When traveling a lot, especially dynamically (surfing), without a pre-planned route, it is important to be able to quickly find where to spend the night and, ideally, with whom to communicate. 🙂
According to experience, if you want to spend time with pleasure, having communicated with the local, the hotels are not the best option. A waste of time, I'd say. It is Better to use accommodation through AIRBNB and/or Couchsurfing.
I will not write About hostels. Not a Bad option for an amateur. Although in many cities I have stayed and in them, especially when booking accommodation on the last day before coming to town. 🙂
Airbnb
is a reliable way to find accommodation. At times I am more reliable than Booking and definitely more reliable than Couchsurfing. Yet the financial interest is stronger than the need for conversations. 🙂
In terms of meeting the need for communication Booking is good at booking hostels. Especially If you book this link, you can get from Booking to 1000 rubles. As a gift. 🙂
Pros of Airbnb:
- Dependability. Airbnb pretty harshly fines irresponsible owners, trying to stimulate those who do their job well.
- The Host receives money from Airbnb only the day after the date of settlement if Airbnb has not received a complaint from the guest.
- The Rate of approval of the residence request. Many hosts Have auto-confirm mode. Those who do business on short-term leases are important to ensure maximum occupancy.
- Pretty Handy App. It has enough jambs, including In terms of usability, however it is at TIMES better than the Couchsurfing application.
- Good living conditions. Although I have been in quite squalid flats in Europe. More precisely, even in the rooms, because in the season, especially when booking a couple of days before the trip, the apartment in some European countries-very expensive. However, the price was still much more profitable than the hotels. Especially if the two of you stop.
- When staying through Airbnb there is always access to the kitchen, so you can cook yourself, feeling at home. 🙂 Well, the economy turns out to be decent, because even in hostels breakfasts are often worth the decent money. If you cook yourself, buying products in the market and supermarkets, the cost of food is slightly different from the Russian.
- There is a discount link from Airbnb for inviting friends. You can save up to 2000 rubles by booking a stay at the link for the first time.
- If you want to communicate with the locals, to penetrate life in the country, look for a room, and not an apartment. This is not a guarantee, of course, that communication will take place. I have not once moved in the rooms, but there was no communication. People are different. Many do not need this.
- You can determine the quality of the master's work by rating. If you need a guarantee that there will be no problems on arrival-choose among the owners of Superhost.
- The Commission in Airbnb is lower than in booking, so the prices are lower.
- Quite a large selection of hosts, especially in tourist cities.
- You Can travel not only solo. 🙂 Not a problem to rent the whole apartment, so even capricious (exacting) companion will be pleased. 🙂
Cons:
- Price of accommodation. It is still closer to the cost of hotels, although still much more profitable. Hostels through booking.com can cost less. Especially If you use discount services.
- In Some countries Airbnb is half-banned, so the hosts are encrypted: give the left address, but on which they know, can be specified nickname, despite the check Airbnb. It is not necessary to be Frightened. Everyone survives as it can. The Main thing is that when booking the owner promptly answered. Do not mess with those who answer for a long time. There is a Big risk that when you arrive at the site you will not be able to contact the host and have to contact AIRBNB support.
- It is Better to have Internet on the phone. Communication with the host, especially which is encrypted, by phone or SMS in Europe will cost dearly.
- Airbnb-it's not about communication, as in Couchsurfing. It is Quite likely stopping through Airbnb with the host at all will not cross to talk. Nothing Personal is business.
If you thought to try to receive guests, here I described my experience of the superhost. 🙂
-It is more about communication, and not just about to spend the night. 🙂
Pros:
- Free. You pay for your time to talk.
- In Europe, as a rule, communication in English. It is an experience of colloquial language, a tuning of hearing under local pronunciation which can very much differ from other area. Say, even in the UK in different cities the pronunciation is very different.
- Communicating with the locals. For Example, it is very important for me. I miss Communicating when I am staying through Airbnb or Booking. Actually, for this reason I used it to meet with the locals and learn more about life in the country/city from insiders. What the tourist sees is often very different from what they tell about local life.
Cons:
- Couchsurfing more for solo travels. With A companion will be harder to find a host.
- An Inconvenien
t application for locating the host. - We need to spend a lot of time to find someone who will. Sent a lot of requests from which it is possible to there's someone who will be free and want to take on the wait.
- Some hosts refer to requests for accommodation with religious fanaticism. They Pick up the guest on some unknown grounds. 🙂 Yes, cool If you manage to find someone with a common interest. However, in my opinion, everyone who travels is quite dynamic people and it is interesting to talk to them. There's always a Theme.
- Verification is paid and costs quite expensive. It may not pay off in one trip. It Is possible to pass verification taking guests in. This is not always possible, for example, for those who live in cities that are not popular with tourists. If you do not pass verification, it is available to send only 14 requests for accommodation per day. That's VERY little. The Chances of getting a response tend to be zero. Especially If you book on the last day. I traveled around Europe when I had to check in 2-3 days often sent several dozen requests.
- Hosts carelessly maintain a calendar, so most requests are rejected because the host is missing or someone is already visiting. In the case of Airbnb, this situation is excluded because there are financial obligations. Clearly keep the calendar is very important, not to waste the time of other people in vain.
I will elaborate on the shortcomings of the application.
- There is no expert system for selecting the optimal host/guest. You need to read the volume summary of the person to understand how it fits. Often hosts write about themselves well a lot, a collection of works. 🙂 It's all the time and no guarantee.
- After sending a residence request, there is no indication of this from the host. A Gigantic list of hosts. Someone has already sent a request. It is Necessary to remember on a photo to whom and it is impossible to filter those to whom the request is not sent.
- Apparently, if the host accepts a guest from him, the calendar does not have an exception for these dates, i.e. Such hosts continue to be displayed when filtering. Very often the owners reject the request, indicating that they already have a visitor. Perhaps It is the simplest way to refuse, instead of directly writing that there is no time/desire to accept.
- Very miserable filtration. You Need clear search criteria to reduce the time to dock.
- The approximate location of the apartment is Not shown on the map. And Transport in Europe is very expensive. Savings on the cost of a remote from the center of the house can do without cheap.
In my opinion the concept of docking of host and guest in Couchsurfing is very poorly worked out. In Fact-it is handmade, which takes away from both sides a lot of time. Some hosts have written to me that they have a day of 2-3 requests for accommodation and they, like, choose the best query that is most interesting to them. Accordingly, there is a paradox of eggs and chicken. If a person is new to CS, then he has no feedback and the chances that the host will pay attention are minimal.
In my opinion, if you want Airbnb can easily enter as parameters filtering the moments that are in Couchsurfing. For Example, in the filtering options, specify the need to chat as a payment for accommodation. 🙂 By and large, you pay your time.
Route Planning
When planning a multi-track route, it is often necessary to export the marks from Google maps to offline maps on mobile, like Maps.Me. Here I wrote how to do it the simplest way.
