I’ve used Airbnb for accommodation for 10+ years if Im choosing to stay somewhere for a few days, I prefer having my own kitchen and space, and it feels more like I’m living like a local. But more recently I’ve seen Booking.com advertising apartments or holiday homes too. They don’t seem to have the same number of ratings, and I also find it hard with booking.com hard to contact the properties, when Airbnb is set up well for this. Other than reviews, it’s hard to see much about the host and they don’y always have a huge number of reviews so I don’t know how legitimate they are. But they do have some really good prices, better than Airbnb with their service fee, espeically with my genius discounts. I want to know if these are safe to use, and if anyone has booked/used these apartments regulalry what their experience was like.
You can find the same properties on both platforms sometimes, and Booking.com is usually a bit cheaper. I prefer AirBnb out of the two for the better contact with hosts and generally better safeguards and customer service.
However, I currently try to avoid using either of them at the moment as they both allow illegal Israeli-owned properties in the occupied West Bank to be listed on their platforms.
I use both regularly comparing prices. Airbnb has more offerings, but booking has better prices. One big difference is airbnb handles the payment and fees where booking takes your card to guarantee the reservation, payment is generally handled directly with the property. This can get tricky with international travel and sometimes cash is preferred. I have never felt or had an unsafe experience with booking. I do appreciate the genius program
Happy travels.
I’ve been using Airbnb for years because I like having my own space and being able to message hosts easily, but Booking.com has been stepping up lately. I think apartments and holiday homes are still kinda new on there, so that’s probably why you don’t see as many reviews yet.
I used Booking.com for a place in Brisbane recently, and the host communication was actually spot on — super clear and quick to respond. So I guess it really depends on the host themselves. The Genius discounts are nice too, and since there’s no extra service fee like Airbnb, the total price can end up cheaper.
Overall, I’d say it’s safe as long as you stick to listings with a few reviews or verified hosts. I still use both, it just depends on who’s got the better deal and setup for what I need.
Do you have an other sites you recommend @BigAndyC?
I used booking.com for an apartment in Vienna earlier this year. It was a really good price and really nice place, had no issues. It was a self checkin place, I basically got sent an email by the property with check in instructions (which was in German), but not sure if I had to contact anyone how easy/hard that would be.
Completely agree it is not set up as well as Airbnnb for communicating. And if I was travelling in a bit more off the beaten track, Im not sure if I would use Booking.com apartment if there were not enough reviews etc.
There are others such as Vrbo.com and Hostelworld.com, but there are similar issues with these listing properties in the West Bank.