Spoiler alert: We just finished booking the perfect Airbnb. Now we want to tell you all about the process!
We mentioned a few weeks ago that we are planning a trip to Puerto Rico in September. We chose September because: a) it is cheaper than the summer months and b) everywhere is usually less crowded once summer vacation is over and traveling families go back to their daily lives.
The question of “where to go” is never as easy as the question of “when to go.” For us, we tend to choose places based on costs to fly there and stay there, easy access from the airport, and at least some walkability. For this trip, we chose Puerto Rico partly because it has no customs (for us) and car rental there is really inexpensive. The island isn’t that big, so we can drive from the airport to pretty much anywhere on the island in less that 3 hours.
Once we do a quick price check on expected flight costs (Capital One Travel has a good price predictor), our quest to book the perfect Airbnb begins.
How we evaluate Airbnb properties
Filters
We have a few non-negotiables we look for when booking an Airbnb: price, proximity to the beach, and type of place (we always choose Entire Home). Because we won’t consider homes that don’t fit these rules, we use the filters on the Airbnb website to make sure we only see houses that fit our deal breaker criteria.
Price
Whenever possible, we book trips that allow for a 7-night minimum stay and look for listings that provide a weekly rental discount. Once we start booking longer stays, we will be able to take advantage of monthly discounts and our per night price will drop significantly.
For now, we try to keep our nightly price under $150, but we will set our filter above that, so we don’t miss any great properties that are slightly outside the budget. For example, the Airbnb we booked for Puerto Rico comes in at $157 per night, but it is literally ON the beach. That was worth a slight upgrade in price for us.
Location
Location is a big part of booking the perfect Airbnb and for us it is second only to price. Where we stay dictates what we do and how we will get around. Walkability is a big plus for us; we like to walk whenever we can on vacation. Proximity to the beach is also very important. We don’t mind a short walk to the beach, but we want that walk to be reasonable (not along a highway) and we would like the beach to be more sand than rocks.
We find that the maps are very inaccurate, so we read the host’s description to find out how close they are to the beach. Typically, in areas that are beach towns, they spell out their proximity to the beach and usually will also include a short description of how to access the beach from their property.
Pictures
Once we’ve limited to properties that fit our budget, we start looking at pictures. We don’t spend a lot of time on this step. At this point we’re just looking to see if we see any big red flags, like bunk beds as the only sleeping option, or a terribly-equipped kitchen. If everything looks decent, we move on to the next step.
Once we have narrowed our list of possible properties down to two or three, we will come back and look in more detail at these pictures to make sure there isn’t anything that escaped our notice on our first view.
Reviews
If we like the price, the pictures show no red flags and it seems walkable enough, we start reading reviews. We stay away from properties that have no reviews or very few reviews.
We always read the worst reviews first. This allows us to view a property from its worst detractors. We find that one-star reviews are often people who appear difficult to please and not necessarily reflective of the property, although there are times when a one-star review has swayed us away.
We like two- and three-star reviews because those reviewers tend to give a non-emotional breakdown of the issues that less like an airing of grievances and more designed to inform future guests.
Mapping the property
The last step we do is try to find out where the house is actually located. You can’t book the perfect Airbnb without truly knowing where it is located.
Airbnb will give you a general area, but they won’t give you an exact address, so we have to do some detective work. We scour the reviews and the description for mentions of local businesses and can often use those and Google maps to find the location of the house.
Knowing where the house is located helps us to know what is in the area, how easy it is to walk around and explore, and what the rest of the neighborhood looks like. Does the neighbor’s house look like a junkyard? Is there a 6-lane highway behind you? Is their “3-minute walk to the beach” description only possible if you’re Usain Bolt or a professional rock climber?
Google maps strips away the rose-colored glasses and shows a house as it really is. If we like what we see at this point, we’ll usually book it.
Your mileage may vary
Our tips have worked for us so far. The only time we have ever been surprised by an Airbnb was when the one we originally rented lost power in a storm and the owner re-routed us to one of their other properties. It would NOT have passed any of our criteria!
You may have tricks that work for you when booking the perfect Airbnb that we didn’t mention. If you do, let us know in the comments! Let’s learn from each other!
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