Tourist Apartments On Airbnb?

[AlexanderB]

Does anyone have any experience with short-term/furnished tourist apartments in BA available on Airbnb?

Granted, this might be a stupid question, since there are quite a lot of them, in a lot of different areas. They're likely to be as hit and miss as anything else.

However, there are some markets where the options available on Airbnb are consistently problematic, and other places where they're not. For instance, I found a very nice, centrally located studio apartment in Berlin for a place that compared extremely favourably to hotels. This industry appears to be quite well-developed in Germany.

Any experiences to share? If not, can anyone recommend some good places to find temp apartments? I've looked at BYTArgentina and a few others, but having little reference frame or prior experience with them, I have no baseline confidence level.

P.S. I looked at the Apartments forum to see if this post might have made more sense there, but I didn't get that impression. I apologise if I am mistaken.

 

[jeff1234]

I have no experience with Airbnb but I'd like to offer a word of caution about travelers renting apartments, if possible have a friend or contact check out the apartment before you send money.
Before my last trip to NYC and Boston I looked at ads for apartment rentals and found the same fictional apartments advertised in both cities, including the same photo.
I did see some ads that looked credible and emailed inquiries. Strangely, when I saw the responses to my inquiries, they were written in the middle of the night with many spelling errors that seemed like the writer had a Russian accent.
The one inquiry that seemed to stop the fraudsters cold was when I requested that they make an appointment to show the apartment to a friend.
Good luck.

 

[Farenheit]

I rent rooms out on airbnb and my guests have all been happy. They've rented from other places in Bs As too and had good experiences. Just make sure you check all the reviews and go for a place that has many of them.

 

[AlexanderB]

I have no experience with Airbnb but I'd like to offer a word of caution about travelers renting apartments, if possible have a friend or contact check out the apartment before you send money.

So, you don't recommend just reserving it over the Internet, with the expectation to show up to it straight from the plane?

This is a fairly reasonable expectation in numerous other cities I've been to, but given what I know about BsAs from my visit in 2011, and from reading this forum, I could see how that might not hold.

 

[jeff1234]

So, you don't recommend just reserving it over the Internet, with the expectation to show up to it straight from the plane?

This is a fairly reasonable expectation in numerous other cities I've been to, but given what I know about BsAs from my visit in 2011, and from reading this forum, I could see how that might not hold.

I would not recommend renting and just showing up. There is way too much fraud in this industry.
I cannot speak about Buenos Aires specifically. And I have not used Airbnb (but I see that they have reviews, which may or may not be trustworthy).

But I have rented quite a few vacation apartments and if I wanted to be certain to have a comfortable apartment waiting when I arrive I would want to have someone meet the renter and see the actual apartment BEFORE giving a deposit. The folks on this forum are really friendly, perhaps one of their teenage kids might like to visit the apartment in exchange for a few dollars. It wouldnt take much time to verify that it exists and is habitable.

 

[trennod]

Hey Jeff, another long time member on this forum actually recommended Air BnB to me and am using them for the first time as my sister is coming in July. Helped her choose an apartment, and as I am living here had the luxury of meeting the landlord (who seems absolutely lovely) and the apartment (which is fantastic, as per the photos). It did had some good reviews as well.

Other posters give some good advice if you are booking from outside the city, look for good reviews and good history and where possible speak with the owner. I know for one, this lady is not asking for a deposit BEFORE my sister arrives, but not sure if that is standard practice or not.

 

[Davidglen77]

When I first came to Argentina 6 years ago, I arranged my first apartment through ByTArgentina. Apartment was small, but VERY nice and complete and ByT did every single thing they said they would. When I moved out after 4 months, they gave me back an envelope with the same bills that I had given them for the security deposit when I first arrived.
My partner and I rented an apartment on the upper east side when we travelled to New York City last year through AirBnB. The apartment was okay, it was old, but renovated and fairly complete. But the owner was CREEPY, and did a few things I really didn't like. We came home one day and all of the windows were wide open including the ones which faced the street and led to a fire escape, where anybody could have climbed in. Not knowing what had happened, I called him, and he said he "came by to check on things", which I didn't think was approprate for him to do without telling us. He said their was a "horrible smell of cooking onions" and he had to air the place out. I got really mad, because we never cooked even one single time except for toast and coffee in the morning. I never cooked onions. The building was more than 100 years old and there was a rancid smell in the hallways, but being a native new yorker, I didn't complain since I didn't smell it in the apartment. The floors were so crooked the desk chair kept rolling accross the apartment by itself. But since we were out all day everyday for the whole month we were there I didn't complain. When we left I wrote a very honest review about the apartment and him on AirBnB, the owner later sent me a very nasty e-mail and contacted AirBnB and said all kinds of lies about us. On the other hand, my neighbor here in Buenos Aires rents her apartment out through AirBnB when she goes to California for a few months every year. Everybody who comes loves the place and there has never been a problem. I guess these apartment rental services concept works well as long as the owner and renter all follow the rules and act properly and honestly.

 

[jeff1234]

Hey Jeff, another long time member on this forum actually recommended Air BnB to me and am using them for the first time as my sister is coming in July. Helped her choose an apartment, and as I am living here had the luxury of meeting the landlord (who seems absolutely lovely) and the apartment (which is fantastic, as per the photos). It did had some good reviews as well.

Other posters give some good advice if you are booking from outside the city, look for good reviews and good history and where possible speak with the owner. I know for one, this lady is not asking for a deposit BEFORE my sister arrives, but not sure if that is standard practice or not.

Sounds like you have done your homework for your sisters visit. One question, if the landlord doesn't take a deposit are they obligated to hold the apartment for you or are they legally free to rent to someone else? In the US, it used to be (and may still be) the law, that a contract must be written and secured with the exchange of money. Otherwise you have a verbal agreement, not a legal agreement. If you like her and trusted her, this may not be a problem for you.

 

[RichardP]

If I'm not mistaken, if you use Airbnb and are not satisfied with what you see, the owner does not get access to the money until a couple of days after you arrive. This gives you the advantage if you feel you have been mislead.
That being said, I recently checked out some apartments in BA on Airbnb and saw that several had the same contact name and reviews.
I've used the service in Paris and was satisfied.

 

[Montauk_Project]

A lot of agencies use Airbnb to rent out apartments. We were hired by Airbnb to make some promotional videos none of the apartments we filmed were house shares, they were all rented out by agencies or by owners who had rental properties.