Find a home away from home with Airbnb

Hi everyone! It’s Corbin from Techboomers, here to tell you about another great website: Airbnb. If you haven’t heard of it, then you’ve probably at least heard of several other more common websites where you can book travel accommodations, such as Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, Hotwire, Hotels.com, or Booking.com. Airbnb is like those websites, and yet it’s unique in a few key ways. How so? Read on!
What is Airbnb?
Airbnb is a website where you can book travel accommodations, but with one major twist. The twist is in the name: Airbnb is a short form for “air bed and breakfast”, and so it helps you find properties that people are looking to rent out to others, such as apartments, cottages, townhouses, and — of course — bed & breakfasts. In that sense, it’s great if booking a hotel or motel for a trip out of town isn’t what you want or need, or just isn’t in the cards. For example, maybe all of the hotels or motels near the attractions that you want to see are booked full. Or maybe the ones that are available don’t have the amenities that you want. Maybe the price of staying in a hotel just doesn’t fit within your budget. Or maybe you’d rather just find someplace quiet and out of the way to stay at, rather than at a crowded hotel or resort. In all of these situations, you can turn to Airbnb.
The other really cool thing about Airbnb is that it’s designed to foster a tightly-knit community of users. Since the website is basically just people listing and booking rental properties (with Airbnb taking a cut of the transactions), there are no corporate sponsorships or advertisements to pressure you into choosing a lodging based solely on brand name recognition. Two-way ratings and reviews on Airbnb means that business is based solely on reputation: the hosts who always go the extra mile to make their guests happy are the ones who get the most bookings, and the guests who are always on their best behaviour will be welcome wherever they go. If you’re still not sure about something, you can contact a host directly, or ask another member of the Airbnb community.
For more on what Airbnb is and where it came from, see this What is Airbnb? tutorial on Techboomers.com.
So how does Airbnb work? How do I use it?
Setting up an account on Airbnb is quick and easy, and it doesn’t cost you any money to do so. In fact, you don’t have to pay any money to use Airbnb until you make a booking request and a host accepts it! Just go to www.airbnb.com, click “Sign Up”, and then click “Sign Up with Email”. Then fill in your first name, last name, email address, and two copies of a password that you’d like to use, and then click “Sign Up” again. Head over to your email account, open the confirmation email you’ll receive from Airbnb, and click “Confirm Email”. That’s all there is to it!
To find a property to book on Airbnb, the only information you need to plug in is the general area you want to stay in (e.g. New York City, or perhaps Manhattan more specifically), when you want to check in, when you want to check out, and how many guests will be staying. Of course, for better results, you can enter additional criteria, such as lodging type, neighbourhood, available amenities, price range, and even how private the space is (i.e. do you have the whole place to yourself, or do you have to share it with others?). Once you find a place that you like, just enter your billing information, send the host a friendly note of introduction, and click “Request to Book”. That’s it!
Can I get discounts on Airbnb?
As a matter of fact, you can! If you send an email invitation through Airbnb for your friends to join Airbnb, you’ll gain $25 or more worth of “travel credit” whenever one of your friends completes their first stay or hosting that’s worth $75 or more (not including cleaning fees). Then, whenever you make a booking worth $75 or more, your “travel credit” will automatically be used to discount or even cover the cost of your stay!
There are also special coupon codes that you can find scattered around the Internet by typing “airbnb coupon codes” into a search engine on the Internet, and visiting some of the websites that you find. Once you find a code, write it down and remember what it can be used for (e.g. $25 off your first booking of $75 or more). Then, once you’ve found a place to book on Airbnb and are entering your billing information, under the pricing information, click “Coupon Code”, type in the code, and then click “Apply”. If the code is (still) valid for the listing you’ve chosen to book, you’ll see your price discounted!
For more information on how to get discounts on Airbnb, visit our Airbnb Coupon Codes tutorial on Techboomers.com.
There’s more to discover about Airbnb, such as how it’s specifically designed to keep you safe and earn your trust, and how you can save your favorite properties to book again and again. If you’d like to know more, visit the rest of our Airbnb tutorials on Techboomers.com!