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Comment by pwim | Hacker News Reader

Wow, $4332 for a month. That sounds pretty expensive.

One of the things I love most about AirBnB is that a lot of the people advertising their space on the site are open for negotiation. So let's say Derek looks at this particular place's calendar and sees that in the recent past and in the near future, it has typically been booked for 20 of the 30 days of any given month. Well, 2/3 of $4332 is a great jump-off point for negotiation. I have had particular success booking last minute travel at greatly discounted prices on AirBnB. Negotiate everything!

Did not realise it was possible to negotiate, which actually meant I used the site a lot less.

There's nothing specific that says "negotiate this price" but I just email the people and see if they're open to it.

Interestingly, there are a lot of things out there that don't seem negotiable at first, but you would be surprised how open a lot of people and businesses are to the idea. You just have to try.

Do you have any good examples/tips?

So let's say Derek looks at this particular place's calendar and sees that in the recent past and in the near future, it has typically been booked for 20 of the 30 days of any given month. Well, 2/3 of $4332 is a great jump-off point for negotiation

It's not just about the money though. There are disadvantages in signing up a "guest" for a month. What if they are really obnoxious? Three or four days you can wait them out, but a month?

If you look at the listing, you'll see "Room type: Entire home/apt". So Derek's got the whole apartment to himself, not just a room in someone's apartment.

I would guess that people who stay for long stretches like that tend to look for full apartment listing, since the host might also be obnoxious, and it might get old to stay with someone for a month even if they're just neutral.

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