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Hotel vs. Airbnb for lodging


José

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A few weeks back I was on a job where production was offering me lodging in Manhattan, but at an airbnb. Airbnb is something I have yet to experience. I was already a local to the area and decided to pass. Of course the airbnb ads will tell you that they are far cleaner than regular hotels. I have my doubts on that.

Is airbnb a new alternative for production companies to lodge their crew in? I have issues with this. I am hoping that this doesn't become a rapid new trend amongst LPs and PMs to offer their crews all the time. 

Thoughts on this topic thanks! And what if you waive your stay at an airbnb? I take it producers would still be required to put us in a hotel. Atleast I figure.

 

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Ive yet to use AirBnB for work, but Ive used it extensively for personal travel. Except for a single time, every experience has been better than a hotel, cooler environs, and uniformly great hosts.

There were many times last year where staying at a hotel meant more work for me: not being able to use luggage carts without a bellhop, mandated valet parking meant I had to wait upwards of 30 minutes sometimes for the van. It could be very sweet to pull the van up to a residence, unload gear easily, and not have to make multiple trips, not have to find parking, and just "get home" before the cycle starts up again the following morning.

Then again, how cool is it to have a bar, a restaurant, a small store, and room service on the same site ?

Uh-oh, it depends...lol.

Interested to hear other's experience.

Best

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Not entirely on point, but I've been associated with three projects over the past few months that used AirBnB to rent their filming locations.

And those same three projects have further reinforced my firm belief that I will never, never rent my house to a film or television production, regardless of the amount of compensation offered.

 

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My friends like ABNB for lodging, although I wonder how it would be to be a neighbor of a frequently rented place.  For long term stays while working it's not that diff than renting an apartment for the length of the shoot, and generally much better than any hotel, I think.  Renting ABNBs as a location is a drag for everyone, and may be against the rules of the company...

 

p

 

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I've used AirBnB for both business and pleasure and it's always been great.

A week in Cologne, Germany in a very nice studio apartment in a nice part of town? $48/night.

A week in Budapest in a very nice one bedroom? $28/night.

A week in Prague in an excellent two bedroom apartment with balcony? $46/night.

My wife is going to be in Vienna for five days next month and instead of having her university pay $220/night for a boring hotel room a five minute walk from the convention center she's going to be staying in a very nice one bedroom apartment in an upscale neighborhood fifteen minutes away for $68/night. She's happy, the accountants are happy.

Edited by OmahaAudio
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I've stayed at a production provided 3 bedroom house (through AirBB) for a few days with crew. Similar to any other "shared crew house" experience. My girlfriend and I have AirBB reservations for a trip to Italy next month, first time using it for travel, but the cost was half that of hotel rooms in the same area

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I just stayed in an Air BnB in Santa Monica and Venice beach. One was pretty nice. The first one, we found out on arrival, that it was kinda secret that the renter was Air BnB renting the apartment. Great. Also it was billed as dog friendly, and that didn't last. The second one had neighbors that knew it was an Air BnB, and weren't too happy. Both were apartments with shared areas, so understandable. We did notice that a lot of the LA area listings have a "no filming/photography permitted" policy, but who knows if they enforce it. I worked on a few things here in Philly that used an air B&B as a location for a few hours of ENG type shooting. Reality TV pitch kind of stuff. The homeowner definitely knew that's what we were doing, and our light kit was 2 light panels I think. We were in and out in a few hours for those, so I guess it was easy money for them. 

Edited by johnpaul215
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that said, if it was for housing of a crew..... there may be some issues like lack of enough bathrooms if people want to shower before work. I've done jobs at the NJ Shore where they rent us houses instead of hotel rooms. They weren't Air BnB, but effectively the same for us. I kind of liked the house aspect instead of the film crew scattered throughout a hotel. We had a real kitchen and a living room. Laundry in the house, full sized fridge etc. I guess I've been lucky that i liked the people I was living with. We all had our own rooms and all, but still sharing a house with some strangers for a month could be a mess. I think somebody made a TV show out of that. :) 

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there have been several local news stories on Air BnBs going wrong in the LA area  homes ether getting used for wild parties and get trashed, and/or porn shoots

also driving up rental costs (epically on the West Side, beach communities for people not familiar with the layout)

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I rent my place in Canada's capital Ottawa on air bnb when I'm away. all renters have been fabulous so far. I have a three day minimum, don't rent to people from the same city, and no pets allowed. No complaints. If anyone wats to visit send me a PM. 33% Off Special for sound men.

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Last month I worked a week on a doc that put us up in an AirBNB.  It was actually a lot of fun since the crew was great, and the apartment was in good condition.  It introduced a different dynamic to the gig since everyone was forced to interact post work vs. going to hotel rooms.

I could also see it backfiring pretty hard...

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