Air BNB - thoughts and advice, please

We were Superhosts and had a few regulars.

I’m a regular user of Airbnbs. I’ve booked whole houses for family events. Small cottages for seaside stays and single rooms if travelling alone. It works well in the years I’ve used it never once had any issues. I’ve always asked the host lots of questions ie nearest town, beach etc parking etc but to be honest most of the hosts give good description anyway.

We have a small cottage we let via an agency for holidays. They advertise with loads of other companies including AirBnB. We have just been awarded Customers Choice Award 2023 for consistently getting reviews of 9.5 and above for the last year. Only 20% of properties receive these awards so we are very pleased.

We have done lots of Air BNB and the majority have been great. Most of the time it is an empty flat or house that someone lets out but we have stayed at a couple of laces where we have had a room in an occupied house. These were fine as well so I would say go for it.

We've been a few times in this country and abroad and always found them excellent. We usually go for self contained apartments, but once we had a room in someone's house and the hosts wanted to chat to us all the time, have tea with them and have a drink with them etc. Whilst they were lovely people they were strangers and I didn't want that level of intimacy. Never again!

Grannyrebel7 - that reminds me of an episode of ‘Meet the wife’ with Thora Hird and Freddy Frinton! (Anyone remember it?)

She puts the house up for sale so she can get visitors to show round and talk to, but has no intention of selling so gets Fred to grow fungi on the wall of the cupboard under the stairs, and makes sure they see it!

Back to the topic though.

I am very very grateful for this advice. It seems the view is it’s fine, do the research and ask questions...

The pressure on rental flats in many towns is massive. Young people and families, key workers, etc, can't afford to rent but worse than ever, can't find anywhere to rent. Why? Because landlords have decided to rent for much much higher returns on RbnB- and do not follow the rules, do not respect neighbours, and do not pay proper tax either, which represents huge unfair competition on Hôtels and other holiday rentals.

As Aveline has said, many Councils are looking into tightening regulations, registration and get those to pay proper taxes.

So on the one hand- there is suitability for travellers, and on the other ... well the other side of the coin.

We have found the offer is not as good as it once was (and add-on fees a lot) - but have had mostly quite good bookings.
We only stay in "whole property " let's but do be choosy as there are scams about.

My daughter uses airbnb for lots of trips all over the place and stays in people's homes in the "spare" room.
She has met some lovely folks that way.

*whole property lets - not let's
🙄

Yes, Grannyrebel, I had a similar experience with a lady who kindly invited us to eat and have a drink with them. She was lovely but it wasn’t what I was looking for. It put me off going back although I gave her a good review.

We’ve used several, sometimes an en-suite room, sometimes a separate annex with cooking facilities. Just like you would book a cottage or B&B, there is usually a big choice from a Shepherds Hut or Camp Site up to a house for 10 to sleep.