Airbnb vacation with family: Pros and cons

Wondering if Airbnb is the right choice for you and your family on your next trip? Explore our detailed insights on family stays at Airbnb, including the major benefits you can enjoy as well as some potential drawbacks to consider before making your decision about this popular travel option.

We have often chosen Airbnb when traveling and have given some thought to when and why we choose Airbnb as our accommodation option.

And when and why we choose not to.

But what is Airbnb exactly?

Airbnb is a place where you can rent (and rent out) private accommodation

Airbnb was originally created in 2009 by two young American students who came up with the idea of renting out their air mattress as a bed and breakfast to earn some extra money for their rent. It didn’t take long before they had developed the concept they called ‘Airbed and Breakfast’ (which eventually became Airbnb).

The concept is that you, as a private individual, rent out your home or part of your home as accommodation through a website. You can also choose to rent your accommodation privately and thus get a slightly different type of accommodation than you would otherwise get with hotels, hostels, and the like.

Instead of getting a standardized room, you can experience all the standards you choose yourself in terms of price and quality. For example, you can choose to stay in an entire home or just part of a home. You can also choose whether you want a house, an apartment, a summer cottage, a houseboat, or more alternative accommodation options such as windmills and trailers… or… how about a castle?

Today, you can choose from 4 million accommodation options in 191 countries and 65,000 cities. So there’s plenty to choose from.

But what’s in it for you – and your family?

Is Airbnb suitable for families?

At first glance, I had no doubts. This was definitely an accommodation service for me and my family. Here we could choose exactly the accommodation we wanted.

Because, to be completely honest, we are quite picky. Before we had children, we could easily spend hours looking for ‘the perfect place’. Not in the sense that it had to be expensive or particularly luxurious. More that we always spent a lot of time finding a place where we would feel comfortable. Whatever it is, it has to feel right.

Now we are lucky that we are quite similar in our gut feelings about a place, so we (fortunately) often agree on this point. It has to feel right, otherwise we find a new and better place.

After we had Sebastian, the story of finding the right place took a slightly different turn. We have experienced how not having a place to stay on our travels can wear us down as a family, and we no longer go around looking for the perfect place. Simply because we don’t want Sebastian to have to go looking around when he’s on vacation.

But Airbnb is a fun and exciting place to find unique accommodations at just the right price for your needs. And there are also many great things about using Airbnb as a family. But when traveling as a family, there are unfortunately also a few drawbacks that are good to keep in mind when choosing accommodations.

Our own experiences with Airbnb

Our small family has used Airbnb a few times now.

Our experiences with Airbnb have been mixed, but mostly positive. We’ve had mostly good experiences, but also a few bad ones.

The types of accommodation we’ve experienced as a family are:

• 2-story apartment in a townhouse (not an entire home) (3 nights)
• 2 apartments (entire homes) (3 + 3 nights)
• House (entire home) (7 nights)

We booked both from home, but Italy and Bali were booked while we were traveling.

Okay, so what are the advantages and disadvantages for you when traveling individually with your family?

Read on I’ll cover both below:

The advantages of using Airbnb as a family

1. It’s great to browse through Airbnb and see fun and exciting options that you wouldn’t normally see.
2. You can often find entire homes that give you and your family plenty of space to spread out.
3. ‘Entire homes’ allow you to create a safe and stable environment on a longer trip.
4. ‘Entire homes’ often allow you to be together as a family – but also separately.
5. Many places have a personal charm that can affect the daily mood and atmosphere of your family.
6. Many of the places have both a garden and a private pool where you and your family can enjoy yourselves.
7. Airbnb is flexible: you can choose to stay for a short time or for a longer period at a time.
8. You may be incredibly lucky with your host and get on really well with them, their family, and any children they may have, who your children could play with.
9. You and your family can get great tips and insider local knowledge from your host.
10. You and your family can stay in places that you might not otherwise be able to afford.
11. You don’t have to book all your accommodation from home. You can book while you’re traveling (provided you have internet access).
12. You can read other travelers’ reviews of both the place and the host before booking.
13. You can filter Airbnb by the “Family” category to find family-friendly accommodations (which means, among other things, that you search for “entire homes”).
14. You can also filter by categories such as washing machine, high chair, swimming pool, farm stay, etc.
15. You can search for keywords such as ‘Quiet’ and ‘Peaceful’ if that’s what your family needs.
16. Or you can search for how accessible the place should be and specify the requirements the accommodation must meet (such as wide doors, shower chair, etc.).
17. When your family stays in a ‘whole home’, you cook your own meals and thus maintain some of the rhythms from home, which can be good for little ones on a longer trip.

When and in what situations are there disadvantages to using Airbnb as a family?

As you can see, there are many advantages to using Airbnb. However, there are also some disadvantages that you should take into account when making your choice. The disadvantages we have experienced have not been particularly terrible, and perhaps not exclusively family-related, but they are definitely related to the fact that we chose Airbnb as a family.

One disadvantage we experienced was a host who couldn’t accept us as a family, so we almost had to ask for some time alone.

We also had an Italian host who forgot to mention that we couldn’t stay with him, on the same day we were due to travel from Corsica to Italy by ferry. The host we ended up with (in Viareggio) forgot to tell us that we couldn’t stay in the ‘whole house’ we had booked for the first night and had to stay in her private home. The next day, we (along with the host) were locked in her apartment and sat there for several hours before we could get out (long story – it was actually very cozy).

In Bali, we found old used women’s underwear under the bed, a sink that fell down, and a co-host who tried to scam us and cheat us out of money.

Here is a list of the (relatively few) disadvantages we can see with using Airbnb as a family:

1. Airbnb is often a bit more than just checking in at a counter where you get your key. Expect to spend some time with your host both when checking in and out. Therefore, Airbnb is not particularly suitable for shorter trips where you have a family to gather and settle in.
2. If the place you are staying has a lot of personal belongings and you have young children who tend to spread their toys around, it can be a bit of a time-consuming task to find everything again when you are packing up to leave. Tip: If you are traveling with many stops, choose accommodation that appears to have minimal furnishings and ‘personal items’ to avoid the problem of toys getting lost.
3. Your host can cancel your reservation at any time. That’s what happened to us in Italy on the day we were due to arrive. It’s not fun, especially when you have children with you. Fortunately, it’s extremely rare, as the host will end up looking really bad due to poor reviews.
4. Standardized rooms and conditions do not exist. This is not a problem for our family. But if your family prefers to know that you are getting the same as everyone else, then an Airbnb stay will be a challenge.

Our conclusion about using Airbnb as a family

We love Airbnb. We consider Airbnb to be an absolutely worthwhile accommodation service that we always use when planning trips.

But we also know from experience that there are certain conditions that must be met before we consider Airbnb, here are the most important ones:

1. Our Airbnb stay as a family must be for at least three nights before we think it makes sense for us.
2. We work best with ‘Entire home’.

Do you have other experiences and thoughts about staying with Airbnb with children?

Write a comment to us below.