What Airbnb stands for.
Airbnb originally has been set up to make it possible for people to make rooms in their homes available to others. It used to be a small website offering authentic experiences with a matchmaking service between like minded hosts and guests.
In the mean time, Airbnb is now no different from other vacation rental listing sites such as HomeAway and Flipkey. Owners see the site as a place where they can fill their empty beds.
According to the article "The professionalization of Airbnb Hosts" on Skift, which gives an overview of several studies done on Airbnb; the typical Airbnb hosts have more than one property, and rents out a whole house instead of a room.
Airbnb on Curacao
Since we list Villa Seashell on Airbnb too, this study triggered my curiosity to analyze the accommodations in Curacao listed on Airbnb.
Airbnb data can be collected fairly straightforward by going through the search pages for Curacao, visit the room page for each listing and collect information on rates, number of guests that can be accommodated, number of reviews, and hosts.
From these data the following can be concluded:
Airbnb has more than 350 listings in Curacao.
More than 75% is listed by a host that owns or manages more than one property.
200 listings have no reviews at all; in other words there are many listings but relatively few actual visits.
There are only 57 listings that have more than 2 reviews.
The average nightly rate for listings that have more than 5 reviews is US$ 50 for 2 persons.
Villa Seashell
Guests that stayed with us know that Villa Seashell is not the typical vacation rental. We have lived in Villa Seashell and totally rebuilt and remodeled the house to make it a home.
There are books and DVDs, and the kitchen cabinets always contain some spices, coffee, thee, and other things. There is art, which I made of seashells and driftwood, on the walls of every bedroom, living room and kitchen. The living room comprises many pieces of European antiques, which we collected in England, France, and the Netherlands. All these things make Villa Seashell a home, where guests like to stay and also like to come back to.
What our guests say
During 2014, we only had two families that booked Villa Seashell via Airbnb. One of these families stayed for a longer time on the island in three different vacation rentals.
They wrote a review on Airbnb that exactly explains "why Villa Seashell ain't your every day Airbnb":
This place has an unbeatable plus: it is not a (loveless and run down) vacation rental, it is HOME, a soulful place with every detail lovingly taken care of, fully equipped, modern kitchen, spacious bed- and bathrooms, state of the art everything. It is extremely quiet and peaceful, the house/garden as well as the entire neighborhood in Coral Estate.
A good dive base, restaurant and beach just 500 meters away. Tell the dive base you are staying at Coral Estate and you will get a discount.
We enjoyed the nature all around us, saw turtles swim by every morning as we had breakfast on the porch, humming birds, pelicans, etc., etc.
Yet, during our entire stay, none of us had a single mosquito bite. We did not find a second spot on the island where we could enjoy a mosquito-free sundowner (we believe the reason is a combination of location, wise landscaping and smart design).
The architecture of the house brings a slight breeze in every room, which makes it possible to sleep without aircon (this was February)
So, if you do not have the greatest time of your life at this place, we say: sorry, but it is entirely your own fault -:)
Interested in staying with us? Contact us for information about our oceanfront villa, one of the nicest Curacao vacation rentals.
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