How to Find the Best Airbnb Rentals 2024

If you’re new to Airbnb, you may find you’ve picked a less-than-desirable place. Perhaps you were seduced by the pretty pictures, enticed by a low price, or naively thought any reasonable pick would be great.

We’ve been guilty of all three, and after some bad choices, we have learned (and continue to learn) how to find the best Airbnb rentals.

Below are nine tips you can use to find the best Airbnb rentals and the situations that led to us adopting these tips. There is also a bonus tip for after you arrive at your Airbnb.

All money is in U.S. dollars

Our Reasons for Using Airbnb

As of this writing, we have stayed in 50 Airbnbs. We plan to continue booking through Airbnb because:

* We can get a comfortable apartment with a full kitchen equal to or less than a hotel room would cost, especially when renting long term.
* Most hosts offer discounts for stays of 28 days or longer.
* The few times we have had issues, Airbnb provided good support.
* The quality of accommodations on Airbnb is impressive.
* The platform is easy to use.

A Bumpy Start

Steve and I began traveling full time in 2018. We traveled for eight months that year and stayed in twelve Airbnbs. Six years later and counting, we still rely on Airbnb. However, we’ve had some bumps, especially in the beginning.

One host misrepresented his apartment, leaving us with a curtain instead of a bathroom door. Another host canceled our reservation eleven days before our arrival. But the strangest thing was the solid block of ice in the freezer in our rental in Croatia.

So let’s get to the tips.

Tip #1 – Avoid the Instant Book option; message the host instead

We got off to a less-than-promising start when we booked an apartment in Barcelona a year before we began traveling. We decided on one and pushed the Instant Book key. Then we posted this milestone on Facebook.

The next day, we got a message from the host saying the price was wrong. He refused to name his price and asked us to make an offer. We said no and asked him to cancel the reservation.

We didn’t want to cancel because we would have been liable for one month’s rent since we booked long-term (28 days or more). The host wouldn’t budge.

After waiting several days for the host to cancel the reservation, I called Airbnb. They said the best thing was for us to cancel, and we would not incur a penalty.

With that taken care of, we booked another apartment in Barcelona for $500 more.

While most instant bookings turn out fine, we always communicate with the host before booking. We reiterate our dates and the price and ask questions. If you message the host before booking, you will be invited to book the listing, and it will be held for 24 hours.

Tip #2 – Don’t book for too long

We were excited to find a studio in Paris for $1,000 per month. From the description, we knew it was small, but we loved the price. We planned to spend two months there, so we grabbed that baby.

The minute we walked in, we knew we couldn’t spend two months there. The whole place was about 100 square feet or 9.3 square meters. In addition, two things in the listing were misleading.

The first was a picture of a Murphy bed with shelving on either side. There was a Murphy bed but no shelving because there wasn’t room for it.

Secondly, a review stated that the bathroom didn’t have a door, just a curtain. The host replied that there was a door. This was a lie. There was only a curtain that separated the bathroom/kitchen area from the living/sleeping area. And it didn’t even go all the way across. When nature called one of us, the other person would go out for a walk.

Because of these two issues, the host let us out of the second month without penalty.

Decide how long you can live in a less-than-ideal place. For us, it’s four weeks. If we want to stay in a city longer, we move to another place. This allows us to avoid being stuck in a place too long, and we get to experience living in different parts of the city.

Tip #3 – Avoid hosts who have unexplained cancelations

With our second month’s Paris lodging canceled, we decided to spend that month in Strasbourg, France. We had to scramble because it was tourist season, but we found a place. We practiced the first tip by communicating with the host before booking.

Eleven days before we were scheduled to arrive, she asked us to pay 54% more. We said no. She replied that we should then cancel the booking. Presumably, she wanted to avoid the penalties Airbnb imposes on hosts when they cancel a booking without a valid reason. We held firm, and eventually, she canceled it.

We found another place in Strasbourg that was nearly perfect. It was clean, spacious, and uncluttered. It was a little higher than our budget, but we were happy to pay the difference because the bathroom had an actual door. Laughably, it was a sliding door that would open on a whim, requiring a doorstop to guarantee privacy.

We realize that emergencies happen. Airbnb gives hosts the option of responding to a cancelation post. If they don’t respond, we can only assume that they did not have a good reason to cancel on a past guest. When we see an unexplained cancelation, we don’t consider that listing.

Tip #4 – Choose Superhosts

In 2018, we spent three nights in Split, Croatia, a small town on the Adriatic Sea. This was our first time renting from a Superhost and our best Airbnb experience up to that point.

Superhosts are Airbnb hosts who have met several requirements, including receiving high scores from guests, having no cancelations except in valid cases, and having a high response rate to inquiries.

Even though we put stock in the Superhost label, there were times when we did not choose a Superhost and had a wonderful experience like at Ryan’s place in Jacksonville, Florida. When we rented from Ryan, he was not a Superhost because his listing was too new. He is now.

Tip #5 – Check out the neighborhood

In 2022, we stayed in an Airbnb on the European side of Istanbul for two weeks. The apartment was in a new building and looked pleasant.

We were shocked to discover that while our building was one of several new highrises on that block, the area around the block, in every direction, was a slum. Even so, we never felt unsafe, but it had a negative impact on our experience.

Since then, we have used Google Maps Street View to check out the area around the place we are considering.

Tip #6 – Check the size of the refrigerator

After our visit to Podgorica, Montenegro, in 2023, we added another tip: be sure of the size of the refrigerator if that’s important to you. A mini-fridge may be fine for a short stay or if you will be eating out a lot. We stayed in this Airbnb for four weeks and ate more than half of our meals at home.

We looked back at the listing. There wasn’t any indication that the fridge was a mini, nor were there any photos of the fridge. The host told us that apartments in Montenegro don’t have full-size refrigerators, but judging by numerous Montenegro listings, this was a lie. There was also cabinet space for a full-size fridge, so this was just the host being cheap.

Tip #7 – Don’t be afraid to ask for a price reduction

Our average four-week cost for an Airbnb is $1,600. Sometimes, we pay much less. Sometimes, we are shocked by the prices in an area. That is what happened to us when we returned to Jacksonville, Florida, for Christmas in 2023.

We found a listing we liked, but we didn’t like the price. Since we were booking for four weeks, we asked the host if she would consider a lower price. We told her what we were comfortable paying, and she accepted it and sent us a special offer.

Please do not low-ball to the extreme. If you have great reviews from hosts and are staying for a long time, a few hundred dollars off is not an unreasonable request.

Tip #8 – If you’re staying on a boat, make sure it has mooring springs

We stayed on a sailboat in Lisbon for two weeks in 2018 and have no desire to do it again. Entering the marina was like entering another world because it was so peaceful. However, the cramped quarters got old fast.

Walking along the dock, we noticed that some boats had spring-like devices on their mooring lines. These devices were mooring springs. They prevent the boat from jerking while it is docked.

The boat we stayed on didn’t have them. This wasn’t a problem until our last night. The winds were strong that night, and the boat constantly jerked hard enough to keep us awake. Luckily, we didn’t get seasick, but it was a threat.

Tip #9 – Know the rules before you book

A while back, I ran across an article in which a woman was complaining about her first Airbnb experience. She and her partner chose an Airbnb to save money while attending a wedding. Before leaving the Airbnb, the host “required” them to complete a list of tasks, which they grudgingly did.

That negative experience was entirely their fault. Either the requirement to complete those tasks was in the listing, and by renting that apartment, they implicitly agreed to do them, or it wasn’t in the listing.

If the requirement wasn’t in the listing, all the guests had to do was tell the host no and point out that they never agreed to that.

In all our stays, we’ve never had a host make unexpected requests or demands. It makes me wonder if the author of that article works for the hotel industry.

Bonus Tip – Take photos when you arrive.

It’s unlikely you will find everything in your rental to be perfect unless it’s brand new. Things get stained, scratched, and chipped but are still useable. We always take photos of any minor issues upon arrival so we are not blamed for them. We’ve never had to use these photos, but it is still a smart move.

Conversely, if we break or damage something, we let the host know and offer to replace it or pay for it.

We also take photos of items we won’t be using and want to move out of the way before moving them. Then, we can effortlessly put them back where they belong before we leave.

More Information

For even more ways to find the best Airbnb rentals, check out this article by Dreamy Stays. You might also be interested in our post “The Truth About Staying in Airbnbs.”

Until Next Time

I hope you found this post helpful. As always, Steve and I would love to hear from you. Please share your Airbnb experiences and tips in the comment section below, and consider sharing this post using the buttons at the top.

Happy traveling,
Linda

Featured image was taken from our balcony in our Airbnb in San Jose, Costa Rica