Airbnb

Decided to use this website for the first time and before confirming the booking I decided to deactivate my account.

The level of identity validation they require is ridiculous ~ photo of driving licence or passport, photo of yourself...they even suggest linking to your Facebook account to grab your profile photo. I'm not doing any of that just to book an overnight stay.

So I googled the establishment in question, called them direct and discovered that Airbnb was also charging me a 15% booking fee. It's a joke, a bad one.

Does anyone here use this site?

@divegeester said
Decided to use this website for the first time and before confirming the booking I decided to deactivate my account.

The level of identity validation they require is ridiculous ~ photo of driving licence or passport, photo of yourself...they even suggest linking to your Facebook account to grab your profile photo. I'm not doing any of that just to book an overnight s ...[text shortened]... b was also charging me a 15% booking fee. It's a joke, a bad one.

Does anyone here use this site?

I have used AirbnB in the past and have had a variety of outcomes, as for the actual accommodations, never outright negative ones, but I did have to keep my sense of humor when I discovered that one place was a heated shed with a piano and I had to walk across the garden to the main house in order to use the bathroom.

My upcoming accommodation in Weimar, Germany was listed with both AirbnB and Booking.com. I was impressed with the ease of communication and security with Booking.com...however, I am not very adept with privacy and internet sites.

My son and his girlfriend rented a small studio apartment for a fortnight when they first moved to Canada. Interesting place but no cooking facilities with a loft bed in which there wasn’t enough room to sit up! Another family I know have one in an extension at the back of their house which is a thirty minute walk from the sea. It’s a studio apartment that sleeps 3 with a shower room and it’s booked regularly for a fee of £55 per night. An Australian rents it for a month every year when he revisits his family.

drewnogal and hakima, how do both of you feel about the level of personal information Airbnb requires in order to be able to set up a stayer/guest account?

@divegeester said
drewnogal and hakima, how do both of you feel about the level of personal information Airbnb requires in order to be able to set up a stayer/guest account?

I’m thinking that this has come about to reassure both parties that neither has a history of causing damage or disturbance at a property? I’ve become a house/petsitter and was offered a higher reference status IF I wanted by sending a copy of my licence or passport which I did. I’m not aware whether the house/pet owners have to do the same thing though it would make sense to me if there was a history of incidents occurring in which sitters were abused in some way. As yet I have not heard of any. The pet/ house sitting is done in exchange for the use of the property .... and of course you need to be a responsible animal and home carer😺

As for the booking fee I would hope that would be refundable within a certain time period? This would make sense to give the owner a chance to rent the property if you changed your mind or some compensation if you decided not to turn up?

What my petsitting site does is charge an annual fee for registering with the site.

@divegeester

At the house of hope we have had a lot of success booking our trips with AirBnB. We only book Entire place with Superhosts and read the reviews.

(n recent guests said this place was sparkling clean)

We are very particular about where we stay, but with AirBnB we can stay in a great neighborhood of our choice. Tree lined streets and kids playing in yards instead of hotels by the airport and paying to park.

The background questions don't bother us as we also would want to know exactly who is staying at our house. The first thing any hotel asks for at check-in is a drivers license which they immediately scan. Same with renting a car which we typically do on these same trips.

Like most services it is not for everyone. We also Uber if we are in a city like DC or Chicago and don't get a car.

@drewnogal said
I’m thinking that this has come about to reassure both parties that neither has a history of causing damage or disturbance at a property? I’ve become a house/petsitter and was offered a higher reference status IF I wanted by sending a copy of my licence or passport which I did. I’m not aware whether the house/pet owners have to do the same thing though it would make sense ...[text shortened]... t to turn up?

What my petsitting site does is charge an annual fee for registering with the site.

The booking fee goes straight to Airbnb and is actually nearer 18%.

I can understand why a company would want you to produce personal ID is you are housesitting; what I don’t understand is why Airbnb require a photo of my driving licence or passport plus another photo ID and even suggest I link my Facebook profile to them in order to provide it. I only want to book a bed-and-breakfast for one night. I’ve never had to do that on any accommodation booking site before and after reading all the chatter about Airbnb I’m certainly not going to start now.

@hope said
@divegeester

At the house of hope we have had a lot of success booking our trips with AirBnB. We only book Entire place with Superhosts and read the reviews.

(n recent guests said this place was sparkling clean)

We are very particular about where we stay, but with AirBnB we can stay in a great neighborhood of our choice. Tree lined streets and kids playing in yards ins ...[text shortened]... ces it is not for everyone. We also Uber if we are in a city like DC or Chicago and don't get a car.

Having my passport scanned at a hotel reception is acceptable; just.

Uploading my personal info to a global website just to book a B&B isn’t. Especially when they charge an 18% premium for the privilege and when I can look the establishment up online and book directly with them saving enough cash for a meal out.

@divegeester said
The booking fee goes straight to Airbnb and is actually nearer 18%.

I can understand why a company would want you to produce personal ID is you are housesitting; what I don’t understand is why Airbnb require a photo of my driving licence or passport plus another photo ID and even suggest I link my Facebook profile to them in order to provide it. I only want to book a ...[text shortened]... ing site before and after reading all the chatter about Airbnb I’m certainly not going to start now.

Can you not just google B&Bs in the area you are going to and then contact that B&B and make a reservation?

@divegeester said
drewnogal and hakima, how do both of you feel about the level of personal information Airbnb requires in order to be able to set up a stayer/guest account?

I signed up on AirbnB years ago and honestly don’t recall being asked for a scan of my passport or driver’s license. I don’t think I would have felt comfortable with that. I can certainly understand your unease in that response.

The best thing that AirbnB did for me, was t help me realize how affordable international travel truly is. Last year, about this time, I was snowed in with a lot of time to consider and dream about where I would like to go for an extended adventure. I used AirbnB’s search with filters to select accommodations at $70 USD or less with private entire apartment or house. Then I created a notebook for each location. I used Google travel to check flights corresponding to each location and created itineraries.

I had intended to visit the UK, however, I was also very focused (as I still am) on a translation project; letters by Goethe to a woman with whom he corresponded for twelve years. I have been working on this project over four years and am not very close to finishing due to work and everyday distractions, so I focused my attention to Goethe’s adopted hometown, Weimar.

I actually originally found the place I will be staying in the AirbnB app, but booked through Booking.com because it provided more comprehensive information. Booking.com also lists hotels which was important for me in Frankfurt because some hotels offer shuttles to and from the airport—important to a solo female traveler in an unfamiliar country who is terrified of missing her flights.

I would definitely recommend Booking over Air now.

@great-big-stees said
Can you not just google B&Bs in the area you are going to and then contact that B&B and make a reservation?

Yes GBS, that's what I said I did in my OP 😉

@divegeester said
Yes GBS, that's what I said I did in my OP 😉

You are "windy" so I only scan them and doing that I am bound to miss something. In the future I will spend the time to, more thoroughly, read them. In the meantime I apologize. 🤔 🙂

@great-big-stees said
You are "windy" so I only scan them and doing that I am bound to miss something. In the future I will spend the time to, more thoroughly, read them. In the meantime I apologize. 🤔 🙂

No need mate.
And your point about googling the establishment is spot on.

@divegeester said
Decided to use this website for the first time and before confirming the booking I decided to deactivate my account.

The level of identity validation they require is ridiculous ~ photo of driving licence or passport, photo of yourself...they even suggest linking to your Facebook account to grab your profile photo. I'm not doing any of that just to book an overnight s ...[text shortened]... b was also charging me a 15% booking fee. It's a joke, a bad one.

Does anyone here use this site?

No real issues with me, although I did have to share a room with a guy named "Bubba" who was 6'8'' and 700 pound once who snored like there is no tomorrow that was not disclosed when I booked the room.

It all worked out though because he smelled so bad for being too big to bathe for the last two years because of his size, it kept the cockroaches away.

@whodey said
No real issues with me, although I did have to share a room with a guy named "Bubba" who was 6'8'' and 700 pound once who snored like there is no tomorrow that was not disclosed when I booked the room.

It all worked out though because he smelled so bad for being too big to bathe for the last two years because of his size, it kept the cockroaches away.

Are you sure that wasn't a jail cell? 🤔 😲