We are fairly late to the phenomena that is Airbnb, but when planning our visit to Belfast, we decided to give it a try.
I have to admit that our first attempt as booking a property failed, as the owner messaged us to cancel our booking as he was in the process of selling his house.
I assumed a credit would be applied to our account and booked something else almost immediately, however, this is not the case and Airbnb ended up taking a new payment.
It turns out you need to wait for Airbnb to send a special link for you to use (it may also contain a discount) to be able to spend the credit on the account. I ended up having to request a refund which takes around a week to be done and they refused to honour the discount that we have been given for being let down on our first booking – not the best start!
Lesson learned, however, thankfully the rest of our experience was far more positive.
We stayed in a modern ground floor apartment in Cregagh, a short drive from Belfast City Centre, close to shops and amenities and an ideal destination for exploring Northern Ireland as it was within easy access to the Belfast outer ring road and motorways.
The keys were left outside in a security box, so no hanging around waiting for someone to check us in leaving us free to settle in straight away.
The apartment had everything we needed for a comfortable stay, including cooking and cleaning essentials and we were just up the road from a large retail park, so we could stock up on food.
The apartment had two large double bedrooms, one which had a double and a single bed which was perfect for the kids and our room had a king size bed and oodles of storage.
One of the reasons we chose this apartment was that it came with a separate shower and a bath – for some reason most Belfast properties only seem to have a bath???
It also had a large patio area, which would be perfect for a barbecue in the summer.
The apartment block had four flats and there was no noise from the neighbours. It also had its own parking space right outside, which was very convenient.
We really enjoyed our stay here and would certainly book it again if we ever came back to Belfast.
Have you used Airbnb before?
We haven’t used airbnb but my mother actually owns 2 properties that are on there! Their policies aren’t always the best but most property owners are understanding of that I think. It looks like you definitely picked a lovely place to stay too!
I used Airbnb last month and they are very great to deal with I will say. I am a Psychologist as Well as a Businesswoman, in business cases, I use their services they are always great.
I have never used Airbnb but may use them in the future. I am so glad things worked out. I wish once the owner had cancelled your booking your account was instantly credited. I am glad that things workout out well for you. It is strange that there is only a bath from what research I have done there are usually showers in Europe. Handheld ones for the shower or small stalls.
OOO I’ll definitely have to mark this down for when I visit. Thanks for the tip 🙂
We’ve had some really good experiences with Airbnb. The only real downside we’ve found is the children like to destroy whatever accommodation we’re in, whether it’s an airbnb, holiday home or hotel. I feel much more guilty about it with airbnb because we’re usually staying in someone’s home. It gets easier as they get older though.
i love the idea of staying in an air bnb as opposed to a hotel as its much more convinient
I’m glad you had a positive experience with AirBNB. I haven’t used them yet, but I have been curious about the process and experience.
I am glad to hear you have you positive experience in AirBNB. I heard so many good things about them.
I have never stayed at a Airbnb before, so reading your blog post has opened up my mind to the possibilities of staying tehre in the future. This is a lovely property by the way.
Sorry to hear your first attempt was cancelled! but in the end you got a wonderful flat!
That’s not a great start! I would have thought the same as you about the refund. I’ve used Air BnB twice and was really pleased both times with the places we went to