Is It Cheaper to Stay in an Airbnb ‘Entire Home’ Rental or a Hotel?
travelstatistician.com
travelstatistician.com
Additionally they want access to your Facebook account, which I find offensive as well.
I travel a lot in Europe. Since I prefer to stay in apartments over staying in hotel rooms, my approach is to look up local apartment rental sites. Usually I find good deals this way. I only stay in hotels if I absolutely must. Apartments are so much nicer.
As an engineer I get the privacy concerns so I'm split on which way I sit on this fence but I trust in a large tech company like AirBnB to get security right - so on balance the short term risks of someone abusing my flat outweigh my long term risks of someone getting my passport data.
There's a great difference between a photocopy in a safe and a photo of ID on the internet. The one in the safe is much harder to steal in bulk.
Many home insurance claims in the UK are not paid: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35401104
There are plenty of cases of people in the UK being robbed by eg cleaners and insurance doesn't pay.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05qvn36
> Last week Money Box heard from a listener who was surprised to find that her home contents insurance did not cover her for theft by a cleaner. Money Box listeners have told us that insurers seem confused about whether you are covered if carers and home helps steal from you. An insurance expert tells Money Box how you can find out.
(They misuse the word "carer" here, which should only be used about people who provide unpaid care. They mean something like "care worker".)
> Some examples of what the Host Protection Insurance program doesn’t cover:
> Intentional acts where liability isn’t the result of an accident.
EG, theft.
But i was really referencing AirBnB insurance....
I'm claiming people are seeking avoidance. People would rather have the deterrent effect, so that they might avoid the hassles of going through claims and then waiting for things to be righted.
Having your passport or ID saved would make you think twice about committing some kind of crime
I've had similar experiences ordering alcohol online (though only from smaller retailers, and usually only for a first purchase).
That said, you should be careful with your ID. But, I personally wouldn't mind verifying my ID with Airbnb (last I checked, they used specific verification software)
Namely Airbnb has created a database of (very likely high quality) copies of ID cards that when leaked could be used for identity theft in similar places where digital photographic copies of ID cards over the Internet are accepted as proof of identity.
To be more clear - digital photographic copy of a ID card can not be considered as a proof of the identity because it only shows that the person who is providing this information had either access to the copy itself or had limited time to make a copy in real life.
Personally, I'm glad I live in a country that doesn't criminalize identity verification that utilizes 21st century technology (though I'd gladly accept some other German public policies).
One option to have a proof of identity without an actual in person visit is to use a trusted third party (what has verified the person in person). This could be a state (if it provides such service) or a private institution (a Bank for example).
Otherwise you can use old and proved method of trust. I understand that of course for a service like airbnb this might not be enough and this is also the reason why I probably would not use them in the future.
* A username * A password * A one-time verification code, either from a card which is posted to your registered address, or using some kind of USB thing (as far as I know, the USB option is mostly used by companies).
The system is run by the government.
I don't know what information a business using this system for authorization gets — I'd guess name, address and perhaps date of birth — but they at least don't have the password or single use verification code, so they can't authorize themselves in my name.
Edit: they use Jumio Netverify - http://www.jumio.com/
Problem is many disable it, do not have a card reader and many smartphones are not compatible.
I have a client that must collect and store drivers license copies for 2 years by state law. The system encrypts with GnuPG, such that only an offline private key stored on a crypto smart card can decrypt, and the encrypted image into a cloud storage bucket with an expiration date. Unless they get a spoliation order because the police come knocking no one ever sees the data. After 2 years, the file auto deletes and a record is left indicating that the record was "deleted in the ordinary course of business." The company does not really want to do all of this, but its required by law and good infosec practices.
Handling data breach material is expensive.
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Gericht-Personalauswe...
Actually I would not be surprised that the old way was legal and any new way that threatens incumbents is illegal. This seems a fundamental dysfunction of Europe in general.
So far, it's been extremely hit or miss for me. I've found VRBO/Homeaway to be better for vacations.
And, yeah, Vegas is notorious for tacking on mandatory resort fees.
You may not notice this effect if you are only in town for a few days and eat mostly at tourist-friendly spots in midtown. Not to mention several math-impaired people seem to believe they only spend $1 a meal. Where do they live, India?
Isn't the same thing true for the grocery stores? They are located in the same areas as restaurants and have to pay pretty much the same expensive rent, no? meanwhile, their expenses may be lower than the ones of a restaurant.
anyway, could you tell more info about what your neighborhood pub - for example, what neighborhood is it? what meal did you eat?
I can share my numbers - and sorry I did not tell in advance I went with my BF, so there were two of us eating cooked food.
So, I ate at Cafe Aroma in Manhatten and I paid about $17 for a plate with rice + fish + some salad.
the same day I went to a grocery store on Myrtle Ave in Brooklyn to buy supper for 2. I paid about $27 for tortellini, some chicken ham, a small watermelon, and some beer. It was enough for us for supper + some leftovers for breakfast (beer haha ;). The day after I found an even cheaper store where I bought supper for the other two days at once.
$17 for a cafe meal seemed too expensive for me, so the next days I tried to eat cheaper cafe lunches. So I ate sandwiches for ~ $10-12; however, they contained a much smaller amount of proteins so I felt hungry much faster after.
Not nearly. Groceries stores have higher margins and vastly less competition.
I'm most familiar with North Brooklyn (Williamsburg/Bed-Stuy) where most bars and unfancy restaurants have dishes that will make a full meal for $10-16. My experience is that LES and East Village are a touch pricier, but not much.
My question to you is how much do you think a restaurant would have charged for your tortellini/processed chicken/watermelon meal? I mean no slight to your culinary abilities, but I suspect it wouldn't have passed muster at most restaurants.
And this is one of the main reasons to buy your own food - you have a choice of what to buy! While eating out, your choice is much smaller.
You pay for some extras you may not like but you cannot remove it from the menu. Even if you can - would it affect the price? I doubt so.
Composing my own meal gives me the flexibility of choosing only the things I like + saving money.
On the top of that, the nice extras like tea/coffee/dessert/fruits come with increased margins.
Especially fruits due to their short shelf life in cut form.
Let's look at the following example; though it does not involve the restaurant prices, I still think it is representative.
In IGA (a Canadian grocery chain) a fruit salad comes for $1.30 / 100 G. A mini watermelon is $5 each, and its weight is ~2.72 kg (6lb) with 70% of it being edible. This gives us the cost of $0.26 / 100 g.
The fruit salad margin is like 500% ??? Isn't it crazy. Of course, there are other fruits in the salad but the one can easily satisfy their sweet tooth with eating one fruit instead of eating many.
(the prices are in Canadian dollars)
Rice and beans is too.
Not very nice meals, but possible.
I find this hard to believe. Is there seriously a place you can eat out (and eat reasonaly well) for $1 a time? Or, how expensive is your home-cooked food?
There are 5 of them, so that's a factor too. It's easier to plan/use up groceries for multiple people over multiple days than if you're just alone.
I did not mention I was not alone, I went with my boyfriend, so it makes 2 of us. But I am still pretty confident if I were alone, it would still be cheaper for me to cook rather than eat out.
From personal experience it's much cheaper to stay in airbnb with large (6+) group of people instead of getting 2 or 3 hotel rooms.
[EDIT: It probably also depends why you're at a place. If you're on vacation I pretty much agree. If you're there for some sort of project or other reason and you're paying for your own food, I can see why one wouldn't want to eat out every meal.]
For example, I've taken cooking classes in places like Thailand where they even take you to the market and show you what to buy. Since you know what to buy and you've already been taught to cook several dishes, its not that hard to go back to the same market the next day to whip up some more Pad Thai.
They have mostly similar offers (in EU) as airbnb.com and I consider them more trustworthy (as they have offered the service for longer time as airbnb).
For business travel this creates the annoying situation where I have to cover the cost of accommodation from my personal account and submit an expenses request.
I have also had booking.com take the payment but there has been a break down in communication with the hotel and they have not received it or have not been informed and I've had to pay twice. Then spend time afterwards playing pass-the-buck as booking.com tells me it is the hotel who owes me the refund and the hotel telling me it is booking.com
I've never had these payment woes with AirBnB.
It's only happened once but if it was an important reservation i would now call ahead and make sure the hotel got the booking. At that point you might as well make a reservation direct. I'm sure they would be happy to match booking.com price.
From the user's point of view, Booking.com is a horrible cluttered web site with 1990'ish approaches to design, usability and online marketing. I don't trust them at all.
Well, Booking.com (or any other similar site) offers hosts the reach they may otherwise miss.
It is also good if there are many such sites hosts could use as it would then presumably make situation more favorable for them. This is also why I mentioned Booking.com at all, as I do not see and I do not want to see the world in black/white (airbnb/hotel).
Having competition also (usually) helps to keep things more honest.
> From the user's point of view, Booking.com is a horrible cluttered web site with 1990'ish approaches to design, usability and online marketing.
I actually do not mind their design approach.
It is actually quite usable, even better as airbnb as they show the total amount upfront for the search period and not just the pay for a night in what, to be honest, I have no interest in. There are many other small differences that make Booking.com interface more usable for me.
Of course it comes down to personal preferences and this is only my personal opinion.
They deserve competition desperately, either improve or die. The only reason why it's still in existence is they were first, any many people are used to them. But as with all internet technologies, this will change over time.
The customers only check the sites the have seen commercials for and think is reputable. Its in the end a web of trust and the consumer does not trust randoms
Booking.com have a "lowest price guarantee" for online bookings (and from personal experience, do actually honour it), so it's the hosts that bear the costs if Booking.com's commission is higher than other booking portals or agents. Presumably they generate enough bookings for the hosts to find being on there worthwhile though.
Strange because they A/B test literally everything. The site looks the way it does because it sells better that way. You could actually say the same for Amazon then.
At the beginning airbnb was my main choice, because of the experience it delivered. Not because it was cheaper. I used to stay in houseshares and the vast majority of the time the host was amazing, sociable and generous. But I think as airbnb has gone more into the mainstream and hosts get more experienced, the host cannot maintain that level of service. Now the best hosts are professional, but without the friendliness of the early days.
What works best on price depends on many factors: the time of year, the country, the length of stay, big events or festivals, number of guests.
I now make my choice based on the price and quality. I've recently found last-minute hotel bookings via Agoda have worked well.
Hotels in cities work especially well in off-seasons. They have staff cost and vacant rooms, so have a strong incentive to get any revenue they can. Prices can sometimes be lower than anything that an airbnb host would be willing to accept[1]. Also hotels work well for 1 day stays. Many airbnb hosts want 2 day minimum stays. Also airbnb hosts often add a cleaning fee, which can significantly bump up price for very short stays.
Conversely airbnb can work great when your visiting a city/area during an extremely busy period. Hotels are obviously aware these peaks and have adjusted prices accordingly. Experienced airbnb hosts have done the same. But novice airbnb hosts will often have much lower prices.
[1] I used to be an airbnb host in a UK city. During the winter months it just wasn't worth competing with the budget hotels (EasyHotel, Premier Inn etc.)
This is pretty significant as some hosts encourage long-term stays (or deliberately game AirBnB results) by lowering the per-day price while raising the cleaning fee.
Cleaning fee amortized over short stays tends to add significant markup, and at this point many hotels do come cheaper, as daily cleaning in their case is already taken into account and is cost-efficient.
Edge case for AirBnB is family travel. Booking anything 1-bedroom and larger somehow seems to signal to the hotel industry that you've finally made it to the Forbes list and therefore no expense will be spared. I'd venture to say that any decent 2-bedroom (and up) apartment/house on AirBnB would be [significantly] cheaper than a 2-bedroom (and up) suite at the hotel.
It depends. Absolutely for a typical downtown hotel, their relative handful of suites tend to be oriented toward being used as business meeting rooms or by people who are really price insensitive. You can sometimes get deals on weekends and the like but, yeah, it's a bit like business and first-class pricing on planes.
It's far less true of the residence style hotels though (e.g. Marriott's Residence Inn). In suburban/sprawl locations I often favor these because it's nice to stretch out on a sofa. Some locales, such as Vegas, also have suites as a pretty standard offering.
The SF numbers are way off. First, you need to consider size/number of beds. One home may be equal to 2 or 3 hotel rooms. Second, there is no consideration for quality. The only way those SF hotel numbers are that low is by including the rather unsavory single room hotels. Third, there is no consideration for amenities. AirBnB's will often give away a lot of amenities, where as hotels charge for everything. It's common to charge $30/night/room for Wifi in SF, those fees must be considered as well.
In addition to other chargers other folks are pointing out, it's not hard to see how that can affect the model to portray AirBnB or Hotels one way or the other.
If you book Airbnb for a month, it's usually around the same price as a 2 week stay, and the nightly rate cannot be touched by hotels, particularly for the size and location.
I recently booked a trip to Florence, Italy. While hotel rooms and single-room apartments were on par price-wise, Airbnb offered larger apartments, many with nice balconies and view, that were not available in the hotels. And the apartments were generally less expensive than hotel suites (with kitchen).
The fourth graph on the page is mislabeled, which adds to the confusion.
Is the New York data a simple mistake, or is all the data on this page suspect? Or have I just read something incorrectly?