In the post I wrote about my Airbnb experience in Doboj, Bosnia – see here, I mentioned that I would be writing up my search for another long stay and chose my stay in February 2024 in Thessaloniki, Greece. Well the Airbnb has been booked and paid for. All I have to do now is to get the keys on the day of arrival. So, I thought I would talk you through my process of choosing the apartment and, in a later post, I will write about my experience of being there.
As I said in my Doboj post, there are over 4000 Airbnb places to choose from in the city and 97% of those are whole place listings (ie not sharing the space with the host.)
One of the things I try to avoid is getting a place which is set up by a company. I don’t always succeed in this and you might argue that I have failed in Thessaloniki, for a novel reason which I will explain later. But first I will try and set my stall out for what I am looking for in a place to stay.
When I open up the Airbnb site and search – I first put in the dates I am looking for and one person in my “party.” I then click on “Entire Home.” On the right of the screen there is a square of filters, I open this and choose the one thing I need, wifi. I have worked out that it’s the only thing I NEED (and I guess I could do without it in some circumstances) but as I am usually working from wherever I stay, it is my must have, even for 1 night stays. That being said, there are a bunch of other things I put in, depending on the length of stay. So for short stays I will usually look for a kitchen, either heating or cooling (depending on the time of year and where I am) and a dedicated workspace.
For longer stays (over a week) I will add a washing machine. Note that I do not at this stage work on the price, as I like to see the range of options available. I may go back and change the price shown (usually lower it) if I am given too many options, or (more often) I need to see if there is anything at all in my budget.
That should give me a map of the area I am looking at and several options of places highlighted by price. What now?
The next job is to explore the map. I may have an idea of where I want to be in a city. I might have been given advice from other travellers, have checked with local facebook groups on areas to avoid or just looked up things on the internet. For me, I like to be away from the crowds and that usually, (but not always) means being away from the centre. I’m also a local public transport lover, especially trams, so if I can find somewhere which is on a tram route, then that is wonderful. For smaller towns, I might want to be near to a rail station so that I can get out and explore the area, but that has not always gone so well as you can see from this post about Skopje. And of course, in some places there is very little choice. After that it is time to click on the links to actual stays and that is where the fun begins.
I go with the cheapest price first, just to see what I am likely to get for my money. The next thing I look at is the rating and how many guests have rated it. Remember that a 4.8* rating with 120 guests is far stronger than a 5* rating with just 6. I tend to reject anything with a rating of less than 4.75, but again that does vary depending on options. Ideally at this stage I would like to get 6-10 places on a list of possibles and then narrow down from there. But this rarely happens.
I can then click onto individual listings and narrow down from there. It is only by clicking on the listing that I can see what the ratings are and automatically discount any that have less than 4.75. If they are between 4.75 and 4.80 I move on but maybe I will come back to them. When I find one at 4.80 and above, I usually then look at the facilities. This is where one of the inadequacies of Airbnb’s filters kicks in, stairs. At 67 I don’t want to be climbing up and down 7 flights of stairs, especially with luggage or shopping, but there is no filter for this, so I have to check each listing individually which can be time consuming. Obviously if an elevator is listed or the place is on the ground floor, then that makes things easy. Where they are not, then for me, it will depend which floor the apartment is on. I can manage 2 flights no problem so if the apartment is on the first (that’s a UK first – second in the US) or second floor then I will still consider it, anything above that I rule out. The problem is getting this information. Sometimes the listing makes it clear; sometimes the reviews will tell you; but more than once I have had to message hosts to find out. One host messaged back that not only was the place on the first floor (2 flights up) but there was a lift as well, but no mention of that in the description! (I subsequently booked.)
Like everything else people will have their own preferences, but for me I like to be able to make toast in the mornings, so if there is no toaster AND no grill (just a microwave) then that is out. I also rule out any odd sleeping arrangements such as an overbed where I have to climb a ladder to get into it. No, not when I want to get up urgently at 3am to use the loo!
All being well I look for preferences. A microwave is always useful, even if there is a conventional oven (and I am always surprised that host’s don’t include one of these as standard now.) A dryer is useful in the winter – but is as rare as hen’s teeth. A bathtub! Strangely, I like a balcony but when I get one I rarely use it. A view.
Hopefully I now have a list of 6-10 places that I can choose from. I then narrow further and when I am down to 3 or 4, I make a crucial final step before I book. I message the host.
I usually have a question that is still unresolved, often to do with the “dedicated workspace.” This is often a kitchen table, which is okay but the chair is the important thing. If it is a typical hard kitchen chair then I don’t want to spend several hours working on it. I like a nice swivel office chair and will ask if one can be made available.
Whether or not this is an issue I will always message the host, because how quickly and how pleasantly the host responds is an indication of how quickly and pleasantly they will respond when you are in the apartment. Sometimes there are special circumstances that will delay a response, one host I messaged was living in the US and so the time difference delayed things, but if I don’t get a response within 24 hours then that place is taken off the list.
I thought I had finished, but I have remembered three other things to take into account. So it shows what an exhausting experience booking with Airbnb can be.
First, smoking. Just check down to see if smoking is allowed. If it is or not mentioned, message the host to see if it’s an oversight (some leave it in but say it’s only on the balcony.) It doesn’t rule a place out for me, but I prefer not to have smoky smells especially on a longer stay. The same may go for pets.
Second, the cancellation policy. For short stays I prefer to book where the cancellation can be last minute as I never know when things might come up. For longer stays over 28 days the Airbnb policy is cancellation is only allowed up to one month before the booking, but some hosts will make this date even earlier, in some cases even just 48 hours after booking. The cancellation policy is listed way down at the bottom of the page and is always worth checking. I also sometimes check what the cancellation policy is for a week’s stay, even if I am staying for a month as it gives you an idea of what the host might be like.
Thirdly and this is something I touched on in my post on the Airbnb scam here … Has the host got multiple other listings? My preference is always to go with a host who has one or two at the most as it shows they are doing this for extra income and not as a full-time business. It also often leads to a more personal experience. However in my Thessaloniki search I came across an interesting get around for this which I will explain later.
As you can see – it is a long process for me … which is why I try and be quick about it and accept that I might miss some good stays because I haven’t looked too deeply.
For example – I tend not to look at any reviews past a certain date (at the moment, before the pandemic) as they will be out of date.
If there are any issues at all that come up, I look no further. On the third floor with no lift – that’s it gone. Cancellation within 48 hours – out! But, I may come back to these if I have a lack of choice.
And cost is an obvious deal breaker. However if I find a place that ticks all the other boxes but is just outside my price range, I do leave it in. It is possible to negotiate with some hosts to get the price down. I don’t always do it, especially if I really want somewhere (and don’t want to antagonise the host before I’ve started the relationship) or if it seems like a really good deal in a poorer country where the host may really need the money. But outside of these exceptions it doesn’t hurt to ask. I have the advantage of nearly 100 positive reviews (as far as I know I only have 2 negatives – both of which were tit-for-tat on bad reviews I gave the host) I am of the age and status that hosts prefer (single and elderly are usually less troublesome than families with small children or groups of young people.) I also play to the fact that I am a pensioner on my own, it doesn’t do not to pull at the heartstrings occasionally.
So back to my Thessaloniki search. Having done all of the above, I had a “wishlist” of 12 stays with ratings ranging from 4.79 to 5.00. I then went through all of them to see if there were any extras that would sway me to consider them more favourably. Sadly none of the 12 featured a bathtub which would have been number 1 on my list. But a couple did show an office chair in their photographs which was a plus, so I shortlisted those + the others that were at the cheaper end of the scale. (Sadly Airbnb does not save the prices of stays once the place has been booked by others, so I cannot share this with you.)
I boiled it down to about 4 or 5 and messaged the first 3 on the list. I only had a positive response from one (one didn’t have an office desk and the other would not provide a suitable chair.) The apartment looked really nice and the reviews were good with only 1 4* review out of 13 in total (a low number, but perhaps enough) and that seemed to be because there was little information about how things worked in the flat. I felt I could live with that.
However a bigger concern is the hosting.
The host has only the one listing, which is perfect. It usually means he is listing his own place which he is no longer using, or has just the one rental property for some extra income. However, in this case there is a co-host. I was able to click on his profile and he has 21 listings! Most of these are as a co-host with people who only have 1 or 2. Most of the ratings are very high but there was one place at only 4.3 … with people complaining about damp and a bad smell to the place. Personally I smelled a rat, but I couldn’t work out what was going on so decided to press on regardless. I asked my question and it was the co-host who answered quickly and very positively. Then I asked about a possible discount based on the fact that I would be a long stayer (5 weeks) and this was accepted with an extra 20% off on top of the long-stay discount (over 28 days) of 20%.
So I booked and I could cancel within one month if any bad reviews came in, but none did. It seems the flat was booked out by someone else for 2 months (which was most of the time I was looking) and she left a very positive review. Then 2 weeks before I am due to arrive a poor review is left. Someone was not happy about a leak under the sink, worms found in a spice jar and a difficult neighbour. Oh no! So I am now not thinking that the place is going to be wonderful and instead that there may be issues. I will check the spices carefully (probably buy my own!) and I am sure the leak is fixed by now, not something the host would want to fester. I think I am prepared, but I will write another post when I arrive and let you know how things are then. Arrival date, 6th of February 2024!
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Comments
Very helpful, Steve! Having never booked an AirBnB, thus guide will come in very handy.
Steve,
My first time seeing your blog…it’s a keeper! Thanks for so much info and motivation. Your photos are also wonderful.
Hi Steev,
I have been an Airbnb host for 4 yrs in the Philadelphia area and 1 year in Charlotte NC.
I suggest if you want something like a toaster to always ask. As you already do for a chair. I did not advertise that guests could use my laundry, but if they asked and explained why and how often I was always amenable. Yes I was one of the ones that did it for extra monet and it,was an “appartment/studio” in my house.
Definitely always ask AND explain why.
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