Rent apartments in Europe on Airbnb. Renting an apartment or a room abroad Booking a property worldwide

One of the defining moments of any trip lasting more than a day is the choice of a place to stay for the night. Portal "ZagraNitsa" decided to acquaint readers with the best rental services in Europe. Tiny rooms and inedible breakfasts in the first available hotels are canceled!

Pre-booking accommodation (subject to a scrupulous choice) makes traveling, whether it be a vacation or a business trip, more comfortable and safer. So-called "mashups" (aggregator sites) will help you find suitable options, through which you can rent hotel rooms, apartments or villas around the world. International services allow you to compare offers from several booking systems and rent a room, room or other accommodation for a specific date. Vivid examples of such sites are Booking and Hotels.com: there is an impressive database of objects of various price categories and locations.

Photo: preferredhotels.com

"Booking" and "Hotels" are convenient for instant confirmation of the reservation. But as practice shows, you should not flatter yourself and it is better to play it safe. Reservations through online services - due to technical failures or for some other unknown reason - are sometimes not confirmed at the hotel. It's good if there are free rooms, because otherwise you will be left without a place to sleep.

The cost of a room in the same hotel on different aggregators may differ and be higher than the price on the official website of the hotel. If you want to save money, it's always a good idea to surf the different platforms looking for the best deal.

Photo: hotel-madison.com

Healthy alternative to hotels - rent from locals

An excellent option for lovers of diversity and authenticity is to rent accommodation from local residents. You can chat with a foreign host and plunge into the atmosphere of the country. Living in a standard hotel, you will not get such pleasure.

On many sites, you can leave comments and participate in the rating of hotels, homeowners and the apartments themselves. Feedback from ex-clients will help you make a choice. These comments are especially valuable when the service is not responsible for the accuracy of the information.

The most popular hosted rental services in Europe are Airbnb, Homeaway and Wimdu. They offer a wide range of both simply cozy apartments and more exotic options. You can find a chalet in the mountains, a villa on a picturesque seashore or a small family castle.

Home Exchange - exchange vacation

You can stop for a couple of days in a foreign city or country without money. Participation in the Home Exchange program will help you find a room, an apartment and even a house for free living with the owners or during their absence. So the trip will cost at least half the price.

Photo: solotravelerblog.com

The practice of exchanging vacation homes originated in Europe and the United States over 50 years ago and is gaining popularity every year. No wonder, because this is one of the easiest and most affordable ways to join the daily life of a foreign country, make new friends and exchange cultural values ​​with them, see the most interesting sights. To join the club, you need to pay an annual membership fee. The number of trips is not limited.

Hospitality sites are a kind of social networks where members are ready to give strangers a roof over their heads or just keep them company on a walk around the city. To become a host, you need to have your own housing (confirmation will be required) put up for exchange.

Europeans are mostly friendly, but not ready for a journey into the unknown. They want to clearly understand who they are visiting, and are not averse to conducting reconnaissance. To do this, they communicate online for a long time (six months to a year): they correspond or conduct “live” conversations via Skype.

It is better to find out all the details with a preliminary acquaintance. Exchange photos (personal and housing) and detailed descriptions of apartments/houses. Ask any questions that will help you get comfortable in a foreign city. By the way, residents of the United States and Europe often plan vacations in advance, so you rarely see last-minute options for an exchange vacation.

Accommodation in a hotel is often an unaffordable luxury for a student who has decided to study abroad. Moreover, not every university has at its disposal dormitories and apartments to accommodate foreigners. And the only way out in this case is renting an apartment or room in the country of study.
In fact, everything is not as dramatic as it might seem at first glance. It might be cheaper to live in a university dormitory, but the option of renting private accommodation is much more profitable than staying in a hotel. We have selected several effective ways to find inexpensive and comfortable housing abroad, which you can read about below.

Services for finding housing abroad

Resource	Offers	countries	Peculiarity
	2,000,000	191	Online search platform for short-term private housing rentals around the world
	7,000,000	246	One of the largest guest networks for finding free accommodation and new experiences abroad
	80,000	200	An online service that allows you to rent city apartments, rooms and even small private houses for a couple of days
	1,000,000	190	An online platform that allows you to rent a private room, apartment or exotic villa for the price of a hotel room
	26,000	170	The service offers a search for hostels, cheap hotels and B&B "s (bed and breakfast)
	33,000	170	A site for finding inexpensive hostels around the world, which, if there are any difficulties with settling in a hostel, will return the money and pay an additional 50 USD
	4,000,000	180	A site of free ads where you can successfully find housing, furniture and even a car

Effective ways to find apartments abroad

Use of accommodation search and booking systems

You can refer to specialized sites, which are many on the Internet. On such resources, you can find ads for renting small rooms, apartments, and even entire houses. It is important to understand that the cost of renting on different sites may not be the same. Therefore, even having met an interesting offer, it is worth checking the availability of similar offers on other sites.
Interestingly, some services offer discount coupons for using their services. For example, the Airbnb online platform gives 25 USD, which can be used on the next booking of accommodation. The main advantage of such services is the ability to find the most interesting accommodation options that reflect the local flavor, which cannot be found in boring hotel rooms.

Hostel Search

Staying in a hostel may seem like a good idea if an applicant is only staying in a new city for a couple of days (or a week) to take university entrance tests. You can find decent deals through hotel booking systems or special services like hostelworld. A hostel is far from always a typical hostel with concrete walls and the feeling of an ordinary communal apartment. There are quite decent places, beautiful historical buildings with a convenient location and the presence of separate rooms and even amenities. The only question is the price.

Finding accommodation through hospitality websites

Couchsurfing (couchsurfing) allows travelers to save on living in a new country, meet new people, exchange customs and traditions. Hospitality sites are expanding horizons by giving ordinary people the opportunity to get free shelter for a few days and have fun in the company of new acquaintances. All you need to do is register on one of these services, fill out your profile there, upload a good photo and tell about yourself. The main thing is to be open and friendly, and then you won't have to wait long for invitations from other couchsurfers.

What should be considered when looking for an apartment?

Before you book and pay for the selected room or apartment, you should consider a few nuances:

Surcharge

The full cost is not always displayed on the accommodation booking site apartment rental, therefore, when meeting with the landlord, the client can expect a real “surprise” in the form of a tax levied on the tenant. In order not to get into a similar situation, you should contact the owner of the apartment in advance and clarify all the details before the transaction.

Feedback from other users

If an apartment is found on one of the special sites, it is quite logical that there are reviews from other users who have already visited this landlord. On the pages of the service, the description and photos can illuminate the home from the favorable side, but in reality, often everything turns out to be much more prosaic. That is why you should carefully read the reviews of other users, if there are many of them and they are all positive, in this case you can rent the selected apartment without fear and doubt.

Additional services

Before concluding a deal, you should check once again whether additional services (daily cleaning, Internet access, breakfast, change of towels and linen, toiletries) are included in the total cost of renting an apartment. You may have to pay for these services separately, and on the site you can find better deals for the same price.

Favorable location

A suitable apartment for the price may be far from the center, so you still have to spend money on public transport. Isn't it easier rent housing closer to the center (as a rule, the price differs by 5 USD -10), so as not to waste time and nerves, getting from the outskirts of the city?

Payment Methods

To rent apartments using specialized services, you need a credit card, not a debit card. Otherwise, you can lose the reservation just a week before the expected settlement.

Presence of a security deposit

On many apartment booking services, you can find a similar clause that obliges the client to have a certain amount of deposit on the credit card in case the property of the owner of the apartment is damaged. This money is simply frozen in the tenant's account, and after the eviction becomes available to the cardholder again.

How is the process of renting a home abroad different?

If you need to rent housing abroad, you need to figure out in advance what lies behind this process. Many nuances apartment rental significantly different from those that exist in the CIS countries. What you should be aware of when renting a home abroad:

• Contract signing. In European countries, this is an absolutely normal practice, as the landlord and tenant are protected by law and in case of any disagreement, the dispute is regulated by the contract. In the CIS countries, it is not often possible to meet a landlord who wants to register his activity and pay taxes from it to the state treasury, so the tenant remains absolutely unprotected, because the agreements are made orally.
• Long-term apartment rental the real estate agent's commission is paid by the landlord;
• Damage to property. If you want to rent an apartment with furniture, you need to be rather scrupulous about their safety, since damage to the property of the owner of the apartment can be a real reason for premature eviction.
• Interestingly, in some countries No pet ban applies in rented housing, even if it is written in the contract. Therefore, it is important to know your rights and be able to defend them.
• Long term lease. In some European countries (Germany, France), the lease period starts from two years, this is due to the fact that in this way the tenant demonstrates his seriousness and solvency.
• Tenant protection. If the tenant has a signed contract in his hands, it is almost impossible to evict him from the apartment ahead of schedule (if there are no gross violations), nothing can be done with housing during this period (sell or rent to someone else);
• The need to pay an initial deposit. The tenant must pay the landlord an initial deposit, which is equal to a maximum of three monthly rents (utility payments are not included in this amount).
• Provision of documents and personal data. The tenant is obliged to provide the landlord with all the necessary information about himself: passport details, personal profile, income statement, as well as recommendations from previous landlords (if any).

How not to fall for the hook of scammers?

Apartments for rent was and remains one of the most profitable forms of business. There are a lot of easy money lovers working in this industry who know how to extract money from a client. Therefore, it is important to know a few rules that will help protect against the actions of scammers:

Signing a formal contract

There are cases when fraudsters rented apartments for a couple of days, during this period they found those who wanted to rent housing on a long-term basis, signed an agreement with them (not legally binding), took an advance payment and disappeared from sight forever. You need to conclude a contract only with a notary or a lawyer; a wet seal must be affixed to the form.

Checking the form of the landlord

When booking accommodation through booking services, you need to carefully review the owner's profile, and contact him to clarify the amount of payment, the date of settlement and other details. If the ad is in doubt, you should ask the interlocutor to provide additional photos of the apartment.

Payment for renting an apartment through verified sites

Payment should be made only through the website of the booking service, even if the owner of the apartment asks to send money to his personal account. It is better to pay the site a commission than to lose funds from your bank card.

Data privacy

You should not disclose information about your payment card to third parties (card number, CVV code, pin code) and other information.
If you want to rent a home abroad on a long-term basis, you should be prepared to shell out the amount of several monthly installments, which is quite a lot. As for the short-term rental of apartments (from 3 days to 2 weeks), in this case it is also necessary to have an initial deposit, which will become a guarantee of solvency and careful attitude of the tenant to the property of the host.

How to rent an apartment or apartments in another area, city or country directly from the owner, without intermediaries?

How to rent a house, so that by sending money - a deposit or an advance payment - not to lose them ... - that is, to have firm guarantees on this score that the owners will not deceive and slip a bed in a hostel instead of an apartment.

There is such a service - Airbnb
An American invention, but due to its great popularity it has conquered the whole world. Therefore, it will suit both those who go on a business trip to Penza, and those who go with their families to relax on the coast of Spain.

I personally rented an apartment in the center of Moscow through this service when my own apartment was being renovated ...
If you are going to rent for a period of a week, then the prices are cheaper than a week's stay in a hotel.

Yes, you yourself can play around with directions and dates: go to the AirBnb website, select the city and dates of arrival and departure and press search

How this booking system works

You look at the housing options offered to you for the requested dates and, having chosen the options you like according to the photos, equipment and price, you begin to carefully consider them

Look at the photos, and although they are not true - after all, they can be retouched by painting over a hole burned by a cigarette butt in the upholstery of a sofa or by adding a missing leg to a chair in Photoshop - you will get a certain picture of the apartment that you want to shoot.

hosts

After that, move on to the host persona. Look it up a photo, look reviews about the apartment from other tenants who lived here before you. look Contact details the owner - does he have accounts in social networks? This is good - it means he does not hide himself and probably pays taxes.

You can contact the owner through a special feedback form. Ask questions. For example, “where do the windows go” or “is it possible to bring a small dog with me.”

Rent terms

If everything suits - carefully read the terms of the lease and canceling this apartment is very important.
The rental price of the apartment may not include final cleaning, and it is also necessary to take security deposit. As a rule, equal to the cost of one day of accommodation and it will be returned to you in exchange for the keys upon departure.

Having found out all the questions and finally deciding for myself: I take it! - go to the booking page, where you will be asked to enter your data and the data of a plastic card, from which the cost of renting an apartment for the period you requested will be debited 100%.

Rent payment

But, the money does not immediately go to the owner. No. He will receive them only on the second day of your stay in the rented apartment, because if you arrive and find that the photographs of the apartment you have seen are photographs of a completely different apartment or that this apartment does not match the description on the Internet, you must contact the AirBnb support service in order to so that you are immediately offered a similar option for less money (a bonus for moral damage), or your prepayment is returned.

In turn, the owner of the apartment is interested in making you like the apartment, since he does not receive money for rent immediately, but only after your inspection of it, that is, on the second day. As you can see, the system takes into account the interests of the tenant and guarantees him from deception.

And one more thing: be sure to read: there people share their experience in renting accommodation all over the world through AirBnb, warn if it is necessary to warn, and also leave reviews about good housing options they have rented.

Rent apartments in Europe

The site for renting apartments and apartments is called Airbnb
How does it differ from the traditional online accommodation booking system that I wrote about earlier ()?

Firstly, the site specializes only in apartments and apartments.
Secondly, on the site you can rent an apartment or an apartment for a long (more than 30 days) period.
For booking.com, the booking period is limited to 30 days.

This opportunity is important for those who, for example, decided to go on their own or send their children with their grandmother to the sea for the summer.
Or for those who are going to go to give birth in the USA (on a tourist visa in the USA you can stay for 3 months and as a rule this is enough for a child to obtain US citizenship).

The process of searching, selecting and booking the found option on AirBnb I described in sufficient detail in my previous articles:

Here I will just give a couple of direct links to popular destinations:

Accommodation booking

After you have decided and in the period of time you specified, the apartment or apartment is free for rent, proceed to booking.
Be sure to read the terms and conditions of your rental property carefully.

Keep in mind that additional services cost money (this is written on the site) and their cost will be added to the final price
The final cleaning of the apartment or villa and laundry are also paid additionally (sometimes it comes in a separate line)

After filling in your details, go to the payment page.
This is probably the most interesting. After all, you don’t want to part with your hard-earned money ... Yes, I understand. When communism comes, we will go on vacation for free.

If more than 45 days remain before arrival, to confirm the reservation, it is enough to make an advance payment of 30% of the cost of living, and pay the remaining amount 1.5 months before the date of arrival.

Payment is accepted by Visa, MasterCard bank cards and bank transfer is also possible. But I hope a credit card is better than the extra 50 euros to pay for a bank transfer.

Airbnb Visa Verification

Also, many are interested in the question - is the booking confirmation suitable? apartment or apartment for self-acquisition of a Schengen visa?

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