Unless you can make a special deal with the host, Airbnb’s system is going to expect payment up front.

We just stayed at a condo through Airbnb in Huntington Beach for 32 days but we had to pay $3475 out of the total $3899 up front. How do we go about paying no more than a week for future bookings?

Whenever possible, I try to only pay for no more than a week initially to make sure I won’t regret my decision later.

As long as those expectations are made clear, yes it’s a good thing indeed.

Airbnb gave me the impression that they gave her some expectations on improvements, which she apparently accepted.

We’ve had so many really good experiences with them. Makes it even better to know firsthand that they’ll come through for you when it goes south.

The first photos are from the place in Paris, and the rat and broken sink stay was in Riga.

I’m not surprised. A friend of ours rented quite a bit in China (long-term rental), and she said it’s pretty customary to have to do a deep clean of a rental. From everything I’ve heard and read, it just doesn’t seem to be a very . . . tidy culture.

Oh wow! You’d think they would have it staffed 24 hours, esp since it’s a global operation.