline that is permanently situated within an RV Resort close to Zion National Park.  There were a few inconveniences, such as the stove not working and an iffy shower, and I prefer comfort over kitsch any day. Nevertheless, we had a nice stay.

•  Beautiful Apartment in Baton Rouge: This one is a purely sentimental choice. We landed in this adorable little carriage house after arriving back in Baton Rouge following a year of travelling around the world. Since we had sold almost all of our belongings, we had expected to come back to the U.S., buy a campervan, and embark on travels in the U.S. and Canada, however, our homecoming was in March of 2020, as the world closed down due to Covid. We stayed in this apartment for ten weeks, met friends that we still bike with regularly, and eventually bought a house right around the corner from this Airbnb so I still walk past it most days. https://youandmeodyssey.com/2020/05/26/the-day-everything-changed/