5 Disadvantages Of Using AirBnB

AirBnB has grown into a huge company for a reason, it’s a brilliant service. The advantages of AirBnB are numerous, which is why it is used by hundreds of thousands of people all around the world. The purpose of this aticle is not to list the advantages and disadvantages of AirBnB, I’m sure you can find the advantages on their website. In this article I will simply be looking at the disadvantages of AirBnB after my first experience.

For those that have not used AirBnB or don’t know much about it, here is a short explanation. AirBnB is a website / app that allows you to rent accommodation from someone. It could be a whole apartment / house or it could be a room in the apartment or it could even just be a couch. This provides a cheaper accommodation option for travellers that might find traditional accommodation options, such as hotels, too expensive. It also allows people to make some extra money by renting out their apartment or room.

I used AirBnB to book some accommodation for a recent overseas trip. It was not difficult to sign up and find a place to stay and AirBnB handles the payment and will facilitate a refund if you’re not happy, etc. But I did realise that there are definitely some downsides.

One of the benefits of AirBnB is that is can be much cheaper than hotels. But it’s still not cheap. My 3 night stay was nearly R700 per night and that was one of the cheaper options. At that price I don’t think it’s unreasonable to have some expectations regarding the standard of the accommodation.

Discrimination

I spent some time looking through the options available for where I wanted to stay then I started contacting them to make a booking. The first one did not bother to respond. It was a guy and I noticed that all the reviews were only from women. So I guess I didn’t fit the profile he was looking for. The second option responded, to tell me that the place was not available despite it being marked as available. I started to realise that people are quite selective about who they would like stay. If I experienced discrimination as a middle aged white male, I can imagine there are others who would find it even more difficult.

At least with a hotel you book, you pay, you stay. No matter who you are.

Misrepresentation

When I arrived at the place I had booked, it was nothing like the photos suggested. The actual room looked similar, but the photo didn’t show the paint peeling off the walls and there was no indication that the room was as hot as an oven. What was also not evident was that the house was a dump. I literally walked past it because I thought that it was a derelict house. A messy house may not bother some people, but when I’m forking out hard-earned cash, I want at least a hint of cleanliness and tidiness.

Transactional reviews

When I went back and looked at the reviews of the place I stayed at, I noticed that they all focused on the friendly and helpful the host was. Nobody mentioned that the place was a dump. The reason for this is that they need the host to give them a good review as guests so that it’s easier to find a place to stay next time.

Because I’m new to AirBnB, I can’t afford to have the only review of me as a guest be negative so I will also have to leave some sort of positive review for a place about which I don’t have much positive to say. This means the reviews are a lot less helpful than one might initially imagine.

Professionalism

When you stay at a hotel you can generally expect a level of service and standard of offering which is in line with generally accepted norms for the star rating of the establishment. With AirBnB your at the mercy of the host and their experience or interest.  Nor do I want to be woken up early because the curtains are too thin to keep out the light. I also don’t want to arrive to find that even though it was not mentioned in the advert, there is a cat. I’m allergic to cats.

Inconsistent experience

The thing with AirBnB is that you can have a great experience. For a reasonable price you could have an amazing apartment in a good location all to yourself. But you just don’t know, because you could also have the opposite. One person goes to the trouble of supplying linen that is new and has a high thread count, the next provides the cheapest linen that has been used over and over. In fact I read one review where the guest complained that the linen was not even clean! Single ply toilet paper at one, double ply at another. Fast internet at one, useless internet at another. You just never know what you’ll get.

Bonus: Location

Hotels are generally conveniently located, you’ll seldom find hotels in the middle of some random residential suburb. A 5 minute walk to the bus stop / train stop plus waiting for the correct bus or train plus the trip to your destination can all take up quite a bit of your time. When selecting an AirBnB, proximity to town and public transport is an important consideration and they will tell you how long it takes to get to the station but not how long you will need to wait or how long the trip will be. Also, how much public transport will cost you as you need to add this to the cost of your accommodation compared to a centrally located hotel.

Those are the negatives of using AirBnB. If you arrive and you’re not happy with the accommodation, then you have a serious problem because you have to find an alternative at the last minute. The alternative will always cost a lot more. It doesn’t mean I won’t use AirBnB again but I will certainly weigh up my options and if a decent hotel that is centrally located is only a couple of hundred Rand extra a night, I might opt for that instead. How has your experience with AirBnB been? Only positive? Share in the comments below.