I've had maybe half a dozen friends do the part time AirBNB host thing and I've helped a few of them in managing their business.
You have a lot of leverage when booking month long stays, especially in off or shoulder seasons in highly seasonal towns. It's more work but there's a lot you can do to mitigate risk by doing appropriate due diligence.
I'd recommend at least hopping on a video call with the hosts and ask them basic things like how far away they live from the unit, who you should contact if there are issues, etc. It's pretty easy to tell from a 10m phone call who has a hospitality mindset or not. It's also possible to ask them for a video walkthrough of the apartment as it currently exists where you can inspect how close it is to the listed photos.
Especially for new hosts who desperately need credible reviews to increase their rankings, there's a lot they are willing to do for a reasonable guest, including substantial discounts on the list price. They're also desperate for feedback so tend to be fairly responsive to requests for missing things in the kitchen or upgrades to certain appliances as it's a fairly small investment that will payback over a long period of time.
Overall, people have forgotten how to bargain and negotiate as the platforms ostensibly provide a neutral layer that obviates all that but it's a very leaky abstraction and there's still just humans on both sides of the transaction.
You have a lot of leverage when booking month long stays, especially in off or shoulder seasons in highly seasonal towns. It's more work but there's a lot you can do to mitigate risk by doing appropriate due diligence.
I'd recommend at least hopping on a video call with the hosts and ask them basic things like how far away they live from the unit, who you should contact if there are issues, etc. It's pretty easy to tell from a 10m phone call who has a hospitality mindset or not. It's also possible to ask them for a video walkthrough of the apartment as it currently exists where you can inspect how close it is to the listed photos.
Especially for new hosts who desperately need credible reviews to increase their rankings, there's a lot they are willing to do for a reasonable guest, including substantial discounts on the list price. They're also desperate for feedback so tend to be fairly responsive to requests for missing things in the kitchen or upgrades to certain appliances as it's a fairly small investment that will payback over a long period of time.
Overall, people have forgotten how to bargain and negotiate as the platforms ostensibly provide a neutral layer that obviates all that but it's a very leaky abstraction and there's still just humans on both sides of the transaction.