Airbnbs can be a great place to stay when you’re on vacation. They’re comfortable and convenient, offering more homey amenities (like fully equipped kitchens) than traditional hotels do. They can also provide more cultural insight into the place that you’re visiting. The rental is likely someone’s home, so it can offer a glimpse of the daily lifestyle of a local.

 

That said, Airbnbs also have downsides. Chief among them is their price. On top of nightly rates, you also pay for cleaning fees, service fees, and taxes when you book an Airbnb. That can add up! The average cleaning fee adds an additional $67 to $108 to your booking, and in some cases, you’re expected to take out the trash, strip the sheets, and do the dishes before you leave, despite the cleaning fee. Service fees vary according to the location, property type, and cancellation policy, but they typically range from 3% to 16% of the total booking fee. Taxes, determined by local tax considerations and VAT rates, also add significantly to your total spend amount.

 

Those administrative fees can actually push the cost of Airbnbs higher than a lot of hotels. According to a 2022 study by NerdWallet, the average Airbnb booking for two people was 29% more expensive than the average hotel. But, if you’re someone who prefers the comfort and convenience of an Airbnb, you don’t need to choose between their higher cost and an accommodation type that’s less expensive but doesn’t suit your needs.

 

Thanks to a little-known travel hack, you can book an Airbnb without paying the additional fees.

 

Here's how it works:

 

Many Airbnb hosts have their own direct booking websites that cut out the admin fees, and/or they list their properties on local third-party websites that are equivalent to Airbnb, but charge much less. Here are two methods that you can use to book the Airbnb you want without paying the admin costs.

Travel hack #1

Find the property you’d like to rent on Airbnb and do a reverse image search using the listing’s photos. To do this, you can either right click on any photo and select “Search with Google Lens” (if using Google Chrome), or you can go to Google Images, click on the “Search by image” button, and upload a photo from the Airbnb listing there. Either way, you should be directed to a list of URLs that also feature that image. Among them, you may find the host’s direct booking website or the local equivalent to Airbnb.

Travel hack #2

Use Airbnb to find the property you like, and then copy and paste the listing’s name into any search engine. If the host has given the property a unique name (which many do), the host’s direct booking website or the third-party platform that also lists the property should show up among the results.

 

Live and Invest Overseas is the world's savviest source for top opportunities to live better, retire in style, invest for profit, do business, and own real estate overseas. For more travel tips, visit their website at liveandinvestoverseas.com.