Airbnb, air b and b, air b and b, rb & b and rb and b. The name alone is already unclear to many… What is Airbnb anyway? If you've never slept in an Airbnb, we can very well imagine you wondering! Originally the Airbnb website a place where you can rent a house, apartment or room from a private individual. The idea is that it is mainly rented out by 'ordinary' people, so that you really rent a house or room from someone where someone normally lives, or that you rent a room while the landlord is just at home.
Airbnbs are particularly suitable for nice city trips but we are also increasingly seeing Airbnb being booked for long-term stays during long-haul trips or even at world travel.
Nowadays you see that more and more professional landlords offer their Bed & Breakfast, hotel rooms or holiday homes on Airbnb. So you can really rent a house or room from a local, a beautiful private holiday home on the water, but also rent a 'normal' hotel room.
What does Airbnb mean?
Airbnb was once invented by Brian Chesky en Joe Gebbia in 2007, they started the company in their shared apartment in San Francisco and originally called it “Airbed and Breakfast”. Another variation on the widely used “Bed and Breakfast”. They did not rent beds, but inflatable beds. So the word Airbnb partly comes from that original name. Actually, it is a combination of the word "Airbed" or airbed and the word "Breakfast" or breakfast. So the Airbnb meaning is actually “air mattress” combined with the word “breakfast”. Although you can now book much more than just an inflatable bed, now there are also complete villas or fantastic tree houses on the site! Airbnb was founded in 2008 and now it has more than 10 million unique places and you can rent a house or apartment in more than 112.000 cities and in more than 200 countries.
Different types of Airbnb's
Airbnb has grown tremendously over the years. Not only in the regular offer, but also because there are now different classes. When looking for a house or apartment you now have several options, for example:
Airbnb More
Accommodations verified for furnishing and quality
Airbnb Luxury
Luxury accommodations carefully selected by the in-house editors for luxurious and personalized services.
Based on these choices, you are of course also in a different budget class. Don't let that surprise you. Airbnb can be more expensive than a hotel vacation.
In addition, you can be very selective in the properties of the homes. With the housing types you can indicate options such as guest suite, wooden house, tree house, loft, resort, chalet and boutique hotel.
How does Airbnb work?
- You create an account via this link.
- Register you do this via your Facebook account or via your e-mail address.
- Personal information fill in your profile page.
- Sign up is completely free and you won't be charged until you actually book something.
Try to be complete about yourself with the personal details. Airbnb is a 'two way street† You want to know as much as possible about the landlord, but this also applies the other way around. All very logically natural and this creates a kind of natural balance where the goodness of people is shown in a good light. Also keep this in mind when you give reviews.
What Airbnb still asks is a copy of your identification card† This way, the host and Airbnb will receive confirmation of your identity. When something goes wrong, the tenant or landlord can easily be traced and held responsible.
How do you book an Airbnb?
- Type in the location to where you want to go, the dates and the number of guests.
- Use the filter function to filter the properties that you find important:
- Entire house, private room (you share the house with others) or hotel room.
- How many rooms and beds you want.
- What amenities you want (a pool? a bath in the bathroom? etc.).
- Accessibility (For example, if you have a wheelchair or have difficulty walking).
- Read the reviews, view the photos and check the location of your location.
- Contact the landlord and agree on time/date/conditions.
- Have you had positive contact? Then book!
What payment methods are supported on Airbnb?
Payment for the rooms can only be made in advance by credit card. You can see exactly how the price is built up and after that no additional costs will be added. Airbnb holds this amount for 24 hours after the guests arrive at their destination. This encourages the landlord to ensure that the tenant finds the room as he promised. On the Airbnb website you will find exactly what the conditions are around payment, rates and refunds. If you are dissatisfied, you can simply contact Airbnb, this does not necessarily have to go through the landlord.
How do I know if the landlord can be trusted?
To be able to rent and host on Airbnb, you need to create an account. That is of course normal on a website, but with Airbnb you really have to upload a lot of information for that. If someone has barely entered any data, you can conclude that it may be a little less to be trusted. Conversely, if you as a landlord do not trust the profile of the potential tenant, you can refuse it based on that. In addition, it is easy to get personal contact with the other person and you can see how often they have already rented out through Airbnb.
Airbnb also strongly encourages the posting of reviews and that happens frequently. Tenants post pieces about the landlord and the room and landlords can also post reviews about you as a tenant. Users cannot just delete these (if they are bad). The best and recognized hosts are awarded “Superhost” status by Airbnb. So if you book with one of them, you are almost certain that you are in the right place. If you have done good background research and it is still disappointing? Then you can always contact Airbnb, which has a well-functioning customer service.
A bad experience, now what?
Fortunately, we have never experienced anything strange or bad, but it is of course possible that a house where you want to sleep or have slept was not as stated in the advertisement. Or, for example, that the landlord was not nice or nice at all. In such a case you can contact Airbnb, they have a special customer service for this. The contact form for this can be found on their feedback page.
