AirBnB

Cherokee2015

Does anyone have experience of using AirBnB.   Our military son is returning from Germany with his family and has been posted to Colchester. They’ve been given a two bed house which means we can’t stay with them.   There are some CL’s and sites in the area but for our first visit in a couple of weeks to help them unpack and settle in we thought we’d stay in a hotel/B&B as it would be a 4-5 hour drive with the van and we’re a bit tight for time.  

The local budget hotels are reasonable enough but either well away from the town or in the middle- neither seeming ideal.    I’ve looked at a couple of AirBnB which look nice and reasonable but not sure if it’s something we would like.    Any experiences good or bad appreciated. 

TomSue

We've stayed at 2 AirBnBs, an apartment in Malta, which was beautiful and a fantastic apartment in Iceland. Booked to stay in another at Kefalonia this September. Choose one where the owner has a superhost status. Well that's the recommendation from our daughter. Booking & monies are paid via AirBnB themselves, so quite safe to use. They seem to be very reasonable prices for what you get. 

HelenandTrevor

Our son and his girlfriend have used AirB&B's quite a few times, in this country and abroad,  they have always found them to be very good and very reasonably priced.

MikeyA

We have used Air Bnbs all over the world (but not in the UK) and they have ranged from acceptable to amazing. All reviews were excellent but sometimes location has made up for any shortcomings in the accommodation. 

byron

Have visited friends in airbnbs locally, all very nice, although one only had a single loo roll for a family of four for three nights, complimentary bottle of wine though

Tammygirl

 How about asking his families officer in camp for some suggestions of where to stay.

When our son lived in Germany we used to go out there to see them, our other son and his wife came with us once and they stayed in the Regiments welfare flat.

Not sure that would be an option in the UK as there might not be one but the families officer would/should have a list of places for families to stay within the area.

Takethedogalong

Depends what you want Moonstone. We use B&Bs quite a bit, never booked via AirBnB. However, experience has taught us to look up where we fancy, keeping price shown in mind, then I phone the said hostelry and try and book direct, as you can very often get a better deal. For example I looked up a pub in Rothbury for us coming up here. We needed two rooms. Got online prices, but when I phoned pub direct, I was able to negotiate as we wanted two rooms. I got each room £15 cheaper, plus breakfast included. Good deal as breakfast was huge and would have added another £40 plus had it not been included, (a favourite ploy of booking agencies is to give a good price, but not include breakfast!😡) 

Your unique negotiating points might be how long you want the room for, and if it’s a quiet time of year. This ought to fetch the price down. 

Wont work with places like Travelodge or Premier Inn, but they are not always the cheapest. We got two superb rooms, en-suite, free parking, free for dog, all toiletries, towels etc..... for £69 each room, which as I say included a great breakfast. They even locked away OHs bike (seriously expensive) and let us leave cars in car park for day! I would have got cheaper if we had wanted more nights😂

Cherokee2015

Thanks Tammygirl - we visited him quite often in Germany and stayed in the welfare house.   It was very nice and very reasonable at 10 euros per night!      I'm not sure if there is something similar in the UK, but for now we have opted for the Premier Inn and once there will look around for alternatives including AirBnB.   Once he's been there a while, he should be able to find us some recommendations for future visits.