The Airbnb equation

Airbnb gets a lot of snark these days for people’s perceptions of the extra things they are supposed to do. They go in thinking they are getting a bargain, and then find themselves doing the host’s housework.

If this is you, you are using it wrong.

How to evaluate an Airbnb stay

I am in the midst of a vacation in which I am staying at three different places in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, Canada. These are incredible places, but not perfect. I nearly always have good experiences, but that is because of the way I prepare and my attitude once I get here.

If you think about your Airbnb as a hotel, you are going to be disappointed. The job of a hotel is to make everything as easy and effortless as possible for you. An Airbnb is not going to be like that.

The job of an Airbnb is to provide the maximum amount of what you enjoy with the minimum amount of annoyance. Not zero annoyance, but annoyance that you can prepare for and that doesn’t detract unduly from the enjoyment.

So the first step is to decide what you want. For example, here is my list of desired qualities for my places in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick:

1. Stay near the things we want to see.
2. Incredible and amazing locations, for example on lakes or the ocean.
3. A king-size bed, or more than one bed, because my wife and I need that to sleep well.
4. Priced around $200 to $250 per night.
5. Cooking facilities so we can make lunches and dinners instead of eating out all the time.
6. A bathroom near the bedroom.

Airbnb is set up so you can find places on a map, see the views, check the beds, and get accurate prices (they’ve recently made it easier to assess that without getting hit with surprise fees at the end of the process). And you can sort on other things, as well. I’m currently in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia with my Tesla Model Y, and there are no Tesla superchargers anywhere near here. So I needed a place with a car charger, and I was able to find places that fit that criterion.

Now let’s talk about the annoyances.

The first thing to check is the reviews. And that includes the bad reviews. If there are only a few reviews, you cannot accurately assess the quality of the place. Airbnb customers are typically quite frank about the problems. If they complain that they had to wash the sheets and that was annoying, you can assess if that is going to be a deal-breaker for you. If a place is dirty or noisy or has slow Wi-Fi, somebody probably has complained about it. What matters is not if there are bad reviews, but if the things people complain about would be a problem for you.

Since the reviews only come from people who actually rented the places, they are far more accurate than random reviews online.

For example, at the last place I stayed at, in Porter’s Lake near Halifax, some people complained bitterly that they brought their friends over, and that the other people living in a unit on the same properly told them that was not allowed. The no visitors policy was clearly stated in the description, and we weren’t planning on having anyone over, so that review didn’t bother me at all.

What we did get was this:

That soul-soothing view was well worth the price.

At the place we are staying now, on Cape Breton, there are detailed instructions that would put some people off. You are supposed to take off your outdoor shoes so you don’t scratch the floor. You are supposed to hose off when you come in from the beach so you don’t clog the shower with sand. And the water from the well smells and tastes funny, so if you want drinking water, you have to get that from a bottled water dispenser rather than the faucet. A lot of folks would find all that annoying, and it is certainly not what I’d prefer. But it was all disclosed in the listing, so you have no excuse if it’s not what you wanted.

It’s workable. And the place is nestled among the trees looking out over the rocky coast with a view for miles and not another human in sight.

And the car-charger works exactly as advertised, so I’m happy.

There are always the annoyances you don’t expect. For example, I was disappointed that the dirt road to get here is so long, and the bathroom in our bedroom is tiny, and that there is no easy place to store our clothes or set up our suitcase. But these things are easy to work around if you concentrate on the positives.

My attitude is: I’m here to enjoy myself in some somebody else’s house. Of course it’s not just like being at home or being in a hotel. I’m here for the new experience, and that experience is awesome.

The non-inclusive vacation

Feel free to stay at your White Lotus-style resort where everything is taken care of and you’re shielded from all unpleasantness, if that’s your idea of a vacation.

I’ll take these imperfect homes in places that I’d never get a chance to experience otherwise.

Life isn’t about avoiding all annoyance (and neither are vacations).

It’s about seeing, feeling, and doing amazing things you’d never get to do any other way.

And if you have to strip the beds at the end and carefully sort the trash because that’s how people do things here — well, in my view, it’s worth it.