We book long-term Airbnb stays a lot. During our 20 months of continuous travel (and counting!) we’ve booked 19 long-term Airbnb stays and gained quite a bit of experience.
And we find great value in booking Airbnbs long-term – sometimes getting as much as a 72% discount! However ensuring a good long-term Airbnb experience takes more than just booking a cheap place and moving in. You have to make sure you book the right Airbnb for your needs, then set it up properly once you arrive, to have the best experience.
So let us show you what we do to make our long-term Airbnb stays as enjoyable (and cheap) as possible.
What are Long-Term Airbnb Stays? Why Would You Book One?
Airbnb considers a long-term stay to be 28 nights or longer. Not all Airbnb listings accept long-term stays, but in our experience the vast majority do. Even when the apartment is clearly not properly equipped for long stays.
Long-term Airbnb stays are great because you can get a big monthly discount on the daily rental rate. Sometimes as much as 50% or more!
For example, our stay in Baños de Agua Santa, Ecuador had a 72% long-term stay discount. This brought the total cost for 28 nights to $473.09 USD (including fees), which is really good for a tourist zone. The non-discounted cost would have been $1,521.41 USD!
Saving that much money is pretty sweet.
Now you might be tempted to think that big discounts like that would overcome any shortcomings you might experience with your Airbnb during your stay.
You would be wrong.
Know What Your Essential Airbnb Needs Are!
You want your long-term Airbnb stay to meet your critical needs so your time there is comfortable, enjoyable, and productive. Because if you don’t choose the right Airbnb, or don’t set it up properly after you arrive, you might be in for an extended period of misery.
It’s like having a small rock in your shoe.
Over time, whatever small compromises you made when booking your long-term Airbnb stay can become big problems. You might be able to endure the pain for a week. But after a month you will be a ball of irritation, which will be further magnified if you with a partner enduring the same issues!
Fix most problems before they begin by booking the right apartment for your needs.
Let us show you what Rhonda and I consider before booking a long-term Airbnb. Just keep in mind that your needs may be different from ours!
Location – Is the neighborhood safe? Is it noisy? Is the location close to interesting things to see or do? Do you have access to cheap transportation options? Is there access to good grocery shopping to stock your kitchen? And restaurants? These are our primary considerations, and we Google a lot before booking. The Airbnb host can also help answer questions prior to booking but do your due diligence using Google and reading the Airbnb reviews. Keep in mind that you can save A LOT of money on your Airbnb if you don’t mind living in non-touristy, working-class neighborhoods with the locals. The closer you get to the hot spots of town, the more inflated prices usually get.
Sleeping Arrangements – I am 6 feet 5 inches tall. Yet Rhonda and I can fit pretty comfortably in a full-sized bed so long as it doesn’t have a footboard! Having my feet hang over the end of the bed is no big deal to me. But I need to look at the Airbnb bed photos carefully, or I could be in big trouble!
Kitchen – Is there adequate space for food preparation? Is the refrigerator big enough? Does it have basic kitchen equipment (within reason) to make the dishes we like to cook? Is there an oven? Is there storage to put groceries? Read the Airbnb listing carefully to ensure you have the basics, and reach out to the host if you have any questions. Otherwise, you may be stuck making ramen in a hotpot for a month!
Relaxation/Productivity Space – This has become increasingly important to us. Having a nice dedicated spot to relax or work, with a comfy couch or chairs, is key. And a separate table to set up a laptop is nice too, although not required if the relaxation space is configured properly. Without a separate space to relax, we are stuck in a (sometimes small) bed, elbow to elbow all day. And that gets old very quickly. Bottom line, make sure you have a separate location to be able to spread out and decompress.
Airbnb Temperature – This should seem obvious, but does the Airbnb have AC if the local climate is scorching? Are there ways to stay warm if you are in a cooler climate? If anything is unclear, your prospective Airbnb host can help. If multiple Airbnb comments are critical of the temperature of the living space, believe them.
Airbnb Size and Layout – This is a personal preference thing. For us, a well-designed efficiency trumps a poorly designed 2-bedroom apartment. That said, an extra bedroom can be a great place to do activities that might otherwise disturb your partner. Apartment storage space is also a key feature. Are there closets to put our clothes? A nightstand (with electric outlet) next to the bed? Shelves for toiletries in the bathroom? These things may not sound like a big deal, but you learn to appreciate being able to put away the things you need in the places you need them. Otherwise, you are constantly tripping over your stuff or pulling out your suitcases!
Quality of Airbnb Host/Airbnb Ratings – We prefer renting from hosts with a “Superhost” rating. These are hosts with a long track record of taking good care of their guests. That said, we rent from other hosts too, but only if their Airbnb ratings are high with a large sample size. And reading the written reviews is key! You very quickly learn what the strengths and weaknesses of a place are, or if the reviewer is being an entitled whiner.
Cost – Again, this is a personal choice based on budget. In Latin America, we like to spend no more than $25/night on average. But we will spend more under the right circumstances. Sweet locations or fabulous amenities can make it worth throwing extra money into a place if your budget allows it! That, and it is nice to splurge a little sometimes. Our efficiencyAirbnb in Lima, Peru was a good example of this. It had a PRIME location, was well-designed, and was worth every penny.
Internet – We are lucky. We only require a stable internet connection and 2 – 5 Mbps download speeds to do the basic things that we need to do. Make sure your prospective Airbnb meets your own bandwidth requirements. It is perfectly reasonable to contact the host and ask for a screenshot from speedtest.net measuring the bandwidth in the apartment.
[December 2023 Update – It appears that Airbnb updated their cancellation policy since this post was written. Now Airbnb will allow you to cancel up to 1 month before your stay! I suspect competition with VRBO prompted this change.]
There is one major disadvantage to booking long-term stays on Airbnb – once you book, you are committed to the stay! You pay the entire booking up front and it is nearly impossible to get your money back.
Political upheaval is oddly absent from coverage on our travel/medical insurance we pay $171 USD per month for, nor were the coverages from our travel credit cards helpful. Now if the disruptions were due to terrorism, that would have been another matter!
We’re not bitter at all.
However, it turns out that you can get your long-term stay money back from Airbnb under extreme circumstances, as per theirExtenuating Circumstances Policy.
And it was through Airbnb’s Extenuating Circumstances Policy that they did us a solid that our travel insurance wouldn’t! Airbnb completely reimbursed us for our scheduled 28-night stay in Arequipa, Peru, due to the inherent danger from protesters that arose during our booking.
Woo-hoo!
I had to initiate that conversation with Airbnb though!
On top of that, Airbnb gave us a $45 USD coupon for use on our replacement booking to make up for the inconvenience. We used it to book our Airbnb in Taganga, Colombia!
A much better alternative to protesters throwing Molotov cocktails.
Thanks Airbnb!
Outfitting Your Long-term Airbnb
So you’ve done your due diligence and booked the perfect place for a month. Now you just move in and start living the good life in your new location!
Right?
No.
No matter how good a place seems, if you are traveling on a budget something will be “off” in your new place. There will always be a niggling issue that will make living there for a month more challenging. This may not be true for expensive luxury Airbnbs, but we have no experience with those!
Is your “fully equipped” kitchen missing a frying pan? Do you have enough towels? Do you have enough silverware? Cooking utensils? Dish soap? Dish sponges? Dustpan and brush? Blankets for the bed in cold climates?
You get the idea.
Here is what we do when an Airbnb lacks something described in its listing or is a quality of life issue we can’t do without.
STEP 1 – Talk to Your Airbnb Host
If the Airbnb listing says it should be equipped in a certain way but isn’t, it is reasonable to ask for missing things. We’ve asked hosts for pots, blankets, can openers, hand towels, spatulas, and other items of similar magnitude. Again, these are all examples of reasonable requests based on how an Airbnb listing describes itself. Good hosts understand this and take steps to help you out. Airbnb user comments can also help you gauge what a host is willing to do for you. But if the missing items are really cheap, you might consider just buying them yourself and taking them with you if possible.
Unreasonable requests are for anything even remotely expensive when it wasn’t included in the Airbnb listing. Examples: asking for AC, a coffee maker, a toaster oven, an extra bed, a blender, a washing machine…you get the idea. Don’t assume anything is at an Airbnb unless it is specifically listed. When in doubt, ask the host before you book!
STEP 2 – Take a Trip to The Dollar Store (or Equivalent)
You are only staying in this Airbnb for a month, and barraging your Airbnb host with repeated petty requests isn’t cool.
Definitely get the major things dealt with through your host when appropriate. But for minor things, just go to the nearest store that sells cheap crap and buy what you need. Even if it is poorly made, most things you buy should last 28 nights.
We love dollar stores and have learned to find the nearest ones (or their cheap crap equivalents) soon after moving in.
One of our go-to’s for cheap crap. Ironically located in a country (Peru) that doesn’t use the US dollar.
If it is a more expensive item, we weigh the quality of life benefit of having it for a month, versus not having it.
For example, some of the Airbnbs we booked do not have a coffee maker listed in their amenities. But we love coffee! Just not enough to turn down a sweet Airbnb deal. So we are willing to buy a cheap French press (or some other local equivalent) so we can get our coffee fix!
Over the course of a month, it is always worth every penny.
And sometimes, we can take these kinds of things to our next Airbnb! It depends on how big the items are and whether or not we have to deal with airport security issues.
Food For the Kitchen
Cooking many of your own meals is another major money saver that helps us sustain our slow-travel lifestyle. Finding food is easy. Not getting ripped off by local merchants, less so. The reason that this is an issue is that smaller tiendas in Latin America often do not have prices listed for their items!
So you have to ask.
And if you look like a tourist, you will often be quoted a price well above what a local might pay.
Haggling is a thing in Latin America, but you can’t do it effectively unless you have good baseline data to work with.
So what do you do? This seems like a lot of hassle just to stock your kitchen!
We admit it does take extra work not to get ripped off. But we have a lot of fun with this process, learning the ropes of daily life in each place we stay.
The merchants are usually nice enough. But don’t let that fool you. You may get fleeced if you shop without knowing the going rate for products!
So this is what we do:
Ask your Airbnb host where the best deals are found – They usually know the places that have a reputation for overcharging and those that don’t. Listen to their advice.
Find the nearest supermarket and check out the listed prices – Big supermarkets in Latin America are like those in the USA, with listed prices for each item. So take a trip to the nearest one if available and browse! Make mental notes of what they are charging. This will be the information you use to haggle with the locals! And don’t be shy about haggling, or walking away, if you know you are getting fleeced. Merchants respect tourists who are street smart, believe me.
Just the kind of place to get good baseline pricing data.
Once we are armed with information, we go shopping!
Closing Thoughts
All said, it usually takes us 2 – 3 days to make our Airbnb the way we like it and stock our kitchen. Possibly an extra day if shopping opportunities are less abundant.
But the money we save in rent and food more than makes up for the extra time and effort it takes to live in budget-minded long-term Airbnbs. And honestly, we have a lot of fun with the process of learning to live like a local!
We really can’t overstate how nice it is to have an Airbnb that is a pleasure to come home to and actually live in. It just takes a little extra effort.
Until next time…
Thanks for reading!
Leave a comment below and subscribe to get email notifications whenever we post!
