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Monday, March 30, 2020

IS AIRBNB SAFE? 🏠 My Experience After 20+ Bookings! #Best Education Page #Online Earning

IS AIRBNB SAFE? 🏠 My Experience After 20+ Bookings!

- So in this video today,
we are going to be talking about Airbnb
and more specifically whether or not Airbnb
is safe as somebody booking reservations
through the Airbnb app.
Now personally, I've been using Airbnb
for the last two years or so.
I am both an Airbnb host and an avid user
of the Airbnb platform,
and so pretty much I use this app
exclusively now whenever I am traveling.
So I've stayed in over two dozen different Airbnbs,
so I have a fair amount of experience to share with you guys
and we're gonna talk about both my good experiences
as well as my bad experiences and then at the end
of this video, I'm gonna give you guys some tips
as a first-time Airbnb user
if you're looking to be as safe as possible
while using Airbnb.
Now that being said guys,
if at the end of this video
you decide that you wanna try out Airbnb for yourself
there's a link down in the description below
where you can get a completely free $40 Airbnb credit
towards your first reservation.
Now full transparency guys,
if you do use that link
I will also earn a small Airbnb travel credit,
so it's a way to give back to me
for putting this video together.
All right, now first of all, what I want to talk about
here are the pros of Airbnb
and why I prefer using Airbnb over a hotel.
Now first of all,
what I have found to be the case
is that these Airbnbs are in more desirable locations
when you are traveling, so think about it this way,
hotels are often restricted to certain areas
based on zoning and so you oftentimes
have better locations when you book an Airbnb
in someone's home or somebody's apartment.
So for example when I traveled to Seattle,
I booked an Airbnb and I was in a really great location
right near the downtown.
And I was more centrally located
than I would have been, if I simply booked a hotel.
Another reason why I like Airbnb,
is that I have personally found it to be cheaper
than booking hotel accommodations.
Now this may not always be the case
but what I recommend people do
is at least compare the two
and look at the price for a hotel
versus a comparable Airbnb in a similar location.
And I also like the idea
of supporting actual families and personal people
rather than supporting large hotel chains,
because when you use Airbnb
the money goes mostly to the host.
A small portion does go to Airbnb
for providing the service,
but I like the idea of supporting families and individuals
rather than big corporate hotel chains.
Now that being said guys,
there are some cons to using Airbnb
and I wanna share those with you now.
First of all, the biggest one that I have found
is that looks can oftentimes be deceiving.
And what I mean by that is,
you may find a listing where the photos are beautiful
and it looks like this spacious
beautiful house or apartment,
only to find that it's actually not that big
or it's in a really bad location.
So personally, guys, about a year and a half ago
I booked an Airbnb in Washington, D.C.
And based on the pictures it looked like
a really beautiful apartment and I will say this,
the apartment itself was very nice,
it was totally clean and the host
even left out some muffins
and some coffee grounds and different added items
that were a total perk.
The only downside was the location was horrible,
because we were smack dab right in the middle
of a lot of public housing.
So what I will say is this,
when you are booking an Airbnb
don't just look at the photos
because looks can be deceiving,
you should also look at the map of where
this Airbnb is and consider the location
and whether or not this is a good area
of the city or a bad area.
And then the only other bad experience
I have ever had with Airbnb
is when I had a host cancel my reservation on me.
Now this happens very infrequently,
like I've said I've booked over two dozen Airbnbs,
some through my account,
some through my girlfriend's or my friend's accounts
where I pitched in,
and we've only ever had one cancellation
and it actually happened to me just recently
on my trip to Cancun.
So, essentially what happened is the night
before my reservation I reached out to the host
because I hadn't heard from him
and he said, "Oh, I'm not going to be able to host you,
"you're gonna have to call Airbnb
"and cancel your reservation."
Now I will say this, I called Airbnb,
the process was very simple, I got a full refund
and I got a free travel credit equivalent
to 10% of the cost of my total reservation.
So overall, I was pretty happy with that
because I got all of my money back
and a free travel credit towards my next stay.
And so what I did instead is I ended up
just booking a resort rather than using Airbnb in Cancun.
But that's the only time I've ever had that happen to me
personally on Airbnb.
Now it does happen sometimes where a host
does end up canceling on you
but it is very bad for them
and it hurts their reputation on Airbnb,
so it is not something that happens often.
And if it does that is not going to be
a very popular listing on Airbnb.
So now what I wanna do,
I want to jump on to the Airbnb website
and see what it is that they are saying
about the safety of Airbnb.
So according to the Airbnb website,
over two million people stay in an Airbnb
in over 100,000 cities every single night.
And they have multiple systems in place
to ensure safety of both the guest
and the host throughout the entire process.
This includes risk scoring of each new listing
before approval so they have a number
of different risk factors that they look for,
and if they see that this risk score is at a high level,
they will investigate the listing beforehand
and make sure it is safe or they will
also flag listings that are potentially unsafe.
There are a number of scams out there on Airbnb
where people will oftentimes have a fake listing
and then last-minute they will put you
in a different listing and they'll say,
Oh, there was a leaky pipe or a broken toilet,
but they really are cutting down on a lot of this,
because that just degrades the overall quality
of the platform.
And at the end of the day, if people don't trust Airbnb,
nobody is going to use it.
So I strongly believe that Airbnb is very careful
about their reputation and making sure to minimize
these instances of people
using the platform to conduct scams.
They also have wait lists and background checks
for both hosts and guests on the platform,
and they also have a number of other privacy steps
for communications and payments throughout the app.
so that being said guys,
now what I wanna do, I wanna to cover some tips
I have for you if you're a brand new to Airbnb,
a little bit skeptical or nervous
about whether or not it's safe,
these are my personal tips based on my experience.
Number one, above all else
this goes for everybody,
always conduct your communication with a host
and your payments through the Airbnb app.
Never send somebody a PayPal payment directly
or anything like that.
You always want to communicate and do payments
through the app, that way you are protected by Airbnb
under their insurance and under their payment protection.
And all of those guarantees.
So never send somebody money outside of the app
or communicate outside of the Airbnb app.
The only exception to that rule
would be if you have to call your host on the phone.
Obviously, you will have to call them directly
but other than that, any back and forth messaging
communication should always be done in the Airbnb app.
Number two, don't travel alone.
If you're somebody who's a solo traveler
and you're skeptical and you've never used Airbnb,
at least the first couple of times do it with a friend
or a family member.
That way you have less reservations
and you're not nervous about the process.
The third thing I would recommend is not to book a place
with less than 10 reviews.
You don't wanna book a place that has no reviews
or maybe one or two,
if you're brand new to this and you're nervous,
I would only book places with 10 reviews or more,
and I would also recommend that you do not book a place
with less than a 4.8 star review.
Because at the end of the day,
most people leave a five star review for Uber and Airbnb.
And they're only going to leave four stars or less,
if there's some kind of problem.
So look for many reviews, dozens of reviews is better
and a rating of 4.8 or higher.
In my personal experience, another option you have
as well, is to exclusively book with a Superhost,
and this is somebody who has shown exceptional service
to their guests and they are considered
the top tier of Airbnb hosts out there.
And they have to meet stricter requirements
than your average Airbnb host out there.
So that is another option as well
is to solely look for Superhosts
and you can conduct a search on Airbnb
where it only shows you listings available
from these Superhosts.
The next tip I have guys is a simple one,
and it can keep you out of trouble.
Read reviews of the place beforehand.
It's very simple guys but people who stay
in these Airbnbs will leave public reviews
that other guests can read.
So if you are skeptical about a given location,
guys just glance through the reviews
and see if anything jumps out to you.
Next, I would say contact the hosts beforehand
and let them know about any questions that you have,
if you're worried about whether or not
the door has a lock on it
or what's the parking going to be like,
or what's the neighborhood.
It is up to the host to make sure to answer these questions
for you, so any reservations or concerns
that you have guys, reach out to your Airbnb host
and communicate with them.
And hopefully they will be able to alleviate those concerns
for you, especially if they are a Superhost.
And then finally guys, as I said,
very important, look at the location of your Airbnb
before you book it.
When you're on the Airbnb site, guys,
you can very easily look at a map of the general area
of where these Airbnbs are,
and so even if you find a listing
that has beautiful photos and it looks like a great place,
always check out the neighborhood your Airbnb is in,
as that is a mistake I have made before
and I stayed in a not so desirable location as a result.
But overall guys, I will say this as both an Airbnb guest
and an Airbnb host, I have hosted dozens of people
and I have stayed at dozens of Airbnbs.
I have found it to be very safe
and overall, a high quality experience for me.
Once in a while you will run into a snag
but nothing major in my experience.
I do believe if you follow the steps outlined in this video
you can minimize some of the risk associated with Airbnb,
but at the end of the day, if you don't feel safe about it,
if you're not comfortable with it,
you don't have to use it,
as there are other options available to you.
If you guys do wanna grab that $40 Airbnb credit
towards your first stay, that's the top link
down in the description below.
But thanks so much for watching guys,
I hope you enjoyed it and I will see you in the next video.

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