How We Pick Lodging: Nearly-Foolproof Advice

If you’ve been following our adventures so far, you’ll know that we’re like hermit crabs, changing our dwelling every one to three months. Many readers have asked us how we pick lodging, so this post spells it all out. At the moment we’re in our seventh flat, about a year in, and we’ve learned a lot.

Many sites offer long-term furnished housing, but so far we’ve mainly used Airbnb. We like sabbaticalhomes.com, but the stays there are usually longer than works for us. (Note: we know that there are concerns about Airbnb; those that bother us the most are about the way it tends to drive prices up and push residents out. But booking.com doesn’t yet have enough flats to be useful to us, and we haven’t explored other sites sufficiently well to recommend them.) The whole business requires trust, on both sides: imagine our surprise when we discovered that hosts weren’t sure they could trust us!

Once we’ve decided on a location and a duration, we begin our quest; that happens at least six months out. We never have a car, and always want to be central, but not always right in the middle of the tourist things. Sometimes friends recommend an area in which to stay. We also scan guidebooks. Funky, up-and-coming, lots of restaurants, and gay-friendly are keywords that usually denote the right neighbourhoods for us.

Next we look at cost. Given our other expenses, we can afford no more than about $100/£85/€95 per night (on average; we go lower when we can and higher when we must – but so far we’re under budget!). This means that our lodgings range from palatial to ‘cosy’. But it usually evens out: the more interesting the city, the smaller the space, and the less likely we are to hang out in our flat.

These two factors often narrow things down nicely. Some flats do not allow long-term stays, and Airbnb now has a ‘split-stay’ option, where you move in the middle. We never do that, so that eliminates more. We are usually faced with four or five acceptable apartments in the location we want. Then we go through our list of requirements (of course we have a list!). Here it is:

• internet
• utilities and water included – no multiple billings
• kitchen: must have refrigerator, freezer, at least two burners (you’d be surprised!)
• washing machine
• sleeping must be in a bedroom, i.e. no true studios (though we did this once)
• natural light (hard to tell, but careful scrutiny of photos gives a sense)
• bathroom cleanliness and size must meet minimal standards

And here is our list of other factors:

• not on the ground floor (safety, plus exercise walking the stairs)
• near to public transportation (we like trams and subways more than busses)
• parks nearby; grocery stores nearby
• balcony (we are suckers for sitting outside in the privacy of our own home)
• water boiler, toaster oven; ideally a picture of silverware etc.
• good lamps (also hard to tell)

Next we read the reviews carefully, and we only consider apartments that have a large number of reviews. (See below for a cautionary tale!) The best reviews are detailed, written by people who have done a lot of Airbnb stays, since they’ve seen the highs and the lows of different places.

We also look at the photos very closely, magnified, on a computer. If you don’t see it, assume it’s not there! We are always suspicious if the photos are mainly of the neighbourhood and not of the flat itself, and we usually eliminate places without pictures of key elements. Then we pore over descriptions of what’s included. But sometimes they are just plain wrong: we’ve been told a place has “all cooking requirements” only to discover that means one pan and two forks.

When we finally pick, it’s a combination of calculation and intuition. Sometimes something about a place seems off, and we don’t know why. And sometimes a detail captures us: a view, a balcony, a brightly coloured sofa…

So, how have we done so far? Overall, not badly. We’ve liked all of the places we’ve been in well enough, and so far (here we knock on wood) we have not had any of the very bad experiences we have heard about with Airbnb. Of the seven flats, only one has been a wee bit disappointing. We’ve also been interested to see how different owners treat their properties. In Oslo, for example, our flat felt like a real home (it had a useful toolbox, kids’ toys, and a yoga mat). In Istanbul, by contrast, the place was done up mostly for tourists. Limassol and Mindelo were somewhere in the middle.

We’ve learned to look very closely at the photos. To give just one example: in Istanbul the kitchen looked great, with tons of counter space and cabinets. This turned out to be because there was nothing in it – no toaster, no kettle, nothing! In Helsinki, by contrast, the smallest place we’ve stayed in, the kitchen was fabulous, beautifully appointed with great utensils, dishes, even a wine refrigerator! There is, of course, a lot pictures don’t show. Electrical outlets are often a problem in older flats. Sometimes the heating is not great. Comfortable chairs are a rarity in these places: only in Oxford and Istanbul have we enjoyed them. And then there are the beds, which vary significantly, and make a real difference to our quality of life.

Still, so far there has been nothing we couldn’t put up with. It helps that these are all short-term; even six-month stays, we suspect, would have us thinking differently about the sticky lock or the over-complicated recycling procedure or the squeaky floor.

One final thing we’ve learned is how to game the system, or at least how other people do. In one of our flats, the host sent a message right after we checked out saying that he would be very grateful for our five-star review. He had said that the first time he met us, and every time we interacted thereafter. It was also written on the fridge. At the end of that email the host said that if we gave the place five stars, he would send us a $5 gift card. We’re pretty sure that this is frowned on by Airbnb, but it did explain, at least partially, how the place had such great reviews. (Note: we know that Airbnb punishes hosts for having below-par scores by lowering the prices they can charge, so we understand the pressure. But we don’t like cheaters.)

We hope you find this post useful for your own meanderings, however brief or long they may be! Please let us know if you have additional advice for readers!