The question has always been What Is Airbnb? If you’ve been hearing so much about Airbnb and you will like to know What Is Airbnb, then, you’re in the right place.
This article will not only tell you about Airbnb but will point you in the right direction. You will get to see the pros, cons, and pitfalls to avoid. You will also understand if Airbnb is legal or not.
Airbnb is a social marketplace for accommodations that match hosts up with guests. You can rent a place to stay through Airbnb – or you can rent out your own home or apartment if you’d like to make some extra cash.
The idea is to come up with cheaper and larger lodging options for travelers and investment opportunities for homeowners. You can get a flat at a cheaper rate than a single hotel room.
With its 150 million users, 640,000 hosts, and four million listings in 65,000 cities, it’s a force of nature. Without owning a single room, Airbnb is now the world’s largest hotel chain.
Airbnb Login Online
For existing users of Airbnb, Login will not be an issue. If you are having challenges in logging in to your Airbnb account, These steps below will help you resolve the issues. To log in to your Airbnb account you will need to;
- Launch your browser and visit www.airbnb.com
- On the screen, click on the login in button
- Enter your Email and password correctly in the space provided
- Click the login button.
If you truly entered your correct details, you will be redirected to your Airbnb account to start booking your dream home away from home.
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You can not gain access to your Airbnb account with a wrong password or email. IF you should run into such a situation,
What Is Airbnb | The advantages of Airbnb | The Pros
There are several advantages of using Airbnb – both for guests and for hosts:
- It’s cheaper than staying in a hotel. Of course, you can choose to stay in an expensive chateau but in most cases, especially in cities, you’ll find listings far below the cost of a comparable hotel room. If you have a large group or family or a tight budget, this may mean the difference between travelling or staying home.
- You (usually) get more space unless you’re renting the tiniest of studios.
- You’ll live locally. You can walk down the street to the market or the local shops and interact with people as you buy your daily groceries.
- Airbnb is easy to use. Just sign up and look around. You don’t have to book.
- You can find unusual or unique places to stay – caves and buses and all sorts of places you might never have thought of (or a chateau or two) rather than a drab cookie-cutter hotel room (although there are plenty of drab Airbnbs and wonderful hotel rooms!).
- In some properties, you may be able to bring your pet. Of course this keeps boarding costs down, but more importantly, it allows you to travel with your furry friend unless you have more than one.
- You’ll usually have access to a kitchen. That means you can make your own breakfast and not be tempted by a fattening all-you-can-eat buffet. You also don’t have to go out for every meal.
- You’ll have hosted, and that helps you interact locally.
And speaking of hosts, Airbnb allows individuals to earn a bit of money on the side.
The disadvantages of Airbnb | The Cons
Here are some of the things that can go wrong:
- You might not like your accommodation once you arrive. That happens, and there’s little you can do about that as long as the description has been honest.
But the apartment may have been misrepresented – for example, if you’re supposed to be right on the beach and the house is miles away. A pretty picture can make the dumpiest flat look welcoming.
But once you’re there with no alternative plan, there isn’t much you can do other than write a scathing review once you leave (and few people do that, for fear of being turned down as guests by other hosts).
- A host might be unreachable for whatever reason. If this happens, you’ll be pretty much on your own, hence the importance of getting as much information up front as you can. Hosts who are unresponsive don’t last long and get bad reviews so it’s rare.
- Calendar bookings can be wrong, so always email the host before finalizing your booking.
- Your preferred dates might not be available – but then, hotels get booked out too.
- If you’re only renting part of a property – a spare room in someone’s home, for instance – you’ll sacrifice some privacy. The same goes for a shared bathroom.
- A host can cancel at the last minute. Any host who does this repeatedly risks being delisted but that’s little comfort to you if it happens.
- Your rental could be a scam. Not every property is owned by a person, and some unscrupulous companies may list a property multiple times at different price points and go for the one who pays the most (and cancel the lower-paying customer).
- There are Airbnb issues around security and safety. Airbnb doesn’t do full background checks (nor do hotels or any other type of accommodation, mind you) so you’re on your own when trying to decide how reliable someone is. If you’re renting a room in someone’s house there might not be a lock on your bedroom door (and there have been a number of serious incidents). You may also be sharing a wifi connection with someone… so beware of leakage there too. (Airbnb has a number of safety features which you can find here).
- You won’t have hotel amenities, like a front desk or someone making up your room.
- Your experience will be more unpredictable. A chain hotel, on the other hand, will have a few surprises.
- It’s not all roses for the hosts, either. Guests have been known to trash apartments, make noise and annoy neighbours, or even refuse to leave, making life difficult for the hosts when they return home.
Your vacation rental may be illegal?
Yes. Some destinations – Spain and Thailand are the latest – are cracking down on hosts who rent out their homes to travellers. In some places, there are actual bans, with fines if you’re caught letting your place. In others, there are stringent rules that only allow properties to be rented under the strictest of conditions.
Even where it is illegal, people still list their properties on Airbnb so, at first glance, you’ll think everything is perfectly fine even when it’s not. Just because you see a listing doesn’t mean it’s legal.
Yet illegality has a number of consequences. This means the property owner pays no taxes while reaping the benefits of the income. It’s called tax evasion.
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It also means you may not be insured if something goes wrong – if there’s a theft and your stuff gets stolen, for example. And it means properties are quietly taken off the market and no longer available to bona fide renters.
On the host side, there have been documented cases of problems with guests but in the absence of a clear legal framework, that means trouble. Airbnb legal issues have a long way to go before they are resolved.
Airbnb ethical issues | What Is Airbnb ethical issues
There seems to be a lot wrong with Airbnb, ethically speaking.
Entire neighborhoods are being cleared of local inhabitants to make room for tourists – and that in turn removes the very character and charm visitors had come to see. Many local inhabitants are violently opposed to this type of enforced gentrification.
Of course, this diminishes local rental property available for young people or people who cannot afford the high prices in areas that have become trendy.
This state of affairs encourages speculation by property companies, which also raises rents. this is particularly harmful to cities with housing shortages like Paris or Berlin. There are even management companies that now handle Airbnb rentals.
By cramming tourists into the most desirable areas, Airbnb contributes to over-tourism. (By the same token, more tourists in a part of town that needs the boost could benefit the local economy and have a positive impact).
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Airbnb safety issues are very real, because – unlike hotels – private residences don’t have the same legal obligations (fire escapes, extinguishers and so on).
There have been plenty of complaints about Airbnb discrimination and the platform seems to have no real mechanism to prevent it. Airbnb is aware of its failure to deal with discrimination and has teamed up with the NAACP to try to tackle this in the US. But there’s a long way to go.
Until now, Airbnb hasn’t had to pay any taxes – unlike hotels – and neither have homeowners. Countries like Denmark and Germany are changing this through legislation by forcing Airbnb to report hosts’ incomes – but if you push that argument further, you might run into a privacy issue.
So – can you use Airbnb ethically?
Yes, it is possible but the decision lies completely on you. First off, don’t be guided by such things as price or location. Here is a list of steps you can take on your own:
- Make sure it is legal at your destination, and that the host has a legally registered property. In some countries, this is easy to check but in others less so. Start by asking the host. They may lie, but you might be able to tell, especially if they are offended (if they’re legal they’ll be in a hurry to point it out).
- Find out what you can about the area. Is it highly touristed? Is this a property that could easily have been rented out to locals instead?
- Ensure you’re renting from a person and not a company. You can find plenty of listings for entire dwellings that are available simply because the owner is away. Just make sure they are actually residents of the community.
- Only rent from primary homeowners – someone who is renting out their flat briefly while they are away, or a room in someone’s home.
- Study the photographs carefully. If the place is too neat, if there is nothing personal around and all the furniture looks generic, then there’s a good chance it is a corporate flat. Usually, the contrast between a place to rent and a place that’s lived in is pretty clear.
- Be extra conscious of my responsibilities as a guest.
- Look for alternatives. Some rental companies have made the extra effort to be legal and abide by local norms. When that choice is available, opt for the one that does the least damage and best supports local communities. More research, yes, but worth it.
Airbnb will not go away and neither will its competitors but things are changing for the company as residents rebel and laws tighten.